Hacker News Reader

Comment by mofeing | Hacker News Reader

wtf are you talking about? I know people from both sides and can assure you that the whole process was done transparently and legally. The external board which selected the winner proposal did a blind review (they only knew the proposals, not who made those proposals).

It's true that Qilimanjaro is a spin-off of BSC, but they are the only company in Spain that can fabricate quantum chips. Furthermore, the chips are fabricated by Quantware and IQM, while Qilimanjaro provides the testing, calibration and service. One of the requirements from the European Funds is that the providers must be European companies. There are not many fully european companies that fabricate digital quantum chips, I'm afraid.

If you have doubts about the legality of the process, I welcome you to contact the coordinator of the project.

View on HN

You might be right.

Just open the document named "Informe de valoración de los criterios de adjudicación cuantificables mediante juicio de valor" in the link above.

It is digitally signed by Juan José García Ripoll, an expert that should not have any conflict of interest.

https://web.archive.org/web/20220521122845/http://quantic.bs... (The website was removed) So it was a collaborator. And the team leader was Artur Garcia.

Oh! Wait! Artur is a co-founder: https://www.qilimanjaro.tech/team/

What a plot twist hum!

So they knew each other. And instead of doing this from a BSC salary they launched an spin-off and then sold their work to the BSC being part of BSC while he was working 50% of his time for BSC and therefore being a public employee and having an incompatibility.

Thanks for sharing. I think that this comment is going to age well.

Before answering, I want to be honest and state that Artur is my supervisor, so I might be biased. Now that I've said so...

1. Artur doesn't have an incompatibility, he asked for permission to the ministry and he works his daily 8h (sometimes more) at BSC. After that he works at Qilimanjaro.

2. Juan José García Ripoll has nothing to do with Qilimanjaro. He has his own company (Inspiration-Q).

3. Juan José was a collaborator many years ago.

4. You would be amazed to see how small is the quantum world. I've already met many of the top researchers just by moving around, because everyone knows each other. So by that logic, no one would be free of conflict. Of course they knew each other. Every one knows Juan José. Many measurements are taken to prevent favor treatment in these situations.

5. Juan José was an obvious expert to have in the external board. I dare to say that very few physicists in Spain have a CV equiparable to his (https://quinfog.hbar.es/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/CV_Juan_J...).

6. We removed the website because it was no longer being updated.

I've seen from your comments that you have been falsely accusing without any info from the inside and that all you want is to harm all the effort done by these amazing people to make progress in science in Spain. So I will stop answering your comments. I don't know where this hate comes from, but I invite you to introspect.

If anyone reading the comments gets dubious about the process, I invite them to visit the link provided above to check all the documents of the procurement and to get in contact with the project coordinator. The process was done cleanly and transparently, and as any legal public project, it can be checked and verified.

Ps.: It made me laugh to check all you stalked about Artur. I think nobody has done it before. Will show it tomorrow to Artur jajaja.

When you work for BSC you sign a non-compete agreement saying that you won't be selling all you learn from BSC to BSC:

Point 5.2: prohibición de aprovechamiento en beneficio propio o de terceros. Queda prohibido que el trabajador, sin consentimiento del responsable de BSC, transmita, reproduzca, destruya o utilice información referenciada en el apartado anterior para uso distinto al normal de trabajo. Del mismo modo se prohíbe estrictamente atodos los empleados y colaboradores de BSC el uso de dicha información en beneficio propio o de terceros.

Point 5.3: Cláusula de exclusividad. Queda prohibido que el trabajador realice proyectos basados en conocimientos del BSC para terceros fuera del ámbito laboral, o por encargo directo de terceras personas. Una vez desvinculado del BSC, queda prohibido que el trabajador aplique conocimientos propiedad del BSC o de colaboradores del BSC, con fines lucrativos, o al servicio de terceras empresas que los exploten económicamente.

And there are more and more

You obviously do not understand tenders and also have a bad faith in addressing this message towards me (García-Ripoll) and Artur.

First of all, this tender only received one application. There could have been other applicants as it happened in Galicia's quantum computer tender, but there were none.

Second, this application was done by a collective of companies of which Qilimanjaro is only one more participant, responsible for calibration and integration.

Third, my role as scientist in this evaluation was only to certify that the specifications of the tender proposal follow the scientific requirements of the call, and whether any parameter is below or above the requested standards. That is tickboxing essentially and with only one applicant this does not influence the outcome.

So I am asking you to retract these accusations as I am concerned, or follow suit if you have so much evidence of wrongdoing.

YOU obviously don't understand tenders. You can not create your own company inside a public company and then give then money by running a procurement.

1. They knew about the tender before it was public (illegal) 2. Conditions for procurement were adjusted for this company (illegal) 3. Qilimanjaro needs experience and at least 3 contracts of the same nature fullfilled correctly. (Irregular) 4. They did NOT go in UTE (temporary union of companies) and the subcontracting was NOT declared (illegal)

I have more and more points

I have nothing to do with this fight, other than being Spanish myself. But it deeply bores me that it has occurred.

I don't care who is right, truly. What bothers me is that this isn't the appropriate forum, the unbearable idealism of the accusation, the unnecessary defense, the veiled threats, etc.

What really burns me is that we are always like this… Me tuvo que tocar un país de patio de colegio.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com