Top Industry Leaders join the Board of SRM Qkrishi Quantum Centre of Excellence

Top Industry Leaders join the Board of SRM Qkrishi Quantum Centre of Excellence

Industry Leaders will set the agenda for education and research in the newly formed SRMIST Qkrishi Centre of Excellence in Quantum Information and Computing (SQ-QuIC)

Chennai: SRMIST Qkrishi Centre 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. Also, Dr. C. Muthamizhchelvan, Vice Chancellor, SRMIST, and Dr. S. Ponnusamy, Registrar, SRMIST, have joined the board as the academic members who bring vast experience in education and research. The leadership from the board will enable SQ-QuIC to accelerate value creation in quantum computing in India.

The centre of excellence was launched on 9th September 2022. Qkrishi Quantum Private Limited and SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST) have partnered to set up the centre to provide an environment for SRM faculty and students to work jointly with industry on real industry problems to help India and the world to take advantage of quantum computing.

Quantum computing is rapidly advancing towards commercial viability. Quantum computing promises to help businesses solve tough industry problems, but industry and academia need to work together to quickly go beyond today’s early-stage use cases that are largely experimental and hypothetical.

Dr. Shankar Venugopal, Vice President, Mahindra and Mahindra, said, “Early demonstration of practical use cases for Quantum Computing is key to its success and that is best achieved through a focused Industry – Academia collaboration.”

A key focus for India is to take leadership 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, SRMIST, said, “We want SQ-QuIC to have a transformational effect on the Indian ecosystem and propel India into the quantum era. We want to take the help of industry to identify the important problems, so that our faculty and students can drive research and development that has maximum impact.”

Under the guidance of the board, SQ-QuIC will work on scaling up quantum skilling and doing cutting edge research and development to address problems of national importance.

Ms. Shalaka Verma, Director, Microsoft, said, “Quantum Computing has a huge potential to change the status quo of what is possible in many industries. Its impact on healthcare, agriculture, manufacturing, energy can be not only life changing but lifesaving. In a field of such a high potential, availability of skills is very low right now, and we do not have structured approach to develop skills at scale OR build ecosystem. I am looking forward to start making inroads on these lines as part of this board.”

About SRMIST Qkrishi Centre of Excellence in Quantum Information and Computing (SQ-QuIC): SQ-QuIC was set up jointly by SRMIST and Qkrishi in September 2022. As the first such centre in India, SQ-QuIC aims to advance education, research and development in quantum computing. SQ-QuIC enables SRM faculty and students, Qkrishi scientists and industry partners to work on cutting edge research and development to address problems of national importance in industry domains including finance, healthcare, energy, agriculture, automobiles, logistics, machine learning and cyber security.

About Qkrishi: Qkrishi, founded in 2021, focuses on quantum research, technology, and skilling. Qkrishi is working with industry and academic partners on use cases of relevance to various industries. Qkrishi has a team of experienced researchers with advanced degrees in quantum computing. The Qkrishi team is constantly innovating to create intellectual property of value to industry clients.

About SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST): SRMIST which started as an engineering college in 1985, is today, one of the top ranking universities in India with over 52,000 full-time students and more than 3200 faculty across all the campuses – Kattankulathur, Ramapuram, Vadapalani Campus – all in and around Chennai, and Modinagar, NCR, Delhi – offering a wide range of undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programs in 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 associated with various disciplines to contribute in their field of expertise through publications, patents, and other valuable contributions to society. Thrust is given by SRMIST, for researchers to collaborate with industry to convert their ideas and findings into products that will be useful to society.

SRM Qkrishi Quantum Centre of Excellence to Focus on Teaching and Research to help India Lead in Quantum

SRM Qkrishi Quantum Centre of Excellence to Focus on Teaching and Research to help India Lead in Quantum

SRM and Qkrishi will enable the industry to work jointly with faculty, students, and researchers to get hands-on with quantum computing to solve tough industry problems.

Chennai: Qkrishi Quantum Private Limited and SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST) have partnered to set up the SRMIST Qkrishi Centre of Excellence in Quantum Information and Computing (SQ-QuIC). SQ-QuIC was officially inaugurated on September 9 by Dr. C. Muthumizhchelvan, Vice Chancellor, SRMIST. This First of a Kind centre of excellence in a private university in India will bring together SRM faculty, research students, and Qkrishi scientists to work on cutting-edge quantum algorithms and applications research. The interdisciplinary team comprising of faculty from Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Management, and Engineering will focus on research in areas such as Finance, Drug Discovery, Logistics Optimisation, Automobile, and Machine Learning. SQ-QuIC has the mission to invent and develop new technology to reshape whole industries to help India take leadership in the quantum era. SRMIST and Qkrishi will work together with the industry to identify and solve the tough problems. Many industry problems have a high degree of computational complexity and are slow to converge even on the fastest supercomputers. Quantum computing brings a lot of opportunities to solve these tough problems to help humanity move forward in a sustainable way.

The partnership between SRMIST and Qkrishi will also enable students to work on cutting-edge quantum technologies that will help prepare them for the quantum era. Being one of the first such labs in the world, students of SRMIST will get an opportunity to work in one of the most advanced technology areas of today. Experts have called out Quantum Computing as one of the most sought-after skills along with AI/ML, VR, and Cloud.

Dr. C. Muthamizhchelvan, Vice Chancellor, SRMIST said, “Through this partnership between SRM and Qkrishi we will accelerate teaching, research, and technology development in quantum computing.  SRM has always led from the front with a flexible and dynamic curriculum, exciting research, and strategic partnerships to provide the best learning opportunities for students. Now along with Qkrishi we want to be one of the first institutions in the world to bring quantum skilling, research, and technology development opportunities to faculty, students, and industry collaborators.

“SQ-QuIC at SRMIST Campus will help in creating a flourishing ecosystem involving faculty, students, and external industry collaborators who can focus on solving some of the toughest challenges facing India and the world,” said Smt. Prabha Narayan, co-founder at Qkrishi.

Shri Raghavendra V, Head of Research at Qkrishi said, “Quantum represents a new computing paradigm. The industry needs to get ready for the future of computing. Qkrishi and SRM will work to radically reshape how industry in finance, medicine, and logistics work by driving innovations using quantum computing.”

About Qkrishi: Qkrishi, founded in 2021, focuses on quantum research, technology, and skilling. Qkrishi is working with industry and academic partners on use cases of relevance to industries including finance and medicine. Qkrishi has a team of experienced researchers with advanced degrees in quantum computing. The Qkrishi team is constantly innovating to create the intellectual property of value to industry clients.

About SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST): SRMIST which started as an engineering college in 1985, is today, one of the top ranking universities in India with over 52,000 full-time students and more than 3200 faculty across all the campuses – Kattankulathur, Ramapuram, Vadapalani Campus – all in and around Chennai, and Modinagar, NCR, Delhi – offering a wide range of undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral programs in 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 associated with various disciplines to contribute in their field of expertise through publications, patents, and other valuable contributions to society. Thrust is given by SRMIST, for researchers to collaborate with industry to convert their ideas and findings into products that will be useful to society.