Marist Taps IBM Mainframe for Quantum Finance Research

Marist University has partnered with IBM to launch an Innovation Incubator, which will use an IBM z17 mainframe to power research projects in finance and marketing. The incubator aims to connect students and faculty with IBM experts to address real-world challenges and foster innovation.

The z17's substantial processing power will support projects that apply quantum optimization algorithms to real-time financial data, generating optimal portfolio allocations. This builds on a 50-year partnership between Marist and IBM, which has provided students with access to advanced computing resources for research and career preparation.

One of the initial projects will test the effectiveness of built-in 'guardrails' designed to prevent aggressive or unethical tactics in autonomous AI agent teams. Researchers plan to run controlled synthetic marketing campaigns using these agents, assessing whether the safeguards can contain potential failures.