The relatively nascent, National Institute of Standards and Technology-backed consortium launched to help strategically advance the emerging U.S. quantum industry recently established a new technical advisory committee, or TAC, to specifically target national security.
QED-C, short for the Quantum Economic Development Consortium, was codified by 2018 legislation to help unite various components of the nation’s quantum ecosystem and ultimately accelerate quantum-driven deployments and innovation. Through four original TACs, consortium members collectively dive deep into specific areas of need.
The new “quantum for national security committee” will be run much like the others, but also offers something a little different than the rest, according to QED-C Deputy Director Celia Merzbacher. She announced the new TAC Thursday at the Genius Machines 2020 Virtual Summit hosted by Nextgov and Defense One—and this week shared more details on its impetus and work.
“We have this group now and the full roster is, I think, up to around maybe 60 people...engaged—and it's roughly equal industry and government—so that's great,” Merzbacher told Nextgov over the phone Monday. “It's only met a couple of times, so we're just getting it organized on what areas it might address.”
The individuals that make up that roster are stakeholders from the consortium’s select member organizations, of which there are now more than 100. QED-C’s existence is rooted in the National Quantum Initiative Act signed by the president almost two years ago, and its primary intent is to pinpoint and help close gaps in standards, cybersecurity, measurement, applications and more that need to be confronted to push forward quantum development across the U. ..
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