The AWS Center for Quantum Computing, located on the Caltech campus is the result of a partnership between Caltech and Amazon Web Services, the cloud-computing branch of Amazon. The goal of the collaboration is to create quantum computers and related technologies that have the potential to revolutionize data security, machine learning, medicine development, sustainability practices, and more.
This is the first corporate-partnership building on the Caltech campus, and it reflects Caltech’s interests in bringing fundamental science to the marketplace. Through scholarships, internships, and seminars, the center will also support Caltech students and early career scientists.
“AWS will benefit from the ideas percolating here on campus,” says Oskar Painter (MS ’95, PhD ’01), John G. Braun Professor of Applied Physics and Physics at Caltech and head of quantum hardware at AWS. Painter says quantum computing is still a very young technology, so it is crucial for development efforts to be directly connected to the latest research in academia.
“Most people know of the company Amazon. We can do a lot of shopping there, but it’s also a powerhouse in engineering,” says Fernando Brandão, Bren Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech and head of quantum algorithms at AWS. “Amazon Web Services is the biggest cloud provider on Earth today. They are thinking about how they can make computing simpler and better for people who use AWS. And they’re also thinking about the next step, and how to do computing and cloud computing in the next five or 10 years.”
Read the full Caltech Media story.
