Smart Economy

A Step Closer to a Photonic Future

 

Engineers build cutting-edge photonic devices using standard chip-making process

3D render of the modulator which efficiently imprints electrical data onto an optical light wave. Credit: Mark Wade
3D render of the tunable filter which is a key component in converting optical data to an electrical signal. Credit: Mark Wade
Microscope image of the full chip fabricated in IBM's 45nm process containing electronics and photonics on the same chip. Credit: Michael Georgas

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19, 2014–The future of computing may lie not in electrons, but in photons – that is, in microprocessors that use light instead of electrical signals. But these so-called photonic devices are typically built using customized methods that make them difficult and expensive to manufacture.   Now, engineers have demonstrated that low power photonic devices can be fabricated using standard chip-making processes. They have achieved what the researchers dub a major milestone in photonic technology. The work will be presented at this year’s Optical Fiber Communication (OFC) Conference and Exposition, being held March 9-13 in San Francisco.   The two new devices – a modulator and a tunable filter – are as energy-efficient as some of the best devices around, the researchers say, and were built using a standard IBM advanced Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) process – the same chip-making process used to build many commercially available chips, some of which are found in Sony's Playstation 3 and also in Watson, the supercomputer that won Jeopardy! in 2011.   "As far as we know, we're the first ones to get silicon photonics natively integrated into an advanced CMOS process and to achieve energy efficiencies that are very competitive with electronics," said Mark Wade of the University of Colorado, Boulder, who will present his team’s work at OFC. Wade’s co-authors include researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Berkeley.   Quenching a Thirst for Power   Moore's Law says that the number of transistors that can fit on a chip doubles every two years, resulting in the exponential rise in computing power we have seen over the last few decades. But even as transistors continue to shrink, Moore's Law may be reaching its limits, due to the fact that the devices are requiring more power to run, which leads to overheating.   Such thirst for power is especially problematic for the communication link between a computer's central processing unit and its memory.   "It's gotten to the point where it takes too much energy and that limits your computational power," Wade said.   A solution to this problem may lie in photonics, which researchers anticipate will be at least 10 times more energy efficient than electronics. Chip-to-chip communication links using these photonic devices could have at least 10 times higher bandwidth density, meaning they can transmit much more information using a smaller amount of space. That's because different optical signals can share the same optical wire, whereas sending multiple electrical signals either requires multiple electronic wires or schemes that require more chip space and energy.   But so far, Wade explains, photonic devices used in chip-to-chip communication have been primarily custom-built using specialized methods, limiting their commercial applicability. And devices that have been created with more standardized techniques rely on older technology, which limits their ability to compete with cutting-edge electronics.   On the Road to Commercialization   The ability to produce high-performing photonic devices using the CMOS process means chip designers will not have to be specialists to design photonic devices, Wade explained, which will hopefully accelerate the commercialization of photonic technology.   "IBM’s CMOS process has already been commercially proven to make high-quality microelectronics products," Wade said. The work was part of the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Photonically Optimized Embedded Microprocessors (POEM) project.   The two devices built by the researchers are key components for the communication link between a computer's central processing unit and its memory. A modulator converts electrical signals into optical signals. A tunable filter can pick out light signals of particular frequencies, allowing it to select a signal from multiple frequencies, each of which carries data. Used in conjunction with a photodetector, the filter converts optical signals to electrical signals.   But according to Wade, the significance of this advancement goes beyond this particular application.   "This is a really nice first step for silicon photonics to take over some areas of technology where electronics has really dominated and to start building complex electronic/photonic systems that require dense integration," Wade said.   Presentation Tu2E.7, titled “Energy-efficient active photonics in a zero-change, state-of-the-art CMOS process,” will take place Tuesday, March 11 at 3:30 p.m. in room 123 of the Moscone Center.   PRESS REGISTRATION: A press room for credentialed press and analysts will be located in the Moscone Center, Sunday through Thursday, March 9-13. Those interested in obtaining a press badge for OFC should contact Lyndsay Meyer at 202.416.1435 or [email protected].   About OFC For more than 35 years, OFC has been the premier destination for converging breakthrough research and innovation in telecommunications, optical networking, fiber optics and, recently, datacom and computing. Consistently ranked in the top 200 tradeshows in the United States, and named one of the Fastest Growing Trade Shows in 2012 by TSNN, the conference unites service providers, systems companies, enterprise customers, IT businesses, and component manufacturers, with researchers, engineers, and development teams from around the world. OFC includes dynamic business programming, an exposition of more than 550 companies, and cutting-edge peer-reviewed research that, combined, showcase the trends and pulse of the entire optical networking and communications industry. OFC is managed by The Optical Society (OSA) and co-sponsored by OSA, the IEEE Communications Society (IEEE/ComSoc), and the IEEE Photonics Society.  OFC 2014 takes place March 9-13 at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, Calif., USA.

