The Boeing Co. has invested more than $3.5 million in the Chicago Quantum Exchange in an effort to further boost the region's quantum ecosystem.
The investment will be used to support technical workshops and new research projects that stem from them, along with graduate student and postdoctoral fellows. The funding will also be used to expand an award program that recognizes early-career researchers whose work moves quantum information science and engineering in new directions.
Fourteen early-career quantum researchers were also named winners of the 2023 Boeing Quantum Creators Prize. They include researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder, University of Cambridge and a visiting Ph.D. student from the University of Science and Technology in China. The winners will present their work at the Boeing Quantum Creators Prize Symposium on Nov. 14 at the Chicago Quantum Summit.
Created in 2021, the program has recognized 27 Ph.D. students and postdocs.
The Midwest's growing quantum ecosystem includes a 124-mile quantum network, four of the 10 quantum research centers funded by the 2018 National Quantum Initiative Act and the first quantum startup accelerator in the nation.
The Bloch, a coalition of industry, academic government and nonprofit stakeholders led by the Chicago Quantum Exchange, also was named one of 31 tech hubs across the country that are now eligible for up to $500 million in federal funds to increase innovation across more corners of the country.
