Illinois Grainger Engineering physics professor Brian DeMarco stood on stage in Chicago on Tuesday when Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announced the new federal- and state-funded Quantum Proving Ground (QPG), which promises to combine scientific rigor with industry and academic expertise to design the future of quantum computing.
DARPA and other federal agencies will provide federal funding. Governor Pritzker and the State of Illinois pledged to coinvest up to $140 million in the project.
DeMarco, a champion of advancing investments in quantum technology and education, underscored his long-standing commitment to this effort at Tuesday’s DARPA announcement.
“I was delighted when DARPA approached me and my colleague – Harley Johnson, professor of mechanical science & engineering and associate dean for research with The Grainger College of Engineering – with the Quantum Proving Ground concept,” said DeMarco, director of the Illinois Quantum Information Science and Technology Center (IQUIST). “It was [our] pleasure to help plan the partnership and the program we are announcing today, which I believe is essential to securing U.S. leadership in the global race to utility-scale quantum computing.
“The Quantum Proving Ground is an incredible opportunity to advance next-generation computing technologies that have the potential to impact society, the economy, and national security.”
As a partner, Grainger Engineering offers more than 65 faculty in 11 disciplines that are pushing the boundaries of quantum information science. This expertise complements the QPG’s mission to benchmark quantum computing applications and algorithms and to significantly expand efforts in validating quantum computer hardware progress. DARPA’s goal is to determine if it’s possible to build an industrially useful quantum computer much faster than conventional predictions.
“Our opening position is skepticism,” said Dr. Joe Altepeter, the DARPA program manager leading the charge on this exploration and a U. of I. alumnus. “Specifically, skepticism that a fully fault-tolerant quantum computer with a sufficient number of logical qubits can ever be built. We will walk into the room and say, ‘We’re pretty sure whatever you’re doing is not going to work.’ I will bring a small army of scientists and engineers, we will listen to your evidence, and we will double and triple check using our own analysis. And if we’re convinced the technology you’re developing checks out and you’re onto something big, we’ll tell the rest of government and become a strong advocate for your approach.”
As Pritzker mentioned at Tuesday’s press conference, that kind of rigorous and comprehensive approach to the project is not lost on the state’s top academic institutions: The U. of I. continues active partnerships in quantum with the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and the Chicago Quantum Exchange, working together to achieve remarkable scientific progress through incremental steps.
“In the history of our state, there have been events that, at the time, flew under the radar, because they may have felt abstract but in retrospect turned out to be historic moments that signaled a future of innovation and progress that shifted the course of history. This may very well be one of those moments,” Pritzker said. “It was 32 years ago, just down the road at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, that a group of students and researchers at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications developed and launched the first inline and graphic web browser.
“Leading that charge was (DARPA), which gave birth to the fundamental elements that created the internet. It is, in that same spirit, that I stand here today – alongside some of the brilliant minds at DARPA – to celebrate another groundbreaking collaboration called the DARPA-Illinois Quantum Proving Ground.”
The governor and Altepeter also detailed how this initiative will encourage top quantum researchers and companies throughout the world to come to Illinois to compete and share their vision for developing a path to industrial quantum computing.
Already at Grainger Engineering, collaboration around quantum consistently drives results.
This kind of work is evidenced by the NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Hybrid Quantum Architectures & Networks as well as the Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) Quantum Sensing and Quantum Materials (QSQM).
Additionally, the U. of I is part of a three-state collaboration called the Silicon Crossroads Microelectronics Commons Hub, which drives innovation in microelectronics and quantum science and technology. Grainger Engineering is also a founding member of Duality, the first accelerator program in the U.S. exclusively focused on supporting early-stage quantum companies, and the Chicago Quantum Exchange, which has become an intellectual hub for advancing the science and engineering of quantum information across the Midwest and around the globe.
“The Quantum Proving Ground is another incredible opportunity to advance next-generation computing technologies that have the potential to impact society, the economy, and national security,” DeMarco said. “I look forward to working with the other members of the Chicago Quantum Exchange, the Illinois quantum ecosystem, and our partners in competing for Proving Ground funds and working to develop, deploy and rigorously evaluate quantum computing prototypes at the Illinois Quantum Campus.”
