Kristen Smith 
- CGI, DLA & UT signed the Quantum Pathfinder agreement
- Early focus areas cover warehouse orchestration, reverse logistics and inventory positioning
- CGI Federal will host the research work at its Knoxville delivery center
CGI Federal, the Defense Logistics Agency and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, will test quantum computing and agentic AI against three logistics problems: warehouse orchestration, reverse logistics and inventory positioning in contested conditions.
The three signed an applied research agreement, which runs under the name Quantum Pathfinder, CGI Federal said Thursday. The organizations are still identifying specific use cases.
CGI Federal will host the effort at its Knoxville delivery center and expects it to expand over the coming fiscal year.
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What Is the Objective of Quantum Pathfinder?
Victor Foulk, vice president of emerging technologies at CGI Federal, said the distance between a laboratory result and something a mission can use will not close on its own.
“CGI is leading Quantum Pathfinder to do the work in that gap, bringing DLA’s critical mission requirements together with the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s research capabilities and our systems integration experience,” Foulk told Executive Biz.
He said the partners are working to a standard that asks not only whether a problem can be solved but whether the answer can be trusted, used and sustained.
Foulk identified translating a shifting operational problem into something a solver can work on as one of the hardest steps, and described agentic AI as the current path toward quantum.
“The opportunity is not AI and quantum sitting side by side in silos,” he said. “It is AI helping make advanced computation usable at scale.”
What Does CGI Federal Want the Effort to Produce?
Foulk said the goal is for each round of work to build on the last.
“One successful use case is a beginning, not a strategy,” he said, adding that the next mission should inherit methods, evidence and integration lessons rather than start from zero.
The partners’ initial focus is on DLA’s logistics problems, aiming to lower the barrier for later applications.
Jessica Hersey, who leads the company’s defense, intelligence and space business unit, said AI is the technology available now. Combined with logistics expertise, it prepares the systems agencies already run for capabilities quantum could add later, she added.
Findings will reach the public through publications and industry events as the work proceeds.
How Does the Research Effort Connect to Tennessee’s Quantum Push?
The agreement runs through the Knoxville Quantum Accelerator, a University of Tennessee program launched in May to build the region’s quantum research and workforce base.
That program supports the Tennessee Quantum Initiative, a $43 million state strategy aimed at recruiting quantum companies and expanding work in advanced manufacturing, life sciences and logistics. It also backs a planned 100,000-square-foot quantum foundry at the UT Research Park at Cherokee Farm and a hybrid quantum and classical computing hub in Knoxville’s Maplehurst Innovation District.
“Together through the Knoxville Quantum Accelerator, we will pursue strategic investments in research infrastructure, develop the workforce needed for the emerging quantum economy, compete for large-scale funding opportunities and create clearer pathways from discovery to commercialization,” said Marc Gibson, associate vice chancellor for innovation partnerships and economic development at the university.
The university has more than 30 faculty members working on quantum materials and 10 more on quantum hardware and software, with plans to add up to 10 faculty members over the next four years. CGI, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, TVA and IonQ are among UT’s regional partners.
