NEW HAVEN, CT — QuantumCT, the nonprofit set up to build a quantum technology industry around Yale and the University of Connecticut, opened its 4,500-square-foot hub on the first floor of 101 College St. with a ribbon-cutting Tuesday evening, Oct. 6. About 100 community leaders and people from the tech field came, CT Mirror reported.
The hub is meant as a meeting ground for Yale and UConn quantum researchers, students hoping to work in the field and businesses looking to start companies. It sits in the second of three lab-office towers developer Carter Winstanley is building downtown on land the Route 34 Connector once took up. New companies would go into the third tower, recently approved for 2 Church St., according to CT Mirror.
"We want to make Connecticut the quantum center of the nation," QuantumCT interim CEO Vivek Ramakrishnan told the crowd.
Who is paying for it
The state has committed $50.5 million to a New Haven corridor for life sciences and quantum work, QuantumCT among it, as part of a wider $121 million quantum investment, CT Mirror reported. QuantumCT also won a $15 million National Science Foundation grant for its first two years, and it could receive up to $160 million from the foundation over a decade if it shows enough progress, the nonprofit said.
The hub itself was paid for with $1.35 million from the state Department of Economic and Community Development, matched by the City of New Haven and Carter Winstanley Enterprises, according to QuantumCT. The group plans to move later into a 30,000-square-foot space in New Haven with labs where young quantum companies can grow.
Yale's computers, UConn's sensors
UConn President Radenka Maric said Yale's researchers lead on the information-processing side of quantum computing, while UConn's 65 quantum researchers, soon to be 70, focus on quantum sensors. Pairing the two campuses is at the center of the state's plan, she said, according to CT Mirror.
Private money is coming in too. Florida-based D-Wave paid $550 million this year for Quantum Circuits, a startup born at Yale with 65 people, now based at 25 Science Park. Luke Harvey, D-Wave's senior director of advanced computing business, said the company wants to invest in New Haven and double Quantum Circuits' local workforce, CT Mirror reported.