CW TEC 2016: The Quantum Revolution is coming! Quantum Communications & Computing: How will quantum technologies disrupt wireless?

Brought to you by Cambridge Wireless

CW TEC is aimed at leaders in industry, and young engineers and physicists, to give them an overview of the new world of Quantum looking at problems that need to be solved and the opportunities that will open up.

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About the event

Today's wireless industry is enabled by two fundamental technologies: silicon VLSI allowing the production of cheap but immensely powerful computers that can even be integrated into handheld terminals; and the software that runs on these computers which makes them "universal machines". The silicon technology behind VLSI depends on bulk solid-state physical principles that can only ultimately be described in terms of the quantum physics of electrons, atoms, and crystals. Essentially the science behind today's information technology dates from the middle of the 20th century.

But now there is a technology revolution in the making which depends on the esoteric quantum principles of entanglement and superposition – "Quantum 2.0".

  • Teams all over the world are developing physical systems that rely on quantum superposition of states to perform computing operations in fundamentally different ways, promising to increase computational power by many orders of magnitude. Quantum algorithms may be found to exploit these systems to perform computations that are essentially impossible on "classical" hardware. Could this capability be exploited in wireless infrastructure to implement signal processing well beyond what is possible today?
  • Already we know of algorithms that could easily perform the arithmetic needed to crack the best current public key cryptography algorithms – the bedrock of confidentiality on the Internet – once the quantum hardware is available. Once this happens all the information today being distributed and stored will be readable. In preparation for this, "quantum safe" cryptography (QSC) is being developed, and may need to be deployed well before quantum computers are deployed, to protect information today that must be held secure for decades to come.
  • Already there are commercial systems of Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) that make use of quantum entanglement between pairs of light photons, which will infallibly detect an eavesdropper intercepting the key exchange. These systems may themselves be a foundation for QSC.
  • Subminiature quantum clocks may render today's network synchronisation methods, dependent on the GPS infrastructure, redundant and offer many orders of magnitude improvement in accuracy.
  • Quantum acceleration and gravity sensors of great precision will enable new ways of mapping and navigation and new types of sensor for indoor and underground structures and resources.

But if experience is any guide, the real impact of these new ideas will only emerge when new generations of engineers start to apply them and create products that we can't even guess at today. The science behind these "Quantum 2.0" technologies is esoteric and understood by few. But many technology-based businesses could be threatened, or find new opportunities, as they are developed and become mainstream. And physicists and engineers just starting their careers today could forge unexpected careers by getting involved.

On September 14th 2016 at the Cambridge University Computer Lab, the second Cambridge Wireless Technology Conference will bring together the leaders in Quantum 2.0. The conference is aimed at technology leaders in industry, and young engineers and physicists. For the industry veteran, it will give them an overview of a new world and some grounding in what could be possible, what the opportunities and threats could be. For engineers already working in ICT, it will open their eyes to new possibilities and principles to apply; and for young physicists looking for ways to apply their knowledge it will introduce them to the world of information and communications and a host of hard problems that need to be solved. If just two people from these different worlds meet at the conference, spark ideas off each other and the resulting entanglement results in a great new business, it will be a success.

You can follow @CambWireless on Twitter and tweet about this event using #CWTEC16.

Sponsored by EPSRC

EPSRC, the main funding agency for engineering and physical sciences research, our vision is for the UK to be the best place in the world to Research, Discover and Innovate. By investing £800 million a year in research and postgraduate training, we are building the knowledge and skills base needed to address the scientific and technological challenges facing the nation. Our portfolio covers a vast range of fields from healthcare technologies to structural engineering, manufacturing to mathematics, advanced materials to chemistry. The research we fund has impact across all sectors. It provides a platform for future economic development in the UK and improvements for everyone's health, lifestyle and culture.

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Sponsored by Keysight Technologies

Whatever your use case, when you are designing, emulating, measuring, or testing your next engineering breakthrough, Keysight has a solution to help you innovate faster and with more confidence.

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Sponsored by Rohde and Schwarz

Rohde & Schwarz is one of the world's leading manufacturers of information and communications technology products for professional users.

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Sponsored by u-blox UK

u-blox is the global leader in positioning and wireless semiconductors

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Speakers

Michael Brown - CTO, Isara Corporation

Mike is the Chief Technology Officer and co-founder for ISARA Corporation. He is focused on the technical vision and direction for the company. ISARA’s mission is help build a world where consumers, enterprises and governments can benefit from a Quantum Computer, without being exploited by it. Previous to ISARA, Mike was the Vice President of Security Product Management and Research at BlackBerry. At BlackBerry, Mike was responsible for the vision and execution of Product Security for all of BlackBerry’s products and co-founded the Product Security practice there. Mike has spoken at many global security events such as RSA, CTIA, GTEC, Bloomberg, APECTEL and InfoSec Europe. Mike has a Master’s of Mathematics from the University of Waterloo focusing on Cryptography.

