The New Quantum Era - innovation in quantum computing, science and technology

Days after the CQE-led Bloch Quantum Tech Hub secured $55 million from the U.S. Economic Development Administration to build a domestic quantum supply chain, Kate Timmerman joins Sebastian to explain what that money actually does — and why the Midwest, not Silicon Valley, may become the industrial backbone of American quantum technology. This conversation goes deep on quantum ecosystem building, workforce development, and the choke points in single-sourced components that keep quantum startups from scaling.

Show Notes

Kate Timmerman is the CEO of the Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE), and she is arguably one of the most consequential ecosystem builders in quantum today. Under her leadership, the CQE has grown from three founding institutions in 2017 to a coalition of more than 50 industry and academic partners, and the region has secured designation as a top global quantum ecosystem through The Bloch Quantum U.S. EDA Tech Hub and an NSF Regional Innovation Engine development award.
If you care about how emerging deep-tech industries actually get built — the unglamorous work of coordinating universities, startups, national labs, small manufacturers, workforce agencies, and federal policy — this episode is a masterclass. It's especially valuable for listeners trying to understand how quantum moves from bespoke, hand-built prototypes to real industrial-scale production, and what that transition means for jobs, national security, and U.S. competitiveness.
What We Get Into
  • Why the CQE started 18 months before the National Quantum Initiative Act — and how that head start translated into winning multiple NQI research centers (SQMS, Q-NEXT, HQAN, and Q-NEXT-adjacent efforts)
  • What the $55M Bloch Tech Hub award actually funds in the next 12 months, and why the money targets manufacturing rather than more research
  • The severity of U.S. dependence on foreign and single-sourced quantum components — from nano-positioners to optics, photonics, and vacuum systems — and why that's slowing product delivery today
  • How small and mid-sized Midwest manufacturers (in states that already rank top-10 in U.S. manufacturing) can pivot into the quantum supply chain without full re-tooling
  • Why the BCG projection of ~$80B in regional economic impact and up to 191,000 quantum jobs by 2035 is more credible when you understand the full supply-chain vision, not just quantum computer vendors
  • The five pillars of the CQE's NSF-backed "Advancing Together" workforce strategy — awareness, preparation, mobility, employer leadership, and coordination — and why employers themselves often can't forecast their own hiring needs
  • What the Quantum Law Navigator™ is actually for, who uses it, and why first-time quantum founders often don't know what "export control" means until it's too late
  • Why Q2B is relocating its North America conference from Silicon Valley to Chicago in December 2026 — and what that signals about where the center of gravity is moving
Resources & Links
Guest & Organization
The Bloch Quantum Tech Hub ($55M EDA Award)
Workforce & Economic Development
Programs & Tools Mentioned
Key Quotes & Insights
  • On the 18-month head start: "When we hear an anecdote once or twice, we realize, if we're hearing it once or twice today, that means in two years the U.S. government's gonna hear about it." Kate's argument for why nimble ecosystem organizations have to move before the market signal is obvious.
  • On the supply chain problem: A significant portion of quantum components today are single-sourced and imported. That fragility, Kate argues, is quietly slowing every quantum company's ability to deliver products to customers — and it's the specific gap the Bloch award is designed to close.
  • On the manufacturing pivot: The Midwest already has top-10 manufacturing states, but those small and mid-sized shops "tend to be more mom and pop type shops, and they don't have R&D budgets" to speculatively re-tool for quantum. Federal implementation funding is the mechanism to bridge that gap.
  • On workforce reality: Employers "are so mission-focused on their tech development, they're not doing their own forecasts about what their jobs needs are gonna be in two and five years." Ecosystem organizations have to do that forecasting on behalf of the industry.
  • On what universities quietly subsidize: "The universities end up doing a lot of stuff for free… a lot of the preparing for the future that is not maybe of incredible priority at the moment, but that fundamental work, yes, on the research side, but also on the workforce development side, is incredibly important."
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Creators and Guests

Producer
Ayann Ettienne McGuire
Guest
Kate Timmerman
CEO of the Chicago Quantum Exchange

What is The New Quantum Era - innovation in quantum computing, science and technology?

