Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and IBM unveil the world’s first IBM Quantum System One on a university campus

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) have recently officially unveiled the world’s first-ever IBM quantum computer on a university campus. Building on RPI’s bicentennial celebration of 200 years of firsts, IBM Quantum System One will significantly enhance educational and research opportunities for the university, as well as with other academic institutions and organizations across the New York region that wish to partner with RPI. Faculty, researchers, students, and collaborators accessing the system will aim to advance quantum computing research, including the search for quantum algorithms that could lead to quantum advantage, while also actively building the next generation of the quantum workforce alongside IBM,
The new IBM Quantum System One at RPI is powered by a 127-qubit IBM Quantum ‘Eagle’ processor, to offer RPI’s network of researchers, students and partners dedicated access to a utility-scale quantum computer. In 2023, IBM demonstrated the ability of IBM Eagle to produce accurate calculations beyond classical, brute-force simulation methods. Known as quantum utility, this signaled the start of an era in which quantum systems can serve as scientific tools to explore problems in chemistry, physics, materials, and other fields in the search for quantum advantage: the point at which a quantum computer can solve a problem better than any known classical method.
The system now online at RPI is joining IBM’s global fleet of utility-scale quantum computers available via the cloud and at dedicated client sites, including systems in the United States, Canada, Germany and Japan, and installations in progress in South Korea and Spain. As quantum computing hardware and software continues to advance, RPI’s world-class academic body of students, researchers, and faculty will progress the global race to discover increasingly complex quantum.