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$6 million quantum computing center earns first legislative endorsement [1]

['Joshua Haiar', 'More From Author', '- January']

Date: 2024-02

PIERRE — A committee of lawmakers endorsed a bill Thursday aimed at advancing the state’s position in the burgeoning field of quantum computing.

The South Dakota Senate Education Committee approved the bill 6-0 with one member excused and sent it to the Legislature’s budget committee for further deliberation.

Introduced at the behest of the Board of Regents, which oversees the state’s public universities, the bill would provide $6.03 million for research into the field.

According to the MIT Technology Review, regular computers use bits, which are a stream of electrical or optical pulses representing 1s or zeros. Quantum computers achieve much faster processing power by using qubits, which are typically subatomic particles such as electrons or photons.

The quantum computing proposal would fund a new Center for Quantum Information Science & Technology. The center would not be a physical location, but rather a partnership among Dakota State University in Madison, South Dakota Mines in Rapid City, South Dakota State University in Brookings, and the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.

During her recent budget address, Governor Kristi Noem spoke about the plan.

“This new field can do exponentially more than a regular computer can do. Imagine a task that it would take regular computers 20 years to accomplish,” Noem told lawmakers. “A quantum computer could handle that task in just a matter of seconds.”

Her budget documents say the funding would be used for initial startup costs, “to support faculty and graduate students, hold an annual research symposium, and purchase access to cloud quantum computing resources from one or more of the major computing providers.” The long-term proposal also includes the implementation of degree programs.

The quantum center, once established, is expected to provide a boost to the state’s educational and technological sectors, placing South Dakota at the forefront of an evolving and competitive field, according to Dr. José-Marie Griffiths, president of Dakota State University. She recently briefed lawmakers on quantum computing, its dangers, and its benefits.

“There’s all these things we could do in a much, much better way with this better computing,” she explained.

Griffiths said precision agriculture, health sciences, banking and cyber security – all significant parts of South Dakota’s economy – will benefit from the state being ahead in the quantum computing field.

Griffiths said if the state doesn’t invest in this new field of computing, “we simply won’t be in the game.”

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[1] Url: https://southdakotasearchlight.com/briefs/6-million-quantum-computing-center-earns-first-legislative-endorsement/

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