Ying Wu Grad Students to Get Quantum Computing Course in Fall '20

Quantum computing will be offered as a new course for computer science graduate students beginning next fall.

This marks the first time the subject is available outside of a special-topics course or independent study in the Ying Wu College of Computing here at NJIT.

Such computers process data based on quantum physics, where a particle can be in multiple states at once, as compared to conventional transistors, where a circuit can only be on or off. Today's conventional computers have billions of transistors in their microprocessors, while quantum computers have a few dozen quantum bits, better known as qubits and pronounced Q-bits.

The course will be taught by Moshiur Rahman, who works as a researcher at AT&T Laboratories in Middletown. AT&T has headquarters in Dallas, but its research facility spun out of the Bell Labs ecosystem here in the Garden State. Experts there work on the topics you'd expect, such as wireless networking, data science, artificial intelligence and open-source software.

"At work, I'm involved with machine learning. I came to know about two years ago that quantum computing can help with your operations," Rahman said. "We don't have a quantum computer, but we collaborate with CalTech," which has a prototype, he said.

Students will begin by studying the basic concepts of quantum mechanics and then learn how quantum logic gates differ from classic binary logic gates, which are the mechanisms that act directly on individual bits using Boolean math.

"For NJIT and us, it's good timing now. We call it quantum readiness. There is a gap in the workforce. There is a need," Rahman explained.

We call it quantum readiness. There is a gap in the workforce. There is a need.

There are only a few dozen quantum computers in existence because they are so hard to build. One of the major challenges is to keep the atoms — or simulated atoms or electrons — stable for long enough to check their state by measuring energy levels. Stability involves keeping systems extremely cold, just above absolute zero, which is colder than outer space. Applications so far are in fields such as chemistry and cryptography.

An industry goal is quantum supremacy, where a quantum computer can solve a problem that's impossible for a classic computer. Google said it achieved supremacy in 2019 but IBM disputed that claim, in showing that a classic supercomputer could solve the specific problem within a few days.

Separately, to speed up academic and industry experiments, IBM put some of its stable of quantum computers on the cloud, so researchers and even the general public can give them a try. That includes students.

Programming is accomplished with an assembly language, where developers write software by moving around individual pieces of data, rather than using a high-level method of English-like commands such as in Java or Python. IBM made a graphical editor to ease the pain.