Quantum-Brilliance

Alistair Muir: First, I think probably the best way to start is maybe we just do a bit of introductions. I'll start with me. I'm Alistair Muir, I've been involved with the CSIRO ON program for probably the last four years. In that time, I've actually been an advisor to the program, mentor to around 20 teams in the program as well. Then, actually, my last cohort last year, I actually led one of the teams as an entrepreneur in residence. Actually, in this cohort, I've been super lucky. I've been lucky enough to work with the Quantum Brilliance team, who are absolutely amazing and who are pioneering ubiquitous quantum computing. I think what I might do is just give a bit of an introduction to the actual Quantum Brilliance team here. We've got Andrew Horsley, who's the co-founder and CEO of Quantum Brilliance. We've got Marcus Doherty, who is also the co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Quantum Brilliance, and we are meant to have Mark Luo as well, who will, hopefully, be joining us shortly. I just think, in terms of the best way to run this, if there's anyone on the line who's got questions, perhaps you can just ask those via the Q&A portal, and then I'll tab out of this and have a look at those and then find the best way to present those to the team. I think maybe we'll just get kicked off at some of the questions. First of all, Andrew, absolutely excellent pitch and presentation. I'm thinking perhaps for the benefits of the people on the line, not quite sure of the levels of understanding they'll have on quantum computing and where their baseline understanding will be there. I'm thinking maybe the best way to start is, maybe you can give us a bit of a feel for what is quantum computing and why is it such a big deal?

Andrew Horsley: Sure, thanks, Alistair. Quantum is about bringing in new techniques to take advantage of physical phenomena that today's computers don't use. By bringing those into computing, we're able to do certain tasks much faster than we're able to do today. I guess the key thing that we want to get across is, quantum computing's studying is real. These are things that exist around the world already. We saw just last year, Google building a quantum computer that actually managed to outperform the world's largest supercomputer for the first time and did so by a factor of 1000. These devices are still in their early stages. Looking to find applications in the near term is something that people really need to start thinking about engaging with, whether you're a user, whether you're an engineer coming in, or also looking to invest in the sector. The kinds of things that quantum computing can do, its accelerating classes of applications like, say, machine learning, analysis of signals or optimization problems, problems that are really quite important for a range of sectors. We can think, look back at how classical computing has really transformed lives over the last several decades. The challenge that we're facing now is that the transistors or the physical underpinnings of today's computers are really starting to get to their limits, so to enable the technologies of tomorrow, which still require more computing power than we have available today, we're getting the new types of computers to come in and let us move forward. Quantum computing is really seen as one of the key parts of that solution. This is in areas that range from healthcare, finance, security, autonomous vehicles, drug discovery, so on. Let's look at the drug discovery side as a quick example there. Think about designing a plane or a bridge or a car, a lot of that design process happens on a computer using software, and you're able to explore a wide range of design innovations, explore more exotic things, and do rapid debugging of things without having to invest a lot of time or money by building a physical system. The challenge in, say, developing a new drug is that the simulations that are required to do similar things require far more computing power, not even than we have today but more computing power than we could ever possibly have without a quantum computer. This is one of many reasons why people are really excited about quantum is it can enable us to do things that are really important that we would never have otherwise been able to do, so things like discovering, rapidly exploring, and identifying novel drug candidates, new potential vaccines, these are things that quantum computing promises, not necessarily tomorrow but in the coming years.

Alistair: Fantastic. Thank you very much, Andrew. I'm just wondering in terms of the actual applications, Marcus, are you able to talk a little bit more about some of the applications of quantum and some of the ones that are actually unlocked, perhaps through Quantum Brilliance's technology?

