Preeti Chalsani and Harley Johnson, Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park
Preeti Chalsani, Chief Quantum Officer at Intersect Illinois, and Harley Johnson, CEO of the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, are interviewed by Yuval Boger. Preeti and Harley discuss the rapid creation and ambitious goals of the IQMP, a state-backed initiative to support the scale-up of quantum computing and microelectronics. They talk about the park’s public-private structure, a $500M infrastructure investment by the state, early tenants like PsiQuantum and and Diraq, and its emphasis on workforce development and cross-sector collaboration. They also explore Illinois’ unique advantages as well as the challenges of infrastructure timelines, community impact, managing expectations in a fast-moving field, and much more.
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34:38
Planckian: Michele Dallari, co-founder and CEO, and Marco Polini, co-founder
Michele Dallari, co-founder and CEO, and Marco Polini, co-founder, of Planckian, are interviewed by Yuval Boger. Michele and Marco talk about their company’s novel superconducting chip architecture, which uses global control and always-on ZZ interactions to drastically reduce wiring complexity and improve scalability. They discuss the advantages of controlling many qubits with just two or three classical lines, their early-stage experimental progress, and the software adaptations required to compile algorithms for their architecture. The conversation also touches on Italy’s growing quantum ecosystem, Planckian’s collaborative approach to chip manufacturing, their excitement about recent advances in pulse engineering to compensate for fabrication imperfections—and much more.
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26:06
Romana Schirhagl, co-founder, and Deepak Veeregowda, CEO of QT Sense
Romana Schirhagl, co-founder, and Deepak Veeregowda, CEO of QT Sense, are interviewed by Yuval Boger. QT Sense develops quantum sensing technology using NV center sensors in nanodiamonds for biomedical applications. Romana explains how their technology measures magnetic noise from free radicals inside cells, indicating cellular stress, similar to a small-scale MRI. Deepak discusses the company's product, Quantum Nova, which is available for research and diagnostic purposes, particularly in cancer and infectious disease detection. QT Sense describes their technology as having subcellular resolution and nanomolar sensitivity, sees a key advantage in applying NV sensors in living systems where the sensors move and rotate, and aim to impact millions of patients by 2030.
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31:30
Andrea Tabacchini, VP Quantum Solutions, Quantum Brilliance
Andrea Tabacchini of Quantum Brilliance joins Yuval to discuss room-temperature quantum computing. Quantum Brilliance develops compact, diamond-based quantum accelerators for edge applications like robotics and satellites.Andrea explains their nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center technology, enabling stable qubits without cryogenic cooling. With innovations in deterministic defect placement and scalable nanoelectronics, they aim to launch a commercial 60–100 qubit quantum computer by 2029.He envisions small, low-power quantum processors working alongside classical systems and sees growing investment driving practical quantum applications within five years.
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26:39
Michelle Simmons, CEO of Silicon Quantum Computing
Michelle Simmons, CEO of Silicon Quantum Computing, is interviewed by Yuval Boger. Michelle’s company uses phosphorus atoms in silicon-28 to create high-fidelity, low-noise qubits with exceptional coherence. She highlights their multi-nucleus spin registers for all-to-all connectivity and native multi-qubit operations, achieving what she describes as industry-leading fidelities. We discuss their three products—quantum machine learning, analog simulation, and fault-tolerant quantum computing—and their progress. We also discuss the expected date of their error-corrected system, the key to accelerating their roadmap, and much more.
Yuval Boger, Chief Commercial Officer at QuEra, hosts thought leaders in quantum computing, quantum sensing, and quantum communications to discuss business and technical aspects that impact the quantum ecosystem. Full transcripts are available at podcast.yboger.com
South Africa