Whether you're a high school student just getting started in quantum computing or a college student looking to sharpen your quantum skills, institutions all over the world have a list of activities to offer you this summer, as well as study programs to apply to.
Summer 2023 activities for high school students
The University of Oxford, together with Quantinuum and IBM Quantum are offering a free online course from June 5th to August 13th. This initiative is offered to UK high school students, age 16 and up, but the materials covered will be available to all students after the course is finished. One of the course leaders, Professor Bob Coecke, who now works at Quantinuum, taught the course "Picturing Quantum Processes" at the Department of Computer Science, Oxford University. He is the co-author of two books, "Quantum in Pictures: A New Way to Understand the Quantum World" and "Picturing Quantum Processes: A First Course in Quantum Theory and Diagrammatic Reasoning", trying innovative and out-of-the-box methods of teaching quantum computing concepts even to an audience who may not be familiar with quantum mechanics or physics, using diagrams and pictures. The link to register for this free course is: https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=G96VzPWXk0-0uv5ouFLPkQY1yz0RM0lIrQkpLDzPs4ZUQ0lFOEUyUldIUk5RT1k5NkUxRjlORVhRMy4u.
Another quantum summer activity is offered by QubitByQubit, which, as described in their website, is the online learning initiative of The Coding School, a 501(c)(3) organization that aims to empower the next generation through computer science education. Founded by a Brown University undergraduate in 2014, The Coding School has grown into an international organization with 800+ instructors and students from over 125 countries participating in their programs.
As shown on their poster, there are several options for middle school children and high school students.
Are you located in Italy?
Cineca is the Italian national supercomputing Consortium, made up of 70 Italian universities, 5 Italian Research Institutions and the Italian Ministry of Education. Cineca Academy offers the Introduction to Quantum Computing School from June 5th to June 9th, 2023. The course will be held in-person at the Cineca Site in Casalecchio di Reno, BO, Italy. The application deadline is May 14th, 2023, and there will be a selection of 25 students, based on their replies in the application form (I would suggest that you take some time to formulate the most inspiring and thoughtful replies in order to increase your chances of getting admitted). The list of topics is extensive, including quantum hardware, software, a linear algebra recap, quantum gates, entanglement, quantum error correction, etc., followed by hands-on sessions. The targeted audience are college science students and researchers.
The link to the activity is the following: https://eventi.cineca.it/en/hpc/introduction-quantum-computing-school/bologna-20230605.
Looking for a Master's, a Ph.D. or a Postdoc position in Europe?
Then I have some really great news to share with you. Inria and Ecole normale supérieure, two leading research and academic French institutions, are offering several positions for students interested in pursuing a Master's, a Ph.D. or postdoc in quantum computing. While you don't have to have advanced knowledge in quantum computing, complimentary skills in classical cryptography, error correction, algebra, complex analysis, complexity theory, combinatorics and machine learning are highly appreciated. More details on the required documents and where to apply, can be found in this LinkedIn post:
The deadline for the application is May 1st, 2023 (I recommend asking if they will accept applications beyond the deadline). Besides these projects, there are other exciting opportunities in collaboration with different companies specialized in aerospace and energy storage, investigating the potential of NISQ devices in industrial applications, as well as working toward a safe, quantum internet, among other projects: https://qat.inria.fr/projects/
What I love about these projects, is their practical nature, where they aim to study the problems of current quantum computers, by characterizing and mitigating the noise, using quantum error correction, etc. The collaboration between different European consortiums and industrial players, make these openings particularly attractive.
Awesome post! Thanks for all the helpful info! I am sure all the middle and high schoolers besides graduate students will be thrilled to apply to any of the given programs. However, I was wondering if there's any link to programs for undergraduates.
Thanks again for posting this informative content, Rina!