Splash Biography

Quantum computers! This course teaches the fundamentals of quantum mechanics as an application for computation. We'll go over how information is represented in quantum states -- the fundamental postulates. From this, we'll describe the interferometer as a device for creating superposition... giving us the quantum gates, and with it, universal computation. We'll talk about hypersensitive bombs, unbreakable (entirely!) cryptographic channels, quantum teleportation, and a model of computation that's fully reversible. And we'll end with my favorite algorithm ever, that lets you search a 100-element list in about 10 tries.

Quantum computers! This course teaches the fundamentals of quantum mechanics as an application for computation. We'll go over how information is represented in quantum states -- the fundamental postulates. From this, we'll describe the interferometer as a device for creating superposition... giving us the quantum gates, and with it, universal computation. We'll talk about hypersensitive bombs, unbreakable (entirely!) cryptographic channels, quantum teleportation, and a model of computation that's fully reversible. And we'll end with my favorite algorithm ever, that lets you search a 100-element list in about 10 tries. I am quite excited to teach this course and I hope you are too!

Learn how to make your computer do what you want it to. We'll go over basic Python syntax and control structures, then compose a simple but useful program (maybe a mathematical expression evaluator or spelling corrector, depending on how much time we have).

A nonrelativistic rapid-fire introduction to quantum mechanics. If you read any popular science medium you'll probably notice that the treatment given to quantum mechanics is either filled with buzzwords like "superposition" and phrases like "everything is everywhere at the same time!" which are inspiring but uninformative. If not that, they're technical to the point of incomprehension. This makes me really SAD, especially since there are very elegant ways to describe quantum mechanics from a mathematical standpoint. In this class I will (attempt to!) analyze the results of various Stern-Gerlach experiments, and how to model them in ways that are useful for calculations. In particular, we will establish a formalism for expressing the state of particles as matrices and vectors (Dirac's "Bra-Ket" notation). And if we have any extra time we can do some Schrodinger's equation stuff? That would be neat. The class will follow an approach similar to the first chapters of "A Modern Approach to Quantum Mechanics" by Townsend and "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics" by Griffiths. If you read either of these ahead of time you will be thoroughly disappointed by this class, because you will probably not learn anything new. (That being said, I ENCOURAGE you to read both books, because they provide a much better foundation than I would be able to). A time-optimistic syllabus for this class is as follows, in order of descending "we'll probably get to it"-ness: - Explanation of intrinsic vs. orbital angular momentum - "Discrete"-ness of spin for elementary particles - Analysis of four Stern-Gerlach experiments - Dirac's bra-ket notation - Born's interpretation of quantum mechanics - An analogue to polarized light, and how to compute the transmission of light through various polarized sunglasses - Basics of Schrodinger's equation (we won't be deriving it; if you're interested in that, read this instead: http://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0610121.pdf ) - Solutions to the Schrodinger's equation for various potentials (infinite square well, Dirac delta potential well) - Quantum tunneling tl;dr Quantum mechanics is doubleplus interesting and I wish to share it with you!

Inspired by an unhealthy obsession for mathematical purity, Haskell is a very strange, but incredibly beautiful, programming language. A functional language (to the extreme!), its rigorous constraints are what allows it to do crazy things most other languages can't, such as automatic memoization, infinite lists, and pattern matching. In the interest of time, probably this will not be an interactive thing. But after this class, I encourage you to install GHCI and write some Haskell code yourself!