Planned Research Topics for 2024

During an inaugural ministerial meeting of the U.S.-Japan Economic Policy Consultative Committee (EPCC) in July, a joint statement was presented detailing a renewed and explicit commitment to regional economic stability, fairness, and hardiness. The statement, which includes an action plan, enumerates four main goals: realizing peace and prosperity through rules-based economic order, countering economic coercion and unfair opaque lending practices, promoting and securing critical and emerging technologies and critical infrastructure, and strengthening supply chain resilience. While renewed and steady efforts to maintain regional welfare are an end within themselves, this joint statement takes on an additional layer of complexity and purpose when considered in light of the recent U.S. CHIPS Act, a semiconductor promotion policy whose U.S.-only tone has the potential to cause regional turbulence and heighten international trade tensions.

US quantum computing (QC) supplier IonQ recently announced plans to build what it is calling the first US-based QC manufacturing plant. The 65,000 square foot facility, scheduled for completion in the first half of 2024, will be located outside Seattle, Washington and will most likely be targeted for the firm's next-generation 32-qubit Aria quantum computer. The facility is also slated to become IonQ's second internal data center, but there were no announced details whether this new center will either supplant or augment IonQ' s existing cloud service provider relationships with Azure Quantum, Amazon Bracket, and Google Cloud, that currently support access to IonQ systems.