Indian Institute of Technology Madras to collaborate with IBM on courses related to Quantum Computing and research

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Indian Insitute of Technology (IIT) Madras has said it will collaborate with software firm IBM on developing quantum computing research.

As a result of this collaboration, faculty, researchers, and students will now have access to all of the firm's quantum systems and tools over IBM Cloud.

This is in a bid to further research on quantum computing, as well as develop curricula that will aid IIT Madras's students in their preparations for careers in this field.

These quantum computing lab courses will jointly be taught by IIT Madras faculty and IBM researchers. It will include hands-on lab sessions on the IBM quantum systems. This is to further augment existing courses on quantum information and computing at the university.

IBM will also give all the students and faculty all the learning resources, tools, and systems access needed by the faculty and students.

"Quantum computing offers us the opportunity to solve computationally intractable problems," said Anil Prabhakar, Department of Electrical Engineering of IIT Madras, adding that the university's demonstrations are backed by a growing portfolio of patents on technologies such as quantum random number and heralded photon generation.

Speaking on the collaboration, Dr Gargi Dasgupta, Director, IBM Research India, said that the company is committed to supporting educators like IIT Madras who are shaping the next generation of quantum innovators through various initiatives and programs.

"This collaboration with IIT Madras is part of the IBM Quantum Educators program that helps teachers in the quantum field connect with one another and provide learning resources, tools and systems access they need to provide quality educational experiences," Dasgupta said.