Computing giant IBM and the National University of Singapore (NUS) have embarked on a three-year collaboration to find ways to use quantum computing to solve real-world problems and train quantum scientists.

Quantum computers are currently used in many areas, including medical research into new drug development and the enhancement of cyber security in the financial sector.

The collaboration between IBM and NUS, announced yesterday, is the first of its kind in South-east Asia and gives NUS researchers access to 15 of IBM’s powerful quantum computing systems via a cloud service.