Abstract At the GIREP 2023 conference, the GIREP thematic group “Teaching and learning in quantum physics” had organised a discussion workshop on quantum entanglement. The discussion at the time revealed different positions on the conceptual clarification and communication of entanglement, with new questions also arising e.g. concerning the question how an understanding of entanglement can be built in learners. Therefore, in 2024 we proposed a discussion workshop with a series of focused questions that expands on corresponding topics. The organisers invited interested participants to prepare their position on prepared questions, that were distributed in advance, and to present their stance in the discussion. The goal of the discussion was to provide a community-based paper on how to facilitate entanglement for different target populations.
Abstract At the GIREP 2023 conference, the GIREP thematic group “Teaching and learning in quantum physics” had organised a discussion workshop on quantum entanglement. The discussion at the time revealed different positions on the conceptual clarification and communication of entanglement, with new questions also arising e.g. concerning the question how an understanding of entanglement can be built in learners. Therefore, in 2024 we proposed a discussion workshop with a series of focused questions that expands on corresponding topics. The organisers invited interested participants to prepare their position on prepared questions, that were distributed in advance, and to present their stance in the discussion. The goal of the discussion was to provide a community-based paper on how to facilitate entanglement for different target populations.
Abstract One of the central features of quantum physics is entanglement. It is crucial for understanding the theory, and its applications, especially in quantum technologies. At the 2023 GIREP meeting, the GIREP Thematic Group “Teaching and learning quantum physics” addressed three fundamental topics for discussion: 1) Theoretical approaches and conceptual reconstruction of entanglement, 2) Role of representation and visualization in teaching entanglement, and 3) Empirical research on teaching and learning entanglement. Invited interested parties participated with their contribution to shed light on the specific challenges and solutions to address this fundamental feature of quantum physics. We present the main results.
Physics students, teachers, and preservice teachers (PSTs) struggle with the abstract nature of quantum mechanics (QM), which has led to calls for a more conceptual approach to QM teaching and learning. In response, this study uses a novel analogy between Kundt’s tube and the infinite quantum well to elicit discussion of ontological issues. We investigated PSTs’ use of ontologies, including their interpretation of the wave function. Nine PSTs participated in the analogy lesson; dialogues were recorded, transcribed, and thematically analyzed. We identified five different ontologies: one classical and four quantum ontologies. The importance of probabilities in PSTs’ quantum ontologies stood out. Three ontologies (probabilistic particle, particle-wave, and probabilistic wave) expand the particle-wave duality, while the fourth (wave collapse) added a dynamic element to this axis. PSTs often used a single ontology in response to one aspect of the analogy but switched flexibly between ontologies across aspects of the analogy that they discussed. Concerning the wave function, we found both realist and formalist stances, revealing a diversity of interpretations that contrasts with the uniformity of the formalist QM courses PSTs had attended. We conclude that explicit attention to ontological issues in QM, supported by classical-quantum analogies, provides insight into PSTs’ ontological reasoning and offers a conceptual approach to teaching and learning QM. We present recommendations for PST training and implications for QM teaching reform.
IEEE Quantum Week 2022 Workshops provide forums for group discussions (i.e., 20-50 participants) on QCE22 topics in quantum research, practice, education, and applications.Workshops provide opportunities for researchers, practitioners, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, developers, students, educators, programmers, and newcomers to exchange and discuss scientific and engineering ideas at an early stage before they have matured to warrant a conference or journal publication.In this manner, an IEEE Quantum Week workshop serves as a forum for common interests or as an incubator for a scientific community to form a research roadmap or share a research agenda.Workshops are the key to sustaining, growing, and evolving IEEE Quantum Week in the future.For the first time, the QCE22 program includes a colocated conference, the Quantum Science and Engineering Conference, where education researchers and practitioners come together to discuss methodologies for curriculum and tool development for instruction and teaching.We expect this to become an annual event, emphasizing the importance of education in building a broad and diverse quantum community and workforce.xlvii
The meeting was attended by over 50 participants from more than 10 countries and three continents. It brought together mathematicians, physicists and computer scientists working on quantum information and computation. Experts were present as well as young participants, both at predoctoral level as well as postdoctoral level. The focus was on the problems of entanglement and decoherence, aiming at the formulation and discussion of precise concepts, developments of models and their interrelations, and the discussion of experiments in relation with the theory. Special attention was given to recent developments, and to furthering interaction and co-operations between the different groups. The scientific programm focused mainly on the following subjects: 1) Quantum Entanglement and Nonlocality: including Bell-type inequalities (theoretical and experimental studies), equivalence of quantum states under local unitary transformations. 2) Quantum Separability: separability criteria for multiple quantum mixed states in arbitrary dimension. 3) Decoherence: study of models; quantum error corrections, fault tolerant computation, multiparticle problems. 4) Sources of Quantum Entanglement. 5) Quantum Information: quantum cloning, teleportation, key distribution, algorithms. 6) Quantum Measurement and Quantum Optics; Holonomic quantum gates; Quantum semigroups; Continuum Observation. 7) Mathematical Quantum and non commutative structures in connection with quantum information theory. 20 lectures were presented, including 15 surveys and 5 concentrating on specific recent results. There were 10 informal evening lectures on 3 topics: entanglement, control and decoherence. Besides 7 informal talks were presented in 2 round table discussions. All presentations and discussions amply demonstrated the vitality and actuality of this area of research and the fascinating interrelations between the different specialities it involves. The organizers and participants would like to take this opportunity to thank the Mathematisches Forschungsinstitut Oberwolfach for having provided a comfortable and inspiring environment for the meeting and the scientific work.
The ongoing accelerated development and exploration of Quantum Computing (QC) - systems, software, algorithms and applications - has generated a huge amount of interest and need among a wide range of organisations and user communities to better understand the technology paradigm, its maturity, limitations and opportunities, and positioning alongside classical high-performance computing (HPC) methods and tools. This interest and need to learn about QC has been accentuated by the rapidness and breadth of developments in QC that is being disseminated in both mainstream and specialist scien-tific/technical media as well as the accessibility to early quantum computing systems and tools. It has become a challenge for the (potential) user community to sift through the material catering to developing bottom-up fundamental scientific/mathematical skills as well as top-down exploitation oriented knowledge. As the National and one among the European Competence Centres in HPC, the Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC) has worked with an international advisory board composed of quantum computing technology developers, the user community and the Irish State Agency's network that is responsible for national enterprise skills development in ICT to create and deliver a blended course which is customisable, modular and stackable, thereby offering different learning path-ways to professional learners from the academic, enterprise and public sector communities with inhomogeneous backgrounds. Particular emphasis is laid on the stakes of engaging learners and organisations with different knowledge basis, skills and learning objectives, as well as making the content suitably-positioned and approachable to all (e.g. varied levels of mathematical knowledge required for basic understanding of quantum computing versus developing quantum algorithms). In this paper, we discuss the Quantum Programming Certifi-cation Course (QPCC) by summarising the 4-year design process with the advisory board, drawing from ICHEC's experience in national and European HPC and QC R&D projects as well as preparation of strategies and joint white papers, and methods to address gaps between mainstream academic programmes in quantum technologies and existing training courses (such as MOOCs, tutorials, workshops). We discuss the approaches in QPCC to target professional learners from inhomogeneous backgrounds, tools and pedagogical approaches in preparing and delivering the training material, opportunities and challenges in positioning QPCC within the academic framework, and sum-marise open opportunities for developing collaborative solutions.