Quantum Computing: our basic-level course is online!

Since a few days ago, on our e-learning platform chirale.online, the Basic-level Course on Quantum Computing is available.

It is one of the very first professional courses in Italian that teaches the new discipline of Quantum Computing through practical exercises on real quantum computers.

Several courses on the topic are already available on the market; however, most of the more professional ones follow an excessively academic and abstract approach, while the more popular-style ones do not really get into the substance and turn out to be useless for actually acquiring skills.

The course we present today, on the contrary, is published after more than a year of research, during which a programme was developed entirely based on our teaching method founded on creative experimentation and “learn by doing”.

This was made possible by IBM’s provision of the first real quantum computers, accessible via cloud.

Try the first free lesson now!

People have been talking — without too much emphasis — about quantum computing since the second half of the 1980s, and in collective imagination this new technology is perceived as the next future generation of computers that will continue the trend of increasing processing power, keeping the famous “Moore’s Law” valid.

Lately, something has changed: interest in quantum computers has suddenly increased and specialised journals are full of in-depth articles and analyses of companies — both historic and just born — that are involved in research in this field.

But what are Quantum Computers?

How far along is their development? When will they be usable on a large scale? How will they be programmed?

Thanks to the sudden results achieved in recent months, after many years of research, we can begin to give a realistic answer to these questions.

The first working quantum computers are already among us. They are not yet advantageous for commercial-level applications, but they allow research and training activities on this new technology — such as our Course.

Giants like IBM, Google, Intel and Honeywell have announced the release of the first generation of commercial quantum computers by 2024. This generation has been named NISQ, because they will still be systems subject to errors (*Noisy*), still of medium power (*Intermediate-Scale*) but fully Quantum.

Google, in controversy with IBM, has announced that it has reached “Quantum Supremacy”.

Some startups focused on this sector, like D-Wave, have even already declared their products as usable and advantageous for businesses.

What is true behind these announcements with their decidedly commercial and promotional tone?

Our opinion, shared by many international analysts, is that — even applying the right discount to the marketing’s triumphalist tones — the first significant results are evident, and the market will most likely be strongly influenced by the introduction of a new generation of computing services that will be totally different from the current information technology.

The great opportunity offered by Quantum Computing, but also the main risk in not considering this technology, lies in fact in this profound difference.

Quantum Computers are not the natural evolution of current computers or supercomputers. Quantum Computers are based on a different type of Computer Science.

The new Quantum Computer Science uses a mathematical system much more complex than that used in Classical Computer Science.

The additions between binary numbers, performed within classical microprocessors, are replaced by Linear Algebra operations. Quantum Computer Science uses Quantum Mechanics where Classical Computer Science uses the Arithmetic of Integers.

The minimum background to learn how to program a classical computer is acquired after attending the first classes of primary school.

The minimum background to effectively program a quantum computer is acquired after studying a significant part of higher mathematics. Most graduates in physics, engineering and mathematics need to brush up on some notions of Linear Algebra and Hilbert Spaces before tackling quantum programming.

For many new technologies, an effective market strategy can be the one called “fast forward”. The term is borrowed from endurance sports, where generally the first in the lead of a race is rarely the athlete destined to win. Their close pursuers mark them, observing them and saving energy, only to use up their resources once the finish line is in sight.

Analogously, on the market it is possible to remain in attentive waiting, observing the actions of early adopters of new technologies, and then make investments in innovation only if the first practical results begin to appear.

In the case of Quantum Computing this strategy is extremely risky.

Quantum Computer Science is a discipline whose “learning curve” is very long. The preparation of a qualified professional requires many months, perhaps more than a year. The creation of a corporate culture able to exploit the advantages of quantum computing once the first commercial systems become available may take several years.

This means that the companies that today are investing in Quantum Computing and developing and adapting a new class of algorithms to their needs may suddenly find themselves, within the next few years, able to solve problems that are precluded to their competitors — because quantum supremacy is precisely the ability of new computers to compute in a few hours solutions that would require millennia even to the largest supercomputers available today.

The first to deploy Quantum Computing will be able to enjoy a competitive advantage capable of effectively monopolising the market.

