Pentagon Eyeing Major Investments in Quantum Sciences

The Department of Defense has requested $75 million for fiscal year 2024 to increase quantum device commercialization. This new project, dubbed Quantum Transition Acceleration, is described as "critical to maintaining the nation’s technological superiority."

ECE professor Saikat Guha, who serves as director of the Center for Quantum Networks, recently spoke to DefenseScoop about the importance of quantum technology funding. 

“This investment will be key to help the U.S. stay competitive with other nations, not only in quantum computing, but also in many other quantum-enabled technologies — such as entanglement-based sensing capabilities, secure communications and computing, secure access to the quantum cloud, and many more applications — which have key national security implications," Guha said. 

In 2022, Guha and other ECE faculty joined an international partnership, "CoQREATE," to provide connectivity between quantum computers over short and long distances.

“In my experience, there is a lot of very high impact work that comes out of [DARPA’s Defense Sciences Office] programs, which do not make their way to the transition partners in a natural way. Many quantum-enabled technologies are ready for such transition,” Guha said.