Applications
Resources
Part of the Oxford Instruments Group
Expand
Collapse
Part of the Oxford Instruments Group
By Zaiquan Xu, Sales and Service Engineer
After a busy month of events in February, Quantum Australia was the finale. I was particularly excited to attend as a representative of Oxford Instruments for the first time, alongside the rest of our newly established Australia team. With over 300 organisations attending and more than 50 speakers and panellists to hear from, the event showed just how healthy the quantum ecosystem is in the region.
Making Sydney a quantum hub
What was clear from Quantum Australia this year was the exponential growth that we’re currently experiencing. The event demonstrated the increasing involvement in quantum from universities, startups, investors, government agencies, and other stakeholders. As more parties engage in the industry, we can expect development to accelerate further. Because of this, the positive atmosphere was palpable.
As Prof Peter Turner, CEO of Sydney Quantum Academy, said in his keynote: “Australia’s flourishing quantum research community, already highly regarded internationally, is increasingly networked with industry and showing business acumen with global reach. Gatherings like Quantum Australia can help spur even more innovation, and further deepen the amazing talent pool we rely upon to make the future happen.”
Australia is predicted to become a regional hub for quantum, with 3.2% of the world’s quantum startups and attracting 3.6% global share of quantum venture capital funding - impressive figures against the country’s 1.6% share of global GDP. Launching Oxford Instruments’ Australia team last year therefore came at a very good time. There is increasing demand for supporting the ecosystem in Australia and a growing need for systems like our Proteox family of dilution refrigerators, world-leading superconducting magnets, and fully customisable Secondary Inserts that facilitate quantum technologies.
Our view of Quantum Australia from the Oxford Instruments stand
I may be biased, but just being at our stand was a real highlight for me. It was great to show visitors our new Enabling the Quantum Ecosystem interactive platform and see how partners, customers, staff and event delegates alike all enjoyed exploring the work we have been involved in. Our exhibit showcased all Oxford Instruments’ business units via our media wall. However, we devoted particular attention to our business units directly related to the commercialisation of quantum technologies: Andor, Plasma Technology, and NanoScience. Our TeslatronPT systems for characterisation of quantum materials and Proteox family of dilution refrigerators with the unique Secondary Inserts and patented sample exchange mechanism, always draw a lot of interest. It is always a pleasure when exhibiting at events like these to see the interest in and awareness of our technology grow.
It was our second time exhibiting at Quantum Australia in person, with our head of Asia/Pacific sales Liang Zhu and Product Segment Manager for quantum technologies Harriet van der Vliet, attending last year. A highlight from last year included introducing “The race to fault tolerant quantum computing hardware” panel with world leading scientists Michelle Simmons, Arkady Federov, David Reilly and Yasunobu Nakamura. What a group of people to introduce! Oxford Instruments’ Harriet van der Vliet was invited as one of the representatives of the UK’s quantum industry with the UK delegation in 2023 with Michael Cuthbert of the National Quantum Computing Centre. As part of the delegation, we attended Quantum Australia and many of the academic labs and industry within this community in Australia.
What 2024 has in store
With our new team based in Australia, Oxford Instruments is committed to and passionate about supporting the country’s flourishing quantum industry. We look forward to continuing our engagement with the community at future events and facilitating industry growth with our unique product portfolio.
Looking ahead, I will be at the Sydney Boron Nitride Workshop in May. Later this year, the team plans to attend the Spin Qubit 6 in Sydney and the AIP Congress in Melbourne - if you’re going, do stop by our stand and say hello!
The Australia Oxford Instruments Team
© Oxford Instruments 2024