Education

One of the best sources for initial education on the basics of Quantum Computing is Quantum Computing for the Determined by Michael Nielsen. This consists of 22 short videos that discusses The Basics, Superdense Coding, Quantum Teleportation, and The Postulates of Quantum Mechanics. Highly recommended.

Michael Nielsen and Andy Matuschak are developing a new online course  called Quantum computing for the very curious using a new experimental mnemonic medium designed to make it almost effortless to remember what you read.  The first episode has just been posted with additional ones coming soon.

John Watrous, the Technical Director of Education at IBM Quantum, has started a video course available on YouTube titled Understanding Quantum Information and Computation. The goal for this series is simple: to create a university level quantum course and to make it available worldwide, while explaining how quantum information and computation actually works, at a detailed mathematical level.

The Université de Sherbrooke’s Institut Quantique (IQ) has produced a series of videos titled The Quantum Enigmas. These videos make an introduction to the key concepts of quantum computing and provide a series of fun enigmas to solve. The series include an introductory video on the key concepts including superposition, entanglement and quantum logic gates. The introduction is then followed by five separate enigmas, where the level of difficulty progresses, building on the previous videos and concepts. By viewing and solving one enigma to the next, the viewer will develop a deeper understanding of quantum by testing their logic against various scenarios.

IBM is providing an online, open-source textbook called Learn Quantum Computation Using Qiskit that will connect theory with practice and help students explore practical problem sets that can run on real quantum systems. IBM has dozens of different videos available on IBM’s YouTube Qiskit channel.  A number of different playlists are available covering topics including Coding with Qiskit, 1 Minute Qiskit, Quantum Fundamentals, Circuit Sessions, Quantum Information Science Seminar Series and others.
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Q-CTRL has provided a serious of education videos, technical seminars, and tutorials that you can find on Q-CTRL’s YouTube channel here.

AWS has created a comprehensive resource titled Quantum algorithms: A survey of applications and end-to-end complexities that has been designed for quantum computing researchers and customers who are looking to find quantum algorithms that might be applied to their use cases. This resource provides a detailed technical analysis of the end-to-end quantum resource requirements (the “complexities”) of the most widely studied quantum computing application areas, like chemistry, finance, and machine learning. The primary focus of this document is to describe quantum algorithms with the greatest potential to generate customer value in the long term, once fault-tolerant quantum computers are available. However, it also includes information on the most relevant near-term noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) algorithms, where appropriate.

Qureca offers a comprehensive set of learning tools including online courses, hands-on learning materials, in-person trainings, and other offerings suitable for students looking to start your quantum journey, professionals seeking to advance your skills or business leaders looking to forge their company’s quantum future. They provide a new learning management system (LMS) that features personalized learning paths, progress tracking, and hands-on exercises that simulate real-world quantum computing scenarios. A catalog of their offerings is available here.

Quantle is a daily quantum puzzle, based on Wordle.  A user tries to guess a quantum computing equation in 6 tries. After each guess, the color of the tiles will change to show how close your guess was to the equation.

Toptica Photonics has developed a Quantum Quiz app where players can test and improve their knowledge about quantum technologies.  It is available for both Apple iOS and Android smartphones. The quiz has three increasingly difficult levels of play and can be used in either Solo or Multiplayer mode.

FutureLearn in association with Keio University is offering a free online course called Understanding Quantum Computers.  This is a four week course requiring an estimated five hours per week of study that will discuss the motivation for building quantum computers, cover the important principles in quantum computing, take a look at some of the important quantum computing algorithms and provide a brief look at quantum computing hardware and the budding quantum information technology industry. It is meant for high school students, college students, and computer professionals interested in developing a qualitative understanding of quantum computing.

A blog post that lists Quantum Computing Resources for High School Students is available on the Unitary Fund website. It was written as a guest posting by Jack Ceroni and describes both programs and educational resources that may be of interest to a quantum-curious high school student.

David Deutsch has posted six video Lectures on Quantum Computation designed as an introduction to the quantum theory of computation.