Trevor Cross - CTO, e2v

A graduate of Bath and Lancaster Universities, Trevor has a PhD in compound semiconductors. He is a Fellow and a council member of the Institute of Physics. In 1985 he joined the e2v group, which was formerly part of GEC-Marconi. His initial role was in technology and business development leading e2v's Solar Power Systems activity providing high efficiency GaAs solar panels for spacecraft for small satellites (including for SSTL in their early years). This involved transferring research technology from the GEC central Research Labs in Wembley to Chelmsford - which started an ongoing career focus of technology translation and commercialization. Trevor has 10 years’ experience at board level at e2v as Director for Space and Communications and Technical Director. He was technical lead in the MBO of the company from GEC-Marconi, and its LSE listing in 2004. More recently his focus has included group strategy and technology planning. He has played a key role in e2v's University engagement programs and is a former council member of the PPARC. He chaired the Technology Strategy Board led Electronics, Sensors and Photonics KTN from 2009-14 and is currently a member of a number of STFC and University committees and review panels. He is also chair of the Innovate UK's Special Interest Group in Quantum Technologies.

Patrick Gill - Co-Director, NPL Quantum Metrology Institute, National Physical Laboratory

Patrick Gill is a Senior NPL Fellow and co-Director of the NPL Quantum Metrology Institute, and heads up NPL Time & Frequency, where he is concerned with research into quantum frequency standards and atomic clocks and metrology, with wider application to fundamental physics, space science, satellite navigation and Earth observation, telecommunications, aerospace and defence.

Patrick joined NPL in 1975 after completing his DPhil thesis at the University of Oxford. He is a visiting professor at Imperial College and at the University of Oxford. He was awarded the Rabi Award by the IEEE International Frequency Control Symposium in 2007, and won the IOP 2008 Young Medal and Prize. His team received the 2014 Duke of Edinburgh award from the Royal Institute of Navigation for long term atomic clock development. Patrick was awarded an MBE for services to Science in The Queen's New Year's Honours List 2015. He was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2016. 

John Haine - Visiting Professor, University of Bristol (Communication Systems & Networks Research Group)

John Haine has spent his career in the electronics and communications industry, working for large corporations and with four Cambridge start-ups. His technical background includes R&D in radio circuitry and microwave circuit theory; and the design of novel radio systems for cordless telephony, mobile data, fixed wireless access and IoT communications. He has led standardisation activities in mobile data and FWA in ETSI, and contributed to WiMax in IEEE. At various times he has been involved in and led fund-raising and M&A activities. In 1999 he joined TTP Communications working on research, technology strategy and M&A; and after the company’s acquisition by Motorola became Director of Technology Strategy in Motorola Mobile Devices. After leaving Motorola he was CTO Enterprise Systems with ip.access, a manufacturer of GSM picocells and 3G femtocells. In early 2010 he joined Cognovo, which was acquired by u-blox AG in 2012. He led u-blox' involvement in 3GPP NB-IoT standardisation and the company's initial development of the first modules for trials and demonstrations. Now retired from u-blox he is an Honorary Professor in Electronic and Electrical Engineering at Bristol University, where he chairs the SWAN Prosperity Partnership Project external advisory board . He was founder chair and is Board Member Emeritus of the IoT Security Foundation. He served on the CW Board chaired the Editorial Board of the CW Journal.  John has a first degree from Birmingham (1971) and a PhD from Leeds (1977) universities, and is a Life Member of the IEEE.

Hermann Hauser KBE, CBE, FRS FREng FInstP - Founder Director, Amadeus Capital Partners

In 2015 Hermann was awarded an KBE for services to Engineering and Industry. Serial Entrepreneur and Co-founder of Amadeus Capital Partners, Dr Hermann Hauser KBE has wide experience in developing and financing companies in the information technology sector. He co-founded a number of high-tech companies including Acorn Computers which spun out ARM, E-trade UK, Virata and Cambridge Network. Subsequently Hermann became vice president of research at Olivetti. During his tenure at Olivetti, he established a global network of research laboratories. Since leaving Olivetti, Hermann has founded over 20 technology companies. In 1997, he co-founded Amadeus Capital Partners. At Amadeus he invested in CSR, Solexa, Icera, Xmos and Cambridge Broadband. Hermann is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the Institute of Physics, the Royal Society of Chemistry and of the Royal Academy of Engineering, as well as an Honorary Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. In 2001 he was awarded an Honorary CBE for ‘innovative service to the UK enterprise sector’. In 2004 he was made a member of the Government’s Council for Science and Technology and in 2013 he was made a Distinguished Fellow of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT. Hermann has honorary doctorates from the Universities of Loughborough, Bath, Anglia Ruskin, Strathclyde, Glasgow and York.

