Students from Barcelona Master in Quantum Science and Technology at ICFO to pitch to an industrial panel
Transversal skills component of master program focuses on entrepreneurship and innovation
ICFO is an active participant in the Barcelona Master in Quantum Science and Technology aimed at
graduates in Physics, Physical Engineering or equivalent degrees who want to continue specialization studies in Quantum Science and Technologies. The Master program actively seeks to provide training to meet the needs of a quantum-ready workforce in the coming decades.
As Prof Bruno Julia, coordinator of the Master in the Quantum Science and Technology program noted at the launch of the master, “Quantum physics will play a major role in the next future developments in our capacity to compute, communicate, and measure with precision. A solid education in Quantum sciences will be a crucial asset to both push the boundaries of our knowledge and also to develop new industrial products profiting from the intricate quantum properties. This master is the seed for a quantum future.”
Students in this program benefit from direct connections to industry through the QuantumCAT community as well as the participation of high-tech companies in the teaching program. Wednesday, 8 march was the culmination of the Entrepreneurship & Innovation course in which in the program came to ICFO to present mock product pitches in small groups to a panel of company representatives. In a didactic “Dragon’s Den” style setup, the panellists asked the student’s questions and offered suggestions to asses the pitches.
The panel included representatives from Quantum Spain, local start-up Qilimanjaro, and IBM:
- Alba Cervera-Lierta, BSC
- Víctor Canivell, Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech
- Alberto Garcia Fernandez, IBM
Business ideas presented included start-ups focused on quantum education, applications of novel quantum materials in healthcare and green energy, and applications of quantum machine learning to solve problems in logistics and security.
The pitches were followed by an informal coffee where students were able to network with the panel members.