[Vice Minister Miock Mun of Ministry of Science and ICT and Pohang Mayor Kang-deok Lee among guests at the opening ceremony on November 28th]

POSTECH opened the Center for Extensible Quantum Computing Technology Convergence Platform (Director: Professor Jae-Yoon Shim of POSTECH’s Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering) at the LG Cooperative Electronics Engineering Building on November 28th.

More than 100 guests attended the opening ceremony, including Vice Minister Miock Mun of the Ministry of Science and ICT, Mayor Kang-deok Lee and Vice President Joon Won Park of POSTECH.

In June, the center was selected as the nation’s leading research project (ERC: Engineering Research Center) by the Ministry of Science and ICT. It is the first center in Korea to build the extensible quantum computing and will develop its element technology, build an industrial hub platform through cloud services and nurture the core set of engineers for quantum computing.

A quantum computer is a computer based on the quantum mechanics principle and outperforms the existing supercomputer by millions of times in computational power. It can be utilized in almost all industries including defense, science, medical, pharmaceutical, automotive, aerospace, and more.

The center’s director, Jae-Yun Shim, stated, “Quantum technology has been steadily developing over the last 40 years and now with global IT companies on the scene, quantum computers called dream computers are closer to reality.” He added that “Through building the high-performance quantum computer, we will grow the center into a world-class technology platform for quantum researchers.”

Along with the opening ceremony, the center will also host a technology seminar with invited speakers including Dr. Hyeokshin Kwon of Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, Professor Doheon Kim of Seoul National University and Director-General Joonyeon Chang of Korea Institute of Science and Technology.