Two University of Surrey researchers have been awarded a combined £2.7 million through UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) prestigious Future Leaders Fellowships to progress their research in quantum technology and the science of language.
Dr Priya Sharma, a Daphne Jackson Fellow in Hybrid Quantum Systems, has received £1.3 million to explore the potential of a new type of superfluid-based quantum bit (qubit), while Dr Sacha Beniamine, a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in linguistics research at the Surrey Morphology Group, has received £1.4 million to investigate our ability to predict and produce words we have never heard before.
Dr Sharma’s Fellowship builds on her recently published conceptual design for the Superfluid Helium Oscillator Quantum (SHOQ) device – the first reported design for a superfluid-based qubit. Using charge-neutral superfluid helium-3, the technology could be naturally less vulnerable to some of the electromagnetic noise that causes errors in conventional superconducting qubits – an issue hindering the scaling up of quantum computers.
The Future Leaders Fellowship will provide the means to further explore the potential of SHOQ technology and progress towards commercialisation, with longer-term ambitions to secure patents and attract investment for a quantum hardware start-up.
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