UC Davis offers an interdisciplinary coursework aimed at training the next generation of experts in quantum information science and technology.

Undergraduate courses

EEC 189U: Quantum Mechanics For Engineers (Munday)

This course aims to provide engineering students with a basic background in quantum mechanics, enabling them to understand the fundamental concepts necessary in many cutting-edge areas of research involving nanotechnology, materials science, nanoscale devices, quantum information and computation, etc. Quantum mechanics describes the fascinating and bizarre world in which we live, where particles take on wave-like behavior and measurements affect what is observed. Students will be introduced to quantum mechanical wave functions and their associated mathematics and will learn how to apply these concepts to practical problems faced by engineers and scientists studying nanoscale phenomena.

EEC 189L: Quantum Computing (Radulaski)

Offered since Winter 2022 as a special topics course in Electrical and Computer Engineering, this course is aimed at sophomore and junior students with interest in quantum computing who are familiar with the basics of linear algebra such as vector spaces and matrix manipulations. The learning goals include understand differences between classical and quantum information, introduction of quantum mechanical concepts of superposition and entanglement, quantum circuit design, coding in Qiskit, algorithm execution on quantum cloud computers, team work and presentation of interdisciplinary final projects.

ECS 189A: Introduction to Quantum Computation (Kim)

Offered in Computer Science department since Spring 2022, this course covers basics of quantum computation for undergraduate students with a background in computer science/physics/mathematics. We will learn how quantum computers are different from classical computers and how quantum speedups can be achieved in well-known quantum algorithms. No prior knowledge on quantum physics is required.  

Graduate courses

EEC 289L: Quantum Information Technologies (Radulaski)

Offered in Electrical and Computer Engineering since Winter 2020, this course aims to introduce QIST concepts and mathematical formalism, operating principles of quantum hardware, coding in Qiskit, algorithm execution on quantum cloud computers, team work and presentation of final projects in quantum computation, communication or sensing. The course was developed in collaboration with IBM Quantum, that provided quantum hardware access to students and a guest lecture, and the UC Davis Center for Educational Effectiveness, that helped planning and assessment of the active learning modules.

ECS 289A: Quantum Simulation Algorithms (Kim)

One of the major applications of quantum computation is expected to be simulation of quantum mechanical systems. Offered in Computer Science department since Spring 2022, this course studies modern quantum algorithms that were developed over the past few decades for this purpose, e.g., Trotter-Suzuki method, Linear Combination of Unitary, Qubitization, to name a few.  

MATH 280: Quantum Probability (Kuperberg/Nachtergaele/Fraas)

This course, offered in Mathematics department since 2005, is a rigorous, mathematical introduction to quantum probability, including elements of quantum information, quantum mechanics, and quantum computation.

PHY 256A: Physics of Information & PHY 256B: Physics of Computation (Crutchfield)

The course explores how nature's structure reflects how nature computes. It introduces intrinsic unpredictability (deterministic chaos) and the emergence of structure (self-organization) in natural complex systems. Using statistical mechanics, information theory, and computation theory, the course develops a systematic framework for analyzing processes in terms of their causal architecture. This is determined by answering three questions: (i) How much historical information does a process store? (ii) How is that information stored? And (iii) how is the stored information used to produce future behavior? The answers to these questions tell one how a system intrinsically computes.

The course introduces tools to describe and quantify randomness and structure. It shows how they are necessarily complementary and how they are intimately related to concepts from the theory of computation. A number of example complex systems—taken from physics, chemistry, and biology—are used to illustrate the phenomena and methods. The course also takes time to reflect on the intellectual history of these topics, which is quite rich and touches on many basic questions in fundamental physics and the sciences and technology generally. New topics this year include complex materials and computation in quantum systems. The course will bring students to the research frontier in nonlinear physics and complex systems.

ECS 289A: Quantum Error Correction (Kim)

In this course, we will learn about modern topics quantum error correction. The topics will include (i) mathematical theory of quantum error correction, (ii) stabilizer formalism, (iii) topological and LDPC codes, and (iv) the theory of fault-tolerant quantum computation. A thorough background in quantum computation (or instead, linear algebra and group theory) is strongly encouraged. 

 

Seminar series

EEC298: Quantum Information Science and Technology (QuIST) Colloquium (Radulaski, Kim)

This is an interdisciplinary speaker series, intended for graduate and advanced undergraduate students in engineering and science departments. Colloquia aim to provide a window to research topics pursued internationally by renowned researchers, as well as on campus by UC Davis faculty.