National University of Sciences and Technology

Department of Computing (SEECS)

Fundamentals of ICT
Semester Project
“Quantum Computing”
Class: BSCS-10C
Prepared by:
Group Members:
Name CMS
Ali Raza 342648
Waniya Mustafa 332634
Muhammad Talha 338796

Assigned by:
Ma’am Hania Aslam
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Contents
Abstract:......................................................................................................................................................4
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................5
Quantum Computing:..............................................................................................................................5
Objectives................................................................................................................................................5
Reason of choosing this Topic.................................................................................................................5
Developmental History:...............................................................................................................................6
Working Principles......................................................................................................................................6
Key Concepts:.........................................................................................................................................6
Quantum Superposition.......................................................................................................................6
Quantum Collapse...............................................................................................................................7
Quantum Entanglement.......................................................................................................................7
Working...................................................................................................................................................7
Qubit....................................................................................................................................................7
Superposition as a game-changer.........................................................................................................7
Quantum Entanglement in Qubits........................................................................................................8
Qubit Manipulation..............................................................................................................................8
Interference:.........................................................................................................................................8
Challenges to the technology.......................................................................................................................9
 Sensitivity....................................................................................................................................9
 High Costs:..................................................................................................................................9
 Fragility of Superposition/ Decoherence:.....................................................................................9
 Errors with increasing numbers of qubits:...................................................................................9
Computational Power and Quantum Supremacy.......................................................................................10
Comparison of Classical and Quantum Computers...................................................................................10
Will Quantum Computers replace Classical Computers?..........................................................................11
Need of Quantum Computers:...................................................................................................................11
Moore’s Law and Quantum Computing:...............................................................................................11
Present Problems of the Planet:.............................................................................................................11
Solutions to the Problems:.....................................................................................................................12
Applications of Quantum Computers:.......................................................................................................12
 Quantum Cryptography:............................................................................................................12

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 Search Problems:.......................................................................................................................12
 Quantum Simulation:.................................................................................................................12
 Quantum annealing:...................................................................................................................12
 Machine Learning:.....................................................................................................................13
 Artificial Intelligence:................................................................................................................13
Solution to the Real-World Problems....................................................................................................13
 Health Care and Drug Discovery:..............................................................................................13
 Traffic Optimization:.................................................................................................................13
 Weather Forecast and Climate Change:.....................................................................................13
 Better Batteries:.........................................................................................................................13
 Cleaner Fertilization:.................................................................................................................14
Quantum Computers in use.......................................................................................................................14
 ProteinQure................................................................................................................................14
 Daimler AG...............................................................................................................................14
 Microsoft...................................................................................................................................14
 Volkswagen Group....................................................................................................................15
Future Prospects........................................................................................................................................15
 Quantum Artificial Intelligence:................................................................................................15
 Semantic Analysis.....................................................................................................................15
 Quantum Teleportation:.............................................................................................................15
 Superconductivity:.....................................................................................................................15
 Simulation of Particle Collisions:..............................................................................................15
 Future Horizon:..........................................................................................................................16
 Security Challenges...................................................................................................................16
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................16

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Abstract:
Quantum Computing is one of the key emerging technologies of the present era. It is done by a
Quantum Computer, a machine that is solely based upon the concepts of Quantum Physics. This
project aims to provide a basic overview of a Quantum Computer, its brief Developmental
History, its fundamental Working Principles (which involves a brief explanation of quantum
principles), and the problems faced in its development and working. It also analyzes the
humungous computational power of these computers, even larger than those of World’s Top
Super Computers, and investigates why this technology is essential for the solution of many
difficult problems around the world, from Security, Drug Designing, Research,
Telecommunication, Climate, Energy Crisis and many more, with the help of its applications like
Quantum Cryptography, Quantum Sensing, and Quantum Communication. It also examines how
this technology has already revolutionized many areas by achieving Quantum Supremacy and
explores its prospects in the development of a variety of modern revolutionary technologies in
future and how it is a giant leap in ICT.

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Introduction
Quantum Computing:
Quantum Computing is to perform computation by the means of the quantum mechanical
phenomena such as superposition and entanglement using fundamentally different
component set called qubits. The device which performs these calculations is called a
quantum computer. They follow quantum physical concepts. And as we all know that
quantum phenomena are peculiar to every human being and are totally unintuitive. These
concepts have even disturbed the genius minds of the humankind (i.e., Einstein himself).
According to these concepts, a particle can exist in many places at one time
(superposition) and also if these particles are entangled, then observing the state of one
particle will alter the state of another no matter the distance apart (entanglement). But
when harness the power of these phenomena in nature, these computers become
extremely strong in computational power.
These computers are operated with the help of quantum algorithms. Quantum
Algorithms are basically categorized by the speedup achieved over corresponding
algorithms made for classical computers. These algorithms give a massive quadratic
speedup and have variety of applications for a wide range of problems.

