Quantum for Health Design Challenge
The UW community is challenged to present ideas and designs for how Quantum Technologies can significantly impact health.
About
Transformative Quantum Technologies presents the Quantum for Health Design Challenge (Q4Health) to search for opportunities where quantum technology can advance health. This challenge is open to the entire University of Waterloo community, including undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, faculty and staff.
Health: “a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” – The World Health Organization
Criteria
Each team will submit a design document describing the form, operation, application and proposed impact of their idea.
Submissions will be judged on:
- the problem being addressed and its significance;
- team composition that reflects the expertise required to deliver on the interdisciplinary nature of the solution and best practices in equity, diversity and inclusion;
- impact of the proposed solution including in the near term (3-5 years);
- market potential and economic feasibility.
A prototype is not required, but evidence of technical feasibility and manufacturability would be viewed favourably. Technical feasibility may refer to existing science and the novel application thereof in health. References are not required but advantageous when describing a narrow aspect of science that may not be well known.
The design document shall be roughly five (5) pages in length and speak to both the quantum and health communities (there will be reviewers drawn from both communities). The inclusion of at least one figure is desirable. The structure should follow the criteria bulleted above.
Eligibility
The Q4Health challenge is looking for well-motivated, quantum-based ideas that can lead to innovation in health. Health as defined herein is broad, spanning technologies that are directly used in diagnosis and treatment to technologies that indirectly improve health or mitigate harm to health. The focus is on the impacts that new technologies can have. In the design proposal, the technology side should be well founded, but the expectation is that it will not have been reduced to practice. No prototype is required, but the design document should be convincing that the proposed future is possible. Note that projects need not be patient-focused.
Teams need not have deep knowledge in either quantum or health but should have explored what is in general possible. TQT will run a series of information sessions to provide introductions to both quantum concepts and health needs. All design submissions must be team-based, with a minimum of two people (up to any number). The proposal must demonstrate basic knowledge and creativity in health and in quantum.
- This challenge is open to the full UW community (undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, faculty and staff)
- Must be a team project; minimum team size is 2 (up to any number)
- All members of the team must have a current affiliation with UW
Important Dates
- Q4Health Launch Event: September 19, 2022
- See Event Summary including Case Studies and Ideas & Connections
- Q4Health Live Pitch Opportunity: October 20, 2022
- 10 x $1,000 awards available for best pitches
- Q4Health Design Submissions Due: 5 pm ET on February 6, 2023
- Q4Health Awards Announced: Late February 2023
Awards
- Up to $10,000 per award, details to follow
TQT gratefully acknowledges the support of its Q4Health sponsors.
Q4Health Pitch Competition
Apply Now
- You may submit your design by completing the online form. Alternatively, you may complete the form in MS Word and submit to tqt@uwaterloo.ca with the subject header “Q4H Application” by the applicable deadline.
Information Sessions
- Quantum Entanglement
- Quantization and Tunneling
- Quantum Superposition and Interference
- Quantum Simulation
- Quantum Algorithms
- Implementations of Quantum Systems and Their Use
Contact
For questions regarding the challenge, please email tqt@uwaterloo.ca.
Why Quantum for Health
Quantum technologies allow us to perform tasks with more efficiency and greater precision than is possible in the classical world. Quantum solutions can achieve what would otherwise be impossible. It is compelling to mate these exciting new technologies with pressing needs in health. Outcomes may include more accessible health care, technology enabling personalized medicine and high-performance diagnostics such as wearable sensors and medical imaging. There are also opportunities in structural biology, quantum simulation, computation and communication. This design challenge is open to a broad range of health, medical and biological outcomes. Through this challenge, TQT aims to uncover new ways quantum technologies might impact health in the near and long term. The focus is to bring forth ideas that expand the potential reach of quantum technologies so that everyone, everywhere, can attain the highest level of health. There is no need to reduce ideas to practice to participate in this challenge.
Right Place to Do This
The UW community is the right resource to engage for advancing health technology, and UW is one of the very few places where the advances possible through quantum technology can be brought to health. Quantum and health are long-term priorities of the Canadian Government and connect to the recent focus on Canada’s National Quantum Strategy. UW shares these priorities. UW is internationally known for innovation and, specifically, as an innovation leader in the quantum field. The Institute for Quantum Computing provides a unique environment to bring quantum ideas to life.