RWTH: Endowed professorship researches quantum computing
Quantum computing is one of the most promising future technologies and has the potential to massively increase the computing power of computers by means of quantum mechanical effects and thus to push the limits of what was previously possible and to revolutionize fields of application from materials research to automated driving. RWTH is present in this research area, for example, in the Matter and Light for Quantum Computing (ML4Q) excellence cluster. Research on this future technology at RWTH Aachen University is being further promoted with an endowed chair “Quantum Information Systems” sponsored by the BMW Group. The contract for the establishment of the endowed chair “Quantum Information Systems” was signed today by Professor Ulrich Rüdiger, Rector of RWTH Aachen University, Alexander Buresch, CIO of BMW AG, and Dr. Stefan Floeck,
The BMW Group is providing 4.5 million euros for professorships, equipment and employees at RWTH Aachen University over a period of six years. A further 1.0 million euros will flow into a networking fund that promotes interdisciplinary research projects at RWTH Aachen University and the integration of the chair into the university landscape and with the Jülich Research Center. The common overarching goal of RWTH Aachen University and the BMW Group is to build a bridge between outstanding basic research in Germany and the applicability of quantum computing. The new chair will be integrated into the Computer Science department and part of the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) profile area, thereby strengthening the research spectrum on modern information technologies and artificial intelligence.
Innovation potential for social progress
“Quantum technology is one of the big topics of the future, with enormous innovation potential for our social progress. With this endowed professorship, we can intensify our research in this area. At RWTH Aachen we like to work in networks, we are convinced that we can achieve the best solutions for future topics through a continuous exchange of knowledge and technology with partners from science, industry and society, ”explains RWTH Rector Professor Ulrich Rüdiger.
RWTH Aachen has been a strategic partner of the BMW Group since 2017. “With its excellently networked ecosystem and its technological focus, RWTH Aachen is the perfect home for the endowed chair, which promises significant findings for the industrialization of quantum computing solutions,” explains Dr. Stefan Floeck, Executive Mentor of the strategic partnership between the BMW Group and RWTH Aachen.
RWTH is the second university at which the BMW Group is funding an endowed chair for research on quantum computing. Another is being set up at the Technical University of Munich. While the main focus of the “Quantum Algorithms and Applications” chair is on the development of algorithms, the RWTH department researches so-called software integration and industrialization skills in order to enable the use of quantum computing outside of science in the medium term. As a cross-university research and technology transfer unit, RWTH Innovation accompanies and supports the strategic cooperation between the BMW Group and RWTH Aachen University.