The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has launched the country's first 'Quantum Computer Simulator (QSim) Toolkit', brought together by Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee and Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC).
“Quantum Computing is a rapidly emerging computational paradigm which can perform a variety of tasks with greater speed and efficiency than present day digital computers...in areas such as cryptography, computational chemistry and machine learning, quantum computing promises exponential growth in computing power. QSim is a first-of-its-kind toolkit to be indigenously developed and is intended to be a vital tool in learning and understanding the practical aspects of programming....” IIT Roorkee said.
QSim aims 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,” it added.
The project was funded by MeitY and developed through a multi-institutional approach by the three institutes.
As part of the "Design and Development of Quantum Computing Toolkit (Simulator, Workbench) and Capacity Building" project, the team from IIT Roorkee helped the teams from IISc, CDAC-Bangalore, CDAC-Hyderabad, in providing the required expertise in quantum computing and developing programs to be tested and implemented on the toolkit.
Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State, Electronics and IT, said, “This is an important milestone for the Ministry and the entire country towards creating capabilities in strategic areas such as Quantum Computing. It is interesting that we are doing this when we just started celebrating our 75th year of independence.
“This occasion is good to look back on how far we have come as a nation. In many ways QSIM and focus on Quantum Computing is about looking ahead to india in another 25 years. I congratulate the team again and all the best to all those involved in this endeavor,” the minister said.
Dr Sugata Gangopadhyay, Professor and Head, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Roorkee, said, "Our team worked closely with the teams from CDAC on the development of the toolkit. 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 programs to be implemented on the simulator…."
Prof Ajit K Chaturvedi, Director, IIT Roorkee, said, “IIT Roorkee 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.”
IIT Roorkee recently introduced two courses in quantum computation. The first course was launched through the E&ICT academy and was attended by over 400 participants.
The second course was offered to scientists and officers at various government agencies and laboratories and was attended by close to 100 participants.
