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Quantum Cyber (QUCY): Helping AI-Powered Drones Phone Home Without GPS · WTR Small-Cap Spotlight

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the WTR Small Cap Spotlight Podcast.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Tim Gerdeman, Vice Chair and Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Water Tower Research.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Today we are joined by Nideb Akhtar, president and CEO of Project Light Shaft, Quantum Cyber's Quantum Antenna Technology Partner.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Quantum Cyber NASDAQ ticker symbol QU C Y is developing a defense platform combining drones, software to coordinate them, and quantum technology intended to support navigation without GPS.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: I have to say, as a lifelong military junkie, I, for one, am fascinated to learn more today about this technology, which reportedly does not rely on GPS signals.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Also joining is my WTR equity research colleague James Kisner.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Niddy and James, good morning.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Morning, Tim.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having us.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Niddy, for listeners new to the story, what is quantum cyber building and where does Project LightShift fit into this broader strategy?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Tim.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: So Quantum Cyber is building an autonomous defense platform that brings together drones, the technology to help them sense their environment, and software that's going to coordinate the behavior of all of the above.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Project LightShift is the technology partner behind the quantum antenna, as well as the quantum control algorithms that we're building for these drones.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: My co-founder and chief scientist, Dr.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_01: Wolf Cohn, invented the technology.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_01: Our team is obviously building and executing it, but Wolf is a luminary in artificial intelligence and quantum and really a special niche called intelligent control.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: And our role with Project Lightshift and our partnership with uh QC is uh to help translate this uh scientific foundation from uh from decades of uh of Wolf's research and uh inventions and transfer that into practical capability that can be integrated into quantum cyber's drone platforms.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the really the larger objective, the the grand picture here is resilience, right?
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: A drone needs to be able to understand where it is and respond to changing conditions, especially, Tim, when GPS or communications become unreliable, right?
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: What we've seen in Ukraine and Iran, we've learned some very important lessons now.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: And the lessons that we've learned is that every serious military should be paying attention to drones, right?
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not talking about really expensive huge drones that um uh that are you know light years ahead in innovation.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: It could be a small, relatively simple drone, cheaply built, but it's coordinated at scale.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: That's a real threat, right?
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: And it's changed the face of warfare uh for you know decades to come, probably.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: But what we uh you know have seen with uh with drones, what's kind of misunderstood is where drones become vulnerable.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: Where what's their weakest link?
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: And that weakest link is really it's when they have to signal home, whether it's signaling home to a data center or satellites, or even if they're tethered, uh you know, connecting to the pilot.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: In either case, once that connection is found, infiltrated, or blocked, the drone is either dead or worse, the enemy can trace back to wherever the you know pilot or command center is.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so the future of uh drones, warfare, and you know, autonomous platforms is gonna be how do we make drones operate in these denied, contested, and jammed environments without having to expose their vulnerability.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: That's the that's the magic goal.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: And we believe our antenna and our uh intelligent control software are gonna offer uh some unique capabilities that will uh touch and solve some of those issues, Tim.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: The speed at which the drone technology has changed even in the last call few quarters is absolutely mind-boggling.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's uh it's mind-boggling.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, earlier this year, did you hear about jet-powered drones?
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like the jet-powered interceptor, you didn't.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: And now you see them everywhere in the news and uh uh you know on your social media feeds of uh uh if you follow drones and uh uh and defense technology.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: But uh the the speed of innovation is is really mind-blowing.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: So interesting.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: And with that, I'll turn it over to James Kissner to ask a few questions.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, Tim, and welcome again, Nitty.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_02: So um let's let's double click a little bit on the technology that you alluded to um and innovation.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: So perhaps in plain English, you know, how would the quantum antenna help a drone navigate without GPS?
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: So the idea of the quantum antenna, and uh really it's a it's a quantum photomagnetic antenna.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: And the idea is that we're using um, you know, and in simple terms, we're using the Earth's magnetic field as a navigational reference.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so GPS depends, of course, on receiving signals from satellites.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: Our approach is intended to give a drone another source of information to help determine where it is.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: So what uh what we do, our quantum photomagnetic antenna uses a very proprietary photonic architecture, and we're targeting sensitivity to very, very small magnetic variations at the pico Tesla scales, incredibly tiny.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then we have a processor on board the drone that interprets those measurements to help estimate the position.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: So um in a quick nutshell, we we use this property in physics called squeezing, where we're taking the electrical elements of uh uh of uh photonic input and we're converting it to break down the magnetic properties of it, right?
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: Those magnetic properties can be used for, as I said, um converting into actual uh uh signal, right?
