Saturday, 28 August 2021 | PNS | Roorkee
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) launched the country’s firstQuantum Computer Simulator (QSim) Toolkit on Friday. Quantum computingis a rapidly emerging computational paradigm which can perform a variety of tasks with greater speed and efficiency than present day digital computers by harnessing the power of quantum mechanics.
It is the country’s first collaborative initiative in this field, brought together by India Instittue of Science (IISc) Bengaluru, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee and C-DAC to address the common challenge of advancing the quantum computing research frontiers in India. It will enable researchers and students to research quantum computing in a cost-effective manner.
The project was conceptualised through a multi-institutional approach by IISc Bengaluru, IIT Roorkee and C-DAC as participating agencies. It was supported and funded by MeitY. QSim allows researchers and students to write and debug quantum code that is essential for developing quantum algorithms. QSim equips researchers to explore quantum algorithms under idealised conditions and assists them in making necessary arrangements for experiments to run on actual quantum hardware. QSim can serve as an essential educational/research tool providing a way to attract students/researchers to the field of quantum technology.
As part of the design and development of quantum computing toolkit and capacity building project, the team from IIT Roorkee helped the teams from the IISc and C-DAC in providing the required expertise in quantum computing and developing programmes to be tested and implemented on the toolkit. Speaking about the IIT Roorkee’s contribution, its Department of Computer Science and Engineer head Sugata Gangopadhyay said, “The expertise provided by IIT Roorkee played a significant role in bringing the toolkit to its current state. We are currently working on the development of programmes to be implemented on the simulator.”
IIT Roorkee director Ajit K Chaturvedi said, “The institute will continue to play an active role in quantum computing education and research. The quantum simulator being launched today is poised to be a key enabler in this direction.”
