"Understanding quantum information and computation" series now on IBM Learning

After nearly three years, 16 video lessons, and thousands of words of accompanying text, we are proud to share that our “Understanding quantum information and computation” educational series has now been released in full! The series is freely available to all and can be found on IBM Quantum Learning and via our playlist on the Qiskit YouTube channel.

IBM® has always been committed to providing the quantum community with free, high-quality educational resources that help make quantum computing more accessible to everyone who wants to learn. We've poured enormous resources into this effort over the years, and our quantum education program has seen many iterations. However, we believe the newly completed “Understanding quantum information and computation” series is easily the best and most effective introduction to quantum computing we’ve ever created.

We first began developing “Understanding quantum information and computation” in 2022 with the goal of building a series that teaches quantum computing at the detailed mathematical level usually reserved for university classrooms. More than that, we wanted to make that series accessible, free of charge, to anyone who wants to learn about quantum computing. We’ve now achieved both these goals, and the result is one of the most popular quantum computing education series ever made.

Since launching in October 2022, our “Understanding quantum information and computation” video lectures have generated 600,000+ views with a staggering 96,000 hours of total watch time across less than 16 hours of course content. The series has been viewed in more than 50 countries and has driven thousands of new subscriptions to the Qiskit YouTube channel. We expect these figures will continue to grow now that it is complete.

This has been a tremendous undertaking for the IBM Quantum education team, for the Qiskit YouTube video production team, and perhaps most of all for our series host, John Watrous. We offer our sincerest thanks to everyone who has contributed to making this series possible, and to all the learners who have joined us along the way.

If you are looking for a rigorous yet accessible course on quantum computing fundamentals, we hope you’ll give “Understanding quantum information and computation” a try. It’s never a bad time to get started! This series emphasizes timeless quantum computing concepts, rather than the details of execution with specific hardware and software. That means the content will never go out of date.

Begin the “Understanding quantum information and computation” series on IBM Quantum Learning, or watch the video lectures on the Qiskit YouTube channel.

Charting the courses

“Understanding quantum information and computation” is a digital education series made up of four courses. Each course is further divided into four lessons, with each lesson consisting of a 30-90 minute video lecture hosted by our technical director for education, John Watrous. On IBM Quantum Learning, you’ll also find that each video lecture is accompanied by a detailed write-up explaining key equations, circuits, and code examples covered in the video, forming a digital textbook that supplements the core video content.

The four courses in the series are: (1) Basics of quantum information and computation, (2) Fundamentals of quantum algorithms, (3) General formulation of quantum information, and (4) Foundations of quantum error correction. This curriculum is modeled on a traditional graduate-level “introduction to quantum computing” course.

Basics of Quantum Information and Computation starts learners off with a gentle introduction to the mathematics of quantum information. Students begin by learning the basics of how we describe quantum information for both single and multiple systems. Then, they learn how we use quantum circuits to describe computations performed on quantum information. Finally, we conclude with a basic introduction to the core principles of quantum entanglement.

Fundamentals of Quantum Algorithms uses the fundamentals covered in the prior course to introduce learners to some of the essential quantum algorithms that help form the foundation of quantum computing theory. These include Shor’s factoring algorithm, Grover’s search algorithm, and more.

With General Formulation of Quantum Information we return to the simplified mathematical model we used to introduce students to quantum information basics in the first course, and expand that to a more generalized model that accounts for more of the complexities that are part and parcel to performing computations on real quantum hardware. This is where we incorporate concepts like uncertainty, error, and noise into descriptions of quantum information.

Finally, Foundations of Quantum Error Correction takes students on a tour of quantum error correction theory — from the world’s very first quantum error-correcting code to topological methods like the toric and surface codes. It ends with a lesson on fault-tolerant quantum computing that explores the question of how one computes on encoded, error-corrected quantum information using the inherently faulty components of a quantum computer.

Bringing useful quantum computing education to the world

A cornerstone of our mission at IBM Quantum is to “bring useful quantum computing to the world,” but to accomplish that goal, we have to do more than just build useful quantum computers. We have to enable real people to grapple with the complexities and potential benefits of quantum computation, and we have to ensure that there is an ever-growing community of researchers and practitioners who feel empowered to make use of the quantum hardware and software we create.

That’s why, in 2016, IBM became the first organization to put a quantum computer in the cloud and make it freely accessible to anyone with an internet connection. It’s why our quantum software development kit, Qiskit, has been open-source since the day we first released it in the spring of 2017. It’s why IBM has spent nearly a decade investing enormous time, effort, and resources into its quantum education mission. And it’s why we remain committed to providing the quantum community with high-quality, freely accessible educational materials. All of this work serves to make quantum computing more open and accessible to anyone and everyone who wants to build skills in the field.

IBM is proud of its reputation as not only an industry leader in quantum computing technology and services, but also a community leader in quantum computing education. We believe our efforts to continually push the quality of our education program not only advance the field of quantum information science, but also the field of digital education as a whole. We have built some of the most effective and highest quality learning resources for quantum computing that the world has ever seen, and in many ways, our work is just getting started.

Stay tuned for more exciting updates from the IBM Quantum education team, and check out the “Understanding quantum information and computation” series on IBM Quantum Learning, or via our playlist on the Qiskit YouTube channel to start your learning journey today.