Computing with Commercial Quantum Computers

Catalog description

This course will introduce practical quantum computing using commercially available noisy quantum computers. The complex relationships among quantum computing, mathematics, physics and computer science and engineering will be conveyed to the students through activities, lab assignments, and class projects. The course is designed for upper-level undergraduate students and graduate students majoring in science or engineering. Although a basic understanding of quantum science and engineering provides important background for the field of quantum computing, this course does not focus on quantum physics. Rather it will focus on the software side of things which only needs logical understanding of quantum bits (qubits) and not the physical implementation. Hence this course is meant for students to contribute to quantum computing without getting into the complexity of quantum mechanics. Upon completing the course, the students are expected to understand the quantum computing taxonomy at the introductory level with simple worked out examples using superconducting qubits. They will also learn techniques to program a real quantum computer to solve combinatorial problems.