The University of Illinois announced that it's launching a new $15 million quantum computing center on campus that looks to make the school a hotbed for quantum science.
The university announced Monday the launch of the Illinois Quantum Information Science and Technology Center (IQUIST), a $15 million center that aims to grow the number of quantum experts at U of I and train the next-generation quantum workforce.
Quantum computing, as a field of study, is still in its infancy. But progress is being made as companies are now building quantum machines for commercial clients. Scientists believe quantum computers can one day be more powerful than the supercomputers of today, and eventually help provide breakthroughs in drug discovery and artificial intelligence, among other things.
But with relatively new technology comes relatively few people who actually understand how it works. In fact, fewer than a thousand people in the world are doing leading research in the field, according to the New York Times.
With the importance of quantum computing growing, and a lack of qualified researchers to work in the field, the University of Illinois sees a prime opportunity to train the quantum computing pros of tomorrow.
"It’s crucial, as one of the largest and best engineering and physics programs in the country, to address both the technical and research challenges and the educational and workforce challenges that we face,” U of I Provost Andreas Cangellaris said in a statement.
The investment in the new center will include state-of-the-art equipment for the fabrication of quantum materials and devices, the university says, and researchers will develop novel quantum algorithms, materials, devices and approaches to quantum computing.
The school says the investment will include a major hiring initiative to expand its number of quantum science experts across multiple departments throughout the College of Engineering and the campus at large.
The schools says that one of its key projects will include the construction of a multi-node quantum testbed, enabling researchers to explore and implement new ideas for distributed quantum processing and applications of quantum networks.
IQUIST will also partner with local institutions like the University of Chicago, Argonne National Laboratory and Fermilab.
