Procedia Computer Science

Volume 51, 2015, Pages 1724–1733

ICCS 2015 International Conference On Computational Science

Teaching Quantum Computing with the QuIDE Simulator

Katarzyna Rycerz1,2 , Joanna Patrzyk1 , Bartlomiej Patrzyk1 , and Marian
Bubak1,2,3
1
AGH University of Science and Technology, Department of Computer Science, al.Mickiewicza 30,
30-059 Krakow, Poland
2
AGH University of Science and Technology, ACC Cyfronet, Nawojki 11, 30-950 Krakow, Poland
3
Insitute of Informatics, University of Amsterdam, Postbus 94323 1090 GE Amsterdam, the
Netherlands

Abstract
Recently, the idea of quantum computation is becoming more and more popular and there
are many attempts to build quantum computers. Therefore, there is a need to introduce this
topic to regular students of computer science and engineering. In this paper we present a
concept of a course powered by the Quantum Integrated Development Environment (QuIDE),
the new quantum computer simulator that joins features of GUI based simulators with inter-
preters and simulation library approach. The idea of the course is to put together theoretical
aspects with practical assignments realized on the QuIDE simulator. Such an approach enables
studying a variety of topics in a way understandable for this category of students. The topics
of the course included understanding the concept of quantum gates, registers and a series of
algorithms: Deutsch and Bernstein-Vazirani Problems, Grover’s Fast Database Search, Shor’s
Prime Factorization, Quantum Teleportation and Quantum Dense Coding. We describe results
of QuIDE assessment during the course; our solution scored more points in System Usability
Scale survey then the other tool previously used for that purpose. We also show that the most
useful features of such a tool indicated by students are similar to the assumptions made on the
simulator functionality.
Keywords: quantum computing course, MSc program, computer science, simulator, SUS survey

1 Introduction
In the recent years the idea of quantum computation is really pushing forward as the significant
progress has been made in the field of constructing a quantum computer [14, 15]. The main
concept is to use of quantum-mechanical phenomena to perform operations on data considerably
faster than with classical computers. Thanks to the quantum parallelism, the ability of being in
a superposition of many states, quantum computers would be more powerful and much faster
than today’s conventional supercomputers [10]. The first commercially available machine, The

1724 Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the Scientific Programme Committee of ICCS 2015

c The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

doi:10.1016/j.procs.2015.05.374
 Rycerz, et. al

D-Wave OneTM , was presented in 2010 by the D-Wave System Inc1 . Therefore, the need to
teach computer science students how quantum computer operates becomes more and more
important. Especially, there is a need to introduce this topic to regular computer science
students, also those who focus their interests towards applied computer science or computer
engineering rather then theoretical areas.
In this paper, we present a new tool for teaching quantum computation – the Quantum
Integrated Development Environment (QuIDE) that was the main simulation software in the
course ‘Mathematics for Future Computer Systems’ on Master of Science Degree in Computer
Science at the Department of Computer Science at AGH University of Science and Technol-
ogy [1]. This course, besides of quantum computing, covers also selected topics from complex
systems and network science. Teaching such complex and ”exotic” topic as quantum compu-
tation requires a convenient and lightweight tool that helps to understand how the quantum
computer is actually working. Although many courses already exists [18, 24], none of them
propose usage of a simulator that illustrates and verifies pure mathematical assignments. In
our work, we propose to add a practical aspect by using a user friendly simulator that verifies
theoretical calculations. The preparation of this course became also a challenging task as most
of the general profile of the studies is not focused much on theory, but is oriented more towards
computer science engineering.
This paper is organized as follows: in Section 2 we present related work on the subject. In
Section 3 we briefly present concept of the course, Section 4 we describe an overview of the
QuIDE simulator and in Section 5 we explain how it was used for our course. We present
validation results in Section 6 and summarize in Section 7.