Your host, Sebastian Hassinger, interviews brilliant research scientists, software developers, engineers and others actively exploring the possibilities of our new quantum era. We will cover topics in quantum computing, networking and sensing, focusing on hardware, algorithms and general theory. The show aims for accessibility - Sebastian is not a physicist - and we'll try to provide context for the terminology and glimpses at the fascinating history of this new field as it evolves in real time.

Sebastian Hassinger (00:01.263)
Kate, welcome. Thank you for joining me. It's great to have you here.

Kate (00:05.57)
Thanks so much, Sebastian. Looking forward to it.

Sebastian Hassinger (00:07.919)
Yeah. we we go way back, especially in the context of of quantum computing, a young field, but but I think I'm pretty sure we first met in 2018 when the Chicago Quantum Exchange was pretty brand new and I was working at IBM and I was getting IBM to join the CQE. so tell me about the the early days of of

The Chicago Quantum Exchange and your role with it.

Kate (00:39.478)
Yeah, yeah, definitely. So so the Chicago Quantum Exchange launched in twenty seventeen, back

For a lot of the organizations that are in our ecosystem were even around. And we were really launched to do something that nobody else was doing at the time, and honestly, still very few people are doing, to bring institutions together to work together to build a true kind of discovery to deployment ecosystem. So back in 2017, originally it was a collaboration between the University of Chicago, Argonne, and Fermi Lab.

Sebastian Hassinger (00:48.749)
Yes. Exactly.

Kate (01:16.966)
really, these institutions that were doing quantum information science and engineering research, but they weren't necessarily doing it together. And they there was no mechanism to do that collaborative research with industry to help research move from academic research and government research into industrial research and technology development. And so that was kind of the the spirit of the launch of the CQE back in 2017. I joined in 2018, probably.

you know two months before we met. And it, you know, the the CQE has then grown to include, you know, in addition to New Chicago Argon

Sebastian Hassinger (01:49.381)
Yep.

Kate (01:58.254)
We have UIUC, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Northwestern University, Purdue University, and then 50 plus corporate, international, and other partners. You know, we are an ecosystem that is global in nature, but of course, with these kind of concentric circles leading back to the US, back to the Midwest, and of course our home base here in Chicago.

Sebastian Hassinger (02:24.026)
Right, right. Yeah, I mean, I think my my first impression or you know, it was was this this collaborative framework for bringing academia and the national labs, the the public sector open science research together with industrial RD. But then when the National Quantum Initiative happened and the call went out for proposals for for DOE-funded centers and NSF funded centers.

under the NQI, I realized how much foresight you had had with informing the NK the CQE because it almost seemed like that Wayne Gretzky thing of like skating to where the puck is going to be. Was there some I mean what what how did you have did the organization have that level of foresight that that you know the centers, the proposals would be clustered around national labs and require sort of collaboration across industry and public sector.

Kate (03:06.432)
Y Yeah.

Kate (03:23.979)
Yeah, there definitely was the knowledge, you know, before the NQI Act, which was finally passed in December of twenty eighteen, before the NQI Act, it was the National Photonics Act. You know, there there were versions of the NQI Act for years leading up to it. And then when it became clear that the NQI Act had, you know, support from both sides of the aisle, this was becoming an issue that was, you know, seen and seen even in DC as a national priority. That's where we definitely

Sebastian Hassinger (03:44.782)
Right.

Kate (03:53.997)
We could see where where the puck was going to and we definitely were skating towards it. And I think that point about one is building up a consortium of multiple institutions because any one, particularly back then, any one research institution was not gonna have the breadth of research expertise or the depth in the it in the ways that you know it could possibly kind of really fit the the vision of the NQI Act. And so that's one of the reasons why we pulled people together.

Sebastian Hassinger (03:56.227)
Yeah.

Kate (04:23.78)
But also, yeah, having that essentially an 18-month head start in bringing people together to start thinking about let's think of at that point it was let's think about you know these big meaty topics that we know that the NSF is gonna have a certain number of centers, we know that the DOE is gonna have a certain number of centers, let's start bringing people together to really start to think about what we could move forward. And then of course the call came out and there was a little bit of you know fine-tuning and stuff like that.

Sebastian Hassinger (04:29.304)
Right.

Kate (04:53.7)
that but having first of all the community the humans getting together as well as advancing the ideas even before those calls came out really helped you get the get the get the ball rolling, get the ground running, that kind of thing.

