Summer school 'A first introduction to quantum computing'

While the theory of quantum computing has been around for decades by now, only recent years have seen an increase in the amount of available quantum computers. As of today, these quantum computers are way too small to be used in real applications, but recent evolution of available qubits – the quantum equivalent to classical bits – indicate that a ready-to-use quantum computing machine could be developed in the foreseeable future. Already now, the concept of quantum-safety plays an important role in industry, as the advent of quantum computers will render many important encryption algorithms – most prominently the RSA algorithm – insecure, as Shor’s algorithm can compute prime factors of large numbers efficiently on quantum machines. 

Quantum computing differs from classical computing in several key aspects. A “bit”, the smallest piece of information in classical computing, can either have one of the states zero or one. On the other side, a “qubit”, the smallest piece of information in quantum computing, is an element from a two-dimensional complex vector space. Operations on qubits have to be reversible, i.e., no information can get lost in the computing process, which is in contrast to operations on bits. These facts lead to completely different computing paradigms.

Learning outcomes

In this summer school, we aim to provide the fundamental mathematical details of quantum computing to the participants. At the end of this small lecture series, participants have an understanding of the fundamental concepts (qubits and operations on them, quantum circuits, …) as well as an understanding of some fundamental algorithms (quantum Fourier transform, phase estimation, HLL, …).

The speakers will provide the necessary mathematical theory in sufficient detail; physical realization of quantum machines will only be very shortly touched upon in this course. Our global aim is not to give an exhaustive overview on recent trends in the research of quantum computing, but to introduce the audience to this fascinating topic, so that they can later use this knowledge at their own discretion.

Competences

An important part of preparing for any further professional step is becoming (more) aware of the competences you have developed and/or want to develop. In the current workshop, the following competences from the UHasselt competency overview are actively dealt with:

• academic research competences
  • subject knowledge
  • research methods
• intellectual competences
  • analytical thinking
  • problem solving
• interpersonal competences
  • networking

For whom?

• Preferentially PhD students in mathematics or a related subject, but everybody with a background in basic linear algebra is invited.

When and where?

• The summer school will take place on June 22-25, 2026 - 09:00 - 17:00.
• Participation on all days is required.
• Campus Hasselt or Diepenbeek, location to be announced.

Registration?

• For pre-registration, please fill in this form. Please note that this is not yet a final registration. You will get a mail with more information in due time.
• In case you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact jochen.schuetz@uhasselt.be.