Theme of the Week
The North Pole needs Quantum Scientists Santa has a problem. To efficiently deliver presents to 200 million homes in one day requires some serious planning! This is the traveling salesman problem. Let’s say the naughty-to-nice threshold is really high, so only four children get presents. Even with only four stops there are still 28 different routes Santa can take. Calculating an optimal path gets exponentially harder as more stops are added. This is beyond the capability of today’s computers, but fortunately for Santa (and other delivery companies) this might one day be solved by future quantum computers. Santa also needs a very precise clock - after all, a few microsecond error leads to missed targets when traveling at 1560 km per second. Good luck Santa! Last Week's Theme: Did You Know?
Industry News
A new US Department of Defense (DoDO report outlines concerns about China’s ability to “conduct jamming and anti-jamming operations against…Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite systems during force-on-force exercises,” noting that China “has also launched multiple anti-satellite (ASAT) missiles that are able to destroy satellites and developed mobile jammer to deny SATCOM and GPS.”
A DoD official also claimed that China is expected to develop an ASAT weapon "targeting Geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) systems,” and “extensive electronic warfare capabilities intended to deny satellite communications, radar systems, and GPS navigation, and it’s developing laser weapons to dazzle sensors and potentially destroy satellite components.”
The Quantum Computing Cybersecurity Preparedness Act was signed into law. It will help prepare agencies and companies develop “encryption strong enough to resist attacks from quantum computers developed in the future.”
New reports emerged of GPS signals being disrupted in Russian cities as a response to drone attacks, “suspected Russian hackers lurking inside a U.S. satellite network,” and cyber attacks of energy grids.
Q-NEXT, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Quantum Information Science Research Center, released “A Roadmap for Quantum Interconnects.”
Conferences
Time and Money Conference, January 17, New York, New York
Photonics West and Quantum West, January 28 - February 2, San Francisco, CA
Workshop on Synchronization and Timing Systems, March 13 - 16, Vancouver, Canada
Satellite 2023, March 13 - 16, Washington DC
Space Symposium, April 17 - 20, Colorado Springs, CO
The More You Know...
In addition to the solving problems like the efficient delivery of gifts, Inside Quantum Technology has explored other interesting quantum technology use cases for:
The automotive industry
Detecting cancerous tumors
Physicists even "purportedly created the first-ever wormhole" with a quantum computer. But before you get excited "this isn't a bona fide traversable wormhole."
But as we assess the future that quantum technology could unlock, it is worth thinking about “what is meaningful for society in the long term.”
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