16 African universities receive quantum computer program from IBM

IBM has recently launched its quantum computer program in Africa. To accomplish this severe task, the American multinational information technology has joined hand with South Africa's University of the Witwatersrand.

University of the Witwatersrand (aka Wits University) is the first African partner on the Quantum or IBM Q Network. It is said to be the gateway for academics across South Africa and to the 15 universities, including the University of Nairobi, who are part of the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA).

"This is the latest outcome of the joint partnership between IBM Research and Wits, which started in 2016 when IBM opened its second lab in Africa in Wits University's Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct in Johannesburg. To expand the IBM Q Network to include Wits will drive innovation in frontier-technologies and benefit African-based researchers, academics and students who now have access to decades of quantum computing capabilities at the click of a button," Professor Zeblon Vilakazi, Wits Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Postgraduate Affairs said, as reported by Capital FM.

IBM Q operates out of IBM's Yorktown Heights research center in New York and will be accessed from African universities via the cloud. It believes Q could yield research and development advances in areas such as drug discovery based on Africa's genetic diversity that could lead to new treatments for diseases like HIV or TB.

This is one of the research areas IBM will focus on in its rollout of Q Africa to Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. Assefa sees other potential research and use-case for Q Africa in financial sectors, mining, and natural resources management, Tech Crunch noted.

"For Africa to remain competitive for the coming decades we must get the next generation of students quantum ready. What excites me here, is for once we are ahead in Africa for joining this movement. In 5 to 10 years, Q will have significant impact, but if we can start the wave now, you never know what kind of applications and research will come out of this technology," Solomon Assefa, Vice President, Emerging Market Solutions and Director, IBM Research – Africa, opined.

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