Abstract:

Current teaching guides of Computer Engineering degrees include the learning of digital systems that perform operations using binary variables. Logical gates are the simplest cases of these digital systems, and they allow to produce a binary output from one or more binary inputs.

This paper proposes a methodology like the one currently used in digital systems to introduce students of the Computer Science degree in Quantum Computing, and specifically in the use of quantum gates. We develop a procedure to design quantum gates based fundamentally on:
i) the knowledge already acquired by the students in the subject of Structure and Technology of Computers and
ii) the simplification of the involved Quantum Mechanics to allow the assimilation of contents to the students.

Additionally, examples of how to use the proposed methodology are provided with two purposes: the learning of existing quantum gates and the design by the student of new quantum gates that comply with the established principles of Quantum Computing and Quantum Mechanics.

Keywords:

Education, Computer science, quantum computation.