Marcus Doherty: Yes, absolutely. It's our pleasure to do so. We've got some questions coming on about what is the pathway to market? How do we get to use quantum soon? What does that mean? Who are the customers who are going to be using it? What does that mean now in the intermediate-term and in the future? I can talk through those various points for everyone in the audience. Quantum, right now, is in this exciting phase of application discovery, where there are some classic applications where people know it can perform exceedingly well, but there's also many, many other applications which are being discovered every day. Some of the applications we know well, as Andrew said earlier in the regions of machine learning, signal processing, optimization, simulation of complex systems, and then there's the firewall Shor algorithm for factoring prime numbers for encryption. Some of those applications such as factoring numbers is far off in the distance because that requires huge and complicated quantum computers. What can we do in the intermediate-term and the near term? What people are focusing on, applications where we can use a small number of quantum bits, which are the resources we use in a quantum computer to gain some sort of advantage, we saw the demonstration by Google, where they used their quantum computer to compete against one of the world's largest supercomputers, and they could outperform it. The question is, is there those other things where quantum computers can be useful? The key point is that what makes something commercially viable? Is it when a quantum computer outperforms a larger supercomputer, or is it when a quantum computer outperforms a similar classical computer of the same size, weight, and power and functionality? If you ask that question, the world of applications becomes very different. You can think of, for example, in image processing and signal processing, if you can make a quantum computer sufficiently small in terms of size, weight, and power such that you can outperform competing systems in processing complex and detailed signals or processing detailed images to extract features, then all of a sudden, you have something which is incredibly useful and is nearer-term than trying to out-compete a supercomputer. To give some tangible examples, one is in medical imaging where we've talked to a variety of technology providers, some of the largest in the world, and they have technologies now which are waiting for image processing computing hardware to actually deliver it into clinical suites. That's because there's a latency issue where we have a clinically relevant time where that image needs to be processed. You can have huge data transmission of those images and need to be done on-site, and a specific example is computed tomography. If you have a computer which can perform that task faster than any available technology, you've got an immediate application where people will change lives and will be commercially relevant. That is a particular area of strength of quantum computing is these types of signal processing that are required for computer-to-computer tomography. There are other examples in defense where you can think of the problem of having large satellite arrays doing huge amounts of imagery, and they've got to be moved up back to Earth, and they've also got to worry about the security implications of bringing it back to Earth. If you can have a quantum computer which is deployed into space and satellites to do that pre-processing, pre-filtering of that image data, then that immediately cuts down and removes that congestion of bringing all that data back down to Earth in order for processing. What this is all leading to is a strength of Quantum Brilliance and our technology. We, using our unique diamond-based quantum computing technology, we can shrink quantum computers down to a small size, weight, and power to the same size, ultimately, as graphics cards or other sorts of PCI cards you have in your computer. That is because our technology operates at room temperature and uses relatively simple control systems. When you start talking about quantum computers that can shrink down to a graphics card size, the scope of applications where it will be commercially relevant because it can out-compete a similar classic computer of the same size, weight, and power explodes beyond that, which people currently think quantum computing can do. That then also positions why we are different compared to other competitors such as the Googles and the IBMs of the world. They have a technology and an approach to quantum computing which is a mainframe cloud-based model. Our technology promotes a completely different picture of the future of quantum computing, which is about having compact quantum computers alongside classical computers, either in mobile or in distributed networks, or in massively parallel banks with classical computers. I wish that at this point, I'm going to stop, Al, and we'll see what other questions we can [crosstalk]

Alistair: No, fantastic, Marcus, thank you so much. It was a tremendous overview, and it gives a real paintable picture as to what the difference is to Quantum Brilliance's approach as well and certainly, being able to open up far more applications than you potentially could through other means of quantum computing. Just looking at some of the questions that are coming through here, some are quite high-level, and some are quite detailed. I might just go in terms of the ones that have been uploaded the most. The most popular question is actually around error rates in quantum computing. The question is, the high error rate is a bane of quantum computing, what are you doing differently that avoids or mitigates this Achilles' heel? Is that best placed with you, Marcus?

