ECE 396 / COS 396 / QSE 320
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Welcome to the Fall 2026 offering of Intro to Quantum Computing! This course will introduce quantum mechanics, and then explore it with an eye towards its power to compute in new and exciting ways.
This course has a prerequisite of sophomore linear algebra at the level of MAT 202, 204, 217 or the equivalent. A previous quantum mechanics course will not be required. Beyond linear algebra, a basic understanding of probability, complex numbers, and algorithms is recommended. Please contact the instructor if you wish to take the course but do not currently meet these requirements.
Lectures: Mondays and Wednesdays, 10:40 am – 12:00 pm, in Friend Center 006
Instructor office hours: Mondays 12:00 – 1:00 pm, in COS 308
TA office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 5:00 – 6:30 pm, in COS 301
Instructor: Ewin Tang
Graduate teaching assistants: Lakshika Rathi, Hongkun Chen, Salahedeen Issa
Everything here is subject to change.
| Date | Lecture | Course information | References and further reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| 09/02 | What are quantum computers (good for)? how to simulate physical systems; the (extended) Church-Turing thesis; current status of quantum computers; current status of claims of quantum advantage; syllabus based on Aaronson, Lecture 1, O’Donnell(1) Lecture 1, O’Donnell(2) Lecture 3 |
pset 0 out | Aaronson,
NP-complete Problems and Physical Reality (Can I use
physics to cheat the limits of computation?) Feynman, Simulating Physics with Computers (The famous lecture!) Shor, The Early Days of Quantum Computation (Shor’s quantum computing lore) Aaronson, Read the Fine Print (The caveats behind quantum machine learning) Dalzell et al., Quantum Algorithms: A Survey of Applications and End-to-End Complexities (A comprehensive look at applications of quantum computing) |
| 09/07 | no class; labor day | ||
| 09/09 | Quantum and non-quantum computers, with a linear algebra
formalism Linear algebra formalism for probabilistic systems; linear algebra formalism for quantum systems (unitary evolution, measurement); bra-ket notation based on Aaronson, Lectures 2 and 3 |
pset 1 out pset 0 due midnight |
Watrous, Lecture 01 |
| 09/14 | Simple procedures in single-qubit
systems differences between quantum and classical (interference, reversibility, basis-invariance); Hadamard matrix and interference; double-slit experiment; quantum Zeno effect based on Aaronson, Lectures 3 and 4 |
quiz 0 | Bohr–Einstein
debates, Wikipedia Bohr–Einstein debates, Bohr’s account Feynman on how to think about negative probability |
| 09/16 | Introducing multi-qubit systems, and looking at quantum
weirdness Elitzur–Vaidman bomb; partial measurement (and conditional probabilities); correlation and entanglement; Bell pair; faster-than-light signaling? based on Aaronson, Lectures 4 and 5 |
add/drop period ends | |
| 09/21 | No-comunication, and building more math
formalism returning to the Bell pair; no-communication theorem; partial trace (and marginal probabilities); density matrix formalism based on Aaronson, Lectures 5, 6 |
||
| 09/23 | Non-commutativity, no-cloning, and
consequences non-commutativity of measurement (uncertainty principles, Stern–Gerlach experiment, effect of measurement, etc.); quantum gates; quantum circuits; no-cloning theorem; Bloch sphere based on Aaronson Lectures 4 and 7 and Nielsen–Chuang 1.5.1 |
pset 2 out pset 1 due midnight |
|
| 09/28 | Quantum protocols 1: quantum money, quantum key
distribution based on Aaronson Lectures 7 and 8 |
quiz 1 | Quanta
(Ben Brubaker) on the story behind quantum money and
teleportation. Aaronson on Stephen Wiesner An adaptive attack on Wiesner’s quantum money Quantum money from knots |
| 09/30 | Quantum protocols 2: teleportation, entanglement as a
resource based on Aaronson Lectures 9, 10, and 11 |
Quantum island
hopping 3Blue1Brown videos on information theory and motivating entropy (1) (2) |
|
| 10/05 | Quantum protocols 3 (peak weirdness): Bell’s inequality,
CHSH game based on Aaronson Lectures 12, 13, and 14 and O’Donnell |
Quanta
(Charlie Wood) on Nobel prize for quantum information
experiments Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy page on Bell’s Theorem Closing the ‘free will’ loophole Interesting application of the CHSH game |
|
| 10/07 | How to build a quantum computer? Gate sets; Solovay–Kitaev theorem; reversible computation; uncomputing based on Aaronson Lectures 16 and 17 |
pset 2 due midnight | |
| 10/12 | Review session for midterm | quiz 2 | |
| 10/14 | midterm (tentative) | ||
| 10/19 | no class; fall break | ||
| 10/21 | no class; fall break | ||
| 10/26 | Start of quantum algorithms:
rotate-compute-rotate. quantum query complexity; parallel universes; Deutsch–Josza algorithm based on Aaronson Lecture 17 |
pset 3 out | |
| 10/28 | What can we do with
rotate-compute-rotate? Bernstein–Vazirani algorithm; Simon’s algorithm based on Aaronson Lecture 18 |
||
| 11/02 | RSA, factoring and period finding; gestures in the direction
of Shor’s algorithm defining period-finding; its applications based on Aaronson Lecture 19, 20 |
||
| 11/04 | More Shor QFT; more applications; post-quantum cryptography based on Aaronson Lecture 20, 21 |
pset 3 due midnight pset 4 out |
The more
general uncertainty principle, regarding Fourier transforms Why haven’t quantum computers factored 21 yet? |
| 11/09 | Introduction to quantum error correction: basic ideas and
examples, bit-flip code, Shor’s nine-qubit code guest lecture from Sarang Gopalakrishnan based on Aaronson Lecture 27, 28 |
quiz 3 | |
| 11/11 | Error correction conditions, quantum Hamming
bound guest lecture from Sarang Gopalakrishnan based on Aaronson Lecture 27, 28 |
||
| 11/16 | Effect of noise on quantum evolution, some standard types of noise | ||
| 11/18 | Grover’s algorithm the algorithm based on Aaronson Lecture 22, 23 |
pset 4 due midnight pset 5 out |
But what is
quantum computing? (Grover’s Algorithm) Where my explanation of Grover’s algorithm failed |
| 11/23 | More Grover based on Aaronson Lecture 23, 24 |
quiz 4 | |
| 11/25 | no class; thanksgiving | ||
| 11/30 | The Schrödinger equation, continuous time evolution, atomic
level structures. based on Aaronson Lecture 25 |
What is the i really doing in Schrodinger’s equation? | |
| 12/02 | Hamiltonian simulation | pset 5 due midnight | |
| 12/07 | Survey of quantum computing platforms | quiz 5 | |
| 12/16 | final (tentative); 04:00 pm - 07:00 pm |
This course will most closely follow the lecture notes of Scott Aaronson; find them here.
However, there are many great resources of this material at a variety of levels and in a variety of formats. The following are references I recommend, which you can keep at hand/hard drive.
The following are not directly related to the material, but may be helpful nonetheless.
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