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: That that uh that then the processor, simple ARM processor that's uh that's on board the drone can interpret to estimate the uh position of the drone.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: Now, um from quick comparison, at uh the the scale that we're we're intending to build this antenna um is uh at the one nanometer level.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: And at that size, what we're doing, James, is using organic polymers that we structure in a very particular lattice that allows us to uh you know um really manipulate and uh and capture some of the elements of these photons and their electrical and magnetic properties.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's a 2D lattice that uh that we built.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: This um uh uh approach, uh James, allows us to you know use this invisible magnetic landscape.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: And if you we were to compare the the type of accuracy that uh that we're uh you know projecting to garner from this uh photomagnetic antenna, we're either um as good, if not better, than GPS.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: GPS kind of gives you an uncertainty of about 10 feet longitudinal, latitudinal um uh coordinates.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: This photomagnetic antenna, magnetic um navigation from from our simulations and uh and testing would uh again be as good if not better than uh than GPS.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so our uh really our our next step in uh in this approach is to is to demonstrate the sensitivity, build the prototype, demonstrate the sensitivity of the hardware and navigation accuracy of the complete system.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: So these are some measurements that uh that are critical and some milestones that we have planned for uh for the near future at quantum cyber.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_02: Really quick follow-up on that.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: This is the technology is really fascinating.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: So, I mean, would you need do you have like a map of the entire earth or is it a relative positioning system?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like how does that that signal tie to a location so precisely?
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so we're using the Van uh Van Allen lines, right?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um north and south pole magnetic as the core reference.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: And then the rest is yes, um, I mean, we're we're we're measuring very, very small magnetic variations that uh that we're detecting, right?
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_01: And so that allows us to use those lines as reference points.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: And then, yes, uh, you know, we would have on board um loaded uh uh you know a predefined um map that uh we're constantly comparing against.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so it'll it'll give a good degree of uh of accuracy for uh for navigation purposes.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: Fascinating.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: So um I mean Dr.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_02: Cohn's research goes back decades.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: So kind of what makes now the right time to bring this technology to the marketplace?
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: So let me give you some lore on uh uh before I uh dive in a little more on where this photomagnetic antenna came from.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so originally this uh the Wolf's work in this space was funded under President Reagan's Star Wars program.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: So it um uh you know it was quite uh maybe 15, 20 years ago, he was given this mandate um uh to develop a method to make Abrams tanks fully autonomous.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: And what was quickly realized is hey, the the hardware of that time, it can't handle the type of compute necessary to make a tank fully autonomous.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: And so step one, James, was uh, you know, Wolf threw out the old rule book and said, well, we have to basically reimagine a data architecture and how zeros and ones are processed, right?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so he created a suite of quantum algorithms, a new data architect uh uh architecture called a data Hamiltonian that um is quite compelling for us.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: A Hamiltonian, you might uh recall James from uh from physics class, is a model that helps to explain how systems are evolving over time under some constraints, right?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so these would be models that are used to explain how particles uh um spin, how planets orbit, how weather systems are moving.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: So it for uh for us, our algorithms and in Wolf's work, it all starts from the data Hamiltonian and how we're able to take in real-time signal and evolve that um uh into some type of uh intelligence.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: Now, um what that uh project uh with Abram um with the Abrams tank did, again, it it built the core foundation of the software.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_01: But now what's happened is uh yes, we have you know decades of substantial scientific foundation for it, but the hardware capacity of 2026 has now caught up to a moment where we can actually effectuate this, you know, then theoretical uh uh and research-based um technology and execute it into practical.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so what makes this moment uh really compelling for us is the opportunity to apply that uh incredible scientific foundation work to a clearly defined problem, which is helping autonomous systems operate when their normal sources of navigation and communication become unreliable.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and uh uh this scientific architecture needs an incredibly disciplined development program around it.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: That means identifying the appropriate and optimal uh fabrication partners, defining measurable performance requirements, building the hardware so it can be tested.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's really where a lot of my focus comes in, James, is bringing together that uh uh you know, Wolf and the rest of our scientific team are commercial partners and resources to move this forward.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: And uh it's incredibly exciting now that um the hardware is finally caught up.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: We uh there's a lot of advancement in photonic computing and uh and using fabrication approaches um uh for developing this quantum hard work that um uh we can do without precious metals.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: So we're using organic polymers, James, to uh to build this, um uh to build this antenna.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so we we we've been talking to labs, uh interviewing labs, I should say, all over the world to to to you know um finalize and build uh a prototype.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for the expansive answers.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, it's like a very exciting time.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um so let's talk about the license for a second.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_02: What does Quantum Cyber's license cover and where does MAHCA, or if you say Maca, again?
