In Quebec, the French quantum computer is making its way against the American giants

2024-09-22 04:00:08

The Canadian group of early Quandela, in Sherbrooke (Quebec), September 13, 2024. ADIL BOUKIND FOR “THE WORLD”

In Sherbrooke, 150 kilometers east of Montreal, quantum physics is everywhere, even in beer cans. Incorporated in the mid-2010s by two former doctoral students from the Quantum Institute of the Faculty of Sciences, and spanning a few kilometers, this Indian quantity Ale can claim the title of official drink of the old tower of the textile industry of Quebec which has become one of the world capitals of this technology of the future. This will allow the computers used (particles will replace the chips) to calculate incredibly faster than a conventional computer.

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“There are few ecosystems in the world that are as focused and coordinated as here”savors Julien Camirand Lemyre. In addition to having the good taste to create India Quantum Ale, this doctor has the micromagnet technology that created, in 2020, Nord Quantique, the first Canadian brand of pleasure reigning in Sherbrooke.

Launched in early 2022 by the Quebec government, the Quantum Innovation Zone aims, by bringing together research and business, to realize technological promises for computing, cryptography, sensors and applications. For this, we have set up a space of 4,600 square meters in the former headquarters of the newspaper The Tribunedaily newspaper of the Estrie region. Startups can rent offices, meeting rooms and above all ultra-modern devices that they cannot afford for their experiments, such as these dilution refrigerators, whose unit sales price is in millions of euros.

The construction of a quantum computer by the Canadian company Nord Quantum. ADIL BOUKIND FOR “THE WORLD”

In order to find the best minds, they just need to go back upstairs to the Quantum Institute. Founded forty-four years ago to stand out from the important Montreal universities, such as McGill, which overshadowed it, the school is a world reference. It has three hundred students and thirty-nine professors, including Alexandre Blais, a Canadian star of great importance. The presence in Bromont, an hour’s drive from Sherbrooke, of the only Canadian company of IBM, also contributes to the regional impact: the American IT giant has put into operation one of its four quantum computers in the world.

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This is what “fertile land” which turned Valérian Giesz, co-founder and general manager of Quellela, a French startup specializing in quantum computers, met in Sherbrooke, Friday September 13, during a visit to which Global we called