Microsoft, IonQ, And The University of Maryland Are Helping Transform College Park Into A Global Center For A Technology That Could Reshape Business, Medicine, Education, And National Security
Although the countdown began long before the upcoming September 23–25 Quantum World Congress comes to the county, that fact won’t make the new Capital of Quantum any less awe-inspiring for the hundreds of world economic planners, scientists and visionaries who are expected to be here.
Starting with innovative work at the University of Maryland some 30 years ago and then successfully transitioning into a commercial hub, the county and state are now fully invested in the potential power of quantum computing to be a game changer not only for the local economy but for health, education and other industries that it will touch.
But what does that mean? What does quantum computing mean, for that matter?
Quantum Computing is a computer’s computer, working faster than regular computers and providing optimal solutions.
“What quantum does is give you multiple possibilities [to lead to a better outcome],” says Sam Braden IV, the Information & Technology Officer at the Prince George’s Economic Development Corporation. PGCEDC is a partner in the Quantum World Congress. “It will do what takes a regular computer weeks to do.”
Imagine this working on cancer cells or tackling accounting issues for a massive budget, and quantum computing’s speed, greater accuracy, and multiple potential solutions to choose from become a very compelling industry to embrace.
A Revolution at the Atomic Scale
The next great technology revolution may be taking shape inside laboratories in Prince George’s County—at temperatures colder than deep space and on a scale far smaller than the human eye can see.
Quantum computing remains unfamiliar to much of the public, but Maryland leaders are treating it as a serious economic-development opportunity. With the University of Maryland, College Park at its center, the county has assembled a rare concentration of scientists, research institutes, federal partners, startup companies and technology giants. It is becoming what state leaders increasingly call the “Capital of Quantum.”
Traditional computers process information in bits, represented as either a zero or a one. Quantum computers use quantum bits, or qubits, which can exploit unusual properties of matter—particularly superposition and entanglement—to represent and analyze information differently. The goal is not to replace laptops or conventional supercomputers. It is to solve certain extraordinarily complicated problems that can overwhelm even today’s fastest machines.
Those problems could include modeling molecules for new medicines, designing advanced materials and batteries, optimizing transportation networks, strengthening national security, and confronting encryption systems that currently protect financial and personal information.