2 Quantum Computing Courses and Simulators

There are many courses on Quantum Computation at different universities. One of the very
good examples is the course run by the inventor of quantum factorization algorithm, Peter
Shor; this course is available on MIT OpenCourseWare with many interesting lectures and
assignments [24]. The other good source of lecture notes and assignments is that at Cor-
nell University [17] and yet another example is the course run by Quantum Theory Group at
Carnegie-Mellon University [11]. All of these courses include a large variety of topics related to
the subject, however, all of them concentrate on very theoretical aspects and consist of a set
of lectures and assignments of pure mathematical character. To our best knowledge, none of
them uses a quantum simulator to demonstrate presented topics.
On the other hand, there are many quantum computing simulators that could be used
during such courses for practical assignments. However, they either focus only on a part of the
subject e.g. simulation of a specific phenomena such as Quantum Walks [13] or Quantum Key
Distribution [4] or they are not convenient or easy to use. Most of existing simulators provide
only a command–line textual interfaces which are not hard to read only when the simulated
system is very simple. The examples are quantum computing languages like CHP [2] or QCL
[20]. More complicated are simulation libraries like libquantum [8] or Eqcs [3], that provide
wide functionality, but could be difficult to use, as their users are responsible for programming
every action during the simulation (like a stepping execution or printing the visualization of the
simulated quantum state). The existing GUI simulators like QCAD [28] or Quantum Computer
Emulator [25] usually have very limited functionality, most of them do not support building
custom subroutines, combining the classical and quantum computations and allow to use only

1 http://www.dwavesys.com

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a limited number of qbits. An overview of existing simulators can be found in [23].

3 Quantum Computing Course Concept for MSc Com-

puter Science
The proposed quantum computing course is a part of ‘Mathematics for Future Computer Sys-
tems’ lectures [1] and it is based mostly on the book ’Quantum Computing Explained’ [16].
The laboratory part of the course consists of 15 hours and covers three aspects: mathematical
assignments (theoretical part), simulation of problems solutions (practical part) and tests. The
idea is not to focus on few specific features, but to support a variety of topics in assignments
that join both theoretical and practical aspects of the subject. The content should be under-
standable for the MSc students with very practical approach to the subject. The topics of the
course included understanding concept and operation of quantum gates and registers as well as
quantum computation; understanding entanglement; knowledge of the most important quan-
tum algorithms: Deutsch Problem [9], Bernstein-Vazirani Problem [6], Grover’s Fast Database
Search Algorithm [12], Shor’s Prime Factorization Algorithm [26], Quantum Teleportation [5]
and Quantum Dense Coding [19].
For the theoretical part, we have used concepts from examples available on the web [18].
However, for the practical part, although many simulators exists, none of them was actually
sufficient. At the beginning, students were asked to work using the libquantum library [8];
thanks to its lightweight implementation and wide functionality it was possible to cover all the
above listed topics. However, this library turned out not to be very user–friendly due to quite
low level way of programming and textual interface without possibility to graphically create
quantum circuits. This was the motivation to create our own simulator that would satisfy all
the requirements.

4 Overview of QuIDE Quantum Computing Simulator

For supporting practical assignments for our course, we have proposed and implemented the
Quantum Integrated Development Environment (QuIDE), presented in our paper [23], that
supports learning, understanding and analyzing quantum algorithms.
Firstly, the simulator should be understandable for a typical computer science student with
a basic knowledge of quantum information and computation theory. It should be universal to
cover all the course topics and include a set of examples for the topics, not only the simple
ones, but also the most important quantum algorithms such as Shor’s Factoring algorithm [26]
and Grover’s Database Search [12]. These algorithms are too complex to be implemented by
students from scratch during a one semester course. Additionally, students should be able to
follow the steps of the example algorithms in a reasonable time on the standard PCs in the
laboratory.
The main functional requirements of the simulator are: providing and managing elemen-
tary quantum gates and quantum registers, supporting gates grouping in more complex blocks,
performing actual computations, building custom computation subroutines out of the elemen-
tary gates, combining quantum and classical computations, previewing of the internal state of
the simulated quantum system (which is not possible on real quantum systems) and its step-
by step execution. Moreover, QuiDE should combine features of GUI-based simulators (for
drawing quantum circuits) with interpreters and simulation libraries (for flexibility in writing

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Figure 1: The main modules of the QuIDE simulator architecture joining GUI, interpreter and
simulation library approaches.

algorithms and combining them with classical code). Last but, not least, the simulator has to
be easy to obtain, to install and to run on computer labs and on students PCs or laptops.

Figure 1 shows how the main modules of the QuIDE architecture allow to combine approach
of GUI-based simulators with interpreters and simulation libraries. One of the main modules of
the QuIDE is the Interactive Circuit Designer that supports construction of quantum circuits
and their step-by-step execution. The internal quantum state is presented in the Quantum
State Preview during the simulation runtime. Users preferring interpreter approach can use Code
Editor that enables the user to program the simulations using quantum and classical operations.
The output of the code execution is shown in the Console Output window. Additionally, the user
is able to switch between the source code and the graphical circuit at any time of the designing
process. Both graphical and interpreter mode is supported by QuIDE Simulation Library with
defined API that can be also used standalone. The GUI screenshot of the simulator showing
the Circuit Designer, Code Editor and Quantum State Preview modules in action is shown in
Figure 2.

