CDL Quantum Application

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The Creative Destruction Lab is now accepting founder applications for its 2020/21 Quantum Incubator Stream at CDL-Toronto (Toronto, Canada).

Interviews will be conducted in three waves. We strongly encourage candidates from outside of North America to apply for the first two deadlines in order to have enough time to obtain the visa and immigration approval.

APPLICATION DEADLINE

Early bird application deadline: January 26, 2020

Wave 1 application deadline: March 15, 2020
Wave 2 (Final) application deadline: May 31, 2020

Details: Please review the Quantum Incubator Stream Page for frequently asked questions. The Quantum Incubator Stream includes the objectives-based business mentorship that is provided by all CDL streams as well as eligible to receive a technical training via Quantum Bootcamp, Canada led by world-leading experts in quantum technologies, and access to quantum systems provided by our technology partners such as D-Wave, IBM Q, Rigetti and Xanadu.

Eligibility: Both individuals and early-stage companies are encouraged to apply.

1. Individual Applicants: Ideal Quantum Incubator Stream candidates are creative, intelligent, and ambitious individuals with technical competency in machine learning, computational science, physics, math, statistics, or engineering; or relevant industry experience or domain expertise. The accepted individual applicants will have a chance to find their co-founding team during the CDL Quantum Technical Bootcamp and begin their startup journey.

2. Quantum Software Ventures/Teams: startups at all levels of maturity will be considered. We are excited to accept projects (pre-incorporation), early-stage companies (pre-seed) or little more mature companies (seed).

3. Quantum Hardware Ventures/Teams: Ideal candidates are at a stage when they already have a basic prototype.

Admissions Process: After filling out the application form, you will receive a confirmation email with all of the responses you submitted. If you do not receive a confirmation within 60 minutes of submitting the form, then please contact quantum@creativedestructionlab.com.

The individuals or companies interviewed will be informed about the status of their selection on a rolling basis. The program start date is July 6th, 2020. This program requires that you have access to stable internet connection so you can participate in the Quantum Technical Bootcamp virtually from July 6th until July 24th, 2020.

Questions?

If you would like to set up a call to ask any questions regarding participation in the Quantum Incubator stream, please email quantum@creativedestructionlab.com.

PRIMARY CONTACT PERSON'S INFORMATION

Salutation

First Name

Last Name

Date of Birth

Gender

Phone

Street

City

Country

State

Provinces

Postal Code

Country of Citizenship

Link to LinkedIn Profile

Link to Google Scholar Profile

Link to GitHub Page

Link to Twitter ID

Why are you motivated to join this program?

What role do you see yourself taking as part of a startup's founding team? Why?

Do you have unique insights into any industry or market vertical? Please outline them here.

For which industries are you interested in exploring quantum applications and why? Please provide an example idea of a commercial application or product that interests you and explain why/how quantum computing may provide an advantage.

In your estimation, how long will it take before quantum computing will be mature enough to provide significant value to the industries you listed above? Why are you confident that this estimation is accurate?

Are you applying as part of an existing team or company?

APPLYING AS AN INDIVIDUAL

What problem are you passionate about solving through a technology startup? Why does solving this problem matter?

Explain in detail the intended benefit of solving this problem via quantum machine learning or related technologies?

What skills will you look for in your co-founding team to be successful in solving this problem?

Provide links to published papers, original research or open-source code you have created.

Summarize your background in quantum physics or in quantum information processing.

Are you familiar with probabilistic models in machine learning, such as Boltzmann machines or Markov random fields? Please list three use-cases.

Are you familiar with combinatorial optimization? If so, highlight some use cases that you are familiar with.

If you consider yourself a technical founder (meaning that the expertise you bring to the program is primarily technical or scientific), or you are a pre-existing company, you are required to complete one of the two tasks below and submit your solution in the form of a Jupyter notebook via Google Drive link or Dropbox link in the section below. If you do not submit either task, then we assume your application is to be judged based on your business or industry experience rather than technical expertise.

1) Construct a classification model on the MNIST data set in the form of a deep neural network of your choice. Perform and compare two or more methods of hyperparameter optimization on this model, and comment on the comparison.

2) Implement either the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA) using QISKit or pyQuil, or quantum annealing using dimod, in order to solve a simple max-cut problem on a small random graph of roughly a dozen nodes.

Please submit your technical assignment link (Google-Drive or Dropbox) here:

Please list your five strongest attributes.

Please list five skills you would like to improve.

What size of team do you prefer to work with?

Do you have any other professional commitments at the moment?

