We’ve heard a lot about Quantum computing and somehow it seems like it’s nuclear fusion - there’s all of these great advances that make the news, but the idea of actual use in business seems a long way off.

For me, it seems… I understand it conceptually. I just can’t figure out why its possible. Maybe its’ because I grew up being able to see transistors and how they work and so even though the ability to put thousands and possibly millions of transistors on a silicon chip is a feat of engineering, I still sort of know how it works.

But quantum. It’s seems more like magic. Things that exist as probabilities, that can be linked over potentially vast distances and affect each other even without a know connection. Things that only truly exist in their state of uncertainty until you observe them.

How does that work? Why does it work?

So you hear about it, but it doesn’t seem real somehow. I go back to my nuclear fusion parallel. Great idea. You can sustain it in some big lab for a couple of seconds but that’s it.

But lately, there are signs that quantum might be more real than we think.

While we’ve heard of these quantum processors in large laboratories, IBM just announced that a US university will be getting an IBM quantum computer for research and teaching - and that they are going to do the same for several other universities in the US. Suddenly it seems a little more real.

And as always, I’m interested in what’s happening out in the big world, but I’m also wondering what is happening in Canada.

And it turns out that there is some work being done here, advancing the idea of Quantum Computing in commercial usage.

Quantum Algorithms Institute is a collaboration between government, the academic community, and Canada’s growing sector of quantum computing companies. We work with companies across industries to build experience in the real-world application of quantum solutions.

My guest today might make that even more real - she’s with a program that is planning on teaching students to program for quantum computers.

She’s a professor at Wilfred Laurier University and the Chief Technology Officer of the Quantum Algorithms Institute

My guest is Dr. Shohini Ghose......

Note: The link to the Quantum Algorithms Institute