MSU joins western alliance to build quantum technology

MSU took action this month intended to spur a regional boom surrounding the emergence of quantum computing technologies.

MSU will join 13 regional universities to form the Mountains and Plains Research Alliance according to a Jan. 9 university news service press release. The newly formed research consortium includes fellow Montana institutions, the University of Montana and Montana Technological University as well as a variety of schools across the mountain west including Boise State University, the University of Wyoming and the South Dakota School of Mines.

The consortium hopes to join forces in order to compete with large urban centers for federal grant funding, according to MSU Vice President of Research and Economic Development Alison Harmon. Of particular interest to the Mountains and Plains Alliance are grants related to developing quantum computing technology.

“MSU could stimulate a quantum technology ecosystem,” Harmon said. “There are federal funding opportunities that we want to be ready to take advantage of, but won’t be able to by ourselves.”

MSU first emerged on the quantum scene in 2018, when it was awarded $20 million by the National Science Foundation to create a lab dedicated to the study of quantum technologies. The aptly named MonArk Foundry is a joint venture between MSU and the University of Arkansas.

“High-impact science requires collaboration. Expertise in many areas is required to make a lot of advances,” said Nicholas Borys, an MSU physics professor and associate director of the MonArk Quantum Foundry. “It is rare that a university has all of the expertise within its own walls.”

Borys’ research is concerned with the development of “two-dimensional materials.” These materials are only a single atom thick and could be used for creating a device similar to circuit boards for quantum computers.

“If you can imagine a board of circuitry that routes and manipulates states of light, that’s one of the long-range technological applications that motivate our research,” Borys said.

Although the MonArk lab has considerable expertise in characterizing these materials, it does not have the capability to create them in-house. That is where the benefit of the Mountains and Plains Alliance comes into play. According to Borys, the University of Wyoming, Boise State and the South Dakota School of Mines all have the capability to produce these materials.

In addition to pushing the envelope of scientific understanding, the National Science Foundation’s Quantum Foundry program was explicitly intended to produce economic benefits in underdeveloped rural areas.

“Federal funders are realizing that the way they distribute funds is maybe discriminatory and favors more urban [areas],” Harmon said. “Where are these rural communities left? If we’re concerned about rural America and economic decline in rural America, we have to do things differently.”

Borys said it’s hard to say when exactly quantum technology research will bear financial fruit. “The discoveries, the innovations — those are hard to predict,” he said.

If quantum technologies produced marketable innovations, they would already be positioned within the arm's reach of investors. According to professor Borys, Qubit Ventures, a venture capital firm whose portfolio consists entirely of quantum startups, has already established a presence on the MSU campus.

Vice President Harmon also expressed excitement about the possibility of a quantum testbed facility. A testbed facility is a laboratory with specialized equipment for researchers in the quantum and photonics industries.

“[Industries] wouldn’t have to build their own testing centers in order to try their ideas,” she said. “We’re trying to absorb some of the obstacles to new industry beginnings.”