India takes Quantum leap: New advanced computing lab announced at MNIT Jaipur

The lab will be established under the Electronics and ICT Academic Project of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

It will focus on building indigenous capabilities in Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), Quantum Computing simulation, and Quantum Sensing hardware components.

Addressing students and faculty members, the Union Minister said that while the current technological wave is being driven by AI, the next major technological wave will be led by Quantum Technology.

The Minister stated that the work to be undertaken under this project will be of significant importance for the country. The lab will also undertake research in Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), which is important from the national security perspective.

Vaishnaw urged MNIT Jaipur to take a leadership role in the area of post-quantum cryptography.

Lam Research’s “Semiverse” platform

The Union Minister also announced that students of MNIT Jaipur will get access to Lam Research’s “Semiverse” platform. It is a digital twin-based semiconductor fabrication and training ecosystem.

Through Semiverse, students can now study semiconductor chip structures in 3D, understand chip manufacturing processes, and simulate fabrication steps in a virtual environment.

Union Minister mentioned that there is a demand of more than million semiconductor design workforce, as per industry's estimate. India can easily bridge this gap. Already, companies like NVIDIA, Qualcomm, ARM, & AMD are already designing the advanced semiconductor chips of 2 and 3 nm in India. This is possible because of design workforce.

Vaishnaw said that Government of India as part of Chips to Startup (C2S) Programme, is providing Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools to more than 323 universities across the country. These are state of the art semiconductor design tools of leading companies such as Synopsys, Cadence and Renesas.

Using these tools, more than 100 student-designed chips from institutions across India have been fabricated at Semiconductor Laboratory (SCL), Mohali. The Minister encouraged students to make full use of these advanced EDA tools.

Artificial Intelligence Lab

Union Minister announced that AI Lab will also be established at MNIT Jaipur. The lab will provide the facilities including advanced compute and tools for research and innovation.

The focus will be on connecting it with the network of IndiaAI mission. In this regard, he highlighted the work being carried out by Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur related to deepfake detection technology.

Makers Lab inauguration

Later, Union Minister along with Heeralal Nagar, Minister of State (IC) for Energy Department in the Government of Rajasthan and Gopal Sharma Member, Rajasthan Member of Legislative Assembly (Civil Lines Jaipur) inaugurated the Makers Lab at MNIT Jaipur.

Makers lab will provide students with experiential and hands-on training opportunities in both software and hardware technologies. This will include sensors, embedded systems, compute devices and electronics systems.

Earlier during the visit, Vaishnaw interacted with students and faculty members. Students demonstrated several projects and applications in the fields of AI, robotics, drone, structural engineering and post-quantum cryptography.