[ahelwer]

If anyone is interested I've also created a short 1.5 hour lecture on quantum computing aimed specifically at software engineers & computer scientists, which has proven popular: https://youtu.be/F_Riqjdh2oM

I'd love to answer any questions people have. In quantum computation, state behaves like a vector and logic gates behave like matrices that multiply the vector to get a new state value. It doesn't get too much more complicated than that.

[mendeza]

Any advice on breaking into the industry? Would be really neat to work as a quantum research engineer, or software engineer on quantum computers!

[ahelwer]

Google, Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft all have quantum programs which use "regular" software engineers in various roles - for example, writing software to support researchers working in the labs. That's what I did for Microsoft. If you want to work on actual research yourself though, you'll probably need a PhD. There are some non-PhD positions that do research-adjacent work like simulating, implementing & refining researcher findings for the specific hardware the company is developing, but those are quite competitive/difficult to get (I tried!)

Microsoft also has a fairly large team working on Q# and the Microsoft Quantum Development Kit. That would also involve research-adjacent things like efficiently compiling programs to specific quantum device layouts with appropriate error correction schemes, etc.

[erej]

ETH Zurich has a quantum engineering masters: https://master-qe.ethz.ch/

[deeeeplearning]

In that Vein, so does USC. MSc in Quantum Information Science https://viterbigradadmission.usc.edu/programs/masters/msprog...

[whimsicalism]

Probably a PhD

[asb3st0s]

Just wanted to say I watched your lecture on YouTube a while back and thought it was very well-done and informative. I learned a lot. Thank you!

[ahelwer]

Glad you enjoyed! I also wrote a couple of follow-up blog posts which examine quantum entanglement & quantum chemistry simulation, respectively:

https://ahelwer.ca/post/2018-12-07-chsh/

https://ahelwer.ca/post/2019-12-21-quantum-chemistry/

[DevX101]

Nice! This seems to fit my learning style well. I prefer to understand why something matters, than progressively probe backwards into the theory.

[thijsb]

That was incredibly insightful! Thank you sharing this!