Robin Sterling started his PhD 20 years ago when useful quantum computers were "at least 10 years away." He's seen the field go from academic curiosity to venture-backed race - with companies like Quantinuum and Riverlane demonstrating things that once felt like pipe dreams. But he's candid: today's systems are still orders of magnitude smaller than what's actually useful.

Right now, quantum systems are just small enough that engineers can manage complexity with Python scripts and intuition. Make them 100x bigger - which is what the industry needs - and that stops working entirely. Robin talks about how we’re at the same wall classical computing hit in the 1980s, when CPU design had to be automated.

Enter Coherence Engine: The company builds system-level simulation and validation software for quantum hardware. The goal: let quantum engineers design, simulate, and validate their next-generation systems before buying a single piece of hardware. Think of it as CAD tools for quantum computers.

Founded in August 2024, with pre-seed funding secured in January 2025, Coherence Engine was built with the support of Cambridge Future Tech (CFT) - the deep tech venture builder based at the Bradfield Centre. Robin credits CFT as instrumental in turning his idea into a fundable, scalable company, particularly as a solo founder coming off the back of a previous unsuccessful startup.

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