Illustration by Edmon deHaro

Even before we’ve seen the full potential of quantum computing in any material sense, the global market is estimated to reach $5.5 billion in the next five years. To begin to understand why, consider how it could transform the notoriously expensive and time-intensive process of drug development: With quantum’s ability to analyze multiple molecules, proteins, and chemicals at the same time, researchers could significantly speed the time to market with ultrafast and high-volume testing—and discover new compounds with computing instead of test tubes.

There’s little doubt that it could radically transform sectors ranging from energy to finance and cybersecurity to transportation, but the potential is still mostly theoretical as scientists can’t quite grok all the implications yet. And a number of hurdles remain in the way. The machines that exist today are a little like the digital computers of the midcentury: enormous, primitive, and unreliable, says Jim Ricotta (MBA 1985), CEO of Aliro Quantum Technologies. We’re also constrained by the limited number of qubits (or quantum bits) that these machines run on. And because they have been constructed with different architectures, they lack a shared technical language, which makes it near impossible for anyone without a PhD in physics to access their potential. Aliro was launched to help dismantle some of these challenges, serving as a bridge between the worlds of software development and physics—between today and the forever after of computing.

The company was cofounded in 2019 by Prineha Narang, a leading computational physicist and professor at SEAS (John Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences) who serves as CTO, along with two Harvard undergraduates who were rising seniors at the time. They spun Aliro out of Harvard’s Quantum Information Science Lab, then incubated it at the Harvard i-lab. Ricotta came on board in 2019. A seasoned tech CEO, he had already launched a number of startups into emerging networking fields that resulted in billion-dollar exits to Cisco and IBM. Even with that tech background and a degree in electrical engineering, Ricotta had to get up to quantum speed when he joined Aliro.

Quantum computing is a different paradigm, Ricotta explains. Whereas classical computers use bits and bytes to represent values of either zero or one, like a light switch that is either on or off, a qubit can exist in two states at the same time. That principle, called superposition, and another called entanglement, make up quantum’s superpowers: They allow for an exponential increase in the number of values that can be considered at one time. That translates into much faster and more powerful processing. (To read more on superposition and entanglement, go here.)

The promise is not just about lightning-fast computing speeds, although it definitely means that. A quantum computer could complete in minutes a calculation that the most powerful supercomputer would need thousands of years to compute. More important, the quantum revolution would give us the ability to solve a whole class of problems that digital computers could never touch.

In the quest to help us get there, Aliro offers two tools, both in beta for now. The first, AQ.C, is designed to give developers greater access to existing quantum computers. To oversimplify, think of it as a translation tool that allows software to run on a variety of quantum computers, optimized for each. “These machines are going to have a very limited set of users if they require a PhD in physics to use them,” Ricotta says. “We want to make it easier for software engineers to use these machines and to get good results from them, even when they’re still in this early stage.” The goal is to help R&D departments get a taste of quantum value while reducing the barriers to entry. “Eventually, as the quantum computers scale up, institutions might be able to solve problems completely on a quantum computer and solve much larger and more difficult problems than we can solve today,” he explains.

Aliro’s second product, AQ.N, is aimed at cracking one of the biggest challenges of the sector: the ability to scale processing with the use of quantum networking—or the vast potential that you would get by networking quantum computers together to create a quantum internet. “Because of some of the principles of physics involved, the quantum internet could be much, much more secure than what we have with the digital internet today,” Ricotta observes.

Given the promise of secure satellite-to-ground communications, the US government is among those that are eager to see this realized. Aliro has received grants from the US Air Force Research Laboratory and is working with them to develop use cases. The company has also partnered with IBM Q Network, Rigetti, and Honeywell Quantum Solutions. They are among a growing crowd of enterprises—including Alibaba, Amazon, Baidu, Intel, Google, and Microsoft—diving in headlong.

Although he was initially circumspect about the sky-high promises of quantum computing, Ricotta is excited to see this next wave of computing arrive. He has been at the forefront of a number of tech innovations over the course of his career, all of which made grand claims: Back in 1998, he was leading a startup team that promised to have TV-quality video on your PC. “We were a long way from that back then,” he admits. Before that, he was part of a team at Avid Technology that won an Emmy Award for digital video editing—something we take for granted on our phones today, he says, but it was unthinkable at the time. “Granted, startups always have to have an outrageous claim so you can get attention,” Ricotta says. “But I think we’re going to be able to do things with the quantum internet and quantum computing that are hard to imagine right now. I think they’re going to be civilization-changing. Let’s put it that way.”

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