Quantum reality more complex than previously thought

Quantum reality more complex than
previously thought

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/fopu-qrm102813.php

		IMAGE: Even an   individual photon can travel along both arms of the interferometer at the   same time. When it is unknown which path it is travelling along, we observe   interference and... Click here for more information.

Imagine you order a delivery of several glass vases in different colors. Each vase is sent as a separate parcel. What would you think of the courier if the parcels arrive apparently undamaged, yet when you open them, it turns out that all the red
vases are intact and all the green ones are smashed to pieces? Physicists from the University of Warsaw and the Gdansk University of Technology have demonstrated that when quantum information is transmitted, nature can be as whimsical as this crazy delivery man.

Experiments on individual photons, conducted by physicists from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw (FUW) and the Faculty of Applied Physics and Mathematics at the Gdansk University of Technology (PG), have revealed yet another
counterintuitive feature of the quantum world. When a quantum object is transmitted, its quantum property – whether it behaves as a wave or as a particle – appears to depend on other properties that at first glance have nothing to do with the transmission. These surprising results were published in
the research journal Nature Communications.

Wave-interference
experiments are some of the simplest and most elegant, and can be conducted by
almost anyone. When a laser beam is directed at a plate with two slits, we
observe a sequence of light and dark fringes. It has long been known that the
fringes are visible even when just individual particles – single electrons or
photons – pass through the slits. Physicists assume that every individual
particle exhibits wave properties, passing through both slits at once and
interfering with itself.

The situation is very
different when it is possible to detect the path taken by a given photon or
electron and determine which slit the particle has passed through, at least in
principle. When information about the particle path leaks from the system to
the observer, the interference disappears and instead of interference fringes
no pattern is observed.

In order for photons to
exhibit interference, their wavelengths must be the same, while electrons must
have the same energy. However, quantum particles have a number of other
properties. For example, they can be polarized (their electrical field vibrates
in a certain plane) or have different spin orientations (a quantum property
describing the dynamics of an object at rest).

"So far, it has
been generally assumed that additional properties such as spin and polarization
do not have a non-trivial impact on interference. We decided to study the topic
in more depth, and we were surprised by the results we obtained," says
Prof. Konrad Banaszek (FUW).

The experiments by
physicists from the University
of Warsaw and the Gdańsk
University of Technology started by generating heralded photons. "The name
sounds complicated, but the idea is simple in itself," according to Prof.
Czeslaw Radzewicz (FUW). "We generate photons using a process in which
they must be created in pairs. When we register one photon, we can be certain
that the second was also born, and we know its properties such as direction or
wavelength without destroying it. In other words, we use one photon to herald
the generation of the second photon."

Each heralded photon was
directed individually towards an interferometer, comprising two calcite
crystals. In the first crystal, the photon was split and then sent through both
arms of the interferometer at the same time. In each arm, researchers altered
the polarization of the photon (the plane of vibration of its electrical field)
by introducing noise. In the second calcite crystal, the paths were recombined
to create a distinctive set of interference fringes, provided that the system
did not leak any information as to which arm the given photon travelled along.
The final stage of the experiment involved measuring the interference fringes
using silicon avalanche photodiodes.

"It turned out that
we were able to use measurements of interference fringes to determine how much
information had leaked during transmission of the photon through the
interferometer. In other words, we could be certain whether any eavesdropping
had taken place during transmission," says Dr Michal Karpinski (University of Warsaw,
currently University
of Oxford), responsible
for building the experimental system and conducting the measurements.

The results have
revealed a new, surprising property of reality: the polarization of photons, or
other internal degrees of freedom, play a highly non-trivial role in
interference between the two paths.

