CSIRO Conversations: Quantum for every Business

CSIRO Conversations: Quantum for every Business

Quantum is at the same stage AI was a decade ago, quietly moving from research labs into real world tools. This event helps industry understand what's real, what's hype, and where the near term opportunities lie and who can help.

Where today's computers check one option at a time, quantum can explore many possibilities at once. That makes it powerful for decision making and resource management when it comes to things like routing trucks, detecting minerals, managing patients in a hospital, securing communications or modelling new materials.

Quantum is becoming practical and commercially relevant far sooner than most businesses expect. It's already emerging in:

Our expert panellists will translate a complex emerging technology into a grounded, industry relevant discussion on:

Meet the Panel

Malaika Ingram, Regional University Industry Collaboration (RUIC) program, CSIRO (panel chair)

Malaika Ingram is a Senior Facilitator in the Regional University Industry Collaboration (RUIC) program, funded by the Queensland Government and delivered by CSIRO. She works with Queensland SMEs and universities to foster collaborative projects that deliver mutual benefits.

Malaika is a seasoned technical leader with over 20 years of experience across Australia and internationally. She has extensive experience bridging the gap between academia and industry by fostering groundbreaking collaborations that drive innovation to deliver significant results.

Alex Romero – Associate, Main Sequence Ventures

Alex Romero is an Associate at Main Sequence with a deep passion for emerging technologies and data-driven insights, which is instrumental in supporting investment decision-making. Alex plays a critical role in supporting the identification and evaluation of investment opportunities in the deep tech sector, and commercialising Australian research to address global challenges.

Prior to Main Sequence, Alex served as an Investment Analyst at Uniseed, where she collaborated with research and investment partners, including the Universities of Melbourne, Queensland, Sydney & New South Wales, and CSIRO, to create and fund the tech sector from pre-seed to Series A. She also gained hands on experience as a laboratory technician at Inventia Genetic Technologies, a lab specialising in in vitro fertilisation technology designed to enhance genetic outcomes in agriculture.

Alex also brings valuable experience from the sales and marketing sectors within the design and finance industries. In addition to her deep tech interests, she has a strong commitment to humanitarian work. She co-founded a non-profit organisation to assist migrants, particularly in the aftermath of the Syrian war, overseeing the transfer of resources from Spain to Hungary and Greece.

Alex holds honours degrees from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Universidad Complutense de Madrid in biotechnology.

Chris Vale – Director, Manufacturing CSIRO

Chris Vale is Professor of Physics and Director of the Quantum Technologies Future Science Platform at CSIRO. Prior to joining CSIRO he led an experimental research program at Swinburne University of Technology using gases of atoms cooled to nanoKelvin temperatures to study properties and dynamics of many-body quantum systems. Prof Vale has been a Chief Investigator in two ARC Centres of Excellence in Future Low-Energy Electronics Technologies (FLEET) and Quantum Atom Optics (ACQAO), has held an ARC Future Fellowship and several ARC Discovery and Linkage Infrastructure and Equipment projects. He undertook postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Queensland, the University of Sussex and Imperial College (UK) studying Bose-Einstein condensates on atom chips and their potential for quantum sensing. He has been actively engaged in the promotion of physics and quantum science through FLEET, the Australian Institute of Physics, conference organisation and public outreach.

Chris Ferrie – Associate Professor, University of Technology Sydney; author of Quantum for Babies

Chris Ferrie is an associate professor of quantum information at the University of Technology Sydney and an SQA expert. His research blends quantum machine learning, estimation, and control. Beyond the lab, he is the award-winning creator of the global Baby University series and more than 100 popular science titles, which have sold over four million copies and been translated into twenty languages. He is also co founder of Eigensystems, the company behind Quokka, the first handheld quantum computing teaching platform. Chris speaks at science festivals, schools, and conferences worldwide, driven by one mission: making the strangest ideas in the universe accessible—and fun—for everyone.

Dr Tom Stace – CEO of Analog Quantum Circuits

Dr Tom Stace is the CEO and co-founder of Analog Quantum Circuits (AQC), which is Queensland's first quantum tech startup. AQC develops superconducting hardware for quantum computing and microwave control.

Tom completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge in 2003, and is actively involved in quantum technology research and teaching. Tom was Deputy Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Engineered Quantum Systems (EQUS), and serves on the Quantum Information Queensland advisory group, chaired by Queensland's Chief Scientist.