Jay Clemens
Lockheed Martin and the University of Maryland have signed a memorandum of understanding to build an integrated quantum computer in an effort to further develop drug discovery, communications and logistics technologies.
The company and university will form a quantum engineering center in College Park to exhibit a quantum computing platform for users to operate, Lockheed said Wednesday.
UMD and Lockheed have worked together for nearly six decades and signed a strategic framework in 2010 to collaborate on research and development initiatives and business opportunities.
“In the future, critical systems will become so complex that problems will take too long or become too expensive to solve using even our most powerful supercomputers,” said Ray O. Johnson, Lockheed senior vice president and chief technology officer.
“We believe the next computational revolution will stem from applied quantum science—a discipline that connects physics, information science, and engineering.â€
Chris Monroe, a physics professor at the University of Maryland, said the partnership aims to combine tuned laser and microwave fields systems, which are made to bombard individual atoms suspended with electrical fields within a vacuum chamber.
Scientists and engineers from Lockheed and UMD will work to gain more understanding of a quantum platform’s internal workings.