Marcus: Yes, sure, I'll take that one. There's multiple parts to that question. The first one is, what's the intrinsic error rate of our hardware? That is if we don't do anything to it to mitigate those errors, if we just run it at the best that we can run that hardware without doing anything more intelligent. Our qubits have intrinsically good error rates, so that's small amounts of error. They're not as perfect as other qubits. They're certainly better than the most prevalent qubits which currently people can engage with commercially. We have intrinsically good-quality qubits, so that then reduces the burden of them doing higher-order tasks to mitigate those errors, which is often called error correction. Error correction uses qubits to basically combine together to form a logical qubit and a protected qubit, which is robust against various types of errors that can occur. When you move to error correction, you spend resources by condensing large numbers of qubits into fewer qubits which are now robust. The decision to do error correction is based upon whether or not your application demands it, the number of qubits you have, and whether you can spend that cost of taking a large number and reducing to fewer. Ultimately, quantum computers, when they have large numbers of qubits, that's an easy decision. They will do that condensation and create these logical bits and do error correction. However, there is a world of things to do before we have that many number of qubits. That is by utilizing the qubits we have in the best way we can and also choosing applications which are robust against particular errors. This, in itself, is a new form of computing and one that the world leaders are starting to really engage and accept that this is a way to get quantum computing to deliver results in the near term. You accept that you have a noisy system, and you then manipulate that system and ask questions of that system so that you still gain an advantage, but you can tolerate the noise that it spits back. This is a concept very, very familiar to all engineers. It's the reason why the Kalman filter was able to take noisy measurements from a complex rocket system and still take astronauts to the moon. This is a similar thing we're facing with quantum computing to get applications in the near term.

Alistair: Thank you so much, Marcus. Thanks, everybody for sending the questions through. Can you please keep sending them through? It's fantastic to keep things moving. Just also, whenever you are sending them through, if you could send them through the main Q&A portal rather than through here on Zoom as well, it just makes it easier to collect them all as well. I think that was a very specific detailed kind of question on quantum. One of the slightly more general questions and, obviously, a pretty important one is, how will you guys compete commercially, not specifically technology but commercially against those big guys that we talked about already, so Google, IBM, and other large tech companies that are in the space? Andrew, I think maybe this one might be pointed your way. What do you think?

Andrew: Yes, thanks, Alistair. The first thing I pointed out is I don't think we can completely separate those two. Technology plays into our ability to compete with IBM and Google and the like. We've got a distinct technology that gives us a distinct advantage when we go head-to-head with them but also that we're able to play in spaces that they're not able to play in that a lot of alternate market is an area that we're not going head-to-head with any of these guys, we're extending what quantum computing is able to be by taking it out from this mainframe role where you have a room-size quantum computer that you have maybe one or two of those attached to a facility. Now, we're having these with thousands of them inside a data center or a supercomputer but also having them under your desk, in a hospital, in an autonomous vehicle. That's a space where there's superconducting qubits, so these other technologies being developed by IBM and Google can't compete. Commercially, one aspect has been going to a space where we're uniquely able to bring quantum and its incredible power of computing acceleration. The other side is, I guess, in, say, the data center role or supercomputing role where we had a very attractive value proposition in that our quantum computers fit into a mode of computing that is compatible with the infrastructure that already exists in these facilities. They're obviously very excited when we let them know that they don't have to worry about cryogenics and that it plugs in that massively parallelized role or mass-distributed role to how they used to operate in these facilities and how you get the best out of a supercomputer. Things like actually having deeply-integrated quantum and classical processes is a key part of getting the best out of a quantum computer. If you've got something that is on the same chip as your classical processor or in the same rack, you'll get a very different amount of performance compared to if you got something that's sitting in a closet in the next room or even on the other side of the world that you're only able to access via the cloud. There's a range of distinct, I suppose, commercial strategies and technological advantages that mainly we're able to enter into the quantum computing space and be commercially successful.

Marcus: Al, I want to add a little bit to that if I can. When we have talked to a variety of high-performance computing providers or supercomputing providers around the world, the first thing they say is, "Wow, so you guys can actually deliver hardware to us? All the other people either won't or can't do that." They go, "That means that we can really start to do things we want to do, which is explore how to integrate quantum computers into our massively complex classical computing system and make that real for both us and also our users." That's the initial reaction you have. That is where we have an advantage right now is being able to meet this demand to engage with, to integrate, to touch, and to make real and provide early quantum computers in these facilities. The next thing is when we talk to defense organizations and defense companies, we say, "Yes, we have a clear pathway to a mobile and compact quantum computing unit," and they say, "We have applications that we are thinking about or applications that we know which need exactly that. We haven't seen another solution other than yours, so we want to start talking to you now about how we can work together to build the types of technologies we need to deploy these applications we have in mind." That's the first reaction we have from customers when we talk to them, and that is, right now, how we're distinct and useful, compared to some of the other competitors who are operating in a different mode and in a different space.

