IIT Madras becomes first Indian institution to join IBM Quantum Network

Global technology giant IBM on September 12 announced that the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-Madras) became the first Indian  institution to join the IBM Quantum Network. As a member of this network, IIT Madras will get cloud-based access to IBM’s most advanced quantum computing systems and IBM’s quantum expertise to explore practical applications, and realise the wide-ranging benefits of this technology for business and society.

In 2019, IBM's Quantum System One was the first circuit-based commercial introduced. Quantum Computing involves using quantum mechanics or mathematical descriptions of the motion and interaction of subatomic particles for superfast calculations by the virtue of superposition, interference, and entanglement.

With this development, IIT-Madras will join a network of 180 global members including a community of Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, academic institutions, and research labs. Only around 50 of these members are academic institutions.

The members will be researching and exploring how quantum computing will help a ‎variety of industries and disciplines, including finance, energy, chemistry, materials science, ‎optimization, and machine learning.

India, the company said, is among the top 5 adopters of quantum computing globally for IBM.

According to IBM, IIT Madras’ Centre for Quantum Information, Communication and Computing (CQuICC) will focus on advancing core algorithms in research areas like Quantum Machine Learning, Quantum Optimization, and applications research in finance. They will use IBM Quantum services alongside the open-source Qiskit framework to explore areas such as quantum algorithms, quantum machine learning, quantum error correction and error mitigation, quantum tomography, and quantum chemistry, and to also advance and grow the quantum computing ecosystem in the country.

Sandip Patel, managing director, IBM India said this is an exciting time for the company and IIT-Madras to work together. The collaboration will open new avenues to work with industry partners to accelerate research, make quantum real and create a vibrant quantum ecosystem in India.

“We believe the joint work will contribute towards India’s National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications to grow and prepare India for the future, further advancing India as one of the global powerhouses in computing,” he said.

“Becoming a part of the IBM Quantum Network will provide our faculty direct access to state-of-the-art quantum hardware and software. It enables us to use our interdisciplinary expertise to tackle some of the challenging problems in the domain of quantum computing today. In short, it gives us a unique opportunity to play an active and direct role in this quantum revolution of our times,” Dr Prabha Mandayam, associate professor, Department of Physics, IIT Madras added.