Academic Aims
This course aims to introduce students to topical issues concerning computer science and its applications, and to acquaint them with developments that may have significant practical implications for computing in the future. It also aims to enhance students' research skills, introducing them to seminars where they will participate in reading, presenting and discussing research papers, technical articles and commentaries.
Learning Outcomes
Students who take this module should have a deeper awareness of key trends and issues in computing. They will be better prepared for research activities both in industry and academia, and gain experience in communicating specialist knowledge to a non-specialist audience.
Content
The course will be based on a series of seminars. These will include seminars from external speakers on significant developments in science and technology, and their implications for society. These will be complemented by internal seminars on topical research papers, articles and texts covering a wide range of areas of computer science, including group presentations from participating students.
Schedule and Lecture Notes
This module involves three one-hour plenary sessions per week in Term 1, on Thursdays (3-4pm) and Fridays (12-2pm) in CS1.01.
| DATE |
SPEAKER |
TOPIC |
LECTURE NOTES |
|
06/10/11
|
Rajagopal Nagarajan
(Warwick) |
Introduction to Quantum Computation and Quantum Information |
pdf |
| 07/10/11 |
Tim Davidson
(Warwick) |
Basics of Quantum Computation |
pdf |
| 13/10/11 |
Tim Davidson/
Rajagopal Nagarajan
(Warwick)
|
Quantum Gates and Circuits |
pdf
Handout
|
| 14/10/11 |
| 20/10/11 |
Tim Davidson
(Warwick)
|
Simulation Tools Demo |
Tools
|
| 21/10/11 |
Richard Feynman
(Cornell University) |
Messenger Lectures: Probability and Uncertainty – The Quantum Mechanical View of Nature |
Video |
| 27/10/11 |
Nick Papanikolaou
(HP Labs)
|
Concepts of Security and
Classical Cryptography |
pdf
|
| 28/10/11 |
Nick Papanikolaou
(HP Labs)
|
Introducing Quantum Cryptography |
pdf
|
| 03/11/11 |
Troels Sørensen (Warwick)
|
TBC |
|
| 04/11/11 |
Ed Lazowska
(University of Washington) |
Computer Science: Past, Present and Future |
Video |
| 10/11/11 |
Ligang He
(Warwick) |
Cloud Computing I |
pdf |
| 11/11/11 |
Ligang He
(Warwick) |
Cloud Computing II |
pdf |
| 17/11/11 |
Group Presentations |
Timetable and slides |
| 18/11/11 |
Group Presentations |
| 24/11/11 |
Group Presentations |
| 25/11/11 |
Group Presentations |
| 01/12/11 |
Peter Krusche (Warwick Systems Biology Centre)
|
|
pdf
|
| 02/12/11 |
Matt Ismail (Centre for Scientific Computing)
|
|
pdf |
| 08/12/11 |
|
|
|
Useful Links and General Reading
- Article "Quantum Computing for Non-Physicists" by Eleanor Rieffel and Wolfgang Polak is available here.
- N. David Mermin, "Quantum Computer Science: An Introduction", Cambridge University Press, 2007.
- University of Oxford Centre for Quantum Computation (qubit.org) (includes several useful tutorials)
- Quantum Computing Papers Preprint Archive (quant-ph) (primary source for scientific papers in the field)
- Virtual Journal of Quantum Computation and Information (email/web-based journal with latest updates on the subject)
- M.A. Nielsen and I. Chuang, "Quantum Computation and Quantum Information", Cambridge, 2000.
- Jozef Gruska, "Quantum Computing", McGraw-Hill, 1999.
- Mika Hirvensalo, "Quantum computing", Springer, Berlin, 2001.
- Colin Williams, Scott H. Clearwater, "Explorations in quantum computing", TELOS, Santa Clara, CA, 1997.
- N. C. Jones, P. A. Pevzner, "An Introduction to Bioinformatics Algorithms", MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 2004.
- The Quantum Pontiff Blog
- Scott Aaronson's Blog