Sebastian Hassinger (05:06.808)
Yeah, I mean it's it's that advantage that that head start certainly is reflected in the results in winning two of the DOE centers, SQMS and Q Next around the two Nash Labs and also HQAN at at UIUC. So one of the NSF centers of That's right. Exactly. Exactly.

Kate (05:23.114)
And and Cube at UChicago. So yeah, so so and and I want to say, you know, that that kind of 18-month head start is something that the CQE has been pushing for, you know, since since we've been around. Similarly, back in, you know, twenty twenty one, we launched Duality with UChicago and Argonne and UIUC and others, really again to

Sebastian Hassinger (05:42.969)
Right.

Kate (05:49.411)
We were the first quantum and quantum enabling startup accelerator here in the US. Like they had existed elsewhere, like CDL and the like. And if we had if we had done the standard approach, which is to sit and apply for a federal grant and wait for that grant, like first of all, we w w would have lost the eighteen month head start. We also would, you know, have

Sebastian Hassinger (05:57.359)
Yeah.

Kate (06:12.728)
We would have probably had a lot of those similar questions that, you know, one often has when launching a new initiative, which is, how do you have proof that the market's gonna be there? All that stuff. And the reality is the moment duality was launched, that first cohort of five companies, you know, immediately being became

Sebastian Hassinger (06:23.192)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Kate (06:33.364)
One, you know, helped them grow. It did a byproduct with some of them ended up moving to the Midwest because this is where the ecosystem even back then was already developing. and one of the things that we see is they continue to grow here and they collaborate with each other and they build, you know, research and technical collaborations with each other, helping them both grow simultaneously or helping them grow in pairs and together. So so again, that at 18-month head start has been incredibly important. It also requires

Sebastian Hassinger (06:49.806)
Sebastian Hassinger (06:58.841)
Right.

Kate (07:03.258)
A really nimble organization that many organizations just have don't have the ability to move at that speed.

Sebastian Hassinger (07:05.903)
Right.

Sebastian Hassinger (07:10.734)
Yeah. Yeah. That that sort of framework, collaborative framework to to some degree to assuage the the anxiety that might come from a very early stage technology where as you said you don't have market data, you don't have data signals that to necessarily follow. and also that that produces or or can support collaborative efforts between

related companies or companies in the in the overall space, those both feel like ingredients in in something like ecosystem building. And the, I mean the phrase quantum prairie came up pretty early in the in the Chicago Chicago quantum exchange history. Is that do you see the role sort of evolving over time from the the the research collaboration to more economic development and

Business attraction, is that that sort of now become more of a role as CQE?

Kate (08:10.646)
It it definitely is, but it's not that we have shifted, right? It's really the expansion of our work.

Sebastian Hassinger (08:17.434)
Mm.

Kate (08:17.522)
because it in in quantum information science and engineering, you still need that research, right? There's still a ton of fundamental discoveries that are needed. And also let's acknowledge that those researchers are the ones that are incubating the talent that are about to start the new companies, right? So so that piece, like you still need the research, you still need to support the research, and CQE does that, you know, in many different ways. But then you also need to focus on

Sebastian Hassinger (08:23.928)
Yes.

Sebastian Hassinger (08:35.545)
Right.

Kate (08:47.338)
innovation and commercialization commercialization and building those supports and then of course workforce development as well and and working with and supporting and enabling partners to gain quantum expertise so they can also lean into this work.

Sebastian Hassinger (08:54.552)
Mm-hmm.

Sebastian Hassinger (09:04.93)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That's really interesting. And and it you know, it continues to to engender success. I mean la last week you the consortium around that the CQE brought together won the the EDA funding, the the so this is the the block collective, right?

Kate (09:28.032)
Yeah, so it's the the Block Quantum EDA Tech Hub. we've had this designation for a few years and then last week we received implementation funding from or

announced implementation funding from the EDA, really focused on honestly much higher TRL you know, technologies than what we were just talking about, but really focused on enabling the manufacturing of quantum technologies. and so that means a few different things for us. That means helping the 30 or so quantum and enabling companies that are here in the region. across Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, they're about 30

Sebastian Hassinger (09:50.991)
Mm-hmm.

