Investigating students' strengths and difficulties in quantum computing

TL;DR

This paper explores undergraduate students' strengths and difficulties in learning quantum computing through interviews, aiming to improve educational strategies and develop evidence-based teaching materials.

Contribution

It introduces an introductory quantum computing course and investigates student learning challenges to enhance quantum education.

Findings

Identified topics students find easy or difficult in quantum computing.

Provided insights for developing effective pedagogical materials.

Contributed initial data for evidence-based quantum computing education.

Abstract

Quantum Computing is an exciting field that draws from information theory, computer science, mathematics, and quantum physics to process information in fundamentally new ways. There is an ongoing race to develop practical quantum computers and increase the quantum workforce. This needs to be accompanied by the development of quantum computing programs, courses, and curricula coupled with the development of evidence-based pedagogical materials to support the education of the next generation of quantum information scientists. We introduced an introductory course in quantum computing to undergraduate students and investigated the strengths and difficulties of these students in quantum computing after taking the introductory course. Our goal is to contribute to the improvement of quantum computing education while understanding the topics that the students find easy to comprehend and the topics that are difficult to comprehend. We conducted a series of interviews to identify these strengths and difficulties in the students. We report on the results of these interviews and our initial work on the development of evidence-based materials for teaching an introductory course in quantum computing.