Quantum Computing & Quantum Information — Two-Semester Calendar
Design decision — why two semesters. The original 12 chapters plus the added hardware/software/simulation modules (L05, L07, L11, L12, L17) comprise 17 lecture modules with substantial lab work. One semester forces either dropping quantum information theory or compressing algorithms below working proficiency; three semesters dilutes momentum. Two semesters splits cleanly: QC I builds from postulates to running variational materials simulations on real backends; QC II covers what makes those results trustworthy and scalable (error correction, information theory, cryptography, mitigation) and ends in a materials-simulation capstone. QC I is self-contained for students who take only one semester.
Semester 1 — QC I: Foundations, Circuits & Algorithms (Fall 2026)¶
Grading: HW 35%, quizzes 10% (best 10/12), midterm 20%, mini-project 10%, final 25%.
| Wk | Dates | Lect. | Topic | Materials | Quiz | Homework | Assessment | |
| 1 | Aug 31–Sep 04, 2026 | L01 | First principles: postulates, Dirac notation, POVMs | Ch01 summary | N&C 1–2 | — | HW1 out | — |
| 2 | Sep 07–Sep 11, 2026 | L02 | Single qubits, Bloch sphere, single-qubit dynamics | Ch02 summary | Q1 (L01) | — | — | |
| 3 | Sep 14–Sep 18, 2026 | L03 | Multi-qubit systems, entanglement, Bell/CHSH, teleportation | Ch03 summary | Q2 (L02) | HW1 due; HW2 out | — | |
| 4 | Sep 21–Sep 25, 2026 | L04 | Circuits, universality, gate decompositions | Ch04 summary | Q3 (L03) | — | — | |
| 5 | Sep 28–Oct 02, 2026 | L05 | Software stack: SDKs, simulators, transpilation (lab week) | L05 slides; SDK docs; CS4 | Q4 (L04) | HW2 due; HW3 out | — | |
| 6 | Oct 05–Oct 09, 2026 | L06 | Density operators, CPTP maps, noise channels | Ch05 summary | Q5 (L05) | — | — | |
| 7 | Oct 12–Oct 16, 2026 | L07 | Hardware platforms & materials physics of qubits | L07 slides; CS3 | Q6 (L06) | HW3 due | — | |
| 8 | Oct 19–Oct 23, 2026 | — | Review + MIDTERM 1 (L01–L07) | CS1, CS3 allowed | Q7 (L07) | HW4 out | Midterm 1 | |
| 9 | Oct 26–Oct 30, 2026 | L08 | Quantum Fourier transform | Ch06 summary | Q8 | — | — | |
| 10 | Nov 02–Nov 06, 2026 | L09 | Phase estimation & Shor | Ch07 summary | Q9 (L08) | HW4 due; HW5 out | — | |
| 11 | Nov 09–Nov 13, 2026 | L10 | Grover search & amplitude amplification | Ch08 summary | Q10 (L09) | — | — | |
| 12 | Nov 16–Nov 20, 2026 | L11 | Hamiltonian simulation: Trotter, Pauli evolutions, Jordan–Wigner | L11 slides; CS2 | Q11 (L10) | HW5 due; HW6 out | — | |
| 13 | Nov 23–Nov 27, 2026 | L12 | VQE & variational methods for molecules/materials | L12 slides | Q12 (L11) | — | — | |
| 14 | Nov 30–Dec 04, 2026 | — | Mini-project presentations + review | — | — | HW6 due | Project demo | |
| 15 | Dec 07–Dec 11, 2026 | — | FINALS WEEK: QC I Final (cumulative, CS1–CS4 allowed) | — | — | — | Final exam |
Semester 2 — QC II: Information, Error Correction & Materials (Spring 2027)¶
Grading: HW 30%, quizzes 10% (best 10/12), midterm 20%, capstone 15%, final 25%.
| Wk | Dates | Lect. | Topic | Materials | Quiz | Homework | Assessment |
| 1 | Jan 11–Jan 15, 2027 | L13a | QEC I: noise discretization, Knill–Laflamme conditions | Ch09 summary | — | HW7 out | — |
| 2 | Jan 18–Jan 22, 2027 | L13b | QEC II: stabilizer formalism, syndromes, small codes | Ch09 summary | Q1 | — | — |
| 3 | Jan 25–Jan 29, 2027 | L13c | QEC III: Shor/Steane/CSS, surface-code glimpse, thresholds | Ch09 summary; CS3 | Q2 | HW7 due; HW8 out | — |
| 4 | Feb 01–Feb 05, 2027 | L14a | Entanglement measures, Schmidt decomposition, entropy | Ch10 summary | Q3 | — | — |
| 5 | Feb 08–Feb 12, 2027 | L14b | Von Neumann entropy properties, inequalities | Ch10 summary | Q4 | — | — |
| 6 | Feb 15–Feb 19, 2027 | L14c | Information tasks: distillation, dense coding revisited | Ch10 summary | Q5 | HW8 due | — |
| 7 | Feb 22–Feb 26, 2027 | L15a | Shannon theory I: Holevo bound, accessible information | Ch11 summary | Q6 | HW9 out | — |
| 8 | Mar 01–Mar 05, 2027 | — | Review + MIDTERM 2 (L13–L14) | CS1, CS3 allowed | (bonus Q8) | — | Midterm 2 |
| 9 | Mar 08–Mar 12, 2027 | L15b | Shannon theory II: channel capacities, coherent information | Ch11 summary | — | — | — |
| 10 | Mar 15–Mar 19, 2027 | L16a | QKD I: BB84, sifting, QBER, security intuition | Ch12 summary | Q9 | HW9 due; HW10 out | — |
| 11 | Mar 22–Mar 26, 2027 | L16b | QKD II: E91, device independence, practical attacks | Ch12 summary | Q10 | — | — |
| 12 | Mar 29–Apr 02, 2027 | L17a | Error mitigation: readout, ZNE, PEC | L17 slides | Q11 | — | — |
| 13 | Apr 05–Apr 09, 2027 | L17b | End-to-end materials workflows, resource estimation, embedding | L17 slides; CS2–CS4 | Q12 | HW10 due | — |
| 14 | Apr 12–Apr 16, 2027 | — | Capstone presentations + course synthesis | — | — | — | Capstone |
| 15 | Apr 19–Apr 23, 2027 | — | FINALS WEEK: QC II Final (L13–L17, CS1–CS4 allowed) | — | — | — | Final exam |
Coordination rules baked into this calendar¶
Each quiz tests the previous week’s lecture (retrieval practice), at the start of the week’s first meeting.
Homework is biweekly, due the week after its topic block closes; HW6 and HW10 are two-week mini-projects that feed the exams and capstone.
Midterms sit after coherent blocks (S1: foundations+hardware; S2: QEC+entropy) with a review session in the same week.
Cheat sheets CS1–CS4 are permitted on exams; quizzes are closed book.