Kate (10:10.642)
You know, mostly early stage quantum and enabling companies, and as they move from this bespoke RD.

To true scaled manufacturing, this EDA funding will help them do it here in the United States. And then similarly, as we I think I don't as we all know, the there is no true integrated connected quantum technology supply chain here in the US. I mean, we we often hear from our companies that the length of time it takes to get components or subsystems as they're building their new products actually slowly.

Sebastian Hassinger (10:23.62)
Mm.

Sebastian Hassinger (10:36.046)
Mm-hmm.

Sebastian Hassinger (10:45.988)
Right.

Kate (10:48.58)
Down the tech development, it definitely slows down their ability to deliver products to their customers. And one of the reasons, you know, there are a few different reasons why they're they are slow, but it includes the fact that a significant number of their sub, you know, part of their supply chain comes from outside the US. A significant is number is or percentages single sourced, which is incredibly risky. And so part of what we are aiming to do is actually build up a resilient, full spectrum supply chain, and part of that.

Sebastian Hassinger (11:10.574)
Yeah. Yeah.

Kate (11:18.32)
That is engaging the existing manufacturers here in the region. So, you know, the Midwest, all three of our states are top 10 manufacturing states, but it's also manufacturing that not has not historically been connected to emerging tech, much less something that's very emerging, like quantum.

Sebastian Hassinger (11:27.886)
Mm-hmm.

Sebastian Hassinger (11:34.799)
Right.

Right.

Kate (11:38.947)
But in the past few years, one of the things that we've realized is there are plenty of materials developers, component suppliers, subsystems developers who either are working in the quantum supply chain at a very, very limited level but could deepen that engagement, or honestly, folks that are working in aligned industries and maybe they need some uptooling or some upscaling, but could also join and become part of, yes, a regional quantum supply chain. But honestly

Sebastian Hassinger (12:05.732)
Right.

Kate (12:09.02)
one that also deeply benefits the US as a whole.

Sebastian Hassinger (12:12.388)
Yeah, yeah. That's a I think a fascinating topic and it's something that's that's easily overlooked because the headlines are often grabbed by the the integrated, you know, quantum computing hardware vendors who are pulling all those supply chain vendors together to produce a full a full s product. But but I remember PsyQuantum Pete Chadwald in a a fireside chat around around the time of Q to B a few years ago

long before they decided to to actually set up shop in Chicago was talking about finding a a Chicago manufacturing supplier to build their custom test tracks. so I mean that would be an example of what you said, you know, much higher TRL, right? I mean this is this is machining. It's just might be more precise or to specifications that are are unique to quantum. and I suppose other examples would be

Kate (12:59.501)
Yeah.

Sebastian Hassinger (13:11.0)
Like the foot the lasers or the cooling systems or the connectors. That that's sort of what you're thinking of when you target supply chain.

Kate (13:19.008)
Yeah, I think some of I mean everything from nano positioners, optics, photonics, vacuum systems, and you know, I think all of these really run the gamut, and some of them really align with kind of criticalities that the US government has identified and that, you know, think tanks and DC have put out recently as well. but yeah, exactly. You you know, and those those companies often are producing from multiple sectors,

Sebastian Hassinger (13:46.562)
Right.

Kate (13:47.211)
And maybe oftentimes understanding what quantum technologies are and really how they as manufacturers could fit into it is a is a bit of a challenge, right? It's a new sector, it has you know lots of jargon that we love.

but but that that jargon honestly per you know is a pretty high barrier to entry. And so the this this funding from the federal government is really that stamp of approval that to move forward and and start to engage those those manufacturers really across our region.

Sebastian Hassinger (14:06.361)
Yeah.

Sebastian Hassinger (14:17.688)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that framing that you just provided is the the res the response to what sometimes, you know, is a skeptical sort of reaction to the the BCG study, for example, the the economic development study that says something like what was it? It's like eighty billion dollars in economic impact with like seventy percent of jobs created.

not requiring master's degree or higher. And but which if you're looking at just a quantum computer company, a vendor producing quantum computers, seems hard to understand. But if you look at the bigger picture, it's right. It's that entire and and the thing I think is really interesting is you you sort of alluded to is that that they're servicing other industries as well. There's there's quant there's technologies, there's advanced manufacturing that may be driven by the needs of quantum computing or quantum networking.

that might actually f feed into other industries as well. Is that is that sort of how you think about it too?

