ECE 492 / CSC 491 Introduction to Quantum System Engineering (Fall 2025)
Instructor: Yuan Liu (q_yuanliu@ncsu.edu)
Time and Location: Tue and Thur 11:45 am - 1:00 pm, 1226 EB2. The course is hosted on Moodle. Recorded lectures can be accessed on Panopto.
Office hours: 3-3:30 PM Tuesdays and 4-4:30 PM Wednesdays on Zoom.
Objective or Description: This course will introduce advanced topics of modern quantum algorithms and their applications in sciences and engineering including quantum chemistry, many-body physics, and classical mechanics. The goal is to help students develop intuition and skills to design new quantum algorithms for novel applications in the future. Both near-term and fault-tolerant quantum algorithms will be discussed although the course will focus more on fault-tolerant algorithms with provable speedups. A brief discussion on quantum algorithms based on continuous-variable systems (such as bosonic modes instead of qubits) will be presented toward the end of the course. As a special topic course, contents of the course will be drawn from recent literature. By the end of the course, students will develop a broad picture of the landscape of quantum algorithms research and how they can be used to solve important problems in physical sciences. Students will also learn how to quantify and analyze quantum algorithm complexity. Light hands-on numerical programming exercises will be given to ensure best understanding of the course materials.
Prerequisites: Linear algebra or signal processing.
Learning Outcome: Upon completion of this course, students will be able to: (1) Understanding and learn broadly topics in the field of quantum information science and engineering (QISE); (2) Develop a comprehensive quantum systems engineering perspective, connecting theory to devices to applications; (3) Apply QISE principles to general engineering disciplinaries to approach real-world problems
Textbook and references:
- No textbook required, weekly notes will be shared. See below for some standard references on quantum information science and engineering:
- Quantum Computation and Quantum Information. Nielsen and Chuang
- Classical and Quantum Computation. Kitaev, Shen, and Vyalyi.
- Quantum Information Theory, Mark M. Wilde.
- Quantum Computing Since Democritus, Scott Aaronson.
Topics: This course is organized into four major units:
- “Single-particle” quantum systems
- Multi-particle systems, entanglement
- Physical implementations of quantum systems
- Applications and resources needed for large-scale quantum computing systems
Specific topics include: motivation for quantum engineering, qubits and quantum gates, rules of quantum mechanics, mathematical background, quantum electrical circuits and other physical quantum systems, harmonic and anharmonic oscillators, measurement, the Schrödinger equation, noise, entanglement, benchmarking, quantum communication, and quantum algorithms. No prior experience with quantum mechanics is assumed.
The content of this course is meant to be accessible to undergraduate ECE and CSC students who have never before studied quantum mechanics. The lecture notes are derived from lectures given at MIT by Professors Karl Berggren, Isaac Chuang, Anand Natarajan, and Kevin O’Brien for an EECS undergraduate course with the same course name.
| Week | Topic | Homework |
|---|---|---|
| Tue 8/19 | Course Introduction; Single-particle quantum systems: Polarization of photons | Read Ch 1 and 2. |
| Thu 8/21 | Photon detection and quantum states | Read Ch 3. HW 1 due on 8/24. |
| Tue 8/26 | Polarization transformations: operations on quantum states | Read Ch 4. |
| Thu 8/28 | Quantum circuits: single-qubit gates | Read Ch 5. HW 2 due on 9/1. |
| Tue 9/2 | Quantum interferometers; The Mach-Zehnder interferometer | Read Ch 6 and 7. |
| Thu 9/4 | Quantum Zeno effect and microscopy | Read Ch 8. HW 3 due on 9/7. |
| Tue 9/9 | Hamiltonians and time-evolution | Read Ch 9. |
| Thu 9/11 | Quantum state tomography and mixed states | Quiz 1; Read Ch 10. |
| Tue 9/16 | Wellness Day (No class) | |
| Thu 9/18 | Entanglement and the CHSH game | Read Ch 11. HW 4 due on 9/21. |
| Tue 9/23 | Entangling unitaries | Read Ch 12. |
| Thu 9/25 | Basics of quantum computation | Read Ch 13. HW 5 due on 9/28. |
| Tue 9/30 | A quantum algorithm | Read Ch 14. |
| Thu 10/2 | Quantum Fourier sampling | Read Ch 15. HW 6 due on 10/5. |
| Tue 10/7 | What is quantum measurement? | Read Ch 16. |
| Thu 10/9 | Midterm Exam | |
| Tue 10/14 | Fall Break (No class) | |
| Thu 10/16 | Zoom Guest Lecture (Prof. Dima Farfurnik, Physics): Optically-active solid-state spins for quantum information processing, communication, and sensing | |
| Tue 10/21 | Physical realizations: Photonic and Trapped ions | Read Ch 17. |
| Thu 10/23 | Superconducting qubits and quantum harmonic oscillator | Read Ch 18, 19. HW 7 due on 10/29. |
| Tue 10/28 | Anharmonic oscillator qubits | Read Ch 19, 20. |
| Thu 10/30 | Superconducting single-qubit gates | Read Ch 21. HW 8 due on 11/6. |
| Tue 11/4 | Coupling superconducting qubits I | Read Ch 22. |
| Thu 11/6 | Coupling superconducting qubits II; measurement and decoherence | Read Ch 23. HW 9 due on 11/13. |
| Tue 11/11 | Quantum systems figures of merit | Read Ch 24. |
| Thu 11/13 | Quantum error correction I; Quiz 2 | Read Ch 25. |
| Tue 11/18 | Quantum error correction II | Read Ch 25. |
| Thu 11/20 | Fault-tolerant quantum computation | Read Ch 26. HW 10 due on 11/26. |
| Tue 11/25 | Requirements for large-scale quantum computation | Read Ch 28; (Optional) Read Ch 27. |
| Thu 11/27 | Thanksgiving Holiday (No class; University closed) | |
| Tue 12/2 | Course project presentation (8 mins presentation + 2 mins Q&A) | Final project report submission on Moodle. Due Sunday 12/5 Midnight. |
Grading:
| Percentage of grade | Component | Details and timing of feedback |
|---|---|---|
| 60% | Weekly assignments | Individual short homework that goes along with the weekly lectures. Grading criteria are included within each assignment. You will receive a grade/feedback within 1 week of the due date.* |
| 20% | Quiz and midterm exam | There will be 2 quizzes and 1 midterm exam in the course. You will receive a grade within 2 weeks of the due date.* |
| 20% | Project | You will have the chance to pick a QISE-related topic of your interest to accomplish an individual or group project (no more than 2 people per group). The project could be literature review, small research problems, or industry research or sector analysis. You will need to submit a project report (< 4 pages) and give an in-class presentation (8 + 2 mins) towards the end of the semester. You will receive a grade/feedback within 2 weeks of submitting your project.* The grade will be based on your written report and oral presentation. |