By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said on Wednesday the Trump administration is launching a national education partnership to expand access to K-12 quantum information science (QIS) education with major companies and research institutions.
The public-private initiative with the National Science Foundation includes Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN)'s Amazon Web Services, Boeing (NYSE:BA) Co, Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc's Google, IBM (NYSE:IBM) Corp, Lockheed Martin Corp (NYSE:LMT) , Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), the University of Illinois and University of Chicago. The National Science Foundation is also awarding $1 million to QIS education.
The initiative is designed in part to help introduce students to quantum information themes before college
Last month, the White House announced the award of $75 million for new institutes at three U.S. universities to boost quantum information research.
Quantum (NASDAQ:QMCO) computing aims to operate millions of times faster than today's advanced supercomputers. Experts have said the promising technology, still in its infancy, could have a major impact on healthcare, communications, financial services, transportation, artificial intelligence, weather forecasting and other areas.