On January 17, 2019, the opening ceremony of the "NTU-IBM Quantum Computer Center" was held at NTU to announce the official launch of the IBM Q Hub at NTU. NTU Vice President Ming-Hsien Chen, IBM Vice President Dr. Tze-Chiang Chen, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) Engineering Technology Division chief Shuo-Hong Hsu, and the CEO of the Information Industry Promotion Council (III), Mr. Cheng-Hong Zhuo were invited. IBM Japan Vice President Noly Morimoto、IBM Q Network Global Business Development manager Kenneth Wood, ITRI Professor Yu-Jen, Ching-Rui Chang, the host of the "IBM Quantum Computer Center" project, and other participants also joined the event. In addition to our faculty, students, and researchers, as well as our research partners (III and ITRI), we will also open the application for the IBM Q 20-qubit quantum computing system and future commercial systems to our collaborators (researchers from universities in Taiwan).
Quantum computers have been studied theoretically for many years and have only been developed in the last two years to the point where they can be physically learned and used by everyone. Quantum computers have the potential to solve certain problems that are difficult to handle with traditional computers and provide new tools for specific applications. As quantum computer hardware continues to evolve, now is the time to work on getting ready to enter the "quantum ready" era by developing quantum computer hardware and software technologies for scientific and commercial applications. With the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the "IBM Q Hub at NTU" has been established at National Taiwan University (NTU) to give Taiwan a quantum head start in educating and training outstanding students and corporate partners to research and develop new software applications in the field of quantum computing.
From January 16 to 18, 2019, the NTU-IBM Quantum Computing Center held a three-day "NTU-IBM Q: Initial Workshop in Taiwan", inviting eight IBM experts to form a professional team to design and deliver training workshops on quantum information science software development. The event was attended by more than 160 participants, including members of the NTU-IBM Quantum Computing Center, research partners, and participants from various fields.
The "National Taiwan University-IBM Quantum Computing Center" provides a service platform to connect to the IBM Q system to promote the development of quantum computing research and talent training in Taiwan's academic research community. In the future, the main goal of the Center is to promote the development of research in this new field and to nurture relevant scholars, experts, and students to accelerate Taiwan's participation and welcome the advent of the quantum computing era.
