State-supported quantum computing hub opens in New Haven

Officials gathered in one of New Haven’s new bioscience towers to cut the ribbon on a tech innovation hub — and on a dream for our state’s future as a quantum version of Silicon Valley.

The ribbon-cutting Tuesday evening marked the opening of a 4,500 square-foot center for researchers, students and entrepreneurs run by QuantumCT, a nonprofit formed to jump-start quantum computing research and company hatching. (Or, in policy parlance, to build out the quantum “ecosystem.”)

The hub is on the first floor of 101 College St., the second of three Carter Winstanley-constructed bioscience lab-office buildings transforming a stretch of downtown atop the former Route 34 Connector.

The goal is for Yale and University of Connecticut quantum computing researchers to share ideas at the hub and make connections with students looking to enter the field and with businesses looking to incubate new companies. Network. Train. Research. Maybe make deals. Actual companies would be housed in the third building, recently approved to be built down the block at 2 Church St.

The broader dream is to make this stretch of New Haven the epicenter of Connecticut’s emerging quantum computing sector — Quantum Alley, say, or the Quantum Corridor — and to make the state a national leader in a projected $200 billion industry by 2040.