Alistair: Thanks very much, Marcus and Andrew as well. That actually goes quite a long way to answering one of the other questions that's come through in terms of elaborating on the ideal customer and the target use cases as well. That goes a long way to answer that. Maybe in terms of one of the other questions that's come through is very specific around diamonds. What are the cost implications of buying lab-made diamonds, ones with appropriate carbon, nitrogen purities, and the other properties that you need? Are you able to speak a little bit to that?

Andrew: Maybe, Marcus, do you want to take that?

Marcus: Yes, sure. We're actively working with one of the world's leading synthetic diamond providers. It's essentially a question of scale and timeline. Right now, the diamonds we buy are bespoke diamonds, but it is not a problem to scale the production of those diamonds if the demand presents it, and they are very willing to undergo that scaling and to refine their techniques to provide to us as the market grows and the demand for their diamonds grow. We often envision these diamonds as being this difficult thing to make and that it's expensive and these sorts of things, and that's not the opinion they give us. They say, "We have the technology and the intellectual property to scale the growth as needed, in this high-purity and in these precision arrangements, as long as the market is there for us to provide into." It's wholly very promising on the diamond provisioning side.

Alistair: Thank you very much, Marcus. Thanks for that. Just looking at some of the other questions here, observing between windows. One of the other questions is probably more in the software side of things as well. In fact, I might just double two questions together here. One is around, how do you envisage software on the programming layer to work over the hardware, the hardware that you've invented? Then also a little bit about, given that cloud computing will be accessible, first, in quantum, how will you compete? That's probably the two parts to that question. I'm happy if you want to answer them separately or whether you want to roll them together.

Andrew: Yes, thanks, Alistair. The first thing to understand is, with every quantum computer, a key part of that is actually a classical computer as well. The interface that you'll see when you use a quantum computer, you're writing regular code, whether that's Python or C++, as you would when you're integrating and talking to, say, A GPU or another accelerator. This is getting a little bit into the details, apologies to people needing less datail here but think of it like you have your central system, your CPU. That would send off jobs when you're doing computing tasks at the moment, that's going to send off jobs, or it's going to do some of the jobs itself, and then send off some jobs to, say, your graphics card, and then that comes back. Now, we're simply adding in a quantum accelerator as well into that mix. It'll be doing the tasks, some of those, it's faster than to use a graphics card so you do that over here. Some of those tasks, it's faster to use a quantum computer. You send that over to here and then send that back to your classical computer that's managing that. Two things there, one is using the same kind of coding interfaces that we use today, with some new tools and also that the future of computing is not quantum replacing classical but is quantum and classical working together closely. There's certain tasks where classical computers are always going to be a much more sensible solution. Quantum provides a speedup for some things but for other things, not. Classical is still a go-to for basic things like one plus one equals two. The software interface and the software stack in that control is still really an evolving question. The entire quantum computing field is still working out exactly what that needs to look like, what the functionality needs to be. As we develop the hardware, those requirements are going to change as well. At this point, there's a range of options coming in typically with a Python level front-end, where you're able to create quantum circuits. The algorithms that you run on a quantum computer, you can define those using a Python-based code. There's also graphical user interfaces that you can use. Then, that gets translated down in a series of stages to something that gets sent to the quantum processor. That's actually an analog, typically, or in that case, microwave and radio-frequency pulses, as well as laser pulses to the device. I'm going to pause on that one then. The other part of that question was around cloud computing. At this stage and a little bit to what I was saying there is that the future of computing is not quantum by itself, it is quantum working closely with classical. Part of that means if they're going to work closely together, and then they need to be close physically together. The ultimate aim of that is having them both on the same chip; having them in the same server rack, at least; and hopefully, not having them on the other sides of the world. Cloud computing is good for some things, but same as with classical computing, you still need some computing inside your phone, you still need some computing, whether you go inside a tunnel, or if you're underground, if you're in a remote situation, or even that you just don't want to have privacy concerns. You might have bandwidth concerns, you don't want to send absolutely everything via the network. There's a need for local computing power, and it's going be the same in quantum. We can compete in the cloud computing space, but we're also uniquely able to service people with that local quantum computing capability.

