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College Courses For Quantum Computing?
Tyler asks: "I'm currently an undergrad engineering student at a respectable school, and right now I'm pretty sure I'm majoring in CompE. I'd really like to do some work with Quantum computers in the future, but I don't know what exactly makes up a good quantum-computing engineer, so I want to take some courses over the next few years to become familiar with the science. What courses should I be taking?"
If you are at a respectable school, some of your professors will be able to guide you to which classes you should take. If they can't, are you really at a respectable school?
I took a small course in my university on quantum computers, lead by a physics professor. Right now, it seems, most advances in the theorical field (the technology seems to involve a mix of physics and chemistry) deal with quantum physics and linear algebra (is it called that in the states? I mean calculations on vectors, linear spaces, etc.) You should really get a solid grip on those subjects before advancing on Quantum computers.
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My school offers a grad-level Quantum Computing class (that of course can be taken by undergrads), Ph/CS 219, which ya may wanna check out. The page seems to have some pretty useful information, including lecture notes, homeworks, references, etc. Its prerequisites are Ph 129, a class on Mathematical Methods of Physics, which in turn has the prerequisites Ph 106 (Topics in Classical Physics), and ACM 95 (Introductory Methods of Applied Mathematics) or Ma 108 (Classical Analysis).
My reasoning is this: if you learn about quantum computing, that's what you'll know. However, if you know the very basics, the "first principles" of computer engineering, then you can apply it to quantum computing, or anything else that comes along.
Quantum computers are so far out right now that no undergrad course (IMNSHO) should even touch it, save for purely interest's sake. If you're really cranked about quantum computers, finish your comp eng degree, and get into a master's or Ph.D. doing quantum computer work. Then you'll actually be *developing* the quantum computer, instead of just learning where it's at right now, which will be A) useless, and B) outdated in 2 years.
Build yourself a foundation, and then you'll have something to launch yourself off into quantum computing with. Good luck!
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Math Obviously you'll want to go pretty far, as most of the harder courses will rely greatly on this. Calculus is a given, the Differential Equations, and Multi variable Differential Vector Calculus. A statistics with calculus course might be nice to help introduce some of the nomenclature.
Physics You be required to take all the basics. But as electives you'll probably end up with either Thermal Physics (which is usually Thermodynamics for dummies) or a course in Relativity as a precurser to Quantum Physics (probably titled Modern Physics). You might want to look at some classes that focus on Solid State physics, like electronic properties of materials where you learn about holes. Many of these will be found in one of the engineering programs, or joint between them.
Chemistry You'll obviously take the basics, but will want to skip all the organic crap, that won't be useful to you. As one of your electives you'll probably want to take 1 or 2 Physical Chemistry classes. This will be some in depth shit, and pretty hard. (at least for me) Some of it won't pertain to exactly your designs but you'll know the math, nomenclature, and rules backwards and forewards when you're done.
Engineering Most of the truly difficult classes will be here. Any classes that are dealing with quantum computing specifically will be senior electives in either EE or CompE. But more important is finding a Professor you REALLY identify with, like and who likes you in your department. You don't want someone who will lie to you to get you out of their office because you're not as valuable as their time. You want someone who's at least respected by their peers, but preferably liked. You want to ask often about things you can do to further your goal, and perhaps if you could attend a graduate level class (these are more individualized and you'll nearly count as 3/5ths human, but require a lot of really hard work). But I can't overestimate the importance of finding a professor to be an ally. The smaller the department the more important this might be.
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Follow this link to check out a class offered at UC Davis. Btw, my roommate is an undergrad research assistant to Prof. Chong. I've seen some of the lectures, pretty crazy stuff. My advise is to take lots of EE, CS, math and physics coursed, esp. Quantum.
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