00:00My name is Professor Winfried Hensinger. I'm Professor of Quantum Technologies at the University of Sussex.
00:05I'm the Director of the Sussex Centre for Quantum Technologies and I'm also Co-Founder, Chief Scientist and Chairman of Universal Quantum,
00:11which is a company that builds quantum computers right here in Mid-Sussex.
00:16So, one of the things that people know now, that in Greater Brighton we actually made really big steps
00:23towards the realisation of real quantum computers and quantum sensors.
00:29So, Greater Brighton is actually one of the centres of the development in quantum computing.
00:35And so, just a couple of weeks ago, we made a big breakthrough as a spin-off from quantum computing.
00:41We managed to make the world record in achieving the most sensitive way to measure tiny electric fields
00:52using the technology we developed for quantum computers.
00:57And so, what it means is you could imagine measuring tiny electric fields, for example, emitted from your brain or from your body or underwater.
01:07So, you could understand, for example, processes in your brain by correlating sensations with the electrical signals that are being emitted in your head, from your nerves.
01:19You could detect objects underwater.
01:23And we managed to breach this world record by orders of magnitude.
01:27And this was just an accident in developing what we do, our quantum computers.
01:32Quantum computers are machines that can solve really important problems.
01:36For example, they could help us create new pharmaceuticals in a fraction of the time.
01:41So, nowadays, it may take ten years and a billion pounds of developing a new drug.
01:46And a quantum computer may help us to make this in a much shorter time, maybe a few years rather than ten years.
01:52But this is a whole new technology, a revolution, very similar to the emergence of first computers.
01:57And so, these machines are used to tackle problems where even the fastest computers, they just couldn't even get close to solving this.
02:06It would take a million years, a billion years to solve that problem.
02:09And so, what we're trying to do now is, in greater brightness, create a whole quantum Silicon Valley.
02:16So, we want to create a national quantum computing facility here as infrastructure so that people can use quantum computing for their respective application.
02:27For example, we work with Rolls-Royce to develop aircraft engines that use much less energy.
02:33And we work with pharmaceutical companies, with financial companies.
02:39So, all industry sectors really have critical applications in quantum computing.
02:45So, when I finished my PhD, people were talking about quantum computers.
02:50It was around 25 years ago.
02:52And I decided, people then thought this is impossible, way too complicated.
02:57The very pristine quantum phenomena that you would need to control would be destroyed way too easily.
03:04And there would be just no way to build such a machine.
03:06And whenever people tell me something can't be done, I'm straight on this.
03:10And so, I thought, wow, I'm going to actually build such a machine.
03:13And so, I traveled the world actually two and a half times, flew around the world, visited lots of different research labs,
03:19trying to understand what would be the best technology that would allow us to actually build such a machine.
03:25And at the time, people rolled their eyes at me.
03:28They said, oh, you're never going to do that.
03:30It's just not going to happen.
03:31There's all these million reasons why this can't work and why this can't work.
03:34And I thought, no, no, no, we're going to do that.
03:36And so, we started a research group at the University of Sussex probably like 20, 25 years ago.
03:42And we started with very little money.
03:44We had to, my students had to build everything themselves.
03:47And we had to really make things work in a way you wouldn't even believe.
03:53But then, we made some really big breakthroughs.
03:56And suddenly, people started to think, wow, maybe this can be done.
04:00And in 2013, I helped create for the UK the National Quantum Technology Program.
04:05So, it's a big government investment now, more than two and a half billion pounds invested by the UK government.
04:11And that has really accelerated this country to one of the leaders worldwide.
04:16So, I've been invited to the White House, to the German Parliament, to lots of countries who want to imitate what we have achieved here in the UK.
04:23Because we, as such a small country and have so little money, yet we've really made so big strides.
04:30And so, obviously, we are going to get that country, but let's continue to think about it.
04:33So, since you're interested in the European Union, it's a big part of the European Union,
04:38and you're interested in the American people, which can keep keeping players forward to the European Union.
04:40And you're interested in the European Union.
04:42So, it's incredible.
04:44So, you're interested in the European Union.
04:47How about the European Union?
04:49So, if you're interested in the European Union?
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