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: So um the license agreement between Project Light Shift and uh and Quantum Cyber, uh, we announced it uh, I think in June of this uh of this year.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: It gives uh QC an exclusive worldwide license to our quantum uh photomagnetic antenna, uh specifically for unmanned aerial vehicles and drone platforms and defense and national security applications.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: So uh we met um the management team and uh CEO of Quantum Cyber, David uh Lazar, earlier this uh this year, um uh met them uh through a uh through a mutual acquaintance who knew of our quantum work and um uh our desire to at Project Light Shift to really find optimal partners for us to license our technology.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't want to necessarily uh you know um isolate ourselves in a uh in a peer play um path.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: We wanted to partner with a um uh with folks that were like-minded.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what we saw in quantum cyber is uh you know, they're America first, want to build and protect uh uh uh with uh with leading defense tech, but um also that they have a passion and affinity for advancing deep tech such as quantum in unique applications.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so um that's uh how how and why we executed on uh on this license agreement.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: We couldn't be more excited about the partnership and the future that portends uh ahead of us.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um now MACA, um uh which is uh spelled M-A-H-C-A, and it stands for multiple actor hybrid control architecture.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_01: So MACA is the framework that we use for developing an intelligent control software system for these autonomous platforms.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: And uh in a nutshell, it's it's AI, but it's uh it's an AI that's very different, James, from the AI that you would uh you might um some of our listeners might be thinking of companies like Anthropic or ChatGPT or uh Palantir or Endorel, all amazing AI companies, all uh have been doing some incredibly uh innovative work.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: But a lot of them use, James, uh, an approach in artificial intelligence that um uh uh relies on regressive data, meaning uh huge amounts of historical data that's put into um large language models or other similar models in order to uh then do pattern recognition, right?
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Effectively it's that, and then make a prediction.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: So that's fine and all.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: However, when you have ever evolving and and changing systems such as warfare, such as uh uh you know aerodynamics and making pilot decisions uh on the drone, you have to uh yesterday's assumptions don't always match up or align with today's reality.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where Macha comes in.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: It has an incredibly uh uh different technical role.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's a it's the coordination platform intended to help multiple autonomous systems work together as circumstances change.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: So, Maka, what it does is every uh it's built upon um some foundational work that Wolf did decades ago in uh developing hybrid uh systems and control software for hybrid systems.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: Now, when you have a drone, you have really there's kind of two schools of thought that are working um simultaneously in order to effectuate a mission.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: You have pilot decisions that have to be made, but then you have uh also the aerodynamic decisions, right?
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: Those have to work in concert in order to execute the uh the mission and be successful, given uh given a certain set of constraints.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: So Maka builds um what we call uh some folks might uh be familiar with the term agents, like AI agents.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: AI agents are um uh have a very controlled outcome and uh rely on that regressive data.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: So now the industry is moving towards real-time AI systems being called actors.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: So we effectively are building AI actors for every subsystem in a drone.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: Let's say the energy control, the pilot decisions, the navigation, the sensing, interpretation, the the um control systems, every component we're building an AI system for that consolidates into one smart brain on the drone, but then that uh smart brain is also speaking to the other smart brains in a swarm.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: So Maka allows a uh uh you know an ensemble of these drones to operate in sync in order to execute a path.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: And what we're doing when we have um these these agents from all these subsystems, James, we're taking um uh what we call mean field theory, which is effectively saying, let's say there's a thousand possibilities that our models are are predicting for um uh uh you know for a certain vector or a certain decision on the battlefield.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: We'll take maybe an average of the hundred uh realities that uh align most with our optimal goal, right?
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like um uh execute the mission with uh X amount of limit on casualties or or energy or distance.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: We'll stay within a defined uh set of rules.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: All else equal, the drone and the MACA system will execute the path as long as they don't violate these rules.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's called rules-based AI.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: And uh MACA allows that, um allows these drones to operate autonomously without having to signal home because all the computing is done at the edge.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so decisions are made on the drone, it's fully autonomous, but they're it's autonomous with parameters, right?
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's not, hey, drone, just go do whatever you want.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: We implement three sets of rules absolute rules, hard rules, and soft rules.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: Absolute rules are rules that can never ever be violated, right?
