Five years ago, the quantum community gathered to create a vision for developing a quantum internet in the United States. Recently, this group reconvened to celebrate progress and discuss future possibilities for quantum technology.
The Quantum Networks Town Hall and Domestic Cooperation Workshop was held on February 27 and 28 at the SUNY Global Center in Manhattan. This event is part of Stony Brook University's collaboration with Columbia University, Yale University, and Brookhaven National Laboratory. It brought together 93 participants from 45 organizations worldwide, including leading researchers and collaborators from industry, academia, and government.
"The purpose of this event was to explore how to coordinate a federated quantum network infrastructure and enable members to use the SCY-QNet (Stony Brook–Columbia–Yale Quantum Network) laboratory," said Eden Figueroa, Stony Brook Presidential Innovation Endowed Professor and director of the Center for Distributed Quantum Processing. "This Town Hall meeting brought together our community to foster open scientific dialogue and collect baseline data to aid in the development of a diverse workforce development plan. To do that, we need the participation of the entire quantum information science and engineering community."
The first day included presentations from experts in quantum technology, with virtual speakers from China, Singapore, Germany, and Sweden. After morning presentations, Figueroa led a Quantum Virtual Laboratory session followed by a poster session featuring student work from Stony Brook, Columbia, and Yale.
On the second day, led by government partners at NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), presentations focused on various aspects of quantum networks concluded with a panel discussion titled "Facilitating Industry Collaboration."
The event aimed to gather input for the upcoming National Quantum Virtual Laboratory (NQVL) design proposal due in April 2025. "This event showcased the crucial partnerships that will drive the future quantum internet," said Nina Maung, senior associate vice president for research. "Stony Brook is primed to be a national leader in this revolutionary field."
Figueroa noted that quantum networks represent significant advancements in communication technology by offering unprecedented security and efficiency levels. "I think we all can agree that one of the most important technical realizations that humanity has ever been able to do is creating the internet," he stated. He explained that current internet transmissions face bottlenecks similar to traffic jams but using photons instead of pulses could alleviate these issues.
"Quantum technology will help us take it to the next level while using the backbone of the internet that we already have," Figueroa added. The envisioned advanced quantum network aims to connect processing units across participating institutions via entanglement transmitted through repeaters.
Announced in 2024 under Stony Brook's leadership, this project seeks to enhance scaling capabilities for computing systems through networks forming an initial version of a quantum internet.
Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), this initiative represents an essential step forward for Quantum Information Science and Technology (QIST) advancement in America. The team's proposal targets designing a 10-node network linking state-of-the-art laboratories at Stony Brook University; Brookhaven National Laboratory; Columbia University; Yale University—creating SCY-QNet.