"It is almost as
though the quality of a courier delivery – for example, whether a glass vase delivered
inside a securely packed parcel is still in one piece – depends on whether the
vase is green or red. In our world the color has no bearing on whether the vase
arrives intact or not. However, the condition of the parcels our 'quantum
courier' delivers does indeed depend on internal properties that seem to have
nothing to do with interference," according to Prof. Pawel Horodecki (PG).

The results allow
physicists to examine the fundamental properties of reality in new, more
comprehensive ways, as well as having practical applications in quantum
cryptography. The Warsaw and Gdansk physicists have successfully derived a
general inequality making it possible to precisely estimate the volume of
information leaking from the measurement system.

###

The research was funded
by the European Union 7th Framework Programme and as part of the Foundation for
Polish Science TEAM Programme, co-financed from EU funds – the European
Regional Development Fund.

Physics and Astronomy
first appeared at the University
of Warsaw in 1816, under
the then Faculty of Philosophy. In 1825 the Astronomical Observatory was
established. Currently, the Faculty of Physics' Institutes include Experimental
Physics, Theoretical Physics, Geophysics, Department of Mathematical Methods
and an Astronomical Observatory. Research covers almost all areas of modern
physics, on scales from the quantum to the cosmological. The Faculty's research
and teaching staff includes ca. 200 university teachers, of which near 80 are
employees with the title of professor. The Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, is attended by ca. 1000 students
and more than 140 doctoral students.

CONTACTS:

Prof. Konrad Banaszek

Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw


tel. +48 22 5532306

email: [email protected]

Prof. Pawel Horodecki

Faculty of Applied Physics and Mathematics, Gdansk University of Technology

tel. +48 58 3486069

email: [email protected]

Prof. Czeslaw Radzewicz

Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw


tel. +48 22 5532243, +48 22 6254738

email: [email protected]

Dr Michal Karpinski

Department of Physics, University of Oxford


tel. +44 1865 273623

email: [email protected]

RELATED LINKS:

http://www.mif.pg.gda.pl/

Faculty of Applied Physics and Mathematics, Gdansk University of Technology
website.

http://www.fuw.edu.pl/

Faculty of Physics at the University
of Warsaw website.

http://www.fuw.edu.pl/informacje-prasowe.html


Press Office for the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw.

IMAGES:

FUW131028b_fot01s.jpg

HR: http://www.fuw.edu.pl/press/images/2013/FUW131028b_fot01.jpg

Even an individual
photon can travel along both arms of the interferometer at the same time. When
it is unknown which path it is travelling along, we observe interference and
the appearance of interference fringes. A strong signal is visible where the
crests of light waves meet, and a weak signal is obtained at the meeting point
of the troughs. If it is possible to determine which arm the photon travelled
along, following leakage of information from the interferometer, the fringes
disappear. (Source: NLTK/Tentaris/Maciej Frolow)

 

Quantum Biology

Physics of life: The dawn of quantum biology  (hat tip to Steve Kurtz)

The key to practical quantum computing and high-efficiency solar cells may lie in the messy green world outside the physics lab.

On the face of it, quantum effects and living organisms seem to occupy utterly different realms. The former are usually observed only on the nanometre scale, surrounded by hard vacuum, ultra-low temperatures and a tightly controlled laboratory environment. The latter inhabit a macroscopic world that is warm, messy and anything but controlled. A quantum phenomenon such as 'coherence', in which the wave patterns of every part of a system stay in step, wouldn't last a microsecond in the tumultuous realm of the cell.

Or so everyone thought. But discoveries in recent years suggest that nature knows a few tricks that physicists don't: coherent quantum processes may well be ubiquitous in the natural world.

and:

Robert Blankenship, a photosynthesis researcher at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, and a co-author with Fleming on the C. tepidium paper, admits to some scepticism. "My sense is that there may well be a few cases, like the ones we know about already, where these effects are important," he says, "but that many, if not most, biological systems will not utilize quantum effects like these." But Scholes believes that there are grounds for optimism, given a suitably broad definition of quantum biology. "I do think there are other examples in biology where an understanding at the quantum-mechanical level will help us to appreciate more deeply how the process works," he says.

and:

Quantum coherence in photosynthesis seems to be beneficial to the organisms using it. But did their ability to exploit quantum effects evolve through natural selection? Or is quantum coherence just an accidental side effect of the way certain molecules are structured? "There is a lot of speculation about the evolutionary question, and a lot of misunderstanding," says Scholes, who is far from sure about the answer. "We cannot tell if this effect in photosynthesis is selected for, nor if there is the option not to use coherence to move the electronic energy. There are no data available at all even to address the question."