Alistair: Fantastic, Andrew, thank you very much for that. One of the things that we've spoken about previously, actually, and it's not a question that's come through here, and on that note, it would be great to have more questions come through, I think we'd love to be able to select those and answer them, is, actually, the question of accessibility, right? There's a bit of a myth, I think, around quantum computing being this very, very complex and amorphous thing that's way out in the future. One of the things that have excited me the most about the Quantum Brilliance solution and the way that you've architected things is actually in making quantum computing more accessible and in a variety of different ways. Is this something you could talk to in terms of how people can actually get involved with quantum right now?

Andrew: Marcus, do you want to talk to some of that? Marcus has really been at the forefront of helping Australia in how we're trying to develop a quantum community across Australia, so I'll pass it to him now.

Marcus: Yes, sure. There is a variety of aspects to that question. I'll talk about one specific exciting initiative that Quantum Brilliance is engaged in, and then I'll broaden that to the national level view, and then internationally. One thing that Quantum Brilliance was very proud to announce a few weeks ago was a partnership with the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre to create at Australia's Innovation Hub around quantum computing, where we are working towards installing, at first, a quantum emulator, which is about emulating the behavior of a quantum computer and assisting with that whole co-processing model of integrating classical and quantum together. The purpose of that project with Pawsey and also a larger vision that we're working towards, of creating a national quantum computing facility in Australia with a variety of other partners, is to dramatically lower the barriers of access to quantum computing hardware so that people who can explore and innovate. We're talking about small companies, large corporations, defense researchers can start to play with quantum computers and work out how to squeeze them and to gain the advantage in different applications. That's how people will be able to get involved, in the very near future, within Australia. Some of the questions might be, "Oh, you can already do that with some of the cloud providers." The answer is, to some extent, you can but, to me, to many purposes, you can't because to actually deploy an application, to actually solve someone's problem, it's more than just designing an algorithm and then showing that it can give us a theoretical speedup over something else, you need to do the full workflow of the problem. Al, you know this extremely well, you need to be able to take user data or live data and push it through a full workflow where it's processed. That includes distributing that processing across classical and quantum units and then assembling that data and feeding it back to make decisions and so forth and so forth. To do that, you need an environment of integrated quantum and classical and a play area to be able to do that full data management and workflow solution when you're building applications. That is what we envisage with our partnership with Pawsey is providing that environment where small companies, large cooperations, defense can actually do full application development and demonstration on quantum computers. That's what we're working towards and combining with others, working towards a national quantum computing facility that provides that, not just at Pawsey but in multiple sites around Australia and really driving that innovation piece. That's one side of the innovation, the other part of it is about translating Australia's talent and also international talent in engineering. There is a great deal of classical engineering involved in building quantum technologies. That engineering is not held by quantum physicists, it's held by the mechanical and optical-electrical engineers around who are building high-end technologies in other fields. Another push is to be able to translate that talent across to help design and manufacture these quantum technologies. The other part, of course, is the business expertise that needs to be pulled to actually make an industry happen in Australia to find and engage customers to be able to draw capital to build something here so that we can capitalize on these decades of research excellence in Australia.

Alistair: Fantastic, Marcus, and it's amazing to hear just how many different things that you're involved with to actually do this not just as a business but also to create that center of innovation for Australia. Just wondering in terms of that, it sounds like there's going to be tremendous value created for the country out of this. Do you have a feel for what the size of that market is, what the size of that value creation opportunity is for Australia?

Marcus: Yes, sure. The CSIRO quantum roadmap identified $4 billion by 2040 as the total possible market share of Australia in quantum technology and $2.5 billion as the Australia share in quantum computing. This is well-documented and well-articulated in the document. They are extremely conservative estimates. They do not take into account the effects or the draw of quantum computing, other quantum technologies into other industries, the fact that those new technologies will accelerate and catalyze the improvements and innovations and growth in other industries as well. They also don't take into account the fact that whilst the market share, as opposed to total accessible market, is based upon Australia's national investment as a fraction of the global investment in quantum technology, it does not take into account the specific strengths of Australia's technologies. That's where something like Quantum Brilliance, where our technology offers a completely different range and a completely broadened scope, a humongously-broadened scope of quantum computing. None of that was taken into account to that possible market share when CSIRO were making those numbers. In reality, with successes like Quantum Brilliance going forward, Australia's market share could be much larger than $2.5 billion by 2040.

