Every wave of computing has had a critical "everything else" layer, the part that turned the hardware into something usable. For GPUs it was CUDA, schedulers, and the runtime stack. For quantum computing, that layer is being built right now. This panel is about who's building it, what's working, and what the field needs next.
The real opportunity in hybrid quantum-classical computing isn't just the qubit. It's everything around it: scheduling, orchestration, data movement, hybrid workflow management, and the evolving interface between how classical HPC systems and quantum processors communicate.
And because that work is happening across hyperscalers, established computer and quantum vendors, government agencies and national labs, and emerging startups all at once, the question of who builds what and how they partner matters just as much as the technical interfaces themselves.
This panel brings together voices from quantum systems, classical HPC, and the open software ecosystem who are rolling up their sleeves to navigate the classical-quantum gap.
Panelists
Josh Moles (Moderator)
Josh Moles is the Technical Program Manager for Hybrid Computing at IonQ, where he leads the company's hybrid integration initiatives and advances OpenQSE, an open community building vendor-neutral standard for the interface between classical and quantum systems. His career has followed one thread: taking research and emerging technology and building engineering programs around it. Earlier in his career, he led silicon validation for Google’s Tensor G5 SoC and ran an interagency applied research program in the U.S. Department of State that earned the Department's top technical honor.
Michael Brett
Michael is a Principal Specialist for Quantum Computing in the High Performance Computing group at Amazon Web Services (AWS). In this role, he leads a global business development team and go to market activities for Amazon Braket, a fully-managed quantum computing service in the cloud. He was previously SVP for Applications at Rigetti Computing, a quantum computing hardware company based in Berkeley, California, and CEO of QxBranch, a quantum computing applications software company acquired by Rigetti in 2019. Michael has a background in systems engineering and risk analytics for aerospace applications. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Aerospace Avionics and an Executive Master of Business in Complex Project Management, both from the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia.
Natalie Hawkins
Natalie Hawkins founded the Seattle Quantum Computing Meetup in 2022, has been heavily involved in IBM Quantum activities since 2021, and completed the MIT xPro QC Fundamentals courses in 2020. She is a Tier 2 Qiskit Advocate, has hosted and presented at Qiskit Fall Fests, and currently is remotely mentoring a group implementing Quantum Circuit Born Machines in Qiskit. With graduate degrees in computer science and biostatistics from the University of Washington, and an undergraduate degree in mathematics from the University of Chicago, she has worked in research as a software engineer at the UW and with faculty statisticians and scientists at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle.
This is a substantive conversation, not a 101 explainer. Come ready to dig in and to leave with something actionable, whether you're a founder, a builder, an investor, working inside an enterprise, or just trying to understand where deep tech is headed.
