The industry’s most innovative people 2024 Michael Förtsch
Organisation: Q.ANT Role: CEO
Michael Förtsch is the founder and CEO of Q.ANT, a start-up active in photonic quantum technology. “Our quantum sensors allow us to capture
information that would otherwise not be possible to attain using classical means. For example, our NV-centre magnetometer will be able to sense muscle signals to control exo-skeletons to help handicapped persons,” says Förtsch. “Our portfolio also includes compact
atomic gyroscopes for detecting the tiniest attitude changes. This lifts orientation control to the next level, enabling mini-cube satellite constellations to be stable enough for laser-based communication.”
Michael Thiel
Organisation: Nanoscribe Role: Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer
Michael Thiel is the Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer of Nanoscribe, a firm which offers 3D printers for the micro- and nanometre scale. He is working on the industrialisation of two-photon polymerisation lithography – a unique light- based 3D printing technology. Thiel says he and his team have demonstrated the printing of photonic interconnects on chips and fibres and found very low losses in these connections. “It was surprising,” Thiel says, “how much unmatched demand there is in the
Based in: Karlsruhe, Germany
Education: PhD, Physics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
industry and how much we can provide here with our technology.” Talking about the coming year, he adds:
“Our priority is to speed up our 3D printing technology and, at the same time, match the very high demands of the optics and photonics applications.” In the wider photonics space, Thiel identifies the progress in laser fusion as a stand-out development. “In one of the recent fusion experiments one of our customers has even used a printed structure. This is just amazing to follow,” he says.
Mohamed Kassem
Organisation: WhiteHaul Role: CTO and Co-Founder
Mohamed Kassem, who is also a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Surrey, has a broad interest in wireless and mobile systems and standards, including 5G system architecture and standardisation, space networks, spectrum sharing and aggregation, and Multi-RAT systems. In October 2023, he helped organise a workshop focused on LEO networking and communication. This event was co-located with ACM MobiCom 23 in Madrid, Spain. WhiteHaul, founded in 2021, has built a spectrum aggregation technology that enables high-speed, gigabit-capable, long-
Based in: Edinburgh, UK Education: PhD, University of Edinburgh
distance backhaul connectivity at lower cost than existing fixed and wireless networks. Kassem has a busy agenda: WhiteHaul, which was spun out from University of Edinburgh, recently received £275,000 in funding from Scotland’s national economic development agency, Scottish Enterprise, to scale up its products and services, as the country chases its connectivity targets, while he has published numerous papers, going back to his days at the University of Cairo and beyond, including his 2022 conference paper 'A Browser-side View of Starlink Connectivity'.
Based in: Stuttgart, Germany Education: PhD
Förtsch says the biggest research priorities in the coming year will be in photonic computing, demonstrating computational advantages based on Q.ANT’s photonic processors, which are powered by in-house manufactured photonic chips, and in quantum sensing, miniaturising sensors. “This includes the development of optimised electronics, lasers and optics,” he adds. “What I find really fascinating is the idea
to finally combine everything into a unified platform, from data generation in our quantum sensor to directly linked quantum information processing in our photonic chips.”
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