Kate (15:21.292)
Yeah, completely. So oftentimes these are these are engineering firms. They honestly also will service the the re the broader research community and or aerospace, defense, other ones. So so yeah,

Sebastian Hassinger (15:31.002)
Mm.

Kate (15:36.567)
Oftentimes it there's a small pivot to be made, but sometimes there's there's a large pivot to be made. And and I think for the small pivots, a a portion of this is just making sure we're connecting those suppliers with the with the purchasers, which oftentimes right now are are IBM, right? They are PsyQuantum. They're the the larger quantum computing companies. But but some of those manufacturers

Sebastian Hassinger (15:53.73)
Right. Right.

Kate (16:00.469)
A lot of the manufacturers really across the US are not large manufacturers. The bulk of them are small and mid-sized manufacturers that don't have their RD shops. They tend to be more mom and pop type shops, and they don't have a ton of money to go into what is a bit of a risky endeavor, right? up tooling or upskilling for a sector like quantum that has pretty small market share right now. But as you and I know, because we live in this world, it's increasing significantly.

Sebastian Hassinger (16:17.658)
Sure.

Sebastian Hassinger (16:25.07)
Yeah.

Kate (16:30.408)
I mean, it's increased significantly over the past decade. It's forecasted to increase, you know, even more over the next 10 years. And if we can help those small and mid-sized manufacturers become part of the supply chain today, that enables as the sector grows, well, one, it will enable them as an organization to grow, but it also builds up that robust, kind of resilient supply chain so we are able to speed the tech development. You can get

Sebastian Hassinger (16:58.721)
Mm. Right.

Kate (17:00.356)
You're

you can get your components faster so you can develop your tech faster. You can get you you're not so restricted to only working with you know single sourced and and you know foreign and other suppliers. So it really is about building a resiliency for an incredibly important you know technology set of technologies rather than doing what we ha you know what ha has often happened which is you know you wait until the sector is

has ballooned and then all of a sudden it's actually a really you know urgent need to suddenly bring on board a whole bunch of suppliers and stuff like that. It's a little bit similar to the workforce piece as well, right? yeah.

Sebastian Hassinger (17:37.774)
Right. Right. Right.

Sebastian Hassinger (17:44.217)
That's what I was gonna ask next. Yeah. There was the the NSF report advancing together that that you guys put together just in the spring. so it's it feels similar just as you were saying, in that there's kind of a a bootstrapping effort required from public sector and public-private collaboration to get to the point where it's sort of there is the market signal.

Kate (17:55.437)
Yeah.

Sebastian Hassinger (18:12.196)
to just justify the investment and the effort as a standalone. but it you know, it there's there's sort of a a leap of faith initially that I think is sort of central to the role that the CQE is is playing, right?

Kate (18:27.308)
Yeah, definitely. And and and again, I think this this goes to the heart of you know, we live in this world of quantum science and technology, which we you know

10 years ago was barely even a sector. It is now a sector, but a small one now. And we as the ecosystem player, yes, for the region, but also as a broader ecosystem, acknowledge and we see, we see these, we're so close to the ground that we see these early indicators. And when we hear an anecdote once or twice, we realize, if we're hearing it once or twice today, that means in two years the US government's gonna hear about it.

Sebastian Hassinger (19:08.036)
Yeah.

Kate (19:08.322)
People who are are farther away from the action are gonna start to hear about it. And one of the things that we try to do is as we identify those early indicators, start to make steps to solve those gaps, right? And so the advancing together you know report that you mentioned, we got some funding from the NSF, we were able to do a large-scale kind of workforce analysis and develop a strategy with partners across Illinois.

across Indiana, across Wisconsin, got to we got them together. We had about six different workshops over the course of a six month period to one better understand what are the assets that we have in terms of you know community colleges, two year, small arts, four year colleges, large university, what are those assets? But also, you know, how do we start to build those frameworks and those pipelines today, even though you know the the workforce is

really is starting to scale, but will significantly scale over the next decade. And so as part of this, we really worked with those those partners, as well as you know, K through 12 institutions and industry and others to develop that framework. And the framework is really kind of geared in about five different things. So one, raising awareness, even at an an early stage. also this is a place where if we are

Sebastian Hassinger (20:19.353)
Right.

