The field of quantum computing is rapidly growing, with near term applications immediately available for use. The application of quantum computing to machine learning (i.e., quantum machine learning) is similarly growing rapidly. The presence of noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) era computers is further enabling research in the area. Historically, the barrier to entry of quantum computing has been nearly insurmountable for computer science students, or any other students who lack a strong physics background. However, quantum computing and quantum machine learning are becoming increasingly accessible, regardless of background. The goal of this paper is to present and demonstrate that the field is accessible to computer science students and to provide a sample curriculum. This curriculum can be used in a standalone class or as part of another machine learning class, as the authors have done.
In May 2016 IBM released access to its 5-qubit quantum computer to the scientific community, its “IBM Quantum Experience” since acquiring over 60,000 users from students, educators and researchers around the globe. In the time since the “IBM Quantum Experience” became available, a flurry of research results on 5-qubit systems has been published derived from the platform hardware. Quintuple is an open-source object-oriented Python module implementing the ideal simulation of “IBM’s Quantum Experience” hardware. Quintuple quantum algorithms can be programmed and run via a custom language fully compatible with the “IBM’s Quantum Experience” or in pure Python. Over 40 example programs are provided with expected results, including Grover’s Algorithm and the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm. Quintuple’s implementation is aimed at students and educators wishing to incorporate quantum computing into the classroom and enables students to follow a quantum computing calculation step-by-step and to verify hand calculations. For these students and educators, Quintuple contributes to the study of 5-qubit systems and the development and debugging of quantum algorithms for deployment on the “IBM Quantum Experience” hardware.
The article looks at the Internet resources on quantum computing for librarians, researchers and other individuals. The three categories of quantum computing literature are gee-whiz articles in the popular press, thick textbooks for serious students or dense articles by and for researchers. Also described are two open access resources on the subject, namely, the journal "Theory of Computing" at http://theoryofcomputing.org/ and the online archive arXiv at http://arxiv.org/. Several research centers on quantum computing are enumerated.