The Faculty of Engineering at University of Valencia (ETSE-UV) and IBM are about to start the course "Introduction to Quantum Computing with IBM Quantum Experience". In this course, an IBM specialist will show the basic concepts of this field, and he will train the students in the use of tools for creating software which can be executed on the IBM quantum processors. The engineering students at University of Valencia (UV) become the first ones in Spain in receiving such a complete training on quantum computing..
The course “Introduction to Quantum Computing with IBM Quantum Experience” will start on November, 24th, as a result of the framework agreement on scientific and technical collaboration signed between UV and IBM.
The course, whose director is Prof. Juan Manuel Orduña, from the Department of Informatics, and whose coordinator from the IBM side is D. Francisco Javier Gálvez, will be taught in the Faculty of Engineering, and it will consists of 10 hours of face-to-face classes, grouped in five two-hour lessons which will take place in December 2017. The students will have to dedicate twelve more hours of additional effort. The course program includes theoretical and practical advanced concepts like quantum mechanics, physical aspects and quantum circuits modeling, development of algorithms with IBM Quantum Experience, error correction, encryption techniques and quantum security.
The course length, the depth of its contents, and the practical access to the new IBM quantum computers make this course a pioneering one across Europe.
"IBM Quantum Experience" is the IBM quantum computing initiative for the public utilization of quantum processors of 5 and 16 quits through Internet. The difference that adds a huge potential and makes special the quantum technology is that their bits (called qubits) also work with the superposition of the two states, on and off. This occurs because the process does not mechanically happens, but it follows the quantum physics laws. When applying the quantum ”logic” to the computer science field, problems can be solved incredibly fast in a parallel way, and with many results for each variable. The bits used in quantum computing are called “qubits”. Like bits, qubits represent the basic unit of information, but this quantum unit is handled by the quantum physics laws. Thus, the qubit can be 0, 1, or any other value between these two ones. Moreover, it can be 0, and 1 at the same time. Thanks to superposition, this new kind of computing can solve problems that could not be solved even by the aggregation of all the conventional computation power existing nowadays.
Although some research groups are already using IBM Quantum Experience in their works, the course programmed at the ETSE-UV is the first one in which IBM collaborates with a Spanish University for training engineering students in the use of IBM quantum processors.
Quantum computing has emerged as a new computation paradigm which needs new programming techniques and the rethinking from the scratch the whole algorithmic designs. In this sense, this course is a proactive initiative in the strategic training of researchers and students in a disruptive technology that can stir up the computer science field.