The Perimeter Institute has posted a series of 14 hour long lectures by Daniel Gottesman called the Quantum Information Review.  This lecture series was recorded relatively recently in 2015 and they can be downloaded in multiple formats (MP4, MP3, and PDF).

Microsoft and Brilliant.org have teamed to create an online course on Quantum Computing.  It is a 33 chapter course that teaches quantum computing concepts and some well-known algorithms using Microsoft’s Q# language with Python. The first two chapters of the course are free but there is a fee to access the remaining chapters.

Microsoft has created a series of tutorials called the Quantum Katas.  These tutorials are an open source project that contains a series of programming exercises using the Q# programming language that allow users to learn at their own pace.  They are used with the Microsoft Quantum Development Kit and consists of a sequence of quantum computing tasks that require a user to fill in some code.  The katas use simple learning principles including active learning, incremental complexity growth, and feedback.  For more information you can read the Microsoft blog description here and download the code and instructions on how to install it at GitHub here.

QuTech has available online the QuTech Academy which currently includes four courses on edX.org.  These include:

• Quantum internet & quantum computers: how will they change the world? – an introduction to the various potential applications of a quantum computer and a quantum internet.
• Building blocks of a quantum computer – part 1: what does a quantum computer look like, what components will it have and how does a quantum computer operate? Part 1 focusses on the layers of the qubit.
• Building blocks of a quantum computer – part 2: as a continuation of part 1, part 2 will explain the other layers of a quantum computer, ranging from the electronics, to hardware, software and algorithms needed to operate a quantum computer.
• Quantum Cryptography: this course dives deeper into the quantum protocols and how this will lead to secure communication.

Caltech has online the course material for Physics 219, Quantum Computation. This is a course which has evolved for over 10 years and now has over 400 pages of material online in nine chapters. You can find this course at: http://www.theory.caltech.edu/people/preskill/ph229/

Umesh Vazirani of UC Berkeley has recorded a series of 64 video lectures for a course titled: Quantum Mechanics and Quantum Computation. The videos are short ranging from 5 to 20 minutes in length and provide a good introduction to basic quantum mechanical principles, qubits, and quantum algorithms.  The videos have been uploaded onto YouTube and you can find them at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1uoz_8dLH0&list=PL74Rel4IAsETUwZS_Se_P-fSEyEVQwni7.

Daniel Colomer of Quantum Intuition has created a YouTube channel containing several hundred videos covering a broad range of topics related to quantum algorithms and programming quantum computers. The videos are divided into six areas including Project Reviews, Quantum AI/ML, Textbook Algorithms, Useful Primitives, Quantum Error Correction, and Book & Online Course Reviews.  The videos range in length from 2 minutes to 2 hours, but the average is roughly in the 30 minute range.  These videos are a good source for those who want to better understand a particular topic because the videos show online demonstrations using several different software platforms such as Qiskit, Cirq, Pennylane, Quirk and others.  You can view the videos on the Quantum Intuition YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-2knDbf4kzT3uzOeizWo7iTJyw.

Scott Aaronson has posted online his Quantum Information Science lecture notes.  The notes are available in two parts. The first one, Introduction to Quantum Information Science Lecture Notes, which has 259, pages has assumes that a reader has knowledge of linear algerbra and some knowledge of classical algorithms. It then explains many of the basic concepts of quantum computing as well as including descriptions of the algorithms of Deutsch-Jozsa, Bernstein-Vazirani, Simon, Shor, and Grover. The second one, Introduction to Quantum Information Science II Lecture Notes, which has 155 pages and picks up where the first part leaves off, covers advanced topics in quantum computing that have been developed more recently within the past 15 years. A blog article that describes these lecture notes is available here.

MIT offers an xPRO series consisting of two series with two courses in each series. The courses consist of video lectures from MIT professors with associated problem sets and each lasts for four weeks. The Quantum Computing Fundamentals series has two courses. The first is called Introduction to Quantum Computing and the second is called Quantum Computing Algorithms for Cybersecurity, Chemistry, and Optimization. The Quantum Computing Realities series has Practical Realities of Quantum Computation and Quantum Communications as the first course and Requirements for Large-Scale Universal Quantum Computation as the second. Details on these courses and links to enroll in them can be found on the MIT web site at https://learn-xpro.mit.edu/quantum-computing.

