I'm a kid from Kingston. I spent 15 years in Silicon Valley and I came back to Canada. I also don't see this distinction between basic and applied.
To speak to Kevin's comments, I worked in a group that combined material science, computer science, electrical engineering, and physics to try to invent some new computer pieces at Hewlett-Packard, new components. But the key idea there is that it's only when you join together that scientific frontier work with the intention of delivering something, a new technology at the frontier of technology, that you can make progress.
In the case of quantum information, Canada has invested perhaps more than $300 million in generating scientific leadership and the question is whether we at a tipping point where this will go into a disruptive technology landslide in quantum technology. Waterloo is certainly one of the centres, so my goal is to partner, collaborate, in a hockey team, multiple passes of the puck back and forth. In the group in which I had the pleasure to participate in California, we produced scientific papers and patents at the same time.