Accessing the RPI Quantum One from the FOCI Cluster (Apr 2024)

The Rensselaer FOCI has created a Python virtual environment with IBM's Qiskit pre-installed, bringing the power of the FOCI Cluster to Qiskit-powered Jupyter notebooks. This page provides details on using Qiskit on the Cluster and connecting to RPI's Quantum One, the first quantum computer on a college campus!

RPI & IBM Quantum Resources

• RPI's Quantum Computing page
• RPI's Qistkit Getting Started page
• IBM's Qiskit page
  • NOTE: With the FOCI virtual environment, you won't need to install Qiskit on your personal machine (see below)
• Join the RPI Quantum Computing User's Group email list: 
  • Send email to sympa@lists.rpi.edu with the subject: "SUBSCRIBE quantum-computing-users-group FirstName LastName"

Learn about Quantum Computing

• IBM's Quantum Computing and Qiskit tutorials
• Qiskit Global Summer School Videos
• The Qiskit YouTube channel

Getting Started with Quantum on the FOCI Cluster 

1. Get access to the Cluster via a class or contact: erickj4@rpi.edu
2. Get access to the IBM Quantum Cloud via: https://quantum.ibm.com/
   1. Use your RPI email address!
   2. When you verify your account, note that you can copy your access token from this page
3. Get access to RPI's Quantum One via this dotCIO form
   1. When RPI approves your access, your token will be associated with the RPI instance
4. Access the FOCI Cluster via one of the available Jupyter endpoints
5. Create a new notebook based on the shared Python qiskit-env-07 environment
   1. Run a shell script on the Cluster to set up access to qiskit-env-07
      $ source /software/anaconda3/envs/qiskit-env.sh
   2. Using this shared environment means you don't need to install Qiskit yourself!
6. Enter the code chunks for one of the IBM Qiskit tutorials, including and esp. Hello World
   1. You will need to enter your RPI-enhanced API token in the line:
      service = QiskitRuntimeService(channel="ibm_quantum", token="xxxx...xxxx")
   2. Print out your instance name using backend.name and verify that it comes back as ibm_rensselaer
7. We've noticed that you might need to add additional lines to some tutorial code chunks in order to see the results the IBM pages showing. If a code chunk appears to run but you don't see what the tutorial shows, try adding lines to print out the variables, etc.
8. Join the IDEA/FOCI Slack channel at: https://app.slack.com/client/T1YNKMMUH/C06SW30D5FF

Help for General IDEA Cluster Issues

• Send an email to: itssc@support.rpi.edu
• Include "FOCI Cluster" or "IDEA Cluster" in the Subject heading
• CC John Erickson erickj4@rpi.edu

Contact John Erickson for details! erickj4@rpi.edu

Below: A quantum workflow created via a Qiskit notebook running on the FOCI Cluster.