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

Number of Degrees (including in progress)

Degree 1

Please begin with the highest degree.

Specialization

Graduation Year

GPA (On a 4.0 scale)

Institute

Degree 2

Specialization

Graduation Year

GPA (On a 4.0 scale)

Institute

Degree 3

Specialization

Graduation Year

GPA (On a 4.0 scale)

Institute

Relevant Experience

Key Awards and Achievements

If you have any experience as an entrepreneur (e.g., building a company, leading a project, or heading some type of initiative that required rallying others to execute on your vision), then please describe that here.

Please tell us about an interesting project, preferably outside of class or work, that you created. Include URLs if possible.

Programming Language Proficiency

Java

Python

JavaScript

C++

.NET

PHP

HTML/CSS

SAS

Ruby

Lisp

How many years of software development experience do you have?

If there are any other languages beside above you are proficient in please let us know.

APPLYING AS A PART OF A SOFTWARE COMPANY OR TEAM

Name of your startup

Website

Is your startup incorporated?

YesNo

Describe your venture

Describe the problem your startup is trying to solve.

Have you raised any money? If so, how much and who are your investors?

How do you plan to protect your idea from competitors?

What is the single most important dimension on which your technology outperforms your competition?

What is the long-term vision of your company? How is your product going to change the world?

Provide links to published papers, original research or open-source code you have created.

Summarize your background in quantum physics or in quantum information processing.

If you consider yourself a technical founder (meaning that the expertise you bring to the program is primarily technical or scientific), or you are a pre-existing company, you are required to complete one of the two tasks below and submit your solution in the form of a Jupyter notebook via Google Drive link or Dropbox link in the section below. If you do not submit either task, then we assume your application is to be judged based on your business or industry experience rather than technical expertise.

Please submit your technical assignment link (Google-Drive or Dropbox) here:

Please tell us about an interesting project, preferably outside of class or work, that you created. Include URLs if possible.

Number of Key Co-Founders (in addition to Primary Contact Person)

APPLYING AS A PART OF A HARDWARE COMPANY OR TEAM

Name of your startup.

Website

Is your startup incorporated?

YesNo

Describe your venture.

Do you have a working prototype? Can you show it? If not, how long will it take you to produce one? Explain what the prototype or product demonstrates.

Summarize your background in quantum physics or in quantum information processing.

Product Overview (Briefly describe how your product works).

Describe the problem your startup is trying to solve.

Link to paper or URL that shows a schematic diagram of the prototype.

Have you raised any money? If so, how much and who are your investors?

How do you plan to protect your idea from competitors?

What is the single most important dimension on which your technology outperforms your competition?

What is the long-term vision of your company? How is your product going to change the world?

How much time and money have you spent on developing this business?

Have you received any grant funding? If so, how much?

Do you have any affiliation with other programs/institutions? If so, please list:

Number of Key Co-founders (in addition to Primary Contact Person)

TEAM INFORMATION

Primary Contact Person's Information

First Name

Last Name

Number of hours spent on the venture during the last 30 days?

Over the next 10 months, average number of hours per month planned to work on the venture?

Do you have any other professional commitments at the moment

Education

Number of Degrees (including in progress)

Degree 1

Please begin with the highest degree.

Specialization

Graduation Year

GPA (On a 4.0 scale)

Institute

Degree 2

Specialization

Graduation Year

GPA (On a 4.0 scale)

Institute

Degree 3

Specialization

Graduation Year

GPA (On a 4.0 scale)

Institute

Relevant Experience

Key Awards and Achievements

Why is this co-founder important for the venture?

Programming Language Proficiency

Java

Python

JavaScript

C++

.NET

PHP

HTML/CSS

SAS

Ruby

Lisp

How many years of software development experience do you have?

If there are any other languages beside above you are proficient in please let us know.

2nd Co-Founder's Information

First Name

Last Name

Gender

Number of hours spent on the venture during the last 30 days?

Over the next 10 months, average number of hours per month planned to work on the venture?

Does this founder have any other professional commitments at the moment

Education

Number of Degrees (including in progress)

Degree 1

Please begin with the highest degree.

Specialization

Graduation Year

GPA (On a 4.0 scale)

Institute

Degree 2

Specialization

Graduation Year

GPA (On a 4.0 scale)

Institute

Degree 3

Specialization

Graduation Year

GPA (On a 4.0 scale)

Institute

Relevant Experience

Key Awards and Achievements

Why is this co-founder important for the venture?

3rd Co-Founder's Information

First Name

Last Name

Gender

Number of hours spent on the venture during the last 30 days?