More: http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110615/full/474272a.html

Quantum or not? Mathematical equations resolve nanostructures behavior

 
In a game of billiards, the path of each ball is determined by the classical laws of motion. At the microscopic scale, equivalent objects may be governed by quantum mechanics, such that their exact path of movement could take several directions.

Understanding the transport of electrons in nanostructures and biological molecules is crucial to understanding properties such as electrical conductivity or the biochemical behavior of molecules. However, determining whether the electrons are behaving according to the classical laws of motion or the quantum mechanical regime at the nanoscale is challenging because many nanostructures fall in a grey area between both regimes. Japanese researchers from the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute in Wako, with colleagues from Germany and Taiwan, have now devised a set of mathematical equations that can distinguish classical from quantum mechanical behavior of electrons in nanostructures.

On a macroscopic scale, objects follow the classical laws of motion. Golf or billiard balls, for example, will follow exact, predictable paths. On a microscopic scale, objects such as electrons move according to the laws of quantum mechanics, where processes occur in a probabilistic manner. Measuring the properties of quantum mechanical systems, however, is challenging.

“In microscopic systems, it is very difficult to perform ideal measurements without disturbing the system,” explains Neill Lambert from the research team. As a consequence, measurements on quantum mechanical systems are difficult to distinguish from invasive measurements on classical systems, says Franco Nori from RIKEN and the University of Michigan, who led the research team. “It is important to be confident that experimental results are not originating from a classical effect, giving a false impression of quantum behavior.”

As a model system, the researchers chose the transport of electrons through vanishingly small pieces of matter known as quantum dots. “Even measuring the current passing through a quantum dot represents an invasive measurement of the system,” Lambert notes. To identify quantum effects, he and his colleagues developed a set of criteria expressed as a mathematical inequality relationship for experimental data from these quantum dots. Any excess over a critical threshold in the formula by a parameter represents a clear sign of quantum behavior. In their simulations the researchers found several regimes at low temperatures where quantum effects in the dynamics of electrons in the quantum dots should occur.

The inequality relation derived by the researchers is based on fundamental principles and therefore applies not only to the transport of electrons through quantum dots, but also to many open, microscopic electron transport systems, says Nori. He believes that it will soon be easier to determine whether electrons in nanostructures follow the rules of quantum mechanics or take the classical route of their billiard-ball counterparts.

More information: Lambert, N., et al. Distinguishing quantum and classical transport through nanostructures. Physical Review Letters 105, 176801 (2010) .  See here

http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v105/i17/e176801

Physicist finds new state of matter

Topologist Predicts New Form of Matter

A link between quantum mechanics and topology implies the existence of an entirely new state of matter. And physicists have already found the first example

Back in 1970, a young physicist working in the Soviet Union made a counterintutive prediction. Vitaly Efimov, now at the University of Washington in the US, showed that quantum objects that cannot form into pairs could nevertheless form into triplets.

In 2006, a group in Austria found the first example of such a so-called Efimov state in a cold gas of cesium atoms.

That's puzzling. Surely the bonds that hold triplets together are the same as those that bind pairs. Actually, no! It turns out that there is a subtle but important difference that makes these bonds completely different.

Today, Nils Baas at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology makes another startling prediction. He says that the strange, unworldly bonds that allow cesium atoms to stick together in triplets should allow much more complex objects to form too. In fact, he says we're on the verge of discovering a brand new form of matter governed by an entirely new branch of physics.

Behind this strange result is a branch of mathematics called topology, the study of shape. Topology is concerned in particular with the properties of shape that are preserved when an object is squeezed, stretched and pummelled, but not torn.

A useful example to consider is the famous Borromean ring shown above left. It consists of three circles intertwined in such a way that cutting one releases the other two.

A key point here is that the circles in a flat 2 dimensional plane cannot form a Borromean ring. But introduce a third dimension and all of a sudden the circles can be linked in this way. Of course, any flatlander living in this 2D plane would be utterly bamboozled by this property.

It turns out that there is formal mathematical analogy between the Borromean ring and the strange triplets of cesium that Efimov predicted. The mathematics of quantum mechanics and of topology turn out to be the same.

