Regarding the current health situation, keep track of the university and cantonal guidelines. An online alternative will be provided for all lectures. Information will be sent by email.

The course begins on 22nd Feb 2022 and will have weekly lectures and exercises.

Course Content

Quantum information theory is the basis of multiple emerging technologies, such as quantum computation and quantum crypotography. It allows us to understand how quantum effects in physical systems may be harnessed for new forms of information processing. The course will also feature some hands on experience with quantum technology, via the open-source Qiskit framework for quantum computing.

Course Text

The course will be based on the Qiskit textbook.

Lectures

In-person lectures will be held when possible. However, since the lectures will follow the same format as in 2021, pre-recorded lectures will be available for all who cannot attend for any reason.

Lecture 1, March 1: The Atoms of Computation and What is Quantum
Lecture 2, March 8: Python, Qiskit and Hello Qiskit
Lecture 3, March 15: Representing Single Qubit States and Gates
Lecture 4, March 22: Multi-qubit States and Circuit Identities
Lecture 5, March 29: Fun with Matrices
Lecture 6, April 5: Circuits and Universality
Lecture 7, April 12: Basic Algorithms and Protocols
Lecture 8, April 19: From the Fourier Transform to Shor's Algorithm
Lecture 9, April 26: Grover's Algorithm (and why we can't yet run it)
Lecture 10, May 3: Introduction to Quantum Error Correction
Lecture 11, May 10: Quantum Error Correction: Surface Codes
Lecture 12, May 17: Quantum Games
Lecture 13, May 24: tbc
Lecture 14, May 31: tbc

Exercises

Some exercises will be in the form of Jupyter notebooks. These can be run locally by installing Python 3, Jupyter and Qiskit. They can also be run online without any installation using the IBM Quantum Lab. When you are on the files menu of the lab, you can click on the 'upload file' icon to upload notebooks.

The easiest way to to download the exercises is to download the whole repository using this link.

The exercises will make up 50% of the final grade. On each of the exercises you can score a value between 0 and 1, where 1 is the best score.

Exercises are due on Tuesdays at 4:15pm and can be handed it as a hand-written piece of paper or via email to the corresponding teaching assistant (TA). If the exercise is a python notebook (.ipynb file), please send the .ipynb file as well as a pdf-version of that file by email.

The TAs of this course are Maria (maria.spethmann@unibas.ch), Bence (bence.hetenyi@unibas.ch), Pierre (pierre.fromholz@unibas.ch) and Even (even.thingstad@unibas.ch).

Here is the provisional list with the due dates for all exercises and the corresponding TAs:

Exercise 1, due on March 15, hand in to Maria
Exercise 2, due on March 22, hand in to Bence
Exercise 3, due on March 29, hand in to Pierre
Exercise 4, due on April 05, hand in to Pierre
Exercise 5, due on April 12, hand in to Even
Exercise 6, due on April 19, hand in to Even
Exercise 7, due on April 26, hand in to Maria
Exercise 8, due on May 03, hand in to Bence
Exercise 9, due on May 10, hand in to Maria
Exercise 10, due on May 17, hand in to Pierre
~~Exercise 11, due on May 24, hand in to Even~~
~~Exercise 12, due on May 31, hand in to Bence~~

The solutions of the exercises are presented at the exercise course a week after. Further, the TAs will give a few hints about the next exercise. If you cannot come to the exercise but would like to know the hints, please send an email to the corresponding TA.

Exam/Final Project

Like in 2020 and 2021, we'll have a final project instead of a standard exam.

The main aim of this is for you to demonstrate understanding of the topics in the course. The format is fairly free to allow you to do this in a way that suits you best. Collaboration will be fine. But everyone needs something unique to submit.

Below are the different kinds of project you can choose from. Examples of existing work are given to give you and idea of what you can produce.

You can start whenever you like. The deadline is 9th June. To submit, send it to me by email.

Write an explanation of a topic of your choice

You can write about one of the topics covered in the lectures, or about something that wasn't covered. You can include relevant example code in Qiskit, or you can avoid the programming and just have text and images

Examples

Make a game using quantum programming

Throughout the history of computing, people have been making simple games to help understand the new technology. Now we can do the same thing with quantum computing. I wrote a whole article on this idea, which you can find here.

Basically, reasons why we might make a quantum game are:

To provide a simple and accessible example of a quantum program in action.
To educate people about quantum computing.
To start looking for ways in which quantum computing might actually be useful for games.

To make a game, you need a game engine of some sort. Fortunately we at IBM Quantum have made one specifically to help people making quantum games with Qiskit. You can find it here. Also see this video on how to use it.

Remember: don't just use quantum for a random number generator!

Examples

Hello Qiskit: a game that teaches quantum computing.
Quantum Awesomeness: a game that gives insight into real devices (and featured in the NZZ).
QPong: A game that implements the core game mechanic with a (simulation of).
Q Avrai: using quantum computing for map generation.

Run benchmarks on prototype devices

You can access real quantum hardware at the IBM Quantum Experience and Quantum Inspire. But how well do they actually work? Many people have run various different types of quantum circuit and analyzed the results to give some insight into this.

You can come up with your own method for benchmarking, or reproduce something that has already been done on a different device. The easiest way is to implement repetition codes using Qiskit's topological_codes module. But since this package (hopefully) makes it easy, you'll need to try out more than just a single code on a single device

Examples

Quantum Awesomeness: a game that gives insight into real devices (and featured in the NZZ).
Decoherence of entangled states: A paper looking at decoherence in GHZ states.
Repetition Codes: using Qiskit's topological_codes module to test a device.