Quantum Mind

Quantum Mind uses quantum computing to improve the environmental friendliness of farming while also making it more efficient. Our current farming techniques are not environmentally friendly, and in many places, they bring droughts, aquatic and soil ecosystem pollution. I want to use quantum computing and its optimization algorithms to renew these farming techniques, making them both more efficient and less invasive to biodiversity. Quantum computing is a revolutionary way of computing that will solve some problems millions times faster than a classical computer, and one of these problems is optimization. Applied globally, Quantum Mind will make current farming techniques less damaging to our environment while also making sure that we have enough food to feed the world. Quantum Mind will improve upon current farming techniques, conveying specific agro management plans to farmers so that they know exactly how to farm more efficiently and more eco-friendly.

Our current farming techniques have many harmful side effects to the environment. Global farming techniques have led to top soil degradation, and the drought caused is a looming catastrophe.

Mexico is in danger of a major drought. In the United States alone, total sales of agricultural pesticides have increased by around 100 million tonnes from 326 million in 1990 to 413 million in 2015. According to the National Integrated Drought Information System, 80% of agricultural land in the United States was affected by severe droughts in 2012. Droughts caused around 1.84 billion dollars in damages, a loss of around 10,000 seasonal jobs, and surface water shortages in California. The WHO reports that globally, 50 million people are impacted by drought annually, 40% of the world population are affected by water scarcity, and up to 700 million people are at risk of being displaced from their homes by 2030 due to drought. Overfarming can compact the soil, making it harder for the soil to hold water, leading to drier soil and eventually erosion. Farmers using too much water to irrigate their crops can deplete the amount of river water flowing downstream, leading to droughts below dams.

Quantum Mind consists of 2 parts: Quantum Mind Earth (QME) and Quantum Mind Space (QMS). QMS aims to use different technology to gather the data of plants and then identify their plant needs. This is similar to what The Moonshot Factory’s plant buggies currently do, collecting the mineral data of plants. QMS will send the data and plant needs to QME which will be a quantum computer. QME will use this data, open science agricultural research, and its own quantum capabilities to simulate and then optimize the best agro management procedure which will produce the most food while also keeping the environment as healthy as possible. Quantum Mind is in sync with what Dr. Quang Nguyen and boltz.ai are doing -- using quantum computing to increase the crop yields of farmers. I am currently working with them, creating blog posts, learning about quantum computing and how it can be applied to agriculture. Quantum Mind expands on this idea and makes solutions environmentally friendly while keeping crop production high to help feed the world. Finally, I want Quantum Mind to be integrated into Google’s emerging quantum cloud to make Quantum Mind global and give everyone around the world equal access.

Quantum Mind is functioned to improve the ecosystems surrounding farmers and their farmlands. Currently, many farmlands are in danger of natural phenomena like drought and desertification. These issues lead to lowered food production, putting the livelihoods of these farmers at risk. This is especially true for farmers who have no way of maintaining food production as the terrain of their farmlands is continuously eroded away. There are farmers who have this issue all around the world, and they do not have the knowledge or resources to recover and create resilient ecosystems around their farmlands to maximise yields.

Quantum Mind’s website platform will have areas where farmers can input their needs. Then, Quantum Mind will assist these farmers in danger by helping them maximise their food production according to their needs, while recovering the ecosystems of their farmlands. For example, maybe a farmer needs a specific crop’s yield to be increased. Quantum Mind will increase the yield of that crop while also recovering the ecosystem around their farmlands to increase their overall crop yields in the future. As these ecosystems are recovered annually through the use of Quantum Mind, Quantum Mind will shift from the recovery of these ecosystems to the sustainment of these ecosystems. This will create and maintain healthy farmlands not in danger of drought and desertification, increasing the overall crop yields of farmers.

Quantum Mind will improve the ecosystems of farmlands. Because of this, it will require data, like biodiversity and carbon stocks, from these farmlands in order to monitor how to best recover/sustain ecosystems around these farmlands. Many farmers do not have access to this data so we plan on using satellites from Quantum Mind Space to collect the data. Only by monitoring and then using this data will Quantum Mind be able to create agro management steps to best create resilient ecosystems while maintaining or even increasing crop yields.