But here's the thing: the bonds that emerge from the topology of quantum mechanics are entirely unworldly. While ordinary matter, the stuff you rap your knuckles on, is clearly confined to three dimensions, the mathematics of quantum mechanics exists in entirely different set of dimensions. And it's in this space that the Borromean rings form.

The result is a kind of parallel physics, in which the laws governing behaviour in this parallel universe exert an inescapable, ghostly grip on our own universe.

And it's not just the bonds between atoms that are effected. Physicists are beginning to build conductors and insulators in which the movement of electrons is governed by the topology of quantum mechanics. So-called topological insulators are a big topic in solid state physics right now.

And topology is about to extend its influence, if Baas has his way. He points out that Borromean rings are just the simplest example of an entire periodic table of topological structures. And if it's possible to make Efimov states that are equivalent to Borromean rings, then it ought to be possible to make the others too.

This family of stuff will be a new state of matter that is governed by news rules, a kind of "Efimov physics".

How might this stuff behave? That isn't yet clear but Baas raises an interesting possibility. The deep and unworldly link between particles in Efimov states is remarkably similar to quantum entanglement.

Nobody's quite sure if they're identical but if they are, then Efimov physics will provide a new way to think about entanglement and how to generate and exploit it. That will have important implications for cryptography, computing and information science in general.

The Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann once stated that: "Everything not forbidden is mandatory." He was referring to the way particles interact in quantum mechanics. In other words, if there's no reason why particles cannot interact in a certain way, then they must interact in that way.

It looks as if we're about to see how profound and far-reaching this statement really was.

Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1012.2698: New States of Matter Suggested By New Topological Structures

Quantum mechanics ‘weirdness’ used by plants, animals

Bird navigation, plant photosynthesis and the human sense of smell all represent ways living things appear to exploit the oddities of quantum physics, according to Seth Lloyd, a professor of quantum mechanical engineering at MIT.

That means humans might be able to develop technology for more accurate sensors or far more efficient solar cells by mimicking the way living things use quantum physics, he said.

In the case of human smell, it appears that receptors are triggered in part by “phonons” — tiny vibrational phenomena that provide the extra energy needed to create a signal that we recognize as a scent.

“This process, which is called phonon-assisted tunnelling, is a purely quantum mechanical process,” Lloyd said. “It can’t be explained by ordinary classical models.”

Lloyd said quantum mechanics likely plays a key role in vision as well, because vision systems in animals are sensitive to individual quantum particles of light called photons. And some birds have an internal compass that helps them navigate, and it appears to make use of quantum entanglement.

Lloyd’s biological research, funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, looks at how living things use quantum computation.

Read original article

Quantum ‘weirdness’ used by plants, animals

Source: CBC News, Nov 3, 2010

Quantum entanglement milestone achieved in solid-state circuitry

On New Year's eve, like so many other people,I made my predictions for 2010. One of them was that we would see a major breathrough /milestone in the real world applications of quantum mechanics and entanglement.

Little did I know that a major milestone would to announced less then two weeks later.

Quantum entanglement milestone achieved in solid-state circuitry

For the first time, physicists have convincingly demonstrated that physically separated particles in solid-state devices can be quantum-mechanically entangled. The achievement is analogous to the quantum entanglement of light, except that it involves particles in circuitry instead of photons in optical systems. Both optical and solid-state entanglement offer potential routes to quantum computing and secure communications, but solid-state versions may ultimately be easier to incorporate into electronic devices. The experiment is reported in an upcoming issue of Physical Review Letters and highlighted with a Viewpoint in the January 11 issue of Physics (http://physics.aps.org.)

Walter Derzko, Smart Economy, Toronto

 

Author of the soon-to-be published book- Opportunity 45 Scenarios to Drive Your Business in Challenging Times, published by J. Wiley and Sons

ISBN13: 978-0-470-73761-3

ISBN10: 0-470-73761-1

Ten predictions and wild cards for 2010

Everyone likes to play soothsayer in the beginning of each new year, so here's my crack at predictions, black swans  and wild-cards for 2010...but  I genuinely hope that 1, 6, 7,8,9 & 10 don't happen...where is Merlin when you need him?

