A startup headquartered in College Park with ties to University of Maryland, College Park, is working to build the world's most powerful computer, and bring it to market.
IonQ Inc. has developed two high-performance quantum computers and is scouting strategic partners to beta test them. The company is backed by $22 million in funding from investors including New Enterprise Associates, Amazon Web Services and GV, the venture arm of Google parent Alphabet Inc. It was founded by Christopher Monroe, a physics professor at University of Maryland, and Jungsang Kim, a computer and electrical engineering and physics professor at Duke University.
For those of us with little to no understanding of quantum computing, here's the gist:
Quantum computers rely on the physics of atomic particles — quantum mechanics — to perform calculations. The technical details are a little overwhelming to anyone who is not well versed in advanced physics or engineering, but quantum computers are essentially intended to solve problems that are beyond the capability of conventional computing devices. Scientists at companies like Google and IBM have been working for years to create these computers that could have major applications in fields like medicine, chemistry and logistics. It's also worth noting these computers look nothing like your laptop or smartphone.
Stewart Allen, chief product officer, said IonQ has spent over a year building out its first two working computing systems. Early evaluations have shown IonQ's technology exceeds the capacity and accuracy of all other quantum computers currently in the market, Allen said, meaning it has the potential to handle longer calculations. Meanwhile, the topic of quantum computing is gaining more traction and support on a national level. Forbes reported last week that Congress has approved a bill to accelerate the development of the tech in the U.S.
IonQ is now in the process of seeking and selecting a small number of private industry and governmental partners to help test the tech's potential. Allen said the company will continue to work on building out the computers' quality and capacity throughout the beta stage. He said he is not sure how long the company will remain in the testing phase.
"This is something that could enable great new discoveries in science and medicine and finance. It gives us the ability to do things computationally that are otherwise nearly impossible," Allen said. "This could have implications for potentially revolutionary things, like self-driving cars or solving energy problems."
The company has grown from having two full-time employees in January last year, to 32 employees today. It is headquartered in an 11,000-square-foot facility near the University of Maryland campus, at 4505 Campus Drive in College Park.
Allen said the company will continue to add to its staff in 2019, and will be looking to hire more physicists, hardware engineers and software specialists.