To fulfill both GUI and the core simulation module requirements we decided to choose one of
the most robust technologies which support both rich GUI design and complex numerical com-
putations – the Microsoft .NET Framework. The QuIDE core simulation library, QuIDE.dll,
is thus a standalone C# library. The GUI-based QuIDE simulator follows Model View View-
Model (MVVM) architectural design pattern and is a desktop application using WPF Windows
Presentation Foundation framework [27]). The full design of the simulator is described in [23].

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Figure 2: The Graphical User Interface of the QuIDE simulator with main componenents: Code
Editor, Circuit Designer and Quantum State Preview.

5 Using QuIDE in the course

The course consisted of six different sessions; at each session students were first asked to solve
mathematical assigments and then verify the results using the simulator. Below, we present
how QuIDE was used during these sessions.
Introduction to quantum computing. This session covers basic aspects required under-
standing quantum computation: review of basic knowledge from algebra (linear spaces, vectors,
matrices, complex numbers), as well as introduction to basic issues needed to understand quan-
tum computation such as features of Pauli matrices, features of unitary matrices, Hermitian
adjoint, Dirac notation or tensor product. This session is realized by solving and discussing
simple assignments covering aforementioned aspects.
Quantum registers and gates; entanglement. This session involves experimenting with
QuIDE simulator: building simple circuits with usage of basic quantum gates and comparing
their simulated behavior with theoretical expectations. The more demanding assignment is to
produce entangled state. Usage of the simulator helps with understanding the basics of the
idea of quantum entanglement.
Quantum computation This session is devoted to understanding quantum computations on
two problems: Deutsch Problem [9] and Bernstein-Vazirani Problem [6]. Students are asked
to build a quantum circuits solving these problems and to compare their flow with classical
solutions. As a result they observe the advantage of using quantum computer over the classical
one.
Grover’s algorithm This session covers the understanding of Grover’s Fast Database Search
Algorithm [12]. First, the students are asked to solve theoretical assignments for a simple case

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(two qbit register). Next, they are asked to simulate their solution using QuIDE. Finally, they
are asked to simulate and analyse the behavior of a full Grover’s algorithm. As a result they
observe how the actual (lower then classical) complexity of the quantum search in an unsorted
base is obtained.
Shor’s Factorization This session is devoted to understanding Shor’s Prime Factorization
Algorithm [26], The students are asked to run the algorithm step by step in QuIDE simulator
and to observe internal changes in the registers of quantum computers. Additionally, they
are asked to use the Shor’s algorithm in the RSA encryption/ decryption with example small
keys. As the result, the students observe and understand the outcome of the particular steps
of Shors’ algorithm on the example and they also learn how quantum factorization is used in
RSA encryption/decryption.
Quantum transmission of information The last session covers various aspects of trans-
porting information using quantum entanglement namely the Quantum Teleportation [5] and
the Quantum Dense Coding [19] protocols. The students are asked to simulate both protocols
using QuIDE. As the result, they learn how these protocols work.
The summary of particular QuIDE features and their usage is shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Usage of QuIDE features during the course.

QuIDE feature Usage
Basic quantum gates and registers Understanding the difference between classical
computer and quantum computer. Verification of
simple theoretical assignments
Previewing of the internal state of the sim- Observation of a state change during quantum
ulated quantum system computation and running various algorithms and
to verify theoretical calculations. Of course, this
feature would not possible on real quantum com-
puter due to the fact that learning (measuring)
the state destroys it.
Graphical circuit designer Visual building of quantum circuits; for most ex-
ercises, it is easier to visually build a circuit then
to code it using the library API.
Simple switching between visual circuits Useful when students first build basic blocks
and their code representation which are later used in a more complex algorithm
or in a classic code (e.g. in a loop)
Building complex gates from simple ones Useful in more complex algorithms like Shor’s fac-
torization or Grover’s search,
Combining quantum and classical compu- Especially useful for Shor’s algorithm that con-
tation sists of a classical and a quantum part

6 Assessment of the QuIDE

The usability of QuIDE was evaluated and compared to libquantum using the System Usability
Scale (SUS) surveys [7]. The questions in the survey are presented in Table 2. The students
were asked to answer to what extent they agree with the given statements in 0 to 4 scale, where
0 means ‘I strongly disagree’ and 4 means ‘I strongly agree’. The results from questions 2, 4,
6, 8 and 10 had to be reversed, because in these questions the lowest answer meant the best
usability.