Kate (20:33.922)
Doing helping support teacher preparation at the K through 12 stages, they can then go and start to implement those in their classrooms and have scaling effects. So one is awareness, two is preparation, providing those hands-on experiences for courses and and the like. Another one is mobility, helping people move from different stages of their training and career. employer leadership, so working with employers, and and again, as we know, as we're talking to

Employers oftentimes, particularly the companies are so mission-focused on their tech development, they're not doing their own forecasts about what their jobs needs are gonna be in two and five years, right? That's really far off for them, and very dependent on things like fundraising and customer and stuff like that. but but what we can do is work working with a set of employers, we can bring them together and see, look, all of you guys have been trying to hire this skill set, but you're not seeing that in your applicant pool.

Sebastian Hassinger (21:12.919)
Right.

Sebastian Hassinger (21:21.419)
Ha ha ha.

Kate (21:33.759)
What can we do? Like let's develop the training program to help meet your needs. And then that final piece is coordination. You know, CQE aims to be a leading role in helping to coordinate across the region, but particularly bringing those, you know, those institutions together who are good at certain stages in workforce together, workforce development, and building up like shared regional structures. And we've got lots of ideas for that, that kind of stuff.

Sebastian Hassinger (22:03.522)
I I love it's you know, I love that not only are you participating, collaborating and pulling people together around the sort of the tactical response, the reskilling and the upscaling and that sort of thing around the existing workforce, but that you've had from the very beginning the perspective that it it's gotta start as early as possible. I mean, STEM education generally and quantum concepts, quantum information concepts.

in the q twelve or the k twelve context, you it's another area we kind of have a secret weapon in Chicago because you have had the Q twelve and Q Q two work project under Emily Edwards and Diane Franklin and Chandra Lika Singh from I think around the same time as as the CQE itself founded. So again like a a remarkable amount of of foresight I think

Kate (22:58.295)
Yeah.

Sebastian Hassinger (22:59.763)
and and there's another sorry, go ahead.

Kate (23:00.748)
I mean, yeah. I I was just gonna say when you think about it, we would you know these these initiatives are often started at universities, right? And I know universities are a bit under the gun right now.

Sebastian Hassinger (23:09.849)
Yeah.

Kate (23:13.442)
But think about it, this happens over and over when it comes to emerging tech and and these technologies that very quickly become national priorities. The universities end up doing a lot of stuff for free, you know, a lot of a lot of the kind of preparing for the future that is not maybe you know of of incredible priority, you know, at the moment, but but that fundamental work, yes, on the research side, but also on the workforce development side is incredible.

Sebastian Hassinger (23:26.883)
Yeah.

Kate (23:43.376)
incredibly important and and you're right, the the Qtorg initiative and the Q twelve initiative have been in were a perfect example of that back in the day. Yeah.

Sebastian Hassinger (23:50.617)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, which which where I want to go next is is another CQE initiative and resource that you produce, which is the quantum law navigator. which it's I think was just it's just over a year, year and a half old now. it's essentially a legal and regulatory intelligence tool for quantum. the the the existence of the quantum law navigator s seems to suggest that.

Kate (24:02.403)
Mm-hmm.

Sebastian Hassinger (24:21.048)
the the challenges or the requirements of startups in this space are somewhat unique. D is that is it being received like who's using that that resource at this stage?

Kate (24:33.922)
Yeah, I think I think that your your example there of startups is a is a perfect example. We really built again, because we are so close to the ground, we're talking to these players as they are joining the quantum effort.

we hear repeatedly from different organizations about about their challenges and particularly when you're talking about large organizations like large companies or large universities, they often have full teams in-house that are you know are

Able to you know surmount some of these legal and policy challenges. But when you get down to you know the smaller educational institutions and the smaller startups that maybe oftentimes did not exist two years ago, they have a few people on staff, usually in quantum, they are first-time founders. You know, these these are people and organizations who do not have that breadth of expertise. And oftentimes they only find out the details about, for example, expert.

Control when they're doing it for the first time. And one of the things that we were seeing is that that onboarding with every single one of those different legal and policy challenges was taking time from their, from the, it was taking time, it was also slowing their growth. And so by putting together the quantum law navigator, you know, there are a few sections of it, but one of the one of the sections really is a toolbox for.

