Published: March 21, 2019

In late February, five CU Boulder students flew to IBM's Yorktown, New York facility to participate in Q Camp, an intensive 3-day introduction to problem solving on IBM's quantum computing hardware.

With support from CU Boulder’s CUbit Quantum Initiative, one research advisor and IBM, Jarrod Reilly (Physics), Anastasia Jeffery (Chemistry), Junling Long (Physics), Nick Singstock (Chemical and Biological Engineering) and Jessica Kane (Physics) joined 130 other students from U.S. and international universities for a day of lectures and discussions on emerging concepts in quantum computing and on Qiskit, IBM's open source software package for developing quantum algorithms to run on real devices.

After shuttling to a mountain resort in Killington, Vermont that evening, the CU Boulder students informally networked the next day with other Q Camp attendees to select problems and teammates for a 24-hour "Hackathon." Once the competition was underway, teams collaboratively developed quantum algorithms and games in the Python programming language, with light guidance and encouragement from an IBM quantum computing expert.

The students described the event as intense and, occasionally, like drinking from a firehose. Still, they characterized Q Camp as fun and exciting, and recommended it enthusiastically. Comments from the students included: "Really great learning and networking opportunity," "Catch up on sleep before the 24-hour Hackathon!" and "It might be hard to gain mastery in 3 days, but I definitely learned and had fun."

After learning that IBM anticipates offering Q Camp again in 2020, this year's CU Boulder attendees offered some recommendations for future participants:

  • It is helpful to be familiar with computer programming generally, and adept at Python in particular
  • Familiarity with quantum mechanical concepts like entanglement and superposition is useful, as well as an acquaintance with a two-level quantum system (Bloch Sphere)
  • It isn’t necessary to have much additional quantum mechanics experience to engage at Q Camp; is a great place to learn the essential concepts
  • Since quantum computing uses basic linear algebra, familiarity with simple matrix-vector operations is valuable
  • An exploratory frame of mind is a must!

Thanks to Anastasia, Junling, Jessica, Nick and Jarrod for being pioneers at this first ever edition of Q Camp, and to IBM for making this opportunity available.

Congratulations to Nick Singstock, who was a member of the winning Hackathon team!

Header image: IBM Research.