“In the future, I believe human oversight should remain a cornerstone of technology development, we can’t just leave it all to machines, and I’m hopeful that regulations will continue to develop, ensuring ethical and thoughtful implementation. While companies prioritize maximizing shareholder value, they often do so at society’s expense, yet the importance of education must not be overlooked or sacrificed in the process.”
Quantum computing holds transformative potential across multiple industries, such as healthcare, finance, and cryptography, and QuLearnLabs, one of the Deep Tech Talent Initiative’s Call for Training Proposals 2024 winning projects, is an accelerator for learners looking to develop quantum skills, focusing on practical application, development and software engineering. At our recent Tech Days event in Warsaw, we spoke to Andreea Moga, Lead LX and Product, and Co-ordinator for QuLearnLabs about the challenges of quantum technology education.
The quantum technology ‘buzz’
Exchange traded funds experts are saying that quantum technologies are going to replace the current artificial intelligence (AI) buzz, and will be where the next investment opportunities lie. Andreea believes that Europe has to “jump on this wave” so it is ahead of the curve in terms of education and preparing the next generation of quantum engineers.
She also stresses that many companies will need help and support to understand how they can use these new quantum technologies, because currently most of the work is at the research and development stage, with very few actual applications. Andreea said: “Ideally, we would aim towards a place where we can extract business values for different domains; healthcare, security, the space industry, manufacturing, the food industry, etc. And then those use cases would be built starting with education, then building proof of concepts, anything that proves a very fast business value for the companies, and then build it up from there and hopefully, spin off with ventures.”
Andreea highlighted that one of the primary challenges in educating professionals about quantum technologies is the divide between technical experts and business professionals. Tech professionals excel in hard skills but may struggle with business communication, while business leaders may lack technical understanding. She believes that bridging these two worlds requires a dual approach: educating business professionals on technology fundamentals and equipping tech experts with essential, but not too complex, business acumen and communication skills.
Accelerating the learning path with AI
The QuLearnLabs course is called ‘AI Assisted Software Engineering for Quantum Computing and Post Quantum Cryptography’. Andreea explains that while traditional software engineering follows a step-by-step learning approach, QuLearnLabs are planning to accelerate the learning experience through the use of AI assistants and the latest state-of-the-art technology breakthroughs. Additionally, AI-driven tools will help streamline administrative tasks for mentors and instructors, allowing them to focus on delivering high-quality education.
Andreea highlighted how AI-driven development tools are transforming the role of software engineers. Rather than solely writing code, developers are increasingly becoming orchestrators, managing a diverse range of technologies and skill sets. While AI empowers solo entrepreneurs to build powerful businesses, she emphasizes that human oversight remains crucial—particularly for ethical considerations and long-term impact in professional software development.
“Looking ahead, the future of AI-integrated development will also depend on robust regulations and adherence to best practices.”
To keep their programme aligned with the latest advancements in AI, quantum computing, and cryptography, Andreea outlined how QuLearnLabs’ key offering for industry partners is to involve tech professionals who are currently building applications to be part of their mentoring programme. She said: “As mentors, these professionals have hands-on experience, and bring the latest expertise and tech-know-how with them. We believe that true mentoring goes beyond teaching, it requires real-world industry exposure and “skin in the game”. Mentors including quantum software engineers and cybersecurity experts who are actively working in the field will bring their practical knowledge to this programme.” Andreea added that QuLearnLabs will also be inviting other industry players to inspire students through guest lectures at some point during the course.
Supporting the Deep Tech Talent Initiative’s mission
Andreea comes from a technology background, having worked in software engineering and AI engineering roles for the past 10 years, but explained that when she began working in technology education with non-technical people, she noticed most of the valuable business use cases were coming from subject matter experts, and educating them in technology was helping them ideate how to apply this technology, as opposed to tech professionals coming up with solutions, that may or may not be needed, in domains they are not familiar with.
It’s this that’s behind the reason for consortium partners of QuLearnLabs joining the EIT Deep Tech Talent Initiative as a Pledger, to support its mission of skilling and upskilling 1 million talents. Andreea said: “It was something we were already doing; we wanted to support this mission and collaborate with the rest of the ecosystem.”
QuLearnLabs is opening up seats in their AI-assisted Software Engineering for Quantum Computing Course starting in May 2025 soon. Click here to register and be the first to know when seats are available.
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