The Quantum West Business Summit is the premier forum where industry leaders meet to discuss the opportunities, challenges and progress towards commercializing quantum technologies. This year’s program kicks off with a Keynote Address from John Burke (OUSD (R&E)) followed by a Business Intelligence report from Carl Dukatz of Accenture. Join us to hear from these leaders in the field as they start the 2024 program.

Host

Carl Williams​​ President and CEO CJW Quantum Consulting, LLC (United States)

10:30 AM
Looking for advantage in quantum networking

Quantum information science has delivered a fundamental new mechanism to innovate new technologies that has already created social-economic impacts. Naturally, the idea of using quantum information science to connect technologies into systems or networks could plausibly also generate new social-economic impacts. Many quantum network concepts have been investigated. This presentation will review some of the concepts investigated to date, discuss some of the limitations discovered that are preventing transition of concepts to impactful technology, and attempt to illuminate some fruitful research directions going forward.

John Burke Principal Director Quantum Science, Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD (R&E)) (United States)

John Burke joined the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (OUSD (R&E)) for Science and Technology (S&T) as the Principal Director for Quantum Science in March 2022. In this role, Dr. Burke is responsible for leading the Department of Defense’s (DoD) strategy for quantum science, one of DoD’s top critical technology areas.

Prior to joining OUSD (R&E), Dr. Burke served as a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Program Manager in the Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) and Defense Sciences Office (DSO) from 2017 to 2022. Previously, Dr. Burke worked in the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Space Vehicles Directorate as a Senior Research Physicist. Dr. Burke holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Centre College and a Doctorate of Philosophy degree in Physics from the University of Virginia.

11:15 AM
Quantum investments: Forward thinking businesses

Quantum continues to hold the promise of becoming a revolutionary technology across computing, communications, and sensing. Key businesses are closely following advancements in quantum for potential business advantage as well as cyber security risk exposure. Evidence suggests that forward-thinking businesses are going a step beyond quantum demos and experiments to quantum-inspired solutions which use knowledge gleaned exploring quantum techniques. Let’s talk about where this innovation fly-wheel is taking off and what it means for the ecosystem.

Carl Dukatz Managing Director Accenture (United States)

Carl Dukatz is the Global Lead of Next Gen and Quantum Compute at Accenture. He has led the creation of dozens of quantum applications and prototypes, published research and business perspectives on quantum, and developed multiple training and workforce readiness programs for quantum practitioners. Today, Carl focuses on helping businesses map their most challenging problems to formulations that will one day run more efficiently on quantum computers as well as apply enhanced security measures to protect against the threat quantum poses to cyber systems.