Experts gather to dis­cuss Quan­tum Tech­no­lo­gy

Lea­ding indus­try repre­sen­ta­ti­ves, renow­ned experts, and other stake­hol­ders in the field of Quan­tum Com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on got tog­e­ther in ear­ly Novem­ber for a work­shop orga­ni­zed by SQuaD and QuN­ET. Mee­ting at a con­fe­rence hotel in Jena, atten­de­es enjoy­ed two days full of the lively dis­cus­sion and sti­mu­la­ting con­ver­sa­ti­on that fos­ters pro­fes­sio­nal net­wor­king and points the way to poten­ti­al col­la­bo­ra­ti­on.

On their first day, par­ti­ci­pan­ts atten­ded a trai­ning ses­si­on held by the qp-tech.edu pro­ject and fea­turing a series of insightful pre­sen­ta­ti­ons to gui­de them into the the­me of Quan­tum Tech­no­lo­gies, inclu­ding on spe­cia­li­zed topics such as inte­gra­ted optics and Quan­tum Ima­ging. After­wards, the focus tur­ned to the two govern­ment-fun­ded pro­jects of the work­shop hosts, QuN­ET and SQuaD, the objec­ti­ves and back­grounds of which were explo­red in grea­ter depth over the cour­se of the after­noon. Fol­lo­wing a cof­fee break, Imran Khan from the KEE­Quant com­pa­ny ope­ned up an inter­ac­ti­ve World Café, whe­re he invi­ted guests to gather in small groups to reflect on the various chal­lenges we face in the area of tech­no­lo­gy trans­fer. The results were then coll­ec­ted and pre­sen­ted to the full group for dis­cus­sion. Towards evening, the mee­ting moved out of the hotel and on to the famous Zeiss Pla­ne­ta­ri­um. Accom­pa­nied by the sounds of Pink Floyd, visi­tors were able to let their thoughts run free and their minds wan­der to distant gala­xies. The first day clo­sed in a rela­xed mood with a lar­ge group gathe­ring in the evening for din­ner.

Day two star­ted off with a mee­ting of the SQuaD stee­ring com­mit­tee, whe­re the topic of stan­dar­diza­ti­on hea­ded the agen­da. Various spea­k­ers pro­vi­ded a glim­pse into the work of DIN, the Ger­man Insti­tu­te for Stan­dar­diza­ti­on, and of CEN-CENELEC, in order to unders­core the impli­ca­ti­ons of stan­dar­diza­ti­on for the field of Quan­tum Tech­no­lo­gy. An in-depth look was also taken into the issue of side-chan­nel attacks with the pre­sen­ta­ti­on of a stu­dy on the sub­ject by Germany’s Fede­ral Office for Infor­ma­ti­on Secu­ri­ty (BSI) and Bea­ring­Point, a manage­ment and tech­no­lo­gy con­sul­tancy. This stu­dy offe­red new insights into the IT secu­ri­ty chal­lenges posed by such attacks. The atten­de­es were then again invi­ted to meet in the World Café to talk about test­beds and to deve­lop their own ide­as and pro­blem-sol­ving stra­te­gies. As on the pre­vious day, the results were coll­ec­ted and dis­cus­sed by the con­fe­rence as a who­le. The wel­co­ming address by Dani­el Beh­rendt of Germany’s Fede­ral Minis­try of Edu­ca­ti­on and Rese­arch (BMBF) was fol­lo­wed by a num­ber of inte­res­t­ing pre­sen­ta­ti­ons from the QuN­ET net­work. The­re was also a pos­ter ses­si­on whe­re par­ti­ci­pan­ts were able to pre­sent their latest rese­arch into Quan­tum Communication/Technology and to soli­cit the opi­ni­ons of their spe­cia­list audi­ence. The two-day work­shop con­cluded with the orga­ni­zers sum­ming up what they felt to be the key insights and out­co­mes of the event. The day again clo­sed with a rela­xed din­ner get-tog­e­ther that gave atten­de­es the chan­ce to review their work­shop expe­ri­en­ces and to con­ti­nue their dis­cus­sions in a more infor­mal atmo­sphe­re. This hel­ped them to con­so­li­da­te what they lear­ned while fos­te­ring net­work-buil­ding and col­la­bo­ra­ti­on.

In con­clu­si­on we can defi­ni­te­ly say that the SQuaD-QuN­ET work­shop in Jena was a com­ple­te suc­cess, ser­ving not only to inspi­re our work but also to rein­force our sen­se of com­mu­ni­ty.

Pho­to: The par­ti­ci­pan­ts of the SQuaD-QuN­ET work­shop in Jena.

Pho­to source: © Fraun­ho­fer IOF