A LEARNING CHALLENGE FOR A MULTIDISCIPLINARY QUANTUM INFORMATION AND QUANTUM PROCESSING WORKSHOP DURING “SEMANA I”

Tecnologico de Monterrey started three years ago with the practice named “Semana I” (the name in Spanish for the week of innovation). This is a yearly event in which all undergraduate students develop one of a series of proposed challenging learning activities (related or not with their field study). The activity aims to students into a challenge situation of learning. Thus, during that week developed in October, students participate in an activity where there is a goal followed by several ways to achieve it.

This year, one of the activities was the quantum information and quantum processing workshop, involving to students from third to ninth semesters in physics, mechanics, electronics, mechatronics, and digital systems engineering, who voluntarily decided to participate. Quantum information and quantum processing are emerging areas of knowledge employing quantum systems as vessels of coded information then processed by appropriate control. It allows solving computational problems in a more efficient and fast way that classical computing. The learning of these disciplines requires a basic knowledge of vector spaces, algebra of complex numbers, programming, physics, and basic knowledge of computational complexity.

The activity was designed and directed by the members of the research group of quantum information processing in the institution. The workshop objective was to provide intermediate level knowledge over three days for 25 participants toward a standard performance in the areas of introductory quantum mechanics, Dirac notation, quantum Gates-based processing, and their simulation through a computer tool created by the research group: QUANTUM. In the two final days, each working team (formed by four students) should to identify, understand, and show possible ways of solution for an applied problem in the frontier of these areas.

The workshop was also the opportunity to invite participants into a one-year stay in the research group, an alternative to the students for the last two years of their academic program. The stay aims to research, by writing and publishing original work on an indexed journal. The aim of this paper is to present quantitative and qualitative outcomes of this learning experience in terms of the achievements of students, as well as the quality and performance in the choice of problems selected and its association with the deepness of that learning.