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Table 2: Students survey questions.

1 I think that I would like to use this system frequently
2 I found the system unnecessarily complex
3 I thought the system was easy to use
4 I think that I would need the support of a technical person to be able to use this system
5 I found the various functions in this system were well integrated
6 I thought there was too much inconsistency in this system
7 I would imagine that most people would learn to use this system very quickly
8 I found the system very cumbersome to use
8 I felt very confident using the system
10 I needed to learn a lot of things before I could get going with this system
11 I think that the system make it easier to understand the quantum computations
12 I think that the system is a good tool to design and analyze quantum algorithms

The results of the survey conducted at the beginning of the course are presented in Figure 3.
QuIDE scored better than libquantum in every question, averagely by 1 point. It is a satisfying

Figure 3: Results of the initial SUS survey. The figure shows the average score obtained for
each question, with their standard deviation. The scores ranges from 0 (the worst rate) to 4
(the best). The ratings are received from a group of 31 students.

result because libquantum is a powerful simulation tool with extensive and simple API, as well
as having a good documentation.
Figure 4 compares the usability surveys of QuIDE conducted at the beginning and at the
end of the course. In the second survey, the students were asked to answer the same questions
about the usability of QuIDE as in the initial SUS survey. The results of the second survey
were slightly worse. The biggest decrease can be noticed for the first question. This result was
expected, since the course was ending and the students apparently did not plan to work with
quantum computer simulators in the near future.
Figure 5 presents the summarized results of SUS surveys. In the second survey, QuIDE
performed worse than in the first, but it is still better than libquantum.
The simulator was validated by executing various examples of different algorithms and by
comparing outputs produced by the simulator with theoretical ones. All the examples as well

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Figure 4: Results of the second SUS survey. The figure shows the average score obtained for
each question, with their standard deviation. The scores ranges from 0 (the worst rate) to 4
(the best). The answers are collected from a group of 57 students.

Figure 5: The average total SUS score achieved by libquantum and QuIDE in the two SUS
surveys. The figure shows the average scores and their standard deviations. Results were
obtained by summing the scores for all 12 questions and scaling the result to range from 0 (the
worst) to 100 (the best).

as solutions of the assignments given to the students were precisely checked beforehand. The
small bugs of the simulator were reported by the students on-line and corrected imidiatelly
after the report. The automatic update feature of the simulator allowed a convenient and fast
update to a new version of the software.
Apart from the SUS survey, the students were asked to describe the most useful features
and also to suggest improvements. The most useful features depicted by students in the survey
are: graphical interface and on-line switching between GUI and the code, step by step exe-
cution, support for a variety of different gates, support for building complex gates and gates
grouping. These features agree with our assumption on main quantum computation specific

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QuIDE functionality described in Section 4. In contrast, the suggested improvements include:

support for different operating systems, drag and drop in circuit designer, autofill and syntax
highlighting, better documentation, more descriptive error messages. The students’ suggestions
are of a more general nature of the usability and are not connected with the actual topic of the
course.
The work on the Quantum Simulator also resulted in two MSc theses at AGH University of
Science and Technology in Krakow [22, 21] available on the Web2 .

7 Summary
In this paper, we described a new concept of the course on quantum computing for the IT stu-
dents. The course joins two aspects: theoretical (based on lectures and assignments available
on the web 3 ) and practical supported by the QuIDE quantum simulator, which was especially
developed for that purpose. We described the features and the functionality of QuIDE and
explained how they are used in education to help students understand a variety of topics on
quantum computing. Our course do not focus on one aspect, but covers the most important
variety of topics from quite simple Deutch problem to more complicated Shor’s factoring algo-
rithm. Finally, we described results of QuIDE validation during the course. Our solution scored
more points in System Usability Scale survey then the libquantum library previously used for
that purpose. The most useful features asked by students in the survey are consistent with
our assumptions concerning the main QuIDE functionality. The improvements suggested by
students do not focus on the way the quantum computing is taught, but they are rather directed
towards general usability (such as support for different operating systems, more advanced code
editor features, syntax highlighting etc.) that could be extended in the future.

Acknowledgements This study was partly supported by the AGH grant no 11.11.230.124 and
by PLGrid Core project no POIG.02.03.00-12-137/13.

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