But for those in the know, it’s a game-changing technology for the world of engineering. Unesco has declared 2025 the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology.
“While the ‘why’ behind the theory of quantum mechanics has yet to be fully explained, the ‘how’ is very well understood,” says Matt Himsworth, chief scientific officer at Aquark Technologies and previously in charge of the Ministry of Defence’s quantum laboratory.
Put very simply, quantum mechanics is the study of matter on the atomic and subatomic scale. At that scale, particles behave in unexpected and seemingly paradoxical ways, with concepts including the uncertainty principle and quantum entanglement.
Knowing only the ‘how’ and not the ‘why’ does not matter for engineering, Himsworth says. “We must think of quantum mechanics as simply another tool in the engineer's toolbox – it's not going to be useful in all applications, but it provides new or alternative methods for attacking problems.”
Much of the attention has so far been paid to quantum computing – the idea of being able to do more powerful equations and calculations at a faster speed, enabling better and more accurate results.
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is just one area where quantum can change engineering, says Chris Ballance, CEO and co-founder of quantum computing firm Oxford Ionics. “CFD relies on high-performance computers to perform large-scale and intensive computations, and quantum computing has the potential to significantly improve the effectiveness of this process,” he says.
“Sophisticated quantum algorithms running on powerful quantum computers could improve overall accuracy for CFD and dramatically reduce the computation time and cost – empowering the aerodynamics sector to achieve unprecedented innovations."
But quantum computing is just the beginning, says Himsworth. “There are applications in timing, magnetometry, electrometry, gravimetry and inertial sensing that are available already, and that can have a greater impact on engineering in the short to medium term, so long as we can unshackle them from the laboratory,” he says.
Cristian Bonato, an engineering and physical sciences professor at Heriot-Watt University, agrees. “There are ways in which quantum can directly provide new tools for engineering, and then there are ways in which engineering needs to be taken into quantum to make the quantum devices work and accessible to users,” he says.
One of the areas Bonato and his university laboratory are working on is quantum sensors. “We use the spin of a single electron to detect magnetic fields and temperature with nano-scale spatial resolution,” he says. Such a new and precise way of benchmarking and characterising materials and their properties will be useful for engineers looking to create new devices from those materials, he explains.
It's also eminently possible that quantum computing could be used to discover new materials or to build better battery chemistries to support the future development of novel engineering areas.
Quantum dots, which produce different coloured lights depending on the size of the particle, enabling purer colours on televisions, are already in use in devices found in homes around the world and are just the beginning of the quantum revolution in engineering.
“There are quite a few groups and companies also now using this nanoscience of quantum sensors to, for example… make a map of an electronic device and see what the current flow is, and then you can detect if there are faults,” says Bonato.
These current and potential future uses highlight the excitement of quantum – as debated in a recent episode of IMechE’s 'Impulse to Innovation' podcast. “Quantum 1.0 was lasers and things like that,” said Tobias Lindstrom, head of science for the department of quantum technology at the National Physical Laboratory. “Quantum 2.0 is applications that use entanglement and superposition.”
These new quantum applications can be used to more precisely measure how materials work – a core tenet of engineering. That can change the industry in new and exciting ways that we have not yet fully understood, says Himsworth. “Most ‘classical’ technologies involve measuring the response of bulk materials to stimuli – for example, silicon photodetectors producing electricity when light falls on [them],” he says.
Those responses are reliable enough, but are always dependent on the quality of material and how well it has been manufactured. “In most quantum technologies, we’re interacting with single particles – atoms, ions, solid state defects – whose properties are defined by fundamental constants, meaning their response to stimuli is very predictable and identical from device to device.”
That reliability and predictability changes the equation – literally. It is the reason why many engineers are so excited about the potential of the technology.
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