How Africa’s quantum tech could rewrite the future
- Deryn Graham
This year is the International Year of Quantum, and Wits researchers are making extraordinary contributions to the field.
World renowned physicist and 1965 joint Nobel prize winner Richard Feynman is often quoted as having said: “I think I can safely say that no one understands quantum mechanics”. Wits Professor Andrew Forbes, however, seems to have more than a reasonable grasp of the subject and his team members have cracked a code to stabilise this fragile technology, positioning Africa as an unexpected leader in the quantum race.
Forbes is a Distinguished Professor in the School of Physics where he established a new laboratory for structured light in 2015. Ten years later, his team has solved the problem that has been holding back quantum computing. That problem is noise.
Naturally, because this is quantum science, noise doesn’t necessarily mean audible noise – it could be light, a dirty window, the weather, or any environmental or atmospheric factor that can disrupt or destabilise the state of entanglement between two particles.
Entanglement is the virtual link by which information can be exchanged across vast distances. As a cornerstone of modern quantum technologies, entanglement is a concept that even Albert Einstein found “spooky”. The basic principle is that two particles – however far apart they are – share the same physical states. If you alter the state of the one particle, you automatically alter the state of its “entangled” particle. In this way, you can send information instantly and freely over long distances.
In order for quantum information to flow, the stability of the entanglement needs to be preserved. However, preserving quantum information is a challenge in a noisy world and once disrupted, the entanglement begins to decay and the quantum connection is lost.
Forbes and his team are the first in the world to have engineered a quantum system that is able to ignore noise. By engineering quantum states with specific topological properties, they have managed to preserve quantum information even when the entanglement between particles begins to break down.
“What we’ve found is that topology is a powerful resource for information encoding in the presence of noise. It has a large encoding alphabet that is completely immune to the noise as long as just some entanglement persists,” says Forbes.
This breakthrough could lead to more stable quantum computers and networks, making future technology faster, more secure and widely accessible.
Forbes sees collaboration as the way forward and Wits is working with Huzhou University in China to advance the development of quantum computing. Far from being protective of his groundbreaking discovery, Forbes firmly believes in the value of the collective.
“We can either sit for the next few years and work alone and never make another breakthrough or we can share our knowledge and work with others to get there faster,” says Forbes. The Wits-Huzhou collaboration fuses African innovation with China’s manufacturing scale and is set to challenge the US-EU dominance of quantum technology.
Shaping the quantum future
Now that the genie is out of the proverbial bottle, the question is how we use Forbes’ discovery and the inevitability of quantum computing. In addition to being a prolific physicist, Forbes is also a policy advisor to government and Director of South Arica’s Quantum Roadmap. In order to meet its objectives, it has provided funding for the next five years for quantum projects around the country.
Forbes believes that government’s forward thinking will enable it to deploy science and innovation, including quantum technology, to assist in solving some of the most pressing social issues of our time.
The applications of quantum technology are many and varied. Forbes equates it simplistically to navigating your way through a maze – where traditional computing offers a choice of left or right at each junction, quantum computing is able to explore both left and right simultaneously. Quantum computing makes it possible to find solutions to highly complex problems in less time and with less hardware than traditional computing. There is no need for more data centres or power guzzling banks of main frame computers. With quantum technology, less is more. Fewer resources, more solutions.
“Quantum computing is especially efficient at solving optimisation problems,” says Dr Isaac Nape, part of Forbes’ team and the first SA Quantum Initiative Emerging Leader. Now, challenges whose solutions have multiple potential outcomes can be analysed using quantum computing and be solved quicker and more accurately than with traditional computing. This might include the development of life saving drugs.
Why should we care?
Now, back to today where AI is infiltrating just about every aspect of our lives – is quantum technology threatening to do the same? Other than governments, who should be thinking about how quantum computing will disrupt their industry and how they can adopt and apply quantum technology to protect themselves and not be left behind?
“Through our advisory work, we’re trying to get quantum technology into discussions at the boardroom level,” says Forbes. “We have already written a white paper for the financial sector, outlining how quantum computing will impact their industry.”
Forbes says that any company, organisation or body that is the custodian of data should be taking notice of quantum computing and how fast it’s developing.
Nape raises concerns around the application of quantum computing particularly in relation to security and privacy. The hypersensitivity of quantum technology makes it highly accurate and operable from remote locations.
“China has already developed surveillance equipment that can see up to a distance of 30km, so we may never know who is watching us at any time. However, quantum computing will also offer safer, more secure ways of communicating, with unhackable encryption,” says Nape. Using quantum states, quantum communications cannot be intercepted, making it the ultimate in cybersecurity.
The reward versus risk equation means that in the wrong hands, quantum computing can easily decrypt digital information stored on traditional networks, potentially exposing masses of sensitive personal and corporate information.
WitsQ Initiative
Because of its potential impact on the world, it’s not only science that is part of the work of the WitsQ Initiative. It is taking a holistic look at all things quantum – research, innovation, business, education, outreach and ethics.
“Currently, no one is taking responsibility for the ethical considerations around quantum computing and so this has to be factored into our development,” says Forbes. To this end, his unit is also working with the University’s School of Law to consider how quantum technology may be regulated and legislated.
However it is managed, quantum technology will create a new quantum economy requiring a trained workforce and this is part of government’s strategic objectives for the sector. Although not everyone will be directly involved with quantum computing, Forbes makes a comparison with the smart phone industry. “Techpreneurs didn’t need to build smart phones to be part of the smart phone economy. Many built apps and other platforms that run on smart phones and were brought into the economy that way. This is how people will become involved in quantum technology.”
At the moment, all the research and development in the commercialisation of quantum computing is being conducted outside of academia by tech companies such as IBM, but academic research is still benefitting. Wits is the first African partner in the US company’s IBM Q Network, giving the University access to a 50-qubit quantum computer and seed funding. This is enabling the University to drive quantum technologies and position itself as the leading quantum institution on the continent.
Personally, I’m with Richard Feynman, but under the brilliant stewardship of Professor Andrew Forbes, Wits is blazing a trail in the world of quantum computing and communications, putting South Africa firmly on the quantum map.
- Deryn Graham is a freelance writer.
- This article first appeared in?Curiosity,?a research magazine produced by?Wits Communications?and the?Research Office.
- Read more in the 19thissue, themed #Disruption, which explores the crises, tech, research, and people shaking up our world in 2025.