This school year, Molloy became a partner school with MIT’s “The Coding School” to offer a quantum computing course called Qubit by Qubit (QxQ). The course is an introductory college-level quantum computing course taught by MIT and Oxford quantum scientists in collaboration with IBM Quantum. In the first semester, students learned about the mathematical and algorithmic background of quantum computation. In the second semester, they have been exploring the physics of making measurements using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Recently, MIT researchers demonstrated a very famous experiment regarding two-level quantum systems conducted by Stern and Gerlach in 1922.
Senior Brianna Garrison ’21 shared her thoughts on the course with The Beehive: “The quantum computing course with MIT is so fascinating! In this class we are learning about how concepts in quantum mechanics such as superposition, entanglement, and interference can be utilized to introduce a new way that computers can fundamentally work. Some of the concepts such as entanglement even contradict Einstein’s theory of relativity, proving that there is so much complexity and vastness to the world of physics that we have yet to discover or understand. In this class we are taught by professional coders and physicists, and there are a lot of resources offered to help the students. Speaking of which, there are thousands of other students taking this course from all over the world, and I learn a lot from my extremely diverse group of peers. The subject of quantum computing is not usually introduced until graduate school, and therefore it is an honor and a privilege to study this through Molloy.”