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1. Introduction to Quantum Computing
Why? : The Central Research Problem
Having spent several years through self-taught, quantum science based observations of the rapid development of quantum technologies and industries that have emerged in recent years, there are critical areas of bottlenecks in the quantum computing industry that have been problematically identified. Despite efforts in providing an experimental unbiased quantum education from multiple avenues, there is a lack of a unified road map for quantum education, research, and development in which beginning quantum learners can understand, at least without interference and further confusion from commercially-motivated quantum industries from the start. Due to the rapid development of quantum computing companies claiming to solve world-shifting problems, many are determined to enter this industry but lack a real method in how despite hundreds of papers, online educational websites, textbooks and more. Often, it is a company-motivated purpose that attracts learners into this discipline without industries providing training for interested students to first attempt to try out quantum development to learn themselves. The path to that training is what this paper hopes to resolve.
Even for motivated self-learners spending significant time observing the pace of quantum development in industry, there lacks any real path that outlines how to get started in quantum computing, what they need to know, and just as importantly what they don’t need to know, depending on their focus in order to not get overwhelmed, and to start doing their own testing and quantum implementations in this widely expanding field. Indeed with a larger quantum industry, larger work is needed in order to provide the efficiencies that quantum solutions promise.
There is often an assumption of what the learner needs to first understand to begin: PhD level physics and quantum mechanics, highly impressive programming skills, and difficult mathematics. Instead, for the purpose of enlightening students to learn through their observation in an experiential process that this paper provides, I simply define basic fundamentals which may limit the intensiveness of quantum mechanics knowledge but allows the imagination of the learner to stay sound. Importantly, why it is important to understand the fundamentals is also crucial to have learners acknowledge the context in the scales they are working with. Education on this front often varies as well and there lacks a unified approach that addresses all of these whys. Indeed the gap identification between the meteoric rise of quantum computing technologies and the sheer absence of quantum education programs is catastrophic given the potential of future markets in this industry. Given the rather transformative research questions that this technology could provide systemic answers for, it is important that the education of quantum technology be not left as an option only for the educational or professional elite but rather an accessible option for those that are passionate about changing the world through computation and research.
That, at the very least, is what this research project attempts to address and to help teach for those that are quantum curious.
Literature Review (including pedagogy and quantum to date)
Quantum computers, with their completely different way o processing information than today’ classical computers, could spur the development of breakthroughs in
- highlighted by Shwetha Jayaraj at page 2 on US Black Engineer Quantum.pdf