Sebastian Hassinger (25:37.828)
Right. Yeah.

Kate (26:03.124)
smaller organizations, including startups, so they can better understand what are the things I should be thinking about today, even just so the first time they they, you know, hear about hear hear the phrase syphilis, they they are, you know, they know what it is, right? and so it was really a a guidepost or a toolbox, you know, for for those organizations. and it's not of, you know, it is it it is most useful I think when when thinking about US companies right

Sebastian Hassinger (26:09.37)
Mm.

Sebastian Hassinger (26:19.556)
Yeah.

Kate (26:33.088)
now. But it's it it has components that are useful for you know globally. It's definitely not you know limited to only Midwest organizations, stuff like that.

Sebastian Hassinger (26:42.084)
Yeah. Yeah. I know Bob Carr, who's one of the the sort of lead leading forces behind the the Law Navigator, definitely is is trying to get more of an international kind of participation and instead of perspectives, which I think is really, really good. Because, you know, on the one hand, you know, back to sort of the supply chain resilience, you know, it's I think it's really critical th that you're f you're looking at

you know, eliminating or or easing the the reliance on single source or for only foreign sources for for supply chain vendors and components. But also I think Chicago is is playing a role in in strengthening the collaboration among the nations that we have those kinds of friendly relationships with, right? Like UK and Japan. I mean I know there's been multiple missions to to other

Kate (27:36.535)
Yeah.

Sebastian Hassinger (27:41.132)
countries that are also building their own quantum ecosystem. D is that do you see that as being sort of central to CQE's mission as well?

Kate (27:49.549)
Yeah, definitely building up those those collaborations and again across that that full vision, right? Those international collaborations are incredibly important early on in the research development. They continue to be important as companies are growing. And I think that that goes kind of both ways. We've got local startups that we connect with our UK consulate so they can better understand how to develop a presence in the UK and build up research collaborations, but also.

RD efforts in in the UK and vice versa, as UK companies are looking to come to the US and expand their market, having them understand all of the resources that are available, yes, nationally and as part of the CQE ecosystem and also as part of the region are incredibly important. I also think that the Quateman Navigator has been incredibly important because it has really a few years.

Ago when we started to launch this initiative, it it raised some of these issues about security, you know, personnel security, physical security, technology security that are deeply part of that. And one of the things that we do is work deeply with our you know security partners here in the region as well as nationally to ensure that those startups that are coming out and the technologies that are coming out of our ecosystem have

That security. We we do things like even starting a few years ago, we did a partnership with FBI Chicago, a symposium on securing your quantum assets. And we have you know these community meetings where we continue to inform people, the broader community. This year at our Chicago Quantum Summit, which is December 8th through 10th, we are actually we're doing it in collaboration with Q2B. So Q2B, up until now, their North America conference has always been.

been in Silicon Valley and this year they're actually moving to Chicago.

Kate (29:52.589)
So we're doing a joint Q2B Meets Chicago Quantum Summit. And as part of that, we're going to have a presence and a special session really on securing our quantum technologies, but also personnel. And this aligns really well with some of the recent executive orders that came out and the, you know, there's this large-scale QAS CPT. It's a you know, this quantum protection team essentially that's being launched.

Sebastian Hassinger (30:21.05)
Mm.

Kate (30:22.562)
And making sure that that we are helping those quantum startups as well as you know smaller smaller organizations better understand the resources that are available from the federal government today, but also as part of the block award from EDA, we're able to provide additional resources, particularly to our early stage companies.

Sebastian Hassinger (30:43.224)
Yeah, yeah. So so okay, i in that context, and I have to say Q to B relocating from from the from Silicon Valley to the Silicon Prairie is kind of a signal that your mission is working. Sorry, yes, sorry, quite yes. it's certainly a positive sign for for the the ecosystem efforts. in the context of this most recent award,

Kate (30:57.172)
The quanta prairie, the quanta prairie

Sebastian Hassinger (31:12.722)
And in, you know, sort of the broader context of of the the supply chain resilience that you've been talking about, what is sort of your hope for the the what's the best sort of possible outcome you can imagine? What's the sort of you know, underappreciated choke point that that this EDA tech hub funding might be able to flesh out and and sort of mitigate the risk of or or start to build economic development around in in the region?