1. PREDICTION: Several distant earthquakes trigger "ring of fire" volcanoes to erupt &  usher in a period of global cooling - decade long  mini ice age
2. PREDICTION: Evidence of extra terrestrial life (viral/bacterial, prions, other?) confirmed on another planet or moon & /or  artificial life created for the first time with synthetic biology on earth.
3. PREDICTION: Major medical breakthrough cure annonced -Nature's silver bullet ; Hydrated Fullerenes (C60) launched on the market to cure  dozens of  diseases and ills all at once (antiviral, anti-bacterial, anti inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti Alzheimer's , anti-radiological etc.)
4. PREDICTION: Quantum physics algorithms are created to provide secure banking and computing  and the world wide web.
5. PREDICTION: Carbon nanotube market and novel apps boom
6. PREDICTION: An 8+ earthquake hits the North American west coast
7. PREDICTION: Major unexpected global food crisis and shortages, (from extreme weather-drought, frost, flooded cropland etc, blighted wheat,  bee colony collapse, drought stricken rice in Asia to severely depleted fish stocks, red tide/algae blooms ) REALITY: Florida Freeze Damages as Much as 5% of Orange Crop BusinessWeek Jan 10, 2010; Big freeze brings food shortages and price rises Jan 10 2010;
8. PREDICTION: Several political coup d' etate will occur in one or more developed, failed and developing countries ; ie child Talaban bombers in Pakistan (see school)  
9. PREDICTION: America looses its triple AAA credit rating. (Does every empire have an expiration date? Is America past its due date?)  REALITY: Moody's puts Canada USA, UK on Credit Rating Watch List; Slow  continuous Pauperization of the two former world powers- Russia and the USA ....DeAmericanization-the US reverts into an undeveloping nation with riots, shortages, debt defaults, terrorism, tax revolts (see http://cafr1.com/) and bank boycotts  (just like Rome or the former Soviet Union) . China's economic miracle stalls flat. [BACKGROUND:  The 'American Empire' has peaked, is on a decline. Hong Kong economist Marc Faber says "the average life span of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years ... Once a society becomes successful it becomes arrogant, righteous, overconfident, corrupt, and decadent ... overspends ... costly wars ... wealth inequity and social tensions increase; and society enters a secular decline." Online Collectivization REALITY: Boycott Big Banks
10. PREDICTION: A new youth based radical political party formed with new charismatic leaders (see school)

Walter Derzko, Smart Economy, Toronto

 

Author of the soon-to-be published book- Opportunity 45 Scenarios to Drive Your Business in Challenging Times, published by J. Wiley and Sons

ISBN13: 978-0-470-73761-3

ISBN10: 0-470-73761-1

Smart Sustainability Showcase for Toronto and Canada

From: Walter Derzko

Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 12:19 AM

To: undisclosed list

Subject: re Smart Sustainability ShowCase for Toronto and Canada.

Importance: High

Dear Colleagues

I’d like to plant an idea with you – after speaking with a number of designers and vendors, I’m exploring the idea for a sustainability showcase that would feature theme based exhibits with smart technologies from Canadian and international sources-the best from Ontario, nationally and from around the world.

The launch would be 2010, The timing for this seems right.  The target audience would be Canadian business, consumers and school children

I’m writing a book on smart technologies and this would be a logical extension of the concept.

Two years ago I talked to Samantha Sannella and Poala Polletto at the Design Exchange (DX) in Toronto and with several people at the Ont Science Center.  Both groups expressed interest but said that we would need to find sponsors for the project

My business model for this would be three pronged -vendor based revenue, corporate based sponsor revenue and municipality based sponsorship ie city of Toronto or Mississauga and possibly the province of Ontario who may wish to promote sustainable manufacturing.

This concept would be a Canadian, in fact a North American first.

I have a list of 150 potential vendors, and designers from around the world who are working on smart technologies that we can start to approach.

The exhibits would be theme based, --the sustainable kitchen, the sustainable office, the sustainable retail shelf, the sustainable workspace, the sustainable community, the sustainable city etc and would be updated with new technologies every 3-5 years and have a 1-5 year forward focus. (what's commercially available now or in the very near future.

For other exhibits, there can be a regional or national focus ie smart sustainable technology from the UK, Finland, Germany (Fraunhofer Inst), China, Ukraine, Russia, or Singapore, Hong Kong etc

Corporate sponsors might include: Walmart, Rona, Home Deport, Canadian Tire, Loblaws, Sears, Imperial Oil, the banks (RBC, TD, RBC BMO) etc.

