By Ron Chen, Correspondent ASEAN Region
Work is underway to build a quantum computer in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, ushering an important milestone for the region in this breakthrough era in computing.
Technology Innovation Institute (TII), the dedicated ‘applied research’ pillar of Abu Dhabi’s newly established Advanced Technology Research Council (ATRC), Tuesday announced that its Quantum Research Centre (QRC) team led by its Chief Researcher Professor José Ignacio Latorre, will construct the quantum computer in the UAE capital, in collaboration with Barcelona-based Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech researchers.
“We are at the cusp of a new era with the advent of quantum computing,” Secretary-General of ATRC, H.E. Faisal Al Bannai said. “We are proud to embark on building one of these wonderful machines which will help us in various fields, from discovering new medicines to making new materials to designing better batteries to various Artificial Intelligence applications.”
A quantum computer uses quantum mechanics phenomena such as ‘superposition’ and ‘entanglement’ to generate and manipulate subatomic particles like electrons or photons – quantum bits also known as ‘qubits’ – to create exponentially stronger processing powers that can help perform complex calculations that would take much longer to solve even by the world’s most powerful classical supercomputers.
Prof. Latorre explained that preparatory work has already begun. “The first step in the process is to build a laboratory, equip it and complete installation of the cleanroom equipment, all of which is on track. Once done, the first qubits will be prepared, characterised and benchmarked. We expect the first simple quantum chips ‘Made in Abu Dhabi’ should come by the end of the summer,” he said.
Prof. Latorre said there are several technologies to construct quantum computers such as superconducting qubits, ion traps, optical qubits, and spin dots, adding QRC has opted to use superconducting qubits, which is the same technology that Google and IBM use in building their own quantum computers, and they offer the best qubit technology to scale to a larger quantum computer.
QRC is one of seven dedicated research centres at Technology Innovation Institute (TII).
