The United States needs a post-Sputnik-like investment in quantum computing, according to C. L. Max Nikias, president of the University of Southern California and member of the National Academy of Engineering. “After the Soviets launched Sputnik in 1957, we saw how federal investment in U.S. private industry and academic research allowed the United States to catch up, win the space race, and hold decades of military and technology dominance,” he writes in The Washington Post.
“The development of quantum technology presents the United States with its new ‘Sputnik moment,’” he adds. “Quantum systems promise to upend everything that came before. But once again, America has some catching up to do.”
He suggests that China is pulling ahead in quantum technology, citing the Chinese government’s $10 billion, 4-million-square-foot National Laboratory for Quantum Information Sciences set to open in two years. He further cites China’s satellite-based quantum experiment, which demonstrated Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance”—the distance being the 1,200 km from satellite to ground station.
Work on quantum technology is progressing in the United States. For example, Google in March announced its newest 72-qubit quantum computer, called Bristlecone, said to be the largest one currently operating. “The purpose of this gate-based superconducting system is to provide a testbed for research into system error rates and scalability of our qubit technology, as well as applications in quantum simulation, optimization, and machine learning,” wrote Julian Kelly, a research scientist at the company’s Quantum AI Lab.
And Nikias notes that institutions including Harvard and the University of Maryland are also working on the technology. “But these efforts will only mark a watershed if our nation prioritizes quantum research as it did aerospace and defense in the mid-20th century,” he writes. “Like then, critical partnerships between academia, government, and the private sector can build the human capital we need to lead in the quantum era.”
He urges Congress to use the 2019 budget debate to form and adequately fund a national quantum strategy. “Our leaders did not fail us in 1957,” he concludes. “Our leaders cannot fail us now.”
