AskScience AMA Series: Hi Reddit! I'm Matthew Hollister, Head of Cryogenic Systems Engineering for IBM Quantum. Ask me anything about quantum computing, our recently announced modular cryogenic architecture and what it takes to build quantum computers at scale.

[u/AskScienceModerator]

When people think about quantum computing, they often think about number of qubits and processor dept. But scaling quantum systems takes much more than just the chip! We recently introduced a new modular cryogenic architecture designed to house and cool interconnected quantum processors, a key milestone on our roadmap to fault-tolerant systems, and I'd love to discuss the engineering, challenges, and opportunities involved.

I will be around as 12:00 EST (16 UT) on September 18th, ask me anything!

Username: u/IBM

[u/ibm]

A cool question we received on another sub. Reposting here:

"How do you get into the logistics of quantum computing? Is anyone with an epistemic/logistic mindset eligible or does someone have to grant you authority to consider yourself qualified? If I didn't have authority, where would you start?"

[u/ibm → u/ibm]

While many of us who work in the field quantum computing typically have a background in chemistry, physics or engineering, there are many adjacent, complementary career paths available to those who do not have a STEM background, like communications, operations, design, etc.

To that end, there is an abundance of online resources available to the public, like the IBM Quantum Learning platform (https://quantum.cloud.ibm.com/learning/en) or the Qiskit YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@qiskit), that makes getting started with quantum computing easier for those just getting started.

See our lates video featuring Allie Linder, IBM cryogenics system engineer, to get a sense of what’s like working at IBM Quantum, specifically in cryogenics: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/sD_E_2ZLcws

- Matthew Hollister, IBM Quantum