Intro & Welcome

• Instructor Introduction
• Overview of course
  • Content
  • Structure and Navigation

Module 1: Nature of Computation

Core Idea: Throughout history humans have utilized various physical phenomena to perform computations

• The history and evolution of computers
  • Looking at past inventions and investigating the underlying physical phenomena which allows them to function
  • Ex:, Abacus, Sundial, Thermostat, Slide Rule

Module 2: Classical Computing

Core Idea: Classical computers utilize electricity and bits to perform digital math and logic calculations in a general-purpose way

• Representing information as digital bits
• Utilizing electricity and digital circuits to perform computation
• Types of problems and time differences needed to solve them

Module 3: Quantum Phenomena

Core Idea: Identifying the features of quantum systems

• Evolution of the atomic model
• Understanding wavefunctions, interference, superposition and entanglement in quantum systems

Module 4: Quantum Computers

Core Idea: Quantum phenomena can be utilized for the purposes of computation

• How quantum computers utilize quantum physics to solve problems
  • Bloch Sphere
• Quantum problems
  • What types of problems can quantum computers solve
• Quantum Logic
  • How quantum gates are formed, and how this can be used to solve computational problems