Quantum computing may be getting closer to solving one of its biggest challenges. According to Atom Computing’s Kristen Pudenz, advances in scaling are making practical error correction possible, opening a path toward fault-tolerant systems and utility-scale quantum computing. Pudenz, vice president of research programs at Atom Computing, has been tracking that shift for much of her career. She began her doctorate in 2008, when utility-scale quantum computing still felt like a distant possibility. Today, she sees a clearer path forward. The reason, she says, comes back to two themes: scaling and error correction. “They relate intimately to one another. The scaling that is happening allows error correction to begin to be implemented at a useful level,” Pudenz said in a recent interview with MeriTalk. “I think that’s a really exciting moment for quantum computing.” “People should be taking quantum technology very seriously right now,” Pudenz said. “Now is when the rubber meets the road.” Scaling makes error correction possible Error correction has long been viewed as a prerequisite for practical quantum computing. Quantum systems are highly sensitive to noise and errors, making it difficult to run complex calculations reliably. Until recently, however, many quantum platforms lacked the scale necessary to implement error correction in a meaningful way. That is beginning to change, according to Pudenz. “What error correction gives to the quantum user community, why people should care about error correction, is that it means that the applications that you put on the quantum computer can go all the way,” Pudenz said. “They can go all the way to the promise of utility-scale quantum computing.” The shift has significant implications for organizations already exploring quantum applications. Rather than developing algorithms that eventually run into hardware limitations, users can begin designing software with future fault-tolerant systems in mind. Pudenz said that