SIMA Opening Panel at Platform Calgary of the Swiss-Canadian Quantum Symposium: (ltr) Ambassador Olaf Kjelsen, Senior Science Counsellor Urs Obrist, Executive Director of the Quantum Center at ETHZ Anu Unnikrishnan, University of Calgary Professor Barry Sanders, Open Quantum Institute Senior Advisor Catherine Lefebvre, Swissnex Boston Interim CEO Brendan Karch, University of British Columbia Professor Alannah Hallas, University of Geneva Professor Wolfgang Tittel.

Swiss-Canadian Quantum Symposium during Swiss Innovation meets Alberta (SIMA) Week

Swiss-Canadian Quantum Symposium as part of the "Swiss Innovation meets Alberta" week

As a follow-up to the Swiss-US Quantum Days in Chicago and Swissnex Quantum Summit at EPFL in 2023, the Embassy of Switzerland in Canada organized a two-day Quantum Symposium as part of the “Swiss Innovation meets Alberta” week in October 2024.

Calgary had been chosen strategically for this event: For one, the reputation of Quantum City Calgary reaches beyond Canada and UofC Professor Barry Sanders is very strongly connected with GESDA. In addition, the event aimed to bring together leading Quantum scientists from across Canada and to allow for discussions of potential collaborations. As a national Quantum-related conference took place in Calgary the same week, the synergies were evident.

The four leading Quantum hubs of Switzerland were present in Calgary and connected with leading Canadian scientists and industry representatives, as well as future leaders and young academics. Besides an expert panel on the two Quantum ecosystems of Switzerland and Canada, the event also integrated a high-level dinner, a series of lightning talks and a fireside chat.

This allowed the showcasing of existing collaborations, such as the recently established collaboration of Quantum City Calgary with QAI Ventures in Arlesheim and also helped to considerably move forward the conversations that were initiated last year in Lausanne.

The highly positive reactions to a series of posts on the science counsellor’s LinkedIn account (33’000 impressions on 7 posts) on quantum related matters, spoke to that success. Thanks to the collaboration with QAI ventures, the use of the Platform Calgary venue proved to be a most beneficial endeavour for a Quantum Hackathon on Sustainable Development Goals. This was the first time that a Hackathon was part of a Swiss-Canadian Innovation Day or Symposium.

The hackers were also participants of the Quantum Symposium, appreciated the opportunity to connect with Swiss Quantum experts and to learn about work and study opportunities in Switzerland. Thus, the image of Switzerland as a quantum leader was underlined. The winners of the Hackathon have already been invited by the City of Calgary to present their solution for optimizing snow-plowing routes using quantum-powered solutions.