The Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iași (TUIASI) is positioning itself as Romania’s hub for quantum computing through a key partnership in the FreeYa Mind Campus initiative.
As a strategic partner of FreeYa Mind Campus—the first IBM Quantum Center in Romania—TUIASI is actively contributing to the creation of a European hub for excellence in quantum computing, education, and advanced research. The launch of FreeYa Mind Campus marks a significant milestone, placing Iași and Romania on the global map of quantum computing innovation, with strong support from IBM.
On March 5, 2025, FreeYa Mind Campus was officially inaugurated in Iași, making it Romania’s first IBM Quantum Center and only the second of its kind in Europe. TUIASI, as a principal partner, plays a crucial role in this ambitious project. Through its strategic collaboration with IBM and other universities in Iași, TUIASI is driving the city’s transformation into a leading research and innovation hub for quantum computing in both Romania and Europe. The campus will feature cutting-edge research laboratories, multidisciplinary collaboration spaces, state-of-the-art training facilities, and an advanced underground data center dedicated to quantum computing and AI applications.
A European Hub for Innovation and Expertise
Associate Professor Simona Caraiman, PhD, Vice-Rector for Digitalization and Digital Communications at TUIASI, emphasized the strategic significance of FreeYa Mind Campus for the future of education and research in Iași’s quantum technology sector.
“The FreeYa Mind Campus initiative is an extraordinary opportunity for TUIASI and the entire academic and economic community in Iași to establish themselves as a European center for expertise and innovation. Quantum computing is an emerging technology with the potential to transform multiple industries, just as we’ve already seen with artificial intelligence,” said Caraiman.
Through FreeYa Mind Campus, TUIASI researchers and students gain access to IBM’s quantum computing infrastructure. More importantly, the initiative has fostered a vital collaboration between the university and the IBM Quantum team, allowing access to IBM’s support programs for quantum innovation centers. These programs aim to train a new generation of specialists and accelerate groundbreaking research to tackle complex challenges using quantum technology.
“The challenge is proving the practical value of quantum computing—even though it hasn’t reached full maturity yet—by solving problems that even the most advanced classical systems struggle with. These challenges span multiple fields, from chemistry and materials science to energy and logistics. This is why building multidisciplinary teams is so critical—to collaboratively define problems, translate them into quantum terms, and design, implement, and test the corresponding quantum algorithms,” Caraiman concluded.
Shaping the Next Generation of Quantum Specialists
TUIASI has played a pioneering role in quantum computing research in Romania—it was here that the country’s first quantum computing research group was established, along with the first educational program in quantum computing for computer science engineers. Now, the university is taking on the mission of training a new generation of specialists, bridging research with real-world applications, and driving knowledge transfer into the business sector.
“This is the moment I dreamed of 20 years ago—the moment when quantum computing becomes a reality and a resource we must integrate into university education. This justifies the significant effort required to understand how these computing systems, so different from classical ones, work and how they can be applied. We aim to inspire more students to specialize in this field and collaborate with researchers from disciplines where quantum applications can make a real impact,” said Professor Vasile Manta, PhD, former Dean of the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers and a pioneer of quantum computing research at TUIASI.
Highlighting the practical and economic benefits of FreeYa Mind Campus, TUIASI Rector Dan Cașcaval, PhD, discussed the value that quantum and AI technologies bring to academia and applied research.
*”This one-of-a-kind project, not just in Romania, will open up virtually limitless possibilities for integrating AI resources across research and education. While speculative scenarios about AI taking full control dominate the conversation, we are currently shaping a framework that brings the future significantly closer—one where scientific predictions become far more precise and where researchers, professors, and students will have an unprecedented level of support.
Take my field—chemical engineering—as an example. Through this campus, we will have the computational power to ‘design’ entirely new chemical reactions, to simulate the creation of novel compounds through a ‘virtual reaction.’ This process can yield highly accurate insights into the feasibility, costs, and potential applications of these compounds. In the early stages, this means no raw material consumption, no associated costs, and no environmental impact. At the same time, researchers can work far more efficiently, making the most of their efforts. Time is one of the greatest challenges of our era, and quantum computing offers us a way to optimize it. And this is just one small example that can be applied across all fields,”* Cașcaval explained.
Driving Romania’s Quantum Revolution
With the FreeYa Mind Campus, TUIASI is at the forefront of Romania’s quantum revolution, serving as a bridge between quantum technology and real-world applications. The university is integrating this initiative into its broader ecosystem, complementing its work in quantum communications (as part of RoNaQCI—Romania’s National Quantum Communications Infrastructure), artificial intelligence (the Romanian AI Hub), and digital innovation (through the Digital Innovation Zone).
The inauguration of FreeYa Mind Campus was attended by representatives from the Ministry of Education and Research, IBM executives, and partner universities from Iași.
