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“Physicists are good at doing science, but we are generally scared of doing business,” he said.

Twenty-five students are currently enrolled in the program, but that could double next fall. The program is a collaboration between the U of A and University of Calgary.

The field of quantum mechanics had long been a realm of theoretical science based on the theory that atomic and subatomic material like photons or electrons behave both as particles and waves.

“When you get right down to it, everything has both behaviours (particle and wave) and we can pick and choose certain scenarios which one of those properties we want to use,” he said.

But, Davis said, physicists and scientists are “now at the point where we understand quantum physics and are developing quantum technology to take to the marketplace.”

“Quantum computing used to be realm of science fiction, but now we’ve figured it out, it’s now a matter of engineering,” he said.

And because of the very nature of the quantum world, each discovery that is made will require the development and creation of little pieces of hardware that must be designed by the rules of quantum mechanics.

Quantum computing labs are being bought by large tech companies such as Google, IBM and Microsoft because they realize they are only a few years away from having this power, he said.

Those making the groundbreaking developments may want to commercialize their finds and take the technology to market and that is where Quanta comes in.

“We are trying to push science forward, push technology forward and then enable these amazing, highly trained, highly educated people to stay in Alberta,” he said.

“We don’t want to build them up and ship them off to Silicon Valley.

“We want to train these people and get them to stay here, build businesses here and build our economy.”

jgraney@postmedia.com

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