INESC TEC researcher wins an IBM award on Quantum Computing

Miguel Ramalho, researcher at INESC TEC’s Laboratory of Artificial Intelligence and Decision Support (LIAAD) and a student of the Integrated Master in Informatics and Computing Engineering (MIEIC) of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (FEUP), won the “IBM Q Teach Me Quantum Challenge”, thus receiving a $7,000 prize (around EUR 6,000).

"IBM Q Teach Me Quantum Challenge” is an initiative that challenges the participants to develop a course in Quantum Computing in order to benefit from the tools developed by IBM in this area, namely QISKIT, an open-source framework for promoting quantum processors in the research, education, and business areas, and IBM Q Experience, which is based on the free availability of quantum processors by IBM. 

“Teach Me Quantum”, which is the name of the idea developed by Miguel Ramalho, is a 10 week university course that, according to the researcher, “allows beginners in the quantum computing area to develop their skills while having a hands-on experience by programming quantum circuits, replicating some of the most famous algorithms and executing them in real quantum processors”.

It’s a course intended for both professors, who want to use the contents of the course and to adapt them to their course units, and for students who want to learn by themselves. For Miguel Ramalho, the most interesting aspect is the fact that this is “an open source course that can be improved by anyone in any place”. Besides, he believes that “it’s good to see that being an autodidact is also a viable way to face education”.

The tender was held in 2018 and had four different competitions, including developing education materials for lectures, creating tutorials and publishing a scientific article.

The researcher mentioned in this news piece is associated with INESC TEC.