The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras is continuing to expand its quantum research ecosystem. The institute's Mphasis Centre for Quantum Information, Communication and Computing (MCQuICC) recently came into focus after technology company Mphasis received the Tech Pioneer Award at the IIT Madras Technology Summit 2026 in New Delhi for supporting its establishment.
Set up under a five-year partnership running from 2022 until 2027, the centre focuses on strengthening research in quantum computing, quantum communication and quantum information sciences. The collaboration has also enabled the development of a dedicated quantum research laboratory at IIT Madras.
The centre has produced more than 30 research publications and patents while supporting over 20 researchers working on quantum technologies. Research undertaken at the facility includes optimisation problems with industry applications such as aircraft maintenance scheduling, electric vehicle charging optimisation and passenger re-routing.
The centre is also conducting research in Quantum Information and Quantum Machine Learning (QML), with potential applications spanning transportation logistics, financial risk mitigation, molecular chemistry, pipeline defect detection and protein folding.
Beyond research, the initiative has supported scholarships for PhD scholars and post-doctoral researchers while expanding access to quantum education through online certification programmes. IITM CODE has also helped students from Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) across three cohorts gain skills relevant to careers in quantum computing and related fields.
Professor Ashwin Mahalingam, Dean of Alumni and Corporate Relations at IIT Madras, said the partnership has strengthened industry-academia collaboration in frontier technologies and enabled progress in research, innovation and talent development in quantum sciences.
The initiative is aligned with the National Quantum Mission and has also enabled researchers to access advanced Quantum Processing Units (QPUs) for work on quantum error correction, shot estimation and next-generation quantum algorithms.