I wanted to make this page to outline some of the sources that I use frequently in the lessons and addendums for BU Quantum.
While I list one-off sources in the notes pages themselves, these sources are used consistently throughout multiple lessons, so I am listing them here for convenience.
They are also just really helpful resources that I constantly rely upon when refreshing myself on quantum algorithms.
The first is Peter Shor's quantum computing lecture notes. Professor Shor teaches a class at MIT on quantum computing, and has made some of his lecture notes public. This is a really cool and useful resources to learn about quantum algorithms, particularly from a mathematical perspective, from perhaps the top expert in the field.
While I draw upon his notes covering the fundamentals as well, I particularly use his notes on the Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm, Simon's algorithm, QFT, phase estimation, and Shor's algorithm.
Another resource I consistently use, particularly in later lessons, is Pennylane's demonstrations. These are really cool and offer a computational perspective to a lot of these algorithms at an advanced level. While I chose not to use the Pennylane SDK during the lessons, as I felt it would be a bit too much for beginners, their articles are super useful. I particularly use the demos on Grover's algorithm, QFT, phase estimation, and VQE.
Another resource I want to highlight is IBM Quantum Learning, which provides robust tutorials on many different subjects in quantum computing in Qiskit, which is the main SDK we will be using as part of the lessons. I primarily draw on the notes on the fundamentals, but I also use the VQE notes.
A more advanced but great resource is the Classiq library, which provides documentation on a bunch of quantum algorithms using the Classiq SDK, which is a more scalable and perhaps more intuitive tool for programmers. I really like Classiq, and we will use it in one of the lessons, but it is a resource I consider a bit more advanced to use due to some of its abstractions.
Lastly, other than some one-off articles or papers I mention in the lessons or addendums themselves, I rely on my own research and experience in designing the content. For example, I worked on the glued trees algorithm for Classiq, which comprises a major part of week 10 as a case study.
My primary aim for BU Quantum was to create something where you get out of it as much as you put in, very suitable for a club with a weekly workshop model.
If you want to keep up with each weekly lesson and its corresponding addendum, you will get a detailed mathematical and computational understanding of quantum computing by the end of the semester.
If you just want to look at a few lessons, you'll get a good sense of what quantum computing is like and if it (or what parts of it) is fit for you.
Regardless of how you approach this club, I hope you can gain something useful out of it, and gain an understanding for this growing, somewhat underappreciated, and often misconceived field.