This University in New York Is the First With a Full-Fledged Quantum Computer

On Friday April 5, I attended the ribbon-cutting for the first quantum computer installed on a university campus, an IBM Quantum System One machine at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. While quantum computing has the potential to solve some problems that traditional computers can’t and has been advancing at a steady rate, there are still many questions and challenges around the technology. Installing the machine on a college campus will allow researchers to examine many of these issues and allow students to get hands-on experience with the technology.

RPI President Martin A. Schmidt says that with this quantum computer, “we will explore applications, develop algorithms, and in so doing help humanity solve some very large problems.” He states that while it's easy to predict that quantum systems will rapidly become essential because of their computational power, we don't yet fully know how best to use them. He says we can anticipate that there will be important applications in biomedicine, in modeling climate and predicting weather, and in materials design; but there will be applications in many other fields.

With IBM’s research in Yorktown Heights, manufacturing in Poughkeepsie, and partnerships with the University of Albany as well as RPI, he hopes for "an agglomeration effect," in which organizations in a region working together can create something where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Schmidt notes that there are already partnerships in the area for semiconductor research, and this has led to new factories being built in upstate New York: "Adding 'quantum valley' aspects to 'tech valley' is not only going to draw new businesses here and encourage startups, but also offer the region's existing businesses early insights into what it means to be quantum advantaged."

Schmidt hopes the system and its use by RPI and the University of Albany will help answer the question of how the United States educates a quantum-ready workforce for the near future. He notes RPI's history of 'hands-on' education and that students at all levels will be encouraged to use the machine.

Separately, Schmidt also tells me that he believes the quantum computer will be useful in attracting both faculty and students.

Curtis Priem, a cofounder of Nvidia and vice-chairman of RPI—and the donor who arranged for the machine to come to RPI—notes that he enrolled at RPI initially because of this 'hands-on' approach and remarked at how today even undergraduates can use RPI's supercomputer.

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna says that quantum systems will solve problems that we cannot solve on today's computers—problems in materials, problems in carbon sequestration, problems around drug discovery, and problems in lightweight materials, lubricants, and EV battery materials. "When you think about it intuitively," he says "they come from a world of physical chemistry, which means that they are subject to the principles of quantum mechanics, which is why these systems, which kind of simulate nature, are the ones that are going to let us make progress on these problems." They have the potential to solve problems around stochastics and financial risk.

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Krishna believes that the university could uniquely help with workforce development, saying "Students are going to imagine using these systems in ways that even the inventors of these systems can't conceive." Listing a set of potential use cases, he says, " I'll make a bet that within five years students and faculty here are going to bring up use cases that are far beyond what we are imagining."

The unveiling was preceded by a day of discussions about the opportunities and the many challenges facing quantum computing before it is ready for commercial applications. I'll talk about those in my next post.