Raghunath Koduvayur
Finnish Flow is teaming up with some of today’s most forward-thinking companies in Davos in January 2022. One of these is our main partner IQM Quantum Computers, a European leader in quantum computing.
We asked IQM’s Head of Marketing and Communication, Raghunath Koduvayur, about his thoughts on quantum and of course, Davos.
What is IQM’s main goal for Davos?
IQM is a diverse company with employees from about 30 nationalities, with offices in Munich, Bilbao, and Espoo, and we have big international goals. Finnish Flow offers a great platform to showcase our vision and people on the world stage, and we are very excited to support them as the main partner.
Our goal in Davos is not only to sell quantum computers but more importantly, initiate a discussion on the future of quantum computing on the table where the world leaders are.
As a European category leader in quantum computing, it’s also very important for us to highlight the power of the ecosystem amongst the computing community. We will make a difference one table and one connection at a time.
Quantum seems to be everywhere now. Why is quantum computing such a hot topic?
Well, most of the discussion is justified, while we should also read some news with a pinch of salt. Quantum technologies hold the potential to understand nature, and the world around us better. Quantum technologies can also help us find solutions for our problems in climate, sustainability, healthcare, logistics and others. For example, quantum computation will take significantly less time than classical computers to solve certain problems. This means lesser energy consumption.
Having said that, classical computers and supercomputers are not going to disappear. Soon, we will see classical and quantum computers work together to solve the problems around us. Coming back to the recent hype, the pandemic and the vaccine development has triggered the discussion and shown the importance of faster innovation and computation. Venture capitalists and private investors are starting to back great Deeptech companies and teams, and some of the recent hardware breakthroughs have also been encouraging. As classical computing reaches its limits, quantum computing is currently our best bet to overcome the computational challenges of the future.
The theme of Finnish Flow in Davos 2022 is Future of cities. How is IQM solving and enabling life in the cities in the future?
“We are on a mission to build quantum computers for the well-being of humankind, now and for the future.” Future cities are positioned to be smart cities, and behind this smartness are hundreds of powerful supercomputers. Even with all these computational powers, we’ve only scratched the surface of innovation. Quantum computers will help us understand nature better, which will lead to more innovation, new systems, new citizen services and result in shaping the future of cities. Healthcare, Automobile, Finance, Logistics are some of the areas we are actively working on and discussing with prospective industry partners.