WHAT: As part of World Quantum Day, April 14, the University of Rhode Island will announce a new quantum computing initiative that will bolster research, student education and future workforce development in the growing field of quantum computing. Supported by $1 million in directed federal funds secured by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, the initiative includes a vital research partnership with IBM that will provide URI faculty and students access to IBM’s cutting-edge quantum computing systems. The initiative will bring visiting faculty, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students to the University in support of URI’s master’s degree and graduate certificate programs in quantum computing, while also launching additional outreach and summer research opportunities that attract the next generation of students. While in its infancy, quantum computing promises to revolutionize the way information is processed, performing calculations that even today’s largest computers can’t handle. Today, there are only a limited number of working quantum computers in the world, making URI’s collaboration with IBM that much more important to student education and faculty research.
WHO: U.S. Sen. Jack Reed; Adele Merritt, intelligence community chief information officer at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; URI President Marc Parlange; Dean Jeannette Riley, College of Arts and Sciences; and Professor Leonard Kahn, chair of the URI Department of Physics.
WHEN: Friday, April 14, 1 to 1:30 p.m. (Speaking program)
WHERE: East Hall, 2 Lippitt Road. (Presentation will be on front steps of East Hall, facing the historic quadrangle.)
AN AFTERNOON OF EVENTS: A World Quantum Day symposium will run from noon to 5:30 p.m. in East Hall at URI, featuring prominent speakers from the quantum computing world. Speakers include alumnus 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; Kurt Jacobs, deputy chief scientist at the Army Research Laboratory; Pedro Lopes, business developer at the computing firm QuEra; and Juan Rivera, senior engineer at Dell Computing and president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology Club in Rhode Island. URI alumna Merritt will deliver the keynote address at 4:30.
TO MAKE COVERAGE ARRANGEMENTS: Contact Anthony LaRoche, URI Communications and Marketing, 401-874-4894, cell 401-837-8275, anthony_laroche@uri.edu.