Projects 2022-23

QBasics

Summary: A ground level introduction to Qiskit and the principles of quantum computing. The group will start with math foundations such as Hilbert spaces and information theory, then progress to using Qiskit to represent quantum circuits. The endpoint for this project is preparation for the Qiskit developer exam.

Structure: Biweekly Lecture / Discussion format with suggested readings and Qiskit exercises in between meetings.

Project Leaders: Ben McDonough and Mason Abrell

Graduate Mentor: Katie Chang

Superconducting 

Circuits

Summary: Introduction to quantum hardware platforms and experimental methods. Transmons, dispersive readout, pulse engineering, cavity QED. Particular focus on the coupling between real world implementations and theory.

Structure: Biweekly meetings. Papers, etc will be provided as suggested readings in between meetings.

Project Leader: Alex Deters

Graduate Mentor: Harsh Babla

Error Correcting Codes

Summary: Get a broad overview of quantum error correction, learn some basic classical and quantum error correcting algorithms, and eventually work up to understanding the error correcting research happening at Yale!

Structure: Biweekly (once every two weeks) meetings that are in the structure of a lecture/discussion. Between these meetings, there will be suggested readings of papers and textbooks that we might find interesting! Towards the end of the semester, we hope to get some guest speakers to come in and talk to us about their research.

Project Leader: Pranav Parakh

Graduate Mentor: Kaavya Sahay

Efficient Gradient Estimation

Summary: Research a novel noise-aware gradient estimation model for optimization problems on near-term quantum computers.

Project Leader: Dikshant Dulal

Background Level: Intermediate

Hidden Subgroup Problems

Summary: Learn about Hidden Subgroup Problems (HSP) which are a framework describing most of the common quantum algorithms giving exponential speedups (think Shor’s). This project will investigate quantum algorithms for the most general form of the HSP - a problem which quantum computers are conjectured to be able to solve, but many important subclasses of HSP remain unsolved in quantum polynomial time.

Project Leader: Ben Foxman

Background Level: Advanced. Requires background in group theory + more advanced quantum algorithm concepts (weak/strong fourier sampling, oracles).

C2QA Testing and Tutorials

Summary: A novel package for extending Qiskit to coupled bosonic-qubit systems was recently (in the past week or so!) published, with several authors at Yale. We would have a unique chance to be the first students to learn how to use this package. We could provide feedback and bug testing to the developers. The culmination of the project will be a series of tutorial notebooks on the C2QA package.

Project Leader: Ben McDonough

Background Level: Intermediate, but can be beginner if you are willing to do a bit more reading! Some background in Python will probably be necessary.

Format: In-person meetings weekly for half an hour.

Graduate Mentor: Kevin Smith (one of the authors)