Yale, City Launch A Quantum Leap

A mystery letter ​“Q” lapel pin whispered a dream about New Haven’s future at a groundbreaking Monday afternoon for a project that will transform Yale’s campus at the border of the East Rock neighborhood.

Officials at the event broke symbolic ground on the first lab and classroom building of a 600,000 square-foot ​“Upper Science Hill” expansion on Whitney Avenue. The new geothermal-powered complex to rise on surface lots there — almost the size of the Yale Bowl — marks Yale’s quest to catch up with the likes of Stanford and MIT to compete in groundbreaking science and engineering research.

“One … two … three … build it!” Gov. Ned Lamont called out as he, the mayor and Yale’s new president joined other officials in lifting shovels-ful of dirt where crews will now dig four to six stories into the ground to start constructing the complex.

The mystery ​“Q” pins on the lapels of other key players in the crowd did not stand for Quinnipiac University or for the Q Anon conspiracy. It did represent a grand vision uniting three powerful institutions — Yale, University of Connecticut (UConn) and the state of Connecticut — in a mission to build the future local economy on pioneering research on next-generation computing aimed at transforming health care, the military, the insurance industry, genomic research, artificial intelligence … basically how we do work throughout society. Through the non-profit QuantumCT, UConn, Yale and the state are seeking a 10-year National Science Foundation grant of up to $160 million to jump-start the application of quantum research in the city and throughout Connecticut — much of it to occur in the now ground-broken Upper Science Hill complex.

UConn, Yale and the state are seeking a 10-year National Science Foundation grant of up to $160 million to jump-start quantum research in the city and throughout Connecticut — much of it to occur in the now ground-broken Upper Science Hill complex.

In remarks before the shovel-lifting, Gov. Lamont spoke of returning to an era when ​“we had more patents than people” in Connecticut, when (Yale grads) Eli Whitney and Samuel Morse and David Bushnell invented the machines that changed the world.

“We slowed down as a state” in innovation, Lamont noted. He called the Science Hill project ​“an essential part of what we’ve got to do to move forward. We’ve got to play to our strengths.”

Mayor Justin Elicker predicted that quantum science and tech represents the ​“next step in New Haven’s growth,” building on the bioscience and life-science companies that are filling all those new office towers sprouting up around town.

He acknowledged that (like most of us gathered for the event) he doesn’t have a fine-grain understanding yet of what all that ​“quantum” stuff really means.

One person who does understand it is UConn President Radenka Marić, who sported one of the Q lapel buttons at the event. The ​“Q” lapel pin stands for Yale’s Quantum Institute, which connects quantum researchers worldwide. She said quantum mechanics will enable researchers to develop machines and apps that work faster than they do now and can solve much bigger problems, ​“based on a deeper understanding of the ability to manipulate the complex behavior of subatomic particles.”

“The computers are not going to look anything like today’s computers,” Marić said. ​“They are going to process data in milliseconds what takes now years to process. …

“Think of the defense sector. With quantum-enhanced laser, you can repair materials without ever taking them offline. … “

New Yale President Maurie McInnis spoke at the event of how the electrified geothermal-energy plant already under construction on the site will help the university meet its goals of generating net-zero carbon emissions by 2035 and reaching complete zero-carbon status by 2050. She also said the project’s design will open the campus more to the community.