The first Florida Quantum Summit, held April 17th at the University of Florida (UF), brought together academic researchers and leaders, state government representatives, and industry specialists to explore cutting-edge research in the area of quantum technology and to discuss the future of quantum in Florida. The summit, led by Rhines Endowed Professor in Quantum Engineering Philip Feng and Sachio Semmoto Chair of ECE Mark Tehranipoor, built upon the growing momentum at UF in the areas of quantum engineering and science.

Representing Florida Governor DeSantis, Assistant Secretary of Commerce Jason Mahon highlighted the importance of supporting the entire quantum technology ecosystem in order to facilitate growth and security for the future. Mahon noted that Florida’s deliberate investments in the past decade in infrastructure, power delivery, water quality, and network capacity all position Florida to be a national leader in quantum technology. He reminded the audience that as Florida leads the nation in so many areas of job creation and workforce development, the state should build a quantum-ready workforce to attract companies.

Highlighting the importance of quantum computing to the future and security of UF’s computing infrastructure, opening remarks were delivered by UF Chief Information Officer Elias Eldayrie, who noted “It’s not too early, and it’s not too late to talk about the next evolution, the maturation, and the continuation of quantum computing.” He went on to thank the State of Florida for the support it provides to computing infrastructure and research at the university. With UF’s deep investment in AI, both in terms of infrastructure and curriculum, Eldayrie brought forward the idea of “AI Plus,” with quantum computing being the plus. 

UF is in the perfect place to begin to have serious discussions about how do we deploy, how do we nurture, how do we talk about quantum, both in an academic ecosystem as well as research ecosystem. We think quantum will be a complementary technology, not a competing technology, to AI. Because we’ve already put a lot of energy and investment into AI, we think that it will fast-forward or magnify our efforts around quantum.

– Elias Eldayrie, Chief Information Officer, UF