The scenario described seems quite likely. The labour market will also be affected. Already today, specialists in fields such as machine learning and data science are very well-paid professionals because demand exceeds supply; in the case of Quantum Computing the situation will be even more exasperated: demand for Quantum Computing specialists could be enormously broader than the few existing professionals and the long training times this technology requires.

Reaching, in the coming months, a level of competence that allows one to be defined as “Quantum Ready” is a great opportunity for professionals and companies.

That is why we designed our Course, which — and this is very important — is aimed at everyone, exactly like our other basic-level courses.

To attend our Quantum Computing Course it is not necessary to have notions of Classical Computer Science. Quantum Computer Science is very different from Classical Computer Science, so if you know nothing about it, that is even better.

The Quantum Mechanics used in Quantum Computer Science is the same mathematics used in the branch of physics that studies the world of sub-atomic particles, where a theory called Quantum Theory holds (whence the name) — today the most accurate theory and the one that best describes the entire Universe — but to attend our course you do not need any knowledge in this field. The Quantum Computers we will program are by no means of sub-atomic dimensions; on the contrary, at the moment they are rather bulky.

But how, then, do we propose to solve the problem of the notorious difficulty of this higher branch of mathematics?

What is the minimum level of mathematical competence required to understand the lessons?

The answer is simple: the four elementary operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) and the square root. The rest can be useful but is not indispensable, because we will introduce the mathematical concepts from scratch, or rather starting from the four operations.

Our promise to deliver a course really accessible to everyone might seem excessively ambitious, but in reality there are a series of fortunate circumstances.

First stroke of… luck: Quantum Computer Science does not use the whole of Quantum Mechanics, but only a limited part — which, by the way, is the least complex.

Second and more important element: it is not so true that Quantum Mechanics is a difficult subject. From a purely mathematical point of view it contains nothing intrinsically complex; the real problem is that until today it has been studied in a purely abstract way. The formulas of classical physics studied at school are no simpler than those we will use in the course; their apparent greater approachability comes from the fact that they are associated with phenomena we all know, and analogies with the world around us provide mnemonic cues that help us to remember them and to make sense of mathematical relationships.

Quantum physics shows phenomena that have no equivalent in the macroscopic world. The scientists of the early 1900s, who found themselves observing bizarre and inexplicable phenomena, deduced the laws and formulas that allowed predicting the behaviour of sub-atomic systems but did not understand their real nature. Our mind has difficulty understanding a new phenomenon if it cannot be traced back to phenomena visible every day in the world of classical physics.

Faced with the rules of quantum mechanics, our mind looks for a foothold, an analogy with some phenomenon that can be seen in the physical world we are accustomed to, but properties such as superposition, negative probability and entanglement simply are not present and visible in the macroscopic world, so the formulas that describe these properties — although mostly simple — remain hanging in our mind in a limbo of abstractness that does not help us to remember them and to understand their applications.

This was true until today. Today quantum computers exist and are real, macroscopic objects — and above all usable by anyone who has a (classical) computer and an Internet connection.

The Quantum Computer uses the Qbits, which are quantum objects.

Our teaching method based on learn by doing has allowed us to teach notoriously difficult subjects such as Microcontroller programming very effectively, basing the teaching on creative experimentation. We ask our students to try to build a circuit and a program sketch with the same approach that children have during kindergarten.

Once the practical feedback on what happens in the just-created prototype is acquired, it is much more immediate to understand the technological and theoretical reasons behind it. In this way, the teaching becomes fun, and fun makes the subject fascinating.

Our Basic Quantum Computing Course is organised in exactly the same way. From the very first lesson, students will be guided to register an account on the IBM Quantum Experience cloud network and will be able to personally run the experiments proposed.

The principles of that part of quantum mechanics needed for quantum computing will be explained in relation to the observed phenomena, and much of the difficulty usually attributed to the subject will certainly be debunked.

Compared to a Basic Arduino Course, the time needed to complete this course will certainly be much longer, but we believe that the strongly practical and experimental method will allow the path to be managed very gradually, making it accessible to everyone.

If the subject fascinates you, you can try the first lesson for free; it is accessible without registration on the e-learning platform.

Try the first lesson for free!