Industry leaders will set the agenda for education and research at the newly established SRMIST Qkrishi Center of Excellence in Quantum Information and Computing (SQ-QuIC).
Chennai: SRMIST Qkrishi Center of Excellence in Quantum Information and Computing (SQ-QuIC) announced that the following industry leaders have joined its Board of Directors: Dr. Shankar Venugopal, Vice President, Mahindra and Mahindra, Mr. Jagdish Narayanan, Chief Information Officer, Jio Payments Bank, Dr. Jai Ganesh, Chief Product Officer, Harman International and Ms. Shalaka Verma, Director, Microsoft. The board members bring decades of experience in technology leadership and a long track record of leading innovative and diverse teams around the world. In addition, dr. C. Muthamizhchelvan, Vice Chancellor, SRMIST, and Dr. S. Ponnusamy, Chancellor, SRMIST, joined the Board as academic members bringing extensive experience in education and research. Board leadership will enable SQ-QuIC to accelerate value creation in quantum computing in India.
The Center of Excellence opened on September 9, 2022. Qkrishi Quantum Private Limited and SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST) have partnered to set up the center to provide an environment for SRM faculty and students to work collaboratively with industry on real industry problems around India and to help the world reap the benefits of quantum computing.
Quantum computing is rapidly evolving toward commercial viability. Quantum computing promises to help companies solve tough industry problems, but industry and academia must work together to quickly move beyond today’s early-stage use cases, which are largely experimental and hypothetical.
dr Shankar Venugopal, Vice President of Mahindra and Mahindra, said, “Early demonstration of practical use cases for quantum computing is key to its success, and that is best achieved through focused industry-academia collaboration.”
A key focus for India is to take the lead in quantum computing. To do this, India needs a skilled workforce and a thriving ecosystem that drives world-leading research and development in quantum computing.
dr C. Muthamizhchelvan, Vice-Chancellor of SRMIST, said: “We want SQ-QuIC to have a transformative impact on the Indian ecosystem and lead India into the Quantum Era. We would like to enlist the help of industry to identify the important issues so that our faculty and students can advance research and development with maximum impact.”
Under the direction of the Board of Directors, SQ-QuIC will work to expand quantum expertise and engage in cutting-edge research and development to address issues of national importance.
Ms. Shalaka Verma, Director at Microsoft, said, “Quantum computing has tremendous potential to transform the status quo of what is possible in many industries. Its impact on healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing, and energy can be not only life-changing, but life-saving. In an area of such high potential, the availability of skills is currently very low and we do not have a structured approach to develop skills at scale OR build an ecosystem. I look forward to making progress in these areas as part of this board.”
About SRMIST Qkrishi Center of Excellence in Quantum Information and Computing (SQ-QuIC): SQ-QuIC was co-founded by SRMIST and Qkrishi in September 2022. As the first such center in India, SQ-QuIC aims to provide education, research and development in quantum computing. SQ-QuIC enables SRM faculty and students, Qkrishi academics, and industry partners to work on cutting-edge research and development to address problems of national importance in industry sectors such as finance, healthcare, energy, agriculture, automotive, logistics, machine learning, and cybersecurity .
About Qkrishi: Founded in 2021, Qkrishi focuses on quantum research, technology and qualification. Qkrishi works with industrial and academic partners on use cases relevant to different industries. Qkrishi has a team of experienced researchers with advanced degrees in quantum computing. Qkrishi team is constantly innovating to create intellectual property of value for industrial customers.
About SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST): SRMIST, which started as an engineering college in 1985, is now one of the leading universities in India with over 52,000 full-time students and more than 3200 faculty across all campuses – Kattankulathur , Ramapuram, Vadapalani campus – all in and around Chennai and Modinagar, NCR, Delhi – offer a wide range of undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programs across six faculties – Engineering & Technology, Management, Medicine & Health Sciences, Science & Humanities, Law and Agricultural Sciences. SRMIST faculty and students are actively involved in research as the university encourages researchers from different disciplines to contribute to their fields through publications, patents and other valuable contributions to society. SRMIST empowers researchers to collaborate with industry to transform their ideas and findings into products useful to society.