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KINGSTON, R.I. Facing the University of Rhode Islands quadrangle, Sen. Jack Reed stood atop the steps of East Hall on Friday and addressed members of the URI campus following the schools announcement of a new quantum computing initiative designed to keep up to date with the fast-paced change in technology and cybersecurity.

The process is supported by a $1 million federal earmark from the state and funding from the URI College of Arts and Sciences and the Graduate School of Oceanography.

These funds will help the university expand its teaching bringing experts to expand the universitys quantum degree programs and help train the next generation of students and researchers, Reed said.

Last Friday was World Quantum Day, and the school celebrated its step toward preparing students for fields linked to the ever-evolving workforce of computing. The event lasted throughout the afternoon and into the early evening.

URIs initiative involves a new research partnership with the International Business Machines Corporation (IBM). This is expected to garner further support toward the schools masters degree and graduate certificate programs and will give the university access to Big Blues cutting-edge quantum computing systems. It is anticipated that improved access to these resources will improve student education and faculty research.

(Quantum computing) is quickly becoming ubiquitous, URI President Marc Parlange said. And its rapidly evolving. And we have an opportunity to be at the leading edge of this growth.

Reed and Parlange began the symposium and Adele Merritt, Intelligence Community Chief Information Officer at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, closed with a keynote presentation in East Halls auditorium.

Other speakers throughout the day included Christopher Savoie, co-founder and chief executive officer of Zapata Computing, Christopher Lirakis, lead for quantum systems deployment at IBM, Charles Robinson, quantum computing public sector leader at IBM, Pedro Lopes, business developer at the computing firm QuEra, and Juan Rivera, senior engineer at Dell Computing, and Kurt Jacobs, deputy chief scientist at the U.S. Armys Research Lab.

Savoie holds a bachelors degree from URI and is on the College of Arts and Sciences Advisory Council. Merritt has her Ph.D. from URI, in mathematics.

Quantum mechanics is a science that explores how matter and light act on an atomic and subatomic scale. Its a fundamental theory designed to solve issues that too advanced for original or outdated technology.

Computers process data by manipulating digital information; units represented in zeros and ones. These info bits, known as qubits, can exist as zero and a one, simultaneously.

There are some present-day supercomputers that cant handle this kind of information in multiple states at once. Quantum computers, however, can perform these calculations.

Such technology is in its early stages.

URI will provide more outreach and summer research opportunities for high school students, in an attempt to spark interest for the next generation of quantum physicists.

This will be done through URIs faculty working with Qubit, a nonprofit group, to provide the reach-out and include scholarships for high schoolers to participate in summer workshops and research internships on the Kingston Campus.

In 2021, the university started a five-year program that graduates students with a bachelors degree in physics and a masters in quantum computing. This year, it added an online graduate certificate program.

Recognizing that quantum computing will be integrated into every major industry within the next decade, the physics department has developed one of the first standalone masters programs in quantum computing, as well as an online graduate certificate designed for current STEM professionals to pivot into a new career, Jen Riley, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences said. Theyve also created an undergraduate program with a five-year accelerated bachelors to masters degree program in quantum computing.

Researchers on campus are moving to make quantum computers scalable and more vigorous, while others are trying to familiarize themselves with the technology.

Access to the IBM software will also allow a partnership between URI and the Naval Undersea Warfare Center, which will support studies into the use of quantum systems in the development of autonomous underwater vehicles.

To expand research and its teaching capacity, the school plans to add four visiting faculty, four postdoctoral researchers, and four graduate teaching assistants in the coming years.

Scientific innovation has been essential to the success for the intelligence communitys mission, Merritt said. The rapidly evolving landscape requires us to be well informed on emerging technologies.

Read more:

URI looks to the future with new quantum computing initiative - The Independent