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: These would be engagement rules of uh of war.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_01: It would be things like your um uh battery range only allows you to go, I don't know, 300 miles.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: Don't violate that, obviously.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and so those would be absolute rules that are never violated.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_01: Hard rules are that um the black and white bounds that define what correct behavior looks like.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: And where the magic happens, James, that makes us makes our approach to AI so different than uh than others is um our third level, which is called soft rules.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: This is where judgment happens.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: This is where um we're taking and applying reinforcement learning.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: So we're taking real-time input, structuring that input in a data Hamiltonian, um, projecting, well, based on current input, as I said, there could be a thousand possibilities, but uh uh only 10 align with uh um with our rule sets.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_01: They don't violate absolute rules, they don't violate the hard rules, and based on our judgment, we should execute those.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: Then the software will loop, the reinforcement will loop, develop another Hamiltonian, and keep going and keep going.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: So you have judgment that's occurring.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: This is no different than how the human brain works.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: Human brain works in a way where you have some core life experiences that have taught you how to how to live, right?
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: Your parents taught you lessons, you you learned arithmetic, uh, hopefully in elementary school, you learn how to read, um, you learn that when it's about to rain or you see rain clouds, you should probably take uh a raincoat and an umbrella, right?
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: But every time your your brain is faced with a uh different decision, you don't have to pause in a deterministic manner to say, okay, well, yesterday in the last 50 years of my life, I made decisions in XYZ manner.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to do that.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: You instinctively know Maka allows that, right?
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: It enables that.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I for the ones that I'm not talking about general artificial intelligence, uh nowhere you know confusing the two.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: What I mean is we built a system that um doesn't uh confuse uh prediction with intelligence.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: What we built is a system that says, okay, given what we're sensing right now in real conditions, we can anticipate what the future should look like, right?
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: And we anticipate in a probabilistic manner.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: We're we're not um you know forecasting one single outcome.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: We we forecast an ensemble.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um it's called quantum ensembles of domain.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: This is what uh you know makes the algorithms even uh um uh relative or related to quantum uh um uh quantum computing, is we're saying, well, we're gonna forecast a portfolio or probabilistic density of many, many probabilities, and then execute on the ones that uh that align the best.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: And so it makes our approach, James, um, very unique, very different.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I think it's gonna I think it's gonna help to to define uh QC as a future leader in this space.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: You just bring together so many technologies at once, it seems like here uh even kind of reminds me of like uh Robocops Prime Directives.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um and uh yeah, it's it's it's fascinating.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um I feel like we talk about the technology for hours, but um, it's a little more practical.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um you just kind of thinking through the simulation to prototype journey, just kind of what have you learned so far from the search for a partner to build the antenna prototype?
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: So our central issue is finding the right combination of capabilities, right?
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: A prototype partner needs uh To be able to help us translate the design into a fabrication process, package the device, and measure how it performs.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: But not every every uh fab facility that's out there can handle photonics and as well as organic polymers, but uh uh really it's also the the scale at which we want to build this to, you know, um uh getting to the one nanometer level is uh is quite small.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so it uh it really reduces the amount of potential partners that uh that exist.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um we've kind of uh again focused on uh on those three uh three questions.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: Can the partner build the uh uh proposed architecture?
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh can we agree on clear uh tests and establish whether it works?
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: Can we um you know process eventually uh produce uh consistent results um uh with multiple units?
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so um luckily for us, uh this is not a uh a recent RD project.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_01: This is built on decades of work.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: So we have an incredibly detailed manufacturing plan.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: We have very intense uh uh designs and and uh uh you know lithography uh um schematics that uh that we built um and will provide to our fab partners.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so it uh uh we're we're you know um pragmatic about reducing the uh the risk of uh of execution because we have a pretty uh deep bench of knowledge and uh and planning on our side of of how to actually uh uh build and scale this uh this device.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: That's helpful.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um so uh you know other companies are developing alternatives to GPS.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: Just you know, maybe you say more about how you see your approach standing out.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: So um we see potential in the way uh the antenna architecture could contribute to a complete autonomous system, right?
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: Magnetic navigation um is a very important application.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: And there's there's a few companies that are trying to tackle magnetic navigation uh uh with other approaches and other hardware.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um the reality of what we're doing, James, is uh the idea of using uh uh you know photons and squeezing the electrical into magnetic is uh uh is the part that's incredibly unique and opens up a much wider um resiliency to said hardware.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, how do you jam magnetic?
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_01: You can't, right?
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so um what uh this antenna uh does, especially because of its size as well.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, um when it's built, it'll be a nanometer high and and uh maybe the size of two two credit cards next to each other.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's um it's uh you know super tiny um uh to build.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: We think um the combination both of the antenna as well as obviously the operating system and uh or the the mock-up platform and control platform that uh that we're building are going to be the uh the edge that differentiate us uh uh even further.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um and I I do think it's also important to highlight um there's one other uh a couple other uses of this photomagnetic antenna um that we haven't hit.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: One is uh what we call quantum communications, right?