Over the next 10 months, average number of hours per month planned to work on the venture?

Does this founder have any other professional commitments at the moment

Education

Number of Degrees (including in progress)

Degree 1

Please begin with the highest degree.

Specialization

Graduation Year

GPA (On a 4.0 scale)

Institute

Degree 2

Specialization

Graduation Year

GPA (On a 4.0 scale)

Institute

Degree 3

Specialization

Graduation Year

GPA (On a 4.0 scale)

Institute

Relevant Experience

Key Awards and Achievements

Why is this co-founder important for the venture?

4th Co-Founder's Information

First Name

Last Name

Gender

Number of hours spent on the venture during the last 30 days?

Over the next 10 months, average number of hours per month planned to work on the venture?

Does this founder have any other professional commitments at the moment

Education

Number of Degrees (including in progress)

Degree 1

Please begin with the highest degree.

Specialization

Graduation Year

GPA (On a 4.0 scale)

Institute

Degree 2

Specialization

Graduation Year

GPA (On a 4.0 scale)

Institute

Degree 3

Specialization

Graduation Year

GPA (On a 4.0 scale)

Institute

Relevant Experience

Key Awards and Achievements

Why is this co-founder important for the venture?

5th Co-Founder's Information

First Name

Last Name

Gender

Number of hours spent on the venture during the last 30 days?

Over the next 10 months, average number of hours per month planned to work on the venture?

Does this founder have any other professional commitments at the moment

Education

Number of Degrees (including in progress)

Degree 1

Please begin with the highest degree.

Specialization

Graduation Year

GPA (On a 4.0 scale)

Institute

Degree 2

Specialization

Graduation Year

GPA (On a 4.0 scale)

Institute

Degree 3

Specialization

Graduation Year

GPA (On a 4.0 scale)

Institute

Relevant Experience

Key Awards and Achievements

Why is this co-founder important for the venture?

6th Co-Founder's Information

First Name

Last Name

Gender

Number of hours spent on the venture during the last 30 days?

Over the next 10 months, average number of hours per month planned to work on the venture?

Does this founder have any other professional commitments at the moment

Education

Number of Degrees (including in progress)

Degree 1

Please begin with the highest degree.

Specialization

Graduation Year

GPA (On a 4.0 scale)

Institute

Degree 2

Specialization

Graduation Year

GPA (On a 4.0 scale)

Institute

Degree 3

Specialization

Graduation Year

GPA

Institute

Relevant Experience

Key Awards and Achievements

Why is this co-founder important for the venture?

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Participating in this program requires that you move to the Greater Toronto Area from July to August 2020 to participate the CDL Quantum Bootcamp. Please confirm that you can commit to this if accepted.

Have you already completed Peter Wittek's MOOC Course - Quantum Machine Learning? (Note that this is not mandatory prior to submitting your application but that you will be expected to complete the course prior to admission or to attend the CDL Quantum Bootcamp). https://www.edx.org/course/quantum-machine-learning

How did you first hear about CDL?

Who emailed you?

Search Engine

Which search engine?

Who referred you?

Social Media

Which platform?

Media

Which blog?

Which publication?

Which podcast?

What type of media?

Who told you about it?

What event?

Who was your primary recruiter?

Name of CDL Team Member

Name of CDL Mentor

Name of CDL Scientist

Other

Would you build a company if you are not accepted to this program?

Is there anything else you think we should know about you?

Immigration Disclaimer

I understand that I am solely responsible for my legal status in Canada, including any permits required to legally work in Canada. The Creative Destruction Lab may, at its own discretion, provide access to immigration support services, and provide supporting documentation as requested by the IRCC and other Canadian agencies. The Creative Destruction Lab takes no responsibility for an applicant being granted visa and/or work permit status in Canada.

Privacy Notice: Personal information collected in connection with your application to Creative Destruction Lab, including data collected from founders and its employees such as contact information, education history, work experience, and financial information about the venture, will be used for the purposes of processing and responding to your application, including assessing the suitability of your venture for acceptance into the program. We also use this information (in addition to information about your participation in the program, if accepted) for internal research and analysis in order to identify, evaluate and better understand factors that contribute to a successful venture. We may also share de-identified data with third-party academic researchers for social science research purposes. CDL as an organization has a policy against sharing any sensitive technical information or intellectual property relating to the Venture with any researchers. If you provide us with personal information about any other individual (such as your co-founder(s) or partner(s)), you confirm that you have obtained the consent of such individual(s) prior to providing any personal information to us.

I confirm that the information given in this form is true, complete and accurate.

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