- July 01, 2026
- By QLab Staff
The National Quantum Laboratory (QLab) at the University of Maryland has announced a new agreement granting university members and other QLab users remote access to IBM quantum computers.
The facility provides access to quantum computing capabilities for researchers, educators and entrepreneurs. With the new agreement, the UMD community gains access to IBM’s advanced superconducting quantum processor units (QPUs), including IBM Quantum Heron with 156 qubits and IBM Quantum Nighthawk with 120 qubits. The QPUs are cloud-accessible via the IBM Quantum Platform.
QLab will streamline adoption by allowing any UMD department or unit to access these devices. License administration will be managed through the Division of Information Technology, mirroring the process currently used for software licenses and high-performance computing resources.
"We are excited to expand QLab's offering to the university and wider research community from trapped ion systems to other qubit modalities," said Norbert Linke, QLab director. "IBM's processors permit our users access to state-of-the-art superconducting circuit devices for the first time."
The collaboration is already driving academic and research applications, including:
- A specialized quantum computing course taught by computer science Associate Professor Xiaodi Wu will allow students to test their code on live, real-world quantum hardware.
- A cutting-edge research project is exploring phase transitions in quantum systems that are mixed, which means only partial knowledge about the quantum state is available. The study is led by graduate students and postdoctorates in Professor Alexey Gorshkov's group at the Joint Quantum Institute.
“Access to the IBM devices will be crucial for our project exploring novel many-body mixed-state phases and their transitions.” says Yunxin Wang, Hartree Postdoctoral Fellow at the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science.
QLab is a key element in UMD’s position as a primary driver of the rapidly advancing field of quantum technology and sits at the center of Gov. Wes Moore’s Capital of Quantum initiative. The university boasts a robust quantum ecosystem that includes multiple research centers and more than 200 quantum scientists—one of the largest concentrations in the world.