TROY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — All eyes were on RPI Friday night as the school unveiled a quantum computer. In the world of computers, it’s the Holy Grail — the IBM Quantum System One — and RPI is the first university in the entire world to have one.

“This technology holds the promise of solving some of the most pressing problems that we have in the world of discovery — scientific discovery of materials, for example, novel batteries for the future, better fertilizer, etc.,” Senior VP IBM Research Daro Gil said.

For RPI students in the Quantum Club, it’s like being a kid in a candy store.

“They can do things that classical computers just can’t, and so that’s what excites me, that we’re moving on to a new era of computing,” student Michael Papadopoulos said.

The quantum computer system will be fully operational in January. It’s so advanced, they truly don’t know what it’s capable of or the breakthroughs it could bring.