Paul Martin - Partner, PA Consulting Group

John Morton - Professor of Nanoelectronics & Nanophotonics and Royal Society University Research Fellow, UCL Institute of Communications and Connected Systems

Professor John Morton has been a Royal Society University Research Fellow since 2008, and moved from Oxford University to UCL in 2012, where he leads the Quantum Spin Dynamics research group.

John came up to Cambridge University to read Natural Sciences, and ended up graduating in Electrical and Information Engineering (EIST), receiving his BA/MEng in 2002. He obtained his D.Phil (PhD) in Materials at Oxford University for his thesis, entitled “Electron spins in fullerenes as prospective qubits”. This was awarded the First Prize by the IoP Quantum Electronics and Photonics division in 2006. From 2005 to 2009 he held a Junior Research Fellowship at St. John’s College, Oxford, and then a Science Research Fellowship there from 2010-2012.

John serves on the editorial board of Scientific Reports, and is Physical Sciences chair in Nature Index. In 2008 he was awarded the Nicholas Kurti European Science prize for research involving low temperatures and high magnetic fields and received the Cavendish Medal for Physics at SET for Britain 2008. In 2011, John received a European Research Council Starter Grant. To date, John has graduated 6 PhD students, and has a current group of five PhD students, plus postdoctoral research fellow support. He has published 61 papers with over 2200 citations and has an h-index of 24. He is the recipient of the 2013 IoP Moseley Medal, awarded to early-career researchers for exceptional work in experimental physics.  John has been active in the public engagement of science, and presented an exhibit at the Royal Society Summer Exhibit 2012 entitled "Quantum of Spin".

Richard Murray - Lead Technologist, Innovate UK EDGE

Richard has spent his career in both the private and public sector turning science into new products and processes. As an ex-employee of TTP, he has worked with many leading UK and American brands, small and medium sized businesses helping them to invest in R&D to stay ahead of the competition. Richard is now Lead Technologist for Innovate UK: a non-departmental government body sponsored by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. His goal is to identify big shifts in science and technology which will transform our lives in 10 or more years from now, and to support UK companies in these emerging areas. Richard’s main responsibility is to help companies to access a £270 million investment from UK Government to develop commercial uses for ‘quantum’ technologies. To help UK to be at the forefront of what will be a large global industry, Richard co-authored the UK strategy and roadmap and European manifesto for quantum technologies.

Neil Stansfield - Head of Digital Sector, National Physical Laboratory

Neil Stansfield is Head of the Knowledge, Innovations and Futures Enterprise, leading the Ministry of Defence strategy and programme for identifying and harnessing emerging and disruptive technologies. Working across the National Security Enterprise and wider HMG, setting National strategy for understanding the implications of emerging technologies on UK defence and security and driving leading innovation programmes to exploit technology for defence advantage and wealth creation.  Prior to this, Neil has spent twenty-five years in a range of senior defence and security policy, strategy, and science and technology roles, working across Government and the private sector, nationally and internationally. Areas of responsibility have included chemical and biological defence, arms control, ballistic missile defence, MoD’s maritime S&T programme, and as Deputy Director in the Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism. In 2007 Neil had the privilege of spending a year at the Royal College of Defence Studies, MoD’s most senior leadership development programme.

Ian Wassell - Associate Professor, Digital Technology Group, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge

Dr Ian Wassell joined the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory as a Senior Lecturer in January 2006. Prior to this, he was with the Department of Engineering for six years. He received the PhD degree from the University of Southampton in 1990 and the BSc., BEng. (Honours) Degrees (First Class) from the University of Loughborough in 1983. He has in excess of 25 years experience in radio communication systems gained via positions in industry and academia and has published more than 200 papers. His research interests include broadband wireless networks, wireless sensor networks, radio propagation, coding, communication signal processing, compressive sampling, and image processing and classification.

Colin Williams - Director of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships, DWave

Colin Williams is Director of Business Development & Strategic Partnerships at D-Wave Systems Inc. Prior to joining D-Wave, Colin was a Senior Research Scientist (SRS) and Program Manager for Advanced Computing Paradigms at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. Earlier, as an acting Associate Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University, he taught courses on quantum computing and quantum communications, and computer-based mathematics. Colin earned his Ph.D. in artificial intelligence from the University of Edinburgh in 1989 and wrote Explorations in Quantum Computing, one of the first textbooks in the field.

Zhiliang Yuan - Team Leader, Toshiba

Zhiliang is a Team Leader at Toshiba Research Europe Ltd. He leads the development of quantum key distribution (QKD) systems for protecting future communication infrastructures. His team has developed the first QKD experiment over 100 km and the first QKD system achieving 1 Mb/s and these breakthroughs have been underpinned by their innovations in the fields of light generation, detection and modulation. He has co-authored >100 refereed scientific papers and filed 40 patents. His current research interests include QKD systems and networks, single photon detection and quantum random number generation.

Event Location

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Location info

University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory, William Gates Building, 15 JJ Thomson Ave, Cambridge CB3 0FD

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