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: So uh currently, when you have a drone that wants to communicate, whether with its uh its pilot, uh command center, or other drones, it uses a regular RF antenna, right?
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_01: But when that drone wants to operate on multiple um frequencies, you need multiple antennas, right?
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's uh uh uh more space that the antennas are consuming, more energy.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and uh uh when you switch from one van to another, you hop.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: You have to frequency hop, which means that there's gaps, right?
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: And those gaps can be exposed and uh and exploited.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, with uh our antenna, it uh it is capturing its one single aperture that acts as both the receiver and a transmitter.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so, yes, we'll use it for magnetic navigation, but the antenna has other applications.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: One is that uh it can be used to actually communicate.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: So when radio frequency is jammed, you can use uh the antenna to communicate with other drones, maybe signal back home to to a you know ground to earth satellite uh apparatus.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_01: So the antenna has um uh that great application.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: Another one that we're working on and um is referenced in our patent is energy harvesting.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_01: So this photomagnetic antenna is obviously taking photons in, right?
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh a great analogy to to look at is solar cells.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: Solar cells are obviously taking photons in and they convert it to uh uh to energy.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, um solar cells only capture a very limited uh spectrum of the light that uh that's coming in.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: Our photomagnetic antenna is gonna capture a much wider array.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so we can use this to harvest energy as well.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: And um I do want to be careful in managing um everyone everyone's expectations.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: I don't mean that this uh antenna is going to replace the core power required for propulsion.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's orders of magnitude more.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: But if you think about it in this way, if you have a device that um uh one can free up a lot of space and capacity on the drone because you don't need as much hardware, you have um uh uh this antenna that uh is also harvesting energy that can be used to maybe extend loitering time, charge some electrical components, use it for cameras, uh etc.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's uh it's a very versatile uh tool.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: There's uh a few different applications of it, but the navigation, the quantum communications, um, which by the way are compliant with uh uh the the new um national standards of post-quantum cryptography, right?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: So um our our comms, whether they're uh to back home or other drones, they follow uh what's called PQC um encryption.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so it uh it's a pretty interesting time, James, uh to be in this uh in this drone space, and especially the intersection that uh we're bringing to the table, which is quantum.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh I think that uh uh I would I would be bold enough to say that the future is pretty bright for us.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_02: That's a good segue to kind of wrap up here, just looking to the future, maybe the more near term.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, what are the kind of key milestones over the next 12, 18 months that investors should be watching for with respect to uh to uh quantum cyber and you know, kind of your your strategy is working and then you're moving forward.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: So um we're working on two critical mandates on the quantum side.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um uh one is uh the antenna, right?
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's uh defining a prototype program with the right partner, clear scope, measurable acceptance criteria, all that, which you know we're we're deeply working on.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: And um uh then it's the uh uh it's the uh control application, the Maka, demonstrating that um uh it's uh it's working for swarming, right?
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's the the biggest and and delivering real uh full autonomy to these drones.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: That um uh a lot of the the agencies and um you know uh relevant leaders that we've been talking to in the space, that's what they're interested in, you know, is full autonomy, fully autonomous drones.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: How do we get there?
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_01: How do we we we lead in that sector um and uh stay resilient?
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think that uh in addition to what uh the rest of the uh quantum cyber team is doing, which is focusing on the manufacturing capacity of the company and getting our facility in uh in Connecticut to scale.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um the uh the quantum technologies that we're building is um uh I think critical.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: The next 12 to 18 months um are gonna be an important point for us to to show um you know demonstrable evidence of our uh of our autonomous platform working as well as uh advancing in this prototype.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think those are some of the headlines and and uh you know milestones that um our audience can can look forward to with respect to quantum cyber.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_02: Niddy, this is uh definitely what we'll be watching.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_02: This is a really rich technology story, so many exciting themes, autonomous drones and AI, and um, and just all the technology you're bringing to bear.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you so much for joining us.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, look forward to seeing this next week from you guys.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_02: So uh I'll pass it back to uh Tim to wrap up.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, James.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: And Niddy, I uh I concur with James's observation.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: Really interesting technology, as he'll vouch for.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: I do dozens of these kinds of podcasts.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is the first time I've ever told a speaker I'm going to go out and buy a book on the topic because that's my hands, um, because it feels like the future is coming really, really fast.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: So good luck with the uh commercialization and uh thanks again for joining us.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for having me.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening, and don't forget to subscribe, as well as visiting www watertowerresearch.com to stay up to speed on the company small cap written research reports podcasts, fireside chats, industry specific symposiums, and conference schedules.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: We will see you next time for another edition of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight Podcast.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, a special thanks to the producer and editor of the podcast, Krista Fitzpatrick.