Imagine a photon that takes the left aperture is a "0" and one that takes the right aperture is a "1", and all of a sudden you have a way of encoding information so it can be both a "0" and a "1" at the same time. Perform calculations using closely related (or "entangled") bits of data that are both 0 and 1 simultaneously–- so called "qubits" – and you're performing calculations on all the possible scenarios at the same time.

This is quantum computing and it will change data encryption. It will change the way drugs are developed. It will change telecommunications and finance.

It will change business.

Teaming up with business

With the Australian Research Council funding six quantum-computing-focused Centres of Excellence at universities around the country, the nation is in a "phenomenal position" to be at the forefront of the science of quantum computing, says Michelle Simmons, Scientia Professor of Quantum Physics at the University of NSW, who is leading her university's efforts to build a quantum computer using silicon atoms as qubits.

Professor Michelle Simmons: "One of the challenges for Australia is, we have a world-leading team like that, producing technology that's right at the forefront, but how do we actually bring it to market in Australia?" Supplied

Speaking this week at the AFR's Innovation Summit, Professor Simmons said the challenge Australian researchers faced was in teaming up with business, and figuring out how to commercialise the research if and when it finally results in a quantum computer that is stable enough, and has enough qubits, to be commercially useful.

"One of the challenges for Australia is, we have a world-leading team like that, producing technology that's right at the forefront, but how do we actually bring it to market in Australia?


"It's actually very difficult to do it here. We've been working with government and with companies looking at how we can change that model and that culture, trying to get that fundamental research across the gap," she says.

Across the other side of that gap, the businesses that are trying to get an early lead on quantum computers so they can harness them the moment the technology is ready are experiencing the same difficultly. They complain that, hard as it might be for science to come to terms with the strange behaviour of the universe at the atomic level, it's harder still for business to figure out what to make of it all.

Telstra's chief scientist Dr Hugh Bradlow (who has a PhD in physics), describes quantum computing as "black magic". Louie Douvis

Telstra has partnered with UNSW, in part to get a leap on the way quantum computing might revolutionise telecommunications, but the man in charge of that collaboration, Telstra's chief scientist Dr Hugh Bradlow (who has a PhD in physics), describes quantum computing as "black magic".

Challenging area

"My role at Telstra has been to translate these sorts of scientific advances into terms that the business and the board can understand. [But quantum computing] is a particularly challenging area.

"Michelle was once berating me for not selling [her quantum computer] harder and I said to her, 'Well you can't tell me whether you can build it, you can't tell me when you have built it, what I can use it for, and you can't tell me whether I'll be able to run it. So how do you expect me to be persuasive?'"

"I keep asking ... how many qubits do I need to solve problem X, and they kind of go 'Hmmm, I'm not sure.' All they'll say is it's between 10 and 10 billion, which is not a particularly helpful answer."


Businesses complain that, hard as it might be for science to come to terms with the strange behaviour of the universe at the atomic level, it's harder still for business to figure out what to make of it all. Kim Stallknecht

(In case the disconnect between the universities and the tertiary sector wasn't explicit enough, Marlene Kanga from the government's Innovation and Science Australia lambasted universities for not adequately equipping graduates with entrepreneurial skills. She told the Summit universities had to step out of their comfort zone and focus on business.)

Back to quantum mechanics: Figuring out how many qubits are required to solve a problem, and then figuring out how to build a quantum computer with that many qubits, is turning out to be an enormously difficult problem.

Qubits, be they in the form of photons beaming through a light splitter, or individual atoms trapped inside a microscopic silicon cavity, are immensely sensitive to interference from the outside world, and the delicate entanglement between qubits that's essential if they're to be used in computing can quickly collapse.

(The very act of observing a qubit, or even of adding a technology capable of observing them, causes them to decide whether they're a "0" or a "1", essentially making them regular data bits again, rather than qubits – just one of the many strange realities quantum researchers have to deal with.)

"It's actually very difficult to do it here. We've been working with government and with companies looking at how we can change that model and that culture, trying to get that fundamental research across the gap," Michelle Simmons says. Louie Douvis

'Quantum Supremacy'

So mathematicians are trying to figure out what's the minimum number of qubits required, before quantum computers might be regarded as better than regular, so-called "classical" computers that use bits rather than qubits to compute.


The current thinking is that number is somewhere in the vicinity of 50, and that when someone builds a quantum computer with that many qubits (the state of the art seems to be IBM's 17-qubit machine), the world will have achieved what's known as "Quantum Supremacy".

But Telstra's chief scientist views the whole race to quantum supremacy as a "really excellent example of the disconnect between academia and business".

"Yeah, that's great, but what problems can it actually solve that I care about? And the short answer is none.

"We've got a long way to go before what I call quantum supremacy exists, which is solving a problem that I need solved, that I can't solve with classical computers.

"And that's where the field gets obfuscated quite dramatically, because no one really knows what they're talking about. . . . Don't try to pretend in the usual research fashion that some artificial metric is actually a success. Because it's not. You've got to drive toward real success."

For her part, Professor Simmons acknowledges the disconnect. She describes the race to quantum supremacy as a "toy" problem, and says that the meaningful problem is creating a quantum machine that business can actually use.

"We want to make this happen and we want to make it happen in Australia. It's a very pivotal time for us, but we're in a very good position," she says.