IIT Madras becomes first Indian institute to join IBM Quantum Network

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.

Key Highlights

• As a member of the IBM Quantum 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 realize the wide-ranging benefits of this technology for business and society.

• 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.

• 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.

• In 2019, IBM’s Quantum System One was the first circuit-based commercial introduced.

What is Quantum Computing?

• 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.

• The IBM Quantum Network aims to advance quantum computing skills development and research in India.

• Quantum networks also known as the quantum internet is an internet network that makes use of the properties of photons to transmit data.

• It allows quantum devices to exchange information within a particular environment that harnesses the principles of quantum mechanics.