From left: computer science graduate students Yanni Li, Shuwen Kan, and Yin Su. Photos by Chris Gosier
How do you sell businesspeople on the value of quantum computing when they don’t understand what it is? That’s the challenge that a team of Fordham graduate students recently took up—getting a parallel education in business alongside their education in computer and data science.
The students are taking part in a National Science Foundation (NSF) program that provides training in entrepreneurship skills, like presenting one’s product to people whose time and attention are short.
“I think the first presentation we did … we got kind of roasted by the instructor because we were too technical,” said the team’s leader, doctoral student Shuwen Kan, with a laugh. “So the first lesson I guess would be ‘know your audience.’”
The students are pitching an algorithm that will give companies easier access to quantum computing—a topic that can be hard to translate into simple language, as they learned while making mock presentations. The NSF program also arranges for them to interview potential customers as a way of refining the product and preparing to market it.
‘Why Do I Care?’
Telling company representatives about the algorithm, the students learned a lot about business communication.
“They can ask, ‘Why do I care?’ And you need to answer that question very effectively to get their attention,” said Kan, a doctoral student in computer science and the lead researcher in developing the algorithm.
Ascend Quantum team members at a recent meeting (l to r): Luisa Rosa, Zefan Du, Shuwen Kan, Yanni Li, Yin Su
Career Possibilities
Kan said she’s gained a broader idea of her career possibilities because of the program, with its exposure to people from varied backgrounds and hands-on lessons in entrepreneurship.
She and Yanni Li, a fellow team member, are spending most of the summer with the NSF’s I-Corps program, a federal government program that helps scientists turn their research into marketable products.
It’s a more extended version of the regional New York I-Corps program the five students took part in during the school year. They interviewed 24 potential customers in a variety of fields—like finance, pharmaceuticals, and academia. They also attended virtual workshops on competitive analysis, value propositions, and other business concepts.
“Because of the [University’s] location in New York, we have opportunities to talk to people from all industries, and we can start to think about the application of our research,” Kan said. “We get the opportunity to explore.”
The students are calling their enterprise Ascend Quantum for now, and they’re also getting support from the Fordham Foundry—the University’s business incubator—as they prepare to market the algorithm.
Energy Efficient—and More Efficient Overall
One of Kan’s teammates, computer science master’s degree student Yin Su, is inspired to be part of the team because of how the algorithm could promote sustainability. Quantum computing is now done on large, expensive machines generally limited to corporations, but the students’ algorithm would allow it to be handled by a network of smaller computers like the ones businesses use every day—saving energy while also making the power of quantum computing more accessible.
Su said she has learned the value of focusing less on how the algorithm works than what it can do for companies—which is clearly more important to them, as shown by the wide adoption of tech tools like ChatGPT.
“Most people don’t know what's the modeling, the algorithm, behind ChatGPT, how the data is processed, but it’s easy to use,” she said. “We're trying to do the same for our customers.”