The Sustainability Showcase could be housed in a physical location, or it could tour from location to location around the city or province or be mobile ( on a bus the way the Japanese and Korean do- a display bus turned into a demo center that tours from school to school or to fairs and exhibitions.

OCAD students and staff and Beal senior fellows could play a hand in designing exhibit spaces and sourcing new vendors and sustainable technologies.

Several other revenue opportunities could spin off from this as well

Here’s just a few examples of what can be showcased

1) Environmentally sensible packaging such as Mercury-Absorbant NanoSponge packaging for broken compact fluorescent lamps (CFL's) http://smarteconomy.typepad.com/smart_economy/2008/06/mercury-absorba.html

2) Concrete Wood (from the example I mentioned June 2 at OCAD, when Bob Logan was bemoaning the lack of durability of pressboard shelving from Ikea.  See Concrete Wood from lodgepole pine trees destroyed by pine beetles (kills two birds with one stone) http://smarteconomy.typepad.com/smart_economy/2007/11/concrete-wood.html

3) End of Traditional Heating and Air conditioning Thin-film version of Active Building Envelope (ABE) systems could make conventional air conditioning and heating equipment obsolete http://smarteconomy.typepad.com/smart_economy/2006/07/thinfilm_versio.html

4) OLEDs New High efficiency flat light source OLEDs > Almost any surface in a home, whether flat or curved, could become a light source: walls, curtains, ceilings, cabinets, shelves or tables.  Http://smarteconomy.typepad.com/smart_economy/2006/04/new_high_effici.html

Lots more like these

For anyone who is interested in exploring the idea of a Smart Sustainability Showcase for Toronto, we are having a meeting on Tuesday July 22 at 11 am at the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD), Beal Institute for Strategic Creativity, room 600, 6th floor , 100 McCaul St, Toronto just south of the Ont Art Gallery.

Please RSVP, so we know how many people are coming

I have had some positive feedback from several organizations, & I’d like to push the concept forward

I'm sending this nationally and internationally in  case you are aware of any designers, vendors, manufacturers or research centers who have interesting cutting edge smart sustainable technology to showcase.

Contact me by email

----Walter  Derzko; Senior Fellow Beal Institute for Strategic Creativity, OCAD 

© 2005-2008 Walter Derzko -"Changing the world, one idea at a time"©

Expert, Consultant, Keynote Speaker and Lecturer on Emerging Smart Technologies, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Strategic Foresight, Business Development, Lateral Creative Thinking and author of an upcoming book on the Smart Economy

The Smart Technology Blog: The Smart Economy -- Read, enjoy, explore, speculate, comment !!

To arrange for an in house presentation or briefing on smart technology see here

To explore the opportunities and threats of any new smart technology in your industry - Contact Me or explore how we can work together

First ever execution of a quantum calculation 08-012

Researchers from the University of Queensland's Centre for Quantum Computer Technology together with colleagues from the University of Toronto in Canada have made the first ever execution of a quantum calculation, a major step towards building more complex quantum computers.  By manipulating quantum mechanically entangled photons - the fundamental particles of light - the prime factors of the number 15 were calculated.

Ben Lanyon, UQ doctoral student and the research paper's first author, said calculating the prime factors of 15 was a crucial step towards calculating much larger numbers, which could be used to crack cryptographic codes that are unbreakable using conventional computers.

"Our goal is not to break these codes in practice, but to show that they can be broken, and motivate a move to a more secure system," Mr Lanyon said.

These codes form the basis of most banking and computer security and has implications of how we keep all data secure in the future.

"Classical computers use two-level systems called bits (binary digits) while quantum computers use two-level 'quantum-mechanical' systems called qubits (quantum bits)," he said.

"A qubit is like a coin that can be heads (on), tails (off) or simultaneously heads AND tails (on and off) or any possible combination in-between.

"This is impossible with normal bits but one qubit can be in two possible states, two qubits can be in four, three qubits in eight, and so on.  Quantum memory sizes grow exponentially with the number of qubits."

Functional large-scale quantum computers may be many years or decades away, but D-Wave, a Canadian company last year introduced the world's first working prototype quantum computer

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