Partnership under Singapore’s Quantum Engineering Programme will give access to quantum machines and train quantum scientists.
The National University of Singapore (NUS) and IBM have announced a three-year collaboration in quantum computing, supported by Singapore’s Quantum Engineering Programme (QEP). The partnership will give researchers access to IBM’s quantum computers on the cloud.
Goals are to find new ways to use quantum computing to solve real-world problems and to train quantum scientists. Dr Kwek Leong Chuan, who is co-director of QEP and a Principal Investigator at the Centre for Quantum Technologies at NUS, emphasises the importance of growing the talent pool. He pointed out that it is really up to the imagination and ingenuity of young, creative researchers to come up with even more applications.
IBM Q has built a network of hubs, partners and members around its quantum hardware. The company offers free cloud access to its smaller machines, while access to its more powerful machines with up to 53 qubits is reserved for its network. NUS is the first South-East Asian academic institution in to join the IBM Quantum Network, which has more than 100 members including companies such as Samsung, ExxonMobil and Daimler.
IBM Asia-Pacific general manager Brenda Harvey told the Straits Times: “As part of our network, NUS will have access not just to our technology but also to joint development opportunities that will grow quantum expertise and help Singapore to be quantum-ready.”
Singapore has a significant community of researchers working both on technology that may be used to build future computers and on quantum algorithms and software to deploy on such machines. Local startups Entropica Labs and Horizon Quantum Computing are focused on developing software tools for quantum computation.
“Singapore is a global hub where innovation is driven by a strategic combination of talents, world-class research and a vibrant tech-transfer ecosystem. To strengthen this edge for decades to come, NUS is pleased to be the host of the QEP. The funding from this programme aims to bring together expertise across several universities to drive the advancement of quantum technology,” said Professor Chen Tsuhan, NUS Deputy President (Research and Technology).
“This partnership with IBM will potentially open up avenues for researchers to apply quantum computing to different fields, including chemistry, materials science, biology, finance and cybersecurity, particularly those dealing with uncertainty and constrained optimisation. The know-how and experience gained will help ensure that Singapore is ready to harness the quantum revolution for social and economic benefits.”
This text is adapted from news published on the website of the Centre for Quantum Technologies. Read the original story here.
Image: The IBM Q Lab at the T.J. Watson Research Center, New York, where IBM is building commercially available universal quantum computing systems. Credit: Connie Zhou for IBM, CC-BY-ND 2.0