First day wasn’t as productive as I would’ve liked. Instead of dedicating most of my time to the actual task of the challenge, i.e. learning about Quantum Computing, I spent most of it on trying to create a YouTube video introducing the challenge. There was also occasional load shedding happening throughout the day, which disrupted my flow, but still, I managed to complete the Qubit Pathway on the Black Opal platform. I also started reading the Introduction to Classical and Quantum Computing book by Thomas Wong, during the load shedding hours.

Lessons learned

The Black Opal’s Qubit Pathway is divided into 5 subsections and taught about how to encode and process information using quantum physics. First we learned about the three fundamental types of quantitative data, i.e. analog, digital, and quantum. We also learned about how measuring the state of a qubit destroys the state and collapses it into either of a computational state based on some probability. We learned about the noise in quantum computing, which is when the surrounding environment of the qubit tries to alter/read the data, resulting in unexpected outcomes/states, and why this is the biggest challenge in Quantum Computing. We learned about the “no-gos” in quantum computing, i.e. the thing which we can do in classical computing but aren’t possible in quantum computing, such as “no-cloning”, which means that quantum data cannot be copied or cloned. We also briefly learned about the plus-state $\ket +$, “minus-state”: $\ket - = \ket 0 - \ket 1$, and the concept of Entanglement.

Later on, we learned about the Bloch circle, which is a simplification of the Bloch sphere, and acts as a stepping stone to have a better understanding of the Bloch sphere. We learned about Quantum Gates which, when applied to a qubit, change its state from one place to another. After that, we learned about the $\ket{ket}$ notation, which is a compact, abstract way to represent the states of a qubit. And finally, we learned about the Bloch sphere, and how it connects everything together, i.e. kets, vectors, trigonometry, quantum states. We learned about the common set of gates ${X,Y,H,Z,S,T}$ and how the perform simple rotations on the state of the qubit on the bloch sphere.

Going forward

I’m not sure how and if I can incorporate YouTube videos into this challenge. Yesterday, that took up a major portion of my time, but given that it was my first time trying this and I wasn’t sure how to proceed, which tool to use (After Effects, manim, PowerPoint, Premiere Pro), which style to follow, it’s understandable that it would take more time. Now, I have somewhat of a better idea about how to proceed, and it’ll improve day by day. But the thing is, I’m not so sure if that would be an effective use of my time.

I can’t work on educational videos, explaining a topic in detail, as that would require a huge amount of time to setup. I can only think of creating a video, scrolling through the notes I’ve taken and summarizing, but that won’t be much use to anyone (except me of course). Or maybe, I can dedicate a day of the week, where I’ll create a detailed animated video, explaining a concept in detail, or maybe a weekly video showcasing my progress on a particular week. Let’s see how and if I should proceed with YouTube video format.

If you have any suggestions, feel free to comment below. See you tomorrow, InshaAllah.

You can also take a look at the notes I’ve taken below: