Posts Tagged ‘University of Chicago’
Inside Illinois’ efforts to court the emerging quantum technology industry
Capitol News Illinois
CHICAGO — Just over one year ago, the Illinois legislature approved spending more than $700 million to attract and support a new industry: quantum technology.
Now, representatives of other countries, federal research labs and a network of private organizations with ties to the state are beginning to ink deals and make agreements to bring specific quantum companies to Illinois — and boost the startups that are already here.
Illinois state officials are interested in attracting the nascent industry because of its potential for economic growth and positioning Illinois as a high-tech leader in the coming decades.
Quantum technology is an emerging field of research and business that creates specialized machinery and computers that use the laws of quantum mechanics to solve problems and behave in ways that would be out of reach for traditional machines.
Last week, two events in Chicagoland offered a glimpse inside the world of quantum businesses and the layers of public and private funding going into the industry.
The Japan External Trade Organization — an economic development organization affiliated with the government of Japan — sponsored a two-day “delegation” of business representatives to Chicago.
At an early meeting of the delegation, representatives of the state and economic development agencies pitched the region — and Illinois’ state backing — as unique in the world.
“This is not a state government that is following trends but really setting the trends,” Intersect Illinois Chief Quantum Officer Preeti Chalsani told the delegation. “When I go to conferences, I hear about other states and countries who are thinking of doing something like Illinois. That really makes me proud.”
Intersect Illinois is a private nonprofit organization with ties to the state. It’s led by Christy George, a former Pritzker administration official who helped plan the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last summer. The organization also plays a prominent role in the state Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity’s five-year plan for attracting business to Illinois.
“This is a state that is constantly on a mission to constantly build and expand our business environment,” George said at the event.
What is quantum tech?
Researchers and entrepreneurs are developing computers and other systems using the principles of quantum mechanics to achieve things that would be impossible with traditional computers. Current quantum computers can perform benchmark tests more than 1 billion times faster than traditional computers. Quantum technology can also be used to decode encrypted messages, posing serious questions for the cybersecurity industry. Other applications include simulations, sensor technology and communications.
World Business Chicago, an economic development organization backed by the city of Chicago, estimates the industry could generate tens of billions of dollars in Chicagoland and create more than 100,000 jobs.
Representatives of the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, World Business Chicago and the University of Chicago also participated in the event.
The visit mirrored Gov. JB Pritzker’s and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s visits to Japan where both men, along with sizable entourages of economic development leaders and businesspeople, met with Japanese officials.
Read more: Federal agency opposes new state law; Pritzker to lead trade mission to Japan
Both visits, and especially Pritzker’s in October 2024, built hype in the Asian nation about Illinois’ role in the developing quantum technology sector. Pritzker is a self-professed “quantum geek” and his personal interest in the emerging industry contributes to the state’s interest in it.
Over the two days the Japanese delegation was in Chicago, they toured several local quantum businesses, including qBraid, InfleQtion, and EeroQ among other locations around the city. The DCEO and Intersect Illinois also hosted a reception for the Japanese delegation.
The efforts from state and industry boosters appear to be interesting to at least a few in the cutting-edge industry.
At a pitch and networking event capping off the Japanese visit last week, several Chicago-based and Japan-based companies discussed their business models and strategies.
One of the Japanese delegation members who pitched at the event, Quantumdata founder Yuki Nagasako, told Capitol News Illinois the quantum industry in Chicago is “very hot,” especially compared to artificial intelligence tech hubs in California.
“When I say I work in quantum technology in the Bay area? Nobody knows. Nothing,” Nagasako said. “But in Chicago, here? Everybody.”
Nagasako, whose company has offices in California and is currently in a fundraising round, said he’s seriously considering expanding in Chicago.
That event also featured a closed-door meetings between Japanese companies and officials at PsiQuantum as well as other local companies.
State quantum park
PsiQuantum is one of the jewels of the state’s quantum crown. It is the “anchor tenant” of the Illinois Quantum and Microelectronics Park, or IQMP, a research park set to break ground later this year on Chicago’s South Side.
The California-based quantum computing company was raising $750 million at a $6 billion valuation earlier this year, according to reporting from Reuters. Its last official valuation was $3.1 billion in 2021.
Read more: Quantum business park coming to Chicago, backed by $700M from state of Illinois
That park is being built with $500 million in state funding, on top of $200 million in tax breaks and other incentives going to PsiQuantum directly.
Harley Johnson, the University of Illinois professor who took over as the head of the IQMP late last year, said the “singular focus” of the research facility is to help scale up quantum computing technology.
“In some cases, it takes really specialized, industrial-scale infrastructure,” Johnson said last week.
Johnson was speaking at an event at Argonne National Lab where federal researchers and state-level quantum advocates discussed the state’s future as the “Quantum Prairie” — a riff on California’s Silicon Valley.
There, he also laid the groundwork for what is expected to be a busy few months at the state’s quantum research park.
“There are a lot of exciting announcements,” Johnson said. “We’re going to break ground very soon.”
In addition to PsiQuantum, several other major groups have said they’ll set up shop at the research park. Six months ago, IBM announced it would build a quantum computer and research center at the park. About a year ago, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, announced it would base a quantum testing program at the park.
Two weeks ago, the IQMP also announced that Australian tech and quantum company Diraq intends to open a facility at the park.
“Diraq building and scaling their quantum operation at the IQMP is a testament to Illinois attracting the tech and security sectors,” Pritzker said in a statement at the time. “Diraq’s commitment further cements Illinois’ position as a global quantum leader and reflects the state’s commitment to fostering innovation and economic growth.”
Diraq is one of nearly 20 companies that is participating in the first stage of DARPA’s quantum testing program.
“We’ve got others that will be coming on board soon,” Johnson said in his speech last week.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
The post Inside Illinois’ efforts to court the emerging quantum technology industry appeared first on Capitol News Illinois.
Immigrant health care programs boosted hospital bottom lines, study suggests
Capitol News Illinois
SPRINGFIELD – Two state-run health care programs that extend Medicaid-like coverage to noncitizens may have provided significant financial benefits for Illinois hospitals.
That’s according to preliminary results of an ongoing study at the University of Chicago that suggests the programs corresponded, at least in part, to a 15% reduction in the amount of bad debt Illinois hospitals incurred each year since the programs have been in full effect.
“The number that we find is a 15% reduction,” Aresha Martinez-Cardoso, an assistant professor and researcher at U of C’s Embodying Racism Lab, where the study is being conducted, said in an interview. “We think that that might be a high estimate, given what we know about perhaps other things that are going on that we can’t entirely rule out, but we do think that part of that reduction is associated with the policy.”
That translates to an average of $1.5 million per year, per hospital, according to the report, although the exact amount would vary greatly depending on a hospital’s size and the volume of patients it treats who are covered by the programs.
“Our early findings show that this landmark policy isn’t just about access — it also serves as a strategic investment in our hospitals and the health of entire communities,” Martinez-Cardoso said.
Those findings come as Gov. JB Pritzker’s administration is preparing to shut down the larger of the two programs as part of his budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year. The Health Benefits for Immigrant Adults, or HBIA, currently covers more than 31,000 eligible noncitizens aged 42-64, at a cost of about $21 million per month, according to the most recent data from the Department of Healthcare and Family Services.
The other program, Health Benefits for Immigrant Seniors, covers eligible noncitizens aged 65 and over. That program currently covers about 8,900 individuals at a cost of about $10 million per month. Pritzker has not proposed eliminating it.
The programs were launched in 2020 and 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, as a means of extending health coverage to individuals who did not qualify for other publicly funded health care programs solely due to their immigration status. Those include individuals who are in the United States without legal authorization as well as certain legal permanent residents who have not yet been in the country long enough to qualify for Medicaid.
The programs have been controversial since they were first proposed. Republicans have been especially critical, saying the programs serve as an incentive for immigrants to cross into the United States illegally and settle in Illinois to receive taxpayer-funded health benefits.
With the state facing slow revenue growth and a projected budget deficit in the coming year, Pritzker surprised many of his supporters in February when he proposed closing the HBIA program.
Eliminating the program for middle-aged adults is projected to save the general revenue fund about $330 million, according to the governor’s office. Pritzker told reporters after his address in February he expects the federal government will stop reimbursing states for costs associated with programs providing services to noncitizens.
A week after the governor’s budget address, the Illinois Auditor General released a report that said enrollment in both programs and their eventual costs had far exceeded their original projection. The cost for the two programs, the report said, exceeded $1.6 billion over the course of four fiscal years.
Read more: Audit finds Illinois’ noncitizen health care programs far outstripped original cost estimates
Unlike Medicaid, which is jointly funded with state and federal funds, the health programs for noncitizens are funded almost entirely with state dollars.
The study looked at publicly available hospital financial reports to analyze changes in the amount of uncompensated care they provided from 2017 to 2023. It also looked at similar data from hospitals in Indiana and Wisconsin, neighboring states that do not provide health benefits for noncitizens.
“We tried to flip it a few different ways,” Martinez-Cardoso said in an interview. “There could be a lot of other things happening. But when we test a bunch of different models … we kind of see a consistent pattern that the policy timing is associated with bad debt.”
She said the results so far are only preliminary and that analysis of the data is continuing. But she said the analysis so far shows a strong link between the enactment of the programs and an overall reduction in uncollectable debt.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
The post Immigrant health care programs boosted hospital bottom lines, study suggests appeared first on Capitol News Illinois.