11-860 — Advanced Topics: Quantum Computing Lab — Spring Semester 2020

Advanced Topics: Quantum Computing Lab

Mondays and Wednesdays (4:00pm to 5:20pm Wean 5302)
Rita Singh, Daniel Justice, Bhiksha Raj, Ben Striner

Announcements!

(2020/01/09) Your uncertainty has collapsed and we can all observe that there will be no class Monday 01/20. It’s a holiday and if you show up you will be lonely. Class starts Wednesday 01/22.

Course Goals

Students will gain familiarity with current universal gate quantum computing tools and technology. Students will also become comfortable with several QC algorithms and their implementation on state of the art quantum computer simulators and hardware.

Grading

40% Homeworks, 30% group project, 30% weekly quizzes.

Homeworks

4 homeworks that are worth 10% each that will be evenly distributed throughout the semester.

Group Project

A group project taking up much of the semester will be required. Teams will choose their own project topic. Suggested projects will be supplied.

Quizzes

Each week a quiz will be given. Only the top 12 of 14 quizzes will count.

Prerequisites

Python, Jupyter Notebooks, Linear Algebra

Students will not need an understanding of quantum mechanics.

Note: The syllabus is subject to occasional change. This is especially the case in the latter half of the semester once your professors have become comfortable with the group’s overall skill level. Adequate notice will be given.

Basic course structure

Each week we will dive into a new topic. One day each week will be application based and the other will be theory based.

Schedule

Week 1 (1/20 & 1/22): Introduction
Week 2 (1/27 & 1/29): Qubits and Gates
Week 3 (2/3 & 2/5): Quantum Teleportation and Basic Arithmetic
Week 4 (2/10 & 2/12): Amplitude Amplification and Grover’s | Submit team members
Week 5 (2/17 & 2/19): Quantum Cryptography: BB84
Week 6 (2/24 & 2/26): Q Fourier Transform and Phase Estimation | Project Proposals Due
Week 7 (3/2 & 3/4): Shor’s Algorithm
No Class (3/9 & 3/11)
Week 8 (3/16 & 3/18): Quantum Error Correction and Quantum Annealing| Guest Lecturer
Week 9 (3/23 & 3/25): Noisy Intermediate Scale Quantum Computing | Project Updates Week 10 (3/30 & 4/1): VQE and QAOA Optimization
Week 11 (4/6 & 4/8): HHL Algorithm for systems of linear equations | Project Updates
Week 12 (4/13 & 4/15): Quantum Support Vector Machines
Week 13 (4/20 & 4/22): Quantum Boltzmann Machines
Week 14 (4/27 & 4/29): Going Forward | Final Project Presentations

Schedule with assignments, readings, etc. can be found here