Abstract:

Quantum technology is a growing and promising field of research and industry, and an area of interest for both private and public sector, as exemplified by the European Union’s Quantum Technology Flagship programme launched in 2018. Leaving aside the fact that the achievement of quantum supremacy (practical supremacy of quantum computers over classical computers) claimed in 2019 by Google is still disputed, quantum computing deserves attention of not only researchers but also educators.

In this paper, we offer a review of the state of higher education in quantum computing (QC) across Europe with special emphasis on the Czech Republic, the country of the author’s residence. We argue for the inclusion of quantum computing courses in computer science curricula – as abstract quantum Turing machine is available since its proposal by Deutsch in 1985, QC can be taught and studied with little regard to physical implementation of quantum computers, as in the case of classical computing. We review necessary mathematical background for understanding basic quantum algorithms (such as Shor’s algorithm for integer factorization) and propose an outline of a course in QC for undergraduates with no special training in (quantum) physics.

We also analyse current demand for graduates with basic knowledge of QC in the job market and try to predict the situation in near future.

Keywords:

Quantum computing, higher education, computer science, quantum algorithm, undergraduate course.