Quantum Computing UK provides a web site that contains several tutorials that introduces the reader to quantum computing.  In addition, they maintain a code repository that allows someone to run programs on quantum computers and they also perform research and publish papers on quantum computing algorithms.

Dr. James Wootton of the University of Basel has developed a blog site called Decodoku and associated games devoted to the topic of quantum error correction.   The site contains two games called Decodoku and Decodoku Puzzles where are available for download on both IOS and Android.   Playing the games allows one to learn and do research on quantum error correction.    In addition, the blog has a good series of posts that provide a good tutorial on quantum error correction.

The Linux Foundation in partnership with the World Bank has released a free, online course called Fundamentals of Quantum Computing. The course provides an understanding on how quantum computing could be used for complex decision making far beyond current computer capabilities, as well as an understanding of the technological, governmental, and industrial implications as the technology further matures. The course, which would take about 3 hours to complete, discusses the fundamentals of quantum computing, highlighting potential technological disruptions it brings. It discusses the current capabilities of quantum computing, current use cases, as well as prospective future applications, while emphasizing security advantages and dangers, especially around secure communication and encryption.

QURECA has developed four training courses on its platform in collaboration with industry partners worldwide to impart education and training in quantum. These include a non-technical course providing an introduction to the quantum ecosystem “Quantum for Everyone”, “Quantum Computing for Finance” series which introduces quantum algorithms and its use-cases in finance in collaboration with QuantFi, and “Quantum Training for Enterprises” introducing quantum fundamentals to start-ups and industry professionals in collaboration with Zapata AI. QURECA has also developed Qureka! Box, an educational tool for teaching and learning quantum computing designed to introduce it to high school and undergraduate students, as well as the general public

Qubitekk and Phase Space Computing, have developed educational toolkits suitable for classroom use that provides students with hands-on experience with quantum phenomena.  The Qubitekk product, called the Quantum Mechanics Lab Kit,  includes all of the equipment and instructions needed to perform seven fundamental experiments in quantum mechanics.  The kit is based on photonic technology and includes a laser, bi-photon source, photon counting module, coincidence counter and various fiber optic components to demonstrate entanglement, superposition and other quantum phenomena.  The Phase Space Computing Toolkits consist of electronic circuit boards that approximate the behavior of quantum gates. They use patent pending, two-complementary pass-transistor logic to similar the behavior of reversible quantum gates. Their toolboxes can demonstrate functions such as quantum key distribution, teleportation, superdense coding, the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm and Shor’s algorithm.

qutools GmbH is offering three different Quantum Physics Education and Science Kits.  These include quED, an entanglement demonstrator, Quantenkoffer, a plug and play quantum science kit with single and entangled photon pairs that provide multiple tokens with different optical abilities give a huge variety of experiments and quNV for investigating quantum sensing using nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers.

Thorlabs provides a Discovery line of educational products aims to promote physics, optics, and photonics. These include the Quantum Optics Educational Kit where pairs of photons are generated, characterized and experiments such as single photon interferometry and single photon quantum eraser are performed. In the “additional experiments” section of the free manual, they describe how to extend the setup to a simple optical quantum computer capable of demonstrating the Deutsch algorithm. The other kits are analogy kits to visualize certain effects. They offer a Quantum Cryptography Kit that contains components to model a data transmission setup using the BB84 encryption protocol, a Quantum Eraser Kit that shows through analogy the quantum-mechanical principle of complementarity and the erasure of path information, and a Bomb Tester Kit that uses an analogy experiment to demonstrate the principle of “interaction-free quantum measurement” discussed in the “Bomb Tester” thought experiment.

There is a concise, yet very understandable brief on quantum annealing written by Brianna Gopaul.  The brief describes how quantum annealing works, what organizations are developing quantum annealers, and applications where they may be used.  You can view this brief at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/quantum-annealers-solving-worlds-optimization-problems-brianna-gopaul/.