We are currently in a conceptual stage because we have our idea in place but currently do not have any of the core technology in place. Our website is up and running but we are still looking for a way to create the algorithm which will come up with the agro management procedures for farmers.

Quantum Mind takes quantum computing to provide long term solutions for both the production of agriculture and the health of our ecosystems.

Quantum Mind will integrate quantum computing, with satellite data collection, in order to NOT just take in data, but to provide answers and solutions to problems. Quantum computing is currently the fastest brain in the world, and we will use the beginnings of this existing technology to create our brain of agricultural and environmental information. Using Quantum Mind, farmers will be able to ask questions, and get back answers, allowing them to quickly improve their farming efficiency while maintaining the health of our environment. This newfound communication between farmers and our self-learning system that has a wealth of agricultural information will allow these farmers to realize the problems of their farming, and provide them new, innovative solutions based on the individual conditions of each farmer. Each solution could be different, but all will be optimized by the self-adaptive brain of Quantum Mind, leading to the best possible solution to resolve each problem.

Quantum Mind (QM) will help billions. The open science Quantum Mind Earth website will be available to the global community of farmers, farmers, researchers, and activists, all those who wish to help feed the world and maintain the health of our ecosystems at the same time. Quantum Mind Space is a concept at this moment, looking for integration with a quantum system and a satellite provider such as SpaceX or NASA. When this happens, Quantum Mind Space will be immediately activated to help feed the earth. In 5 years we want the full integration of the website platform, satellite and those communities. Quantum Mind can help most to be interconnected, creating real time solutions to solve our food crisis.

We will mainly be focusing our goals around soil health. There are many physical, chemical, and biological factors which influence the health of soil. Some of these factors include texture of soil, water holding capacity, pH, salinity, enzymatic activity, and soil respiration. For example, we want the soil of the land to be soft and crumbly because it is a sign of healthy soil. Additionally, healthy soils should be between pH levels of 6 and 7.5 and there should be less than 1 meq (miliequivalents) of salt per 100 grams of soil.

We currently have 3 people on our solution team. As soon as we acquire partners, we will have access to more technology (satellites and quantum computers), and will be able to expand our team in the future.

Our mission at Quantum Mind is to solve world hunger, first to stir up the passion in those interested in the Quantum and computer field to compel them to join our team, allowing us to recruit more talented individuals. Although I am just in high school, and definitely not the greatest expert in quantum computing, my passion, and the whole team’s passion about this project does make us more well positioned to deliver Quantum Mind. Our team is willing to learn, and by partnering with these highly qualified and knowledgeable researchers and organizations, our team can quickly increase our knowledge. The mission of Quantum Mind, and passion it stirs up in both our team and our partners, make us well-positioned to deliver this solution.

MIT Solve 2020’s food and agriculture category is where we believe our Quantum Mind can best be applied to make the most positive impact on the world. We are applying to MIT Solve because it is an influential platform where many talented individuals and highly qualified organizations look for partners. These individuals and organizations will be able to learn about Quantum Mind, as well as our team’s mission and vision. By advocating our mission with MIT Solve, we will be able to attract not only potential investors and partners, but more importantly, talented young people who have similar goals and would like to fulfill them. This way, we will be able to let others know about our project to end world hunger.

We would like to partner with primarily 2 types of organizations, one specializing in space and satellites (NASA, SpaceX, and the European Space Agency) and the other with experience in quantum computing like Google or Honeywell. We need to ‘piggyback’ on space platforms (ISS) and/or satellites, to develop Quantum Mind Space. When partnering with a quantum company, we would look to them to sponsor us with their quantum system. We would remain an independent company, but would be connected to their quantum department, and give both form and meaning to their quantum research. In our search for potential partners, we were also excited to find that Earth-i has experience with precision farming, just without the quantum aspect, and self-learning aspects, so they are also another organization we would like to partner with.

We are qualified for this prize because in Quantum Mind, we will be using AI and self learning technology for the “brain” of Quantum Mind. This self learning AI is what will be creating the original and optimized agricultural solutions and farming techniques. These solutions will help small scale producers increase crop yields, solve world hunger, and help to improve humanity’s quality of life. Using the AI for Humanity Prize, we will be able to develop the self learning AI aspect of Quantum Mind more quickly. The prize will also make us more credible, allowing us to attract more partners and talented individuals to our team.