Kate (31:42.307)
Yeah, I think

I think the two again, those two points that I mentioned at the beginning, I think one is helping our RD-focused quantum companies move to actual manufacturing as quickly as possible. So essentially reducing that, the RD time and helping them, you know, even right now, quantum technologies kind of across the board, you know, sensing and metrology, communications, networking, and computing, there's a lot of, you know, hand-built bespoke products.

Sebastian Hassinger (31:56.121)
Right.

Kate (32:14.377)
Right.

Sebastian Hassinger (32:14.723)
Yes.

Kate (32:16.312)
Ten years from now, that should not be the case. Ten years from now, yes, lots of people will still be touching these as you know, these devices as they are manufactured, but it should know it should not take as long as it takes to make each of these products. And so that is our that is one piece, which is helping those companies do that faster. And then another piece is one of the ways you're able to do that faster is by leveraging the existing expertise of manufacturers. And we have that in abundance here in the Midwest.

Sebastian Hassinger (32:18.447)
Right.

Sebastian Hassinger (32:28.058)
Right. Right.

Kate (32:46.256)
So helping those manufacturers, one, you know, provide that expertise, but then while they're doing it, helping them understand where they can become part of the quantum supply chain, and also honestly providing those you know those financial resources to uptool.

Sebastian Hassinger (32:54.831)
Right.

Kate (33:02.356)
also to bring together, you know, our RFPs with suppliers so they understand, this is what I'm actually needed to, this is what's actually needed on my hand in order to in order to become part of the quantum technology supply chain. And yeah, I do think like if we're able to do this in force across the region, we do have that larger scale potential that you talked about, those those economic impact numbers, which sometimes seem very large, but when you think about the

Sebastian Hassinger (33:10.425)
Right.

Sebastian Hassinger (33:28.889)
Right.

Kate (33:32.193)
full breadth of the quantum technology supply chain and honestly those downstreams and the reputational effect, that is where you see the potential for the economic impact for this region to be about $80 billion over the next decade and drive, you know, tens, if not hundreds of thousands of jobs. Particularly, you know, yes, that include the growth of PhD and master's you know, jobs with people with PhDs and master's degrees.

but also people with you know high school diplomas, tick technician degrees, undergraduate degrees and the like.

Sebastian Hassinger (34:11.106)
Amazing. Well, I have to say I I'm I've been impressed right from the very beginning. I think that that what the Chicago Exchange, quantum exchange represents is is both deep insight into the particular strengths of the region in terms of the academic and scientific foundations and the historical roots in manufacturing and seeing the how those two things are going to converge as this industry matures, I think took a lot of foresight and a lot of

Hard work, continuing hard work, but I think the job that you're doing is is really quite quite remarkable. I mean, as far as I can tell in my travels and conversations, like there's no debate that Chicago and Illinois are the head and shoulders above the rest in terms of the development of the ecosystem, the robustness and the breadth of the vision is really quite impressive. So keep up the good work.

Kate (35:05.272)
They yeah, no, thank thank you very much. I mean, I d I do wanna say one, it's still early days in the quantum sector. and I think it's still early days in the quantum sector. I think also one of the things that this EDA implementation funding is really enabling us to provide.

Sebastian Hassinger (35:11.362)
Yeah.

Kate (35:22.464)
Is actually ensuring that yes, we're growing our region, but the quantum ecosystem is not a regional thing. That's it's it's you know, it then this funding is really enabling us to integrate on a national level, but also we all acknowledge that we are a global ecosystem, that research starts from global collaboration, our workforce is global, our companies are global, right? and so that all all we you know we really see is that that this

Sebastian Hassinger (35:43.151)
Right.

Sebastian Hassinger (35:46.713)
Yeah.

Kate (35:52.368)
Acknowledgement and the funding from EDA is honestly just gonna enable us to put the foot put our foot foot on the gas even more than what we're we've already been doing and really accelerate that progress.

Sebastian Hassinger (36:04.13)
Excellent. Well, thank you very much for your time, Kate. This has been really interesting and I'm sure there will be much more to come. So we'll have to have you back at some point to talk about how things are going.

Kate (36:15.235)
Thank you, Sebastian. It's always great to to catch up.