IIT Madras becomes first Indian institution to join IBM Quantum Network

The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-Madras) is the first Indian institution to join the IBM Quantum Network, the multinational technology giant IBM announced on September 12. IIT Madras will have cloud-based access to IBM's most cutting-edge quantum computing equipment and IBM's quantum expertise as a member of this network, allowing it to investigate real-world applications and recognise the numerous advantages that this technology offers to both industry and society.

IBM's Quantum System One was the first commercially available circuit-based device announced in 2019. Quantum computing is the process of performing extremely quick calculations utilising quantum mechanics, or mathematical descriptions of the motion and interaction of subatomic particles, as a result of superposition, interference, and entanglement.

IIT-Madras will now become a part of a network of 180 global members, which includes start-ups, academic institutions, Fortune 500 businesses, and research labs. There are just about 50 academic institutions among these members.

The participants will investigate and do research on how quantum computing will benefit numerous sectors and fields, including finance, energy, chemistry, materials science, optimization, and machine learning.

According to the business, IBM's top 5 global adopters of quantum computing are in India.

IIT Madras' Centre for Quantum Information, Communication and Computing (CQuICC), according to IBM, will concentrate on improving fundamental algorithms in fields including finance applications research and quantum machine learning. They will investigate topics like quantum algorithms, quantum machine learning, quantum error correction and error mitigation, quantum tomography, and quantum chemistry, as well as advance and expand the nation's quantum computing ecosystem, using IBM Quantum services in conjunction with the open-source Qiskit framework.

It's an exciting time for IBM and IIT-Madras to collaborate, according to Sandip Patel, managing director of IBM India. The partnership will open up new opportunities to collaborate with business partners to speed up research, make quantum a reality, and establish a thriving quantum ecosystem in India.

We think the collaborative work will help India's National Mission on Quantum Technologies and Applications develop and get ready for the future, strengthening India's position as one of the world's computing powerhouses, he said.

By joining the IBM Quantum Network, our professors will have direct access to cutting-edge quantum hardware and software. It gives us the chance to apply our interdisciplinary knowledge to some of the difficult issues facing the quantum computing industry right now. In other words, it provides us with a rare opportunity to actively participate in this modern quantum revolution, continued Dr. Prabha Mandayam, associate professor of physics at IIT Madras.