The federal government has turned its attention toward quantum in recent years as quantum technology advances and the risks associated with it increase. But quantum is largely misunderstood, and experts in the quantum field are working to demystify the subject as its prevalence grows in both the public and private sectors.
“Quantum information sciences really isn’t as difficult as many people think it is,” said Jen Sovada, president of public sector at SandboxAQ, during an exclusive video interview with Executive Mosaic. “It’s really at the level of atoms and talking about what is going on with atoms that move back and forth in an excited state in order to create faster processing, more sensitive information or enabling us to do things that we haven’t done before.”
Sovada, who serves as chair of Executive Mosaic’s 4×24 Quantum Group, defined what quantum encompasses and highlighted three main categories of use cases she’s seeing for the technology within the federal government.
For more information on Executive Mosaic’s 4×24 executive leadership program, or to join Jen Sovada’s Quantum Group, click here.
The first and most well-known category is quantum computing, which can include quantum simulations. The second area Sovada shared is quantum sensing. One use case for quantum sensing in the private sector is being able to detect the magnetic field of the Earth or our hearts.
“Within applications for the U.S. government, there are things like quantum navigation or precision, navigation and timing, which we can use atomic clocks — which are quantum-inspired devices and quantum devices — as well as quantum sensors that enable us to navigate without GPS in GPS denied and degraded environments,” Sovada said.
The last area of focus is quantum communications, and quantum secure communications in particular. This category includes the quantum Internet and post quantum cryptography, or preparing to prevent attacks from quantum computers that may happen in the future.
“It’s enabling a different type of cryptography that allows us to protect from things like store now, decrypt later attacks from our adversaries,” said Sovada.
Watch Jen Sovada’s full video interview here to learn more about how quantum is shaping our future, and be sure to subscribe to Executive Mosaic’s YouTube channel to stay updated with the latest insights from GovCon leaders.