Alistair: That’s a tremendous opportunity for you guys but also for the benefit of the country as well. It's very exciting, it's very, very exciting. I thought I'd mentioned that in terms of more questions coming through, please, by all means, put your questions down. Andrew and Marcus are more than happy to answer some of these questions. There is one that's come through that's quite specific. Let me just have a quick tab over and look. How will the Quantum Brilliance quantum processor unit work? Is that something that you guys can give us a bit of a feel for?

Andrew: Yes, sure. It works like many other quantum computers in that you have a classical system that's controlling a quantum system, and you have a quantum system that is this network of coupled quantum bits, and you're able to use those as this exquisite computing resource. What you see and where we're looking to bring in a lot of external expertise is in all of the classical control systems that go around it. There's a lot of microwave/radio-frequency engineering here, there's optics in terms of lasers,in terms of detectors, and a huge amount of software effort, as well, in machine learning, in optimal control, and in user interface and compilers. One of the things that we want to get across to people is that quantum, the barriers aren't as high as you think if you want to come in to enter quantum. It's not very hard for people to come in from other fields, bring the expertise that they have here, and come and make real value, make really strong contributions to quantum computing. We have a lot of that expertise here in Australia that we just need to tap into. In that barrier sense too, and this is something that Marcus has been talking to, what we're working to do, and this is a particular strength of Quantum Brilliance is working to reduce the barriers of entry for users as well because, ultimately, we're all going to have to be consumers of quantum technology. Australia has an opportunity here to really lead in quantum computing and a range of other quantum technologies. Nomad Atomics and Redback Systems are two quantum technology companies in our same cohort. Whether we seize that opportunity or not though, just like we have to use digital technologies today, we're going to be consumers of quantum technologies tomorrow. That means that we need to build up the national expertise in how to use and take advantage of these systems. That's why we say it's so important for us to partner with organizations like Pawsey to create this community of users and let people experience quantum today and start addressing those challenges around, "How does it actually map onto the problems that I'm trying to solve today and tomorrow?" I guess thinking back, just like digitalization, for many organizations, was a very painful process but absolutely essential as well for them to remain competitive, uptake of quantum technologies is going to be a similarly complex process for many organizations that requires a lot of upskilling but also an absolutely essential one. We're working to create those communities in Australia that let people start that journey and create that talent pool that can let Australia lead, going forward.

Alistair: Fantastic. Thank you very much, Andrew. Just looking at another question that's come through, I'm afraid I won't be able to provide any flavor in terms of the background to the question, it's a little too specific for me, is a question asking, is the tech along that of Professor Michael Simmons? I think, Marcus, that might be one for you.

Marcus: Yes, sure. I think Michelle Simmons there, Alistair. The short answer is no, it's a distinct technology to the technologies being developed under Michelle's leadership at UNSW. There is a common factor, though, I'll get to that in a second. Our technology utilizes a defect in diamond. It's the size of two atoms, called a nitrogen-vacancy center and surrounding nuclear spin impurities in the lattice. We utilize a technique to create scalable arrays of those defects in precise locations. That, combined with the other properties of these defects, which are very distinct and unique, compared to any others in solids, allows us to then operate at room temperature to be able to have simple control via optics, electronics, and radio waves to perform quantum computing in a compact system at room temperature. What is the similarity then to Michelle's technology in UNSW? The similarity is that we're both using defects. They're using phosphorus atoms inside silicon; we're using these nitrogen-vacancy centers that I described. Beyond that, the parallels are then only in the sense that they also create arrays of these defects to make a quantum processor, just like we fabricate arrays of our defects to make our quantum processor. Beyond that, the technologies are very different. The silicon technologies operate at cryogenic and extreme cryogenic temperatures in the milliKelvins, and they utilize purely electronic control, which means that they control systems, they need to have nanowires that can address individual atoms in order to perform their quantum computing, rather than being able to do global control, like our system can. The other things is that they don't utilize light, they only utilize electronics and radio waves to address their technologies. Whilst at face value, they're both defects in solids, silicon is like carbon, you end up with an extreme difference in the technologies.

