IBM and Amazon are opening a new lab, which will be jointly operated, at the IBM Customer Innovation Center in Bucharest. The lab will have joint customers from 22 countries, with generative AI solutions built using Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Q, Amazon SageMaker and IBM Watson on AWS.
In early 2023, the two major companies launched the Global Innovation Lab in India. Romania will also have the first IBM Quantum Innovation Center in Romania, FreeYa Mind, in Iași. It will train professionals capable of harnessing the potential of quantum technology in many fields, from complex simulations in medical research to cryptography and advanced artificial intelligence algorithms.
This campus, the second in Europe, has a modern vision focused on education, research and entrepreneurship. In this center, whose completion is estimated to be in 2026, courses and workshops on quantum technology will be organized, accessible to students and professionals from various fields.
The IBM Quantum Innovation Center, FreeYa Mind, will have access to IBM quantum computers via the cloud and will be able to offer member organizations access to the latest IBM quantum systems and resources, including training and support for their users.
“The FreeYa Mind Campus can be described as an ambitious project, we see it as an ecosystem that must be viewed from three perspectives: education, research, and then innovation and entrepreneurship. We can benefit from this quantum revolution and this extraordinary power of a quantum computer since February here in Iași. Last week we had the first course where we had the surprise of a room becoming cramped, being full of students, master’s students, doctoral students, professors. Everyone enjoyed the first live course with access to the quantum resource. We want to expand the partnerships already concluded with the five universities in Iași at a national level”, said Cornel Scripcă, co-founder of FreeYa Mind Campus, at the launch event.
The center will house advanced research centers in quantum computing, physics, and engineering, supported by a high-performance underground data center that provides computing and security resources for cutting-edge quantum and AI technologies.
“Quantum technology is the future. Through this collaboration with IBM, we have the ability to provide access to top-notch educational resources and research infrastructure. Together, we are preparing the next generations for the challenges and opportunities of the quantum revolution and transforming Iași into a European reference point in this field. As an IBM Quantum Innovation Center, the campus will host research laboratories, collaboration spaces, executive administrative departments, event venues, and interconnecting training rooms, along with a large AI data center,” said in his turn Cristian Berariu, the initiator of the FreeYa Mind Campus project.