Anyone tried their hand at quantum computing?

[d000hg]

Anyone tried their hand at quantum computing?

Possibly yes, possibly no. Maybe both.

[BlasterBates]

I've dabbled here. Whilst writing quantum code is relatively easy figuring out a quantum algorithm to calculate something is incredibly hard, and the chances are you don't really understand the algorithm you're programming.

[northernladuk]

I'm not down for this. Anything that kills cats isn't for me... Or does it?

[swamp]

Yes I've done a bit. Did a course at MIT xPro on it and also a load of the IBM free stuff, including following a bunch of their summer school lectures and workshops.

The first thing you need to know for Quantum computing is a big bunch of linear algebra. It's mostly maths, though some computer science comes in handy too (complexity theory, Shannon noisy channel coding theory). The actual 'programming' is usually done via Python and is dead easy, but this is really just plumbing bits together after you've done the hard bit and worked out the circuit from the maths.

Give it a go. It has teleportation (of quantum states), which is pretty cool!

[OwlHoot]

I've downloaded a game called Quantum Odyssey published by Quantum Interactive Ltd, and will have a play this weekend.

It claims to give one much-needed intuition into how quantum programs work and how they can be constructed for various tasks.

There's also a recent paper on the game here

I've also seen free web sites where one can upload and run a program on what they claim is a genuine quantum computer!

May as well get into it up to a point, because if the hype is to be believed all us grunt classical developers will soon be out of a job!