UMD and NIST Announce the Creation of the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science

The University of Maryland (UMD) and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced today the creation of the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science (QuICS), with the support and participation of the Research Directorate of the National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS). Scientists at the center will conduct basic research to understand how quantum systems can be effectively used to store, transport and process information.

This new center complements the fundamental quantum research performed at the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), which was established in 2006 by UMD, NIST and the NSA. Focusing on one of JQI’s original objectives to fully understand quantum information, QuICS will bring together computer scientists—who have expertise in algorithm and computational complexity theory and computer architecture—with quantum information scientists and communications scientists.

“This new endeavor builds on an already successful and fruitful collaboration at JQI,” said Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and Acting Director of NIST Willie May. “The new center will be a venue for groundbreaking basic research that will help to build our capacity for quantum research and train the next generation of researchers.”

UMD and NIST have a shared history of collaboration and cooperation in education, research and public service. They have long cooperated in building collaborative research consortia and programs that have resulted in extensive personal, professional and institutional relationships.

“By deepening our partnership with NIST, we now have all the ingredients in place to make major advances in quantum science,” said UMD President Wallace Loh. “This superb, world-class quantum program will team some of the best minds in physics, computer science and engineering to overcome the limitations of current computing systems.”

Dianne O’Leary, Distinguished University Professor Emerita in computer science at UMD, and Jacob Taylor, a NIST physicist and JQI Fellow, will serve as co-directors of the new center. Like the JQI, QuICS will be located on the UMD campus in College Park, Md.

The capabilities of today’s embedded and high-performance computer architectures have limited advances in critical areas, such as modeling the physical world, improving sensors and securing communications. Quantum computing could enable us to break through some of these barriers.

QuICS' objectives will be to:

• Develop a world-class research center that will build the scientific foundation for quantum information science to enable understanding of the relationships between information theory, computational complexity theory and nature, as well as the advances in computer science necessary to support potential quantum computing and communication devices and systems;
• Maintain and enhance the nation’s leading role in quantum information science by expanding an already-powerful collaboration between UMD, NIST and NSA/CSS; and
• Establish a unique, interdisciplinary center for the interchange of ideas among computer scientists, physicists and quantum information researchers.

Some of the topics QuICS researchers will initially examine include understanding how quantum mechanics informs computation and communication theories, determining what insights computer science can shed on quantum computing, investigating the consequences of quantum information theory for fundamental physics, and developing practical applications for theoretical advances in quantum computation and communication.

QuICS is expected to train scientists for future industrial and academic opportunities and provide U.S. industry with cutting-edge research results. By combining the strengths of UMD and NIST, QuICS will become an international center for excellence in quantum computer and information science.

QuICS will be the newest of 16 centers and labs within the University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS). The center will bring together researchers from UMIACS; the UMD Departments of Physics and Computer Science; and the UMD Applied Mathematics & Statistics, and Scientific Computation program with NIST’s Information Technology and Physical Measurement laboratories.

Contributed by Abby Robinson, CMNS