Alistair: Thank you very much, Marcus. I definitely got sideswiped with the name there, thanks, Jamie, for throwing me off with Michael versus Michelle. Thank you for clarifying, Marcus. One of the things I'd really like to know, there are quite a few people on the line here and I think even as Tennille had said in the earlier presentation tonight, is that people can think about how they can help you. One of the things I'd like to ask you guys is, how can people help you? What is it you need? What is it you need to accelerate the business? Be ready to get that on the record here, I think.

Andrew: Thanks, Alistair. We're in the process of raising funds, I think we'll close our first round soon, so we're looking for people if you're interested in having a conversation around that to reach out to us, you can hit us up at contact@quantum-brilliance.com. Also, we're really looking to start hiring, or we already started hiring people and bringing in talent in engineering. These are people like electronics engineers, microwave and radio-frequency backgrounds, looking for software engineers across the stack and people who have been users of silicon computing facilities or have expertise in that kind of distributed computing and machine learning and AI experts. That's all then playing in as well to people who have an understanding of things like chemistry, diamonds, and quantum optics, in general. There's a whole range of roles that we're looking to hire for. Again, people can just reach out to us at contact@quantum-brilliance.com, love to hear from you. The other aspect is then also people looking to build up a board of advisors and people that feel that they can help us in that journey or think that they can feel they can put us in touch with someone, we would like to hear from them there.

Alistair: Thanks very much, Andrew. Just on that, you mentioned you're actually a round right now from the investor point of view. Is there a way that people can participate, just to get in touch with you, is that right?

Andrew: Yes, that's right. I think the easiest thing [unintelligible 00:44:28] people to reach out to that email address, and we'd love to hear from people who are particularly really looking for value-add investors who are able to expose us to new things and bring in expertise to the business.

Alistair: Fantastic. Thanks, Andrew. Are there any other questions that any of the participants or any of the attendees have? Be ready to get those sent through. Actually, in the interim, as we're waiting for some of those questions to come through, Marcus, can you tell us a little bit about your journey? You've got a fascinating background, would you be okay to tell some of the participants a little bit about your journey so far?

Marcus: Yes, absolutely. Thanks, Alistair. It has a lot to do with the genesis of Quantum Brilliance as well. My journey is that I've studied diamond throughout my scientific career. I was brought to the Australian National University to head the Diamond Quantum Science and Technology Laboratory. That's a laboratory that has over 40 years of being at the world's cutting-edge in terms of diamond research and, as a result, amassed a great deal of expertise and capability. When I arrived to the ANU, my job was to translate that capability into building quantum technologies, move scientific expertise into technological expertise, and now, Quantum Brilliance is the pointing end of that story, where we have narrowed our focus on what we believe is a transformational technology, which is the quantum computing technology, and we're commercializing that out of my laboratory. It's been an extremely fast and wonderful time and also extremely challenging, but we've got to a point now where we think we can really change the world in what we're doing.

Alistair: It's fantastically exciting. As I said before, it's amazing to hear that journey but also to hear what you guys are doing as a business but also what it means for Australia and what it means for Quantum overall. I'm just looking to see if there are any other questions that are coming through here. It's one of those things where I'm just not sure if there are no other questions, whether it's something that we wrap up. I might just ask the audience, is there any additional questions that you want us to field, please send them through. Otherwise, I think we'll wrap this up and a great way to get in touch with the team will be through that email address, I think, contact@quantum-brilliance.com, is that right?

Marcus: That's correct. Many thanks to you, Alistair, for hosting today. It's been an absolute pleasure. Also, being a mentor throughout our program, you certainly have been important to us, and you're an incredible, valuable resource, and we hope to continue with you in the future.

Alistair: Thanks so much, Marcus. Thanks so much, Andrew.

Andrew: Alistair, as we sign off, then I'll say a big thanks to everyone on the ON Program, technicians making today a big success. Everyone across this journey has been, as spoken to already today, that it's been a very disruptive year across all aspects of our lives. ON team has really gone above and beyond to ensure that despite all of that, ON Accelerate has been a great success for us and all the teams. Thanks very much to everyone, the mentors, the team, and all the people that came in and brought their expertise and shared that with us, you're great.

Alistair: Thank you, Andrew. Thank you, Marcus. Thank you to all the participants as well. I think we're going to sign out, thanks, everyone. [00:48:41] [END OF AUDIO]