Objectives
The objectives of this project are as follows:
 To familiarize us with the Quantum Computing which is considered as a remote field.
 To get an idea of its developmental history.
 To briefly understand the concepts that are used in this technology and explain the
working of the quantum computer using those concepts.
 To discuss the challenges faced to this technology.
 To demonstrate the Quantum Supremacy and its amazing computational power that is
greater than any other classical supercomputer.
 To compare these computers with the classical computers and discuss whether these
will be a substitution of the classical computers.
 To discuss the need of quantum computer in today’s world and to explain the present
problems of the world and the solution to these problems.
 To comprehensively discuss the vast applications of the technology in wide areas of
life.
 To discuss the working quantum computing models, present today.
 To discuss the future prospects and certain future advancements of the technology
 To explain why it is the next big thing and a giant leap in ICT.

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Reason of choosing this Topic

We chose this topic because, we studied a little bit of quantum physics in the 2nd year of F.Sc.
And after seeing in the news that Google has achieved quantum supremacy, it was an intriguing
topic, and it caught our attention. We then began to follow this topic in TED Talks and in news.
No wonder it was an interesting topic and amazed us at every instant. So given the opportunity to
write a report on an ICT Topic, there was surely no other choice but this.

Developmental History:
The Idea of Developing a Quantum Computing
Device emerged not so long after the development
of Quantum Theory which posed an idea that
“Universe at the fundamental is discrete”. This
idea is also correlated with the one that
“Information is also represented in terms of
discrete values i.e., bits. Shortly after the discovery
of some quantum mechanical phenomena like
Superposition Principle and Quantum
Entanglement, it became pretty clear that we can
leverage quantum mechanics to do perform
computation in ways that classical computer could
not.
In 1979, a research paper named “The Computer as
a Physical System” published by a Physicist named
Paul Beinoff clearly suggested that such a
computer could be built. This paper represented a
model based on Turing Machines which is an
abstract computational machine proposed by Alan
Turing that can comport itself like any other
computer. A few other scientists including the
renowned Physicist Richard Feynman worked on this and opened the doors to research.
It was in 1985, that the British Physicist David Deutsch pointed out the limitations of
Turing Machine as it was based on Classical Physics. So, Alan Turing’s universal
computer is not totally universal. And David proposed that Turing’s Theory must be
extended to Quantum Physics and he himself proposed a universal computer based on
Quantum Mechanics with computational powers that not even Turing’s Machine in
theory can simulate.
David Deutsch described in his works in detail what a quantum algorithm would look like
and even worked on the first example of an algorithm that would run faster on a quantum

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computer. After that, his work was picked up by many scientists and it led up to the
current advancement of this technology.

Working Principles
Key Concepts:
As stated earlier, a Quantum Computer works on two basic principles. Since both of them are
extremely intricate topics, here we try to briefly explain in the simplest possible way possible.
Quantum Superposition
The Principle states that if a dynamic physical system can be in one of many
configurations, then combination of all these possibilities is the most general one.
Schrödinger's Cat: An easy example to understand superposition is this thought
experiment proposed by Erwin Schrödinger a Physicist. If we put a cat in a box with a
bomb having 50% chance of blowing up after the lid is closed. Until we open the lid
again, there is no concrete way of knowing whether the cat is alive or dead. In quantum
mechanics, we can say that before our observation the cat is in a superposition of alive
and death states and it is in a state which is a mixture of both possibilities with 50%
chance each.
Quantum Collapse
When we observe the qubit with a device or any measuring device, the superposition
collapses and, we get either 1 or 0 based on the probability of the state. This is called
quantum collapse and is one of the most unintuitive concepts which startled even
Einstein.
Quantum Entanglement
It is phenomenon in Quantum Mechanics when a pair or group of particles interact in a
way that their quantum state cannot be described independently of the state of the other,
even at large distances. It also means that
Going back to the Schrödinger's Cat to explain, we can say that if we take two boxes of
cats and entangle them, then rather than having 4 possibilities, we will have only 2
possibilities. That is if we observe a cat in one box, then the cat in the other box must be
dead if they were entangled in the first place.

Working
Our Digital Computers today, are made up of simple components. Computer Chips
contains modules, which contains logic gates, and which contains transistors. Transistor
is the fundamental part of the computer which functions as a switch. It is either ON or
OFF. This information can be represented by 1 and 0 or in terms of bits (binary digits).
And a Digital Computer can only manipulate these two digits to perform all the exciting

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and powerful tasks. But a quantum computer is different from its very fundamental scale.
It is made up of Quantum-Bits or Qubits.
Qubit
In a Quantum Computer, the basic unit of information is qubit, (classical analogous to
binary-bit). It is made of any two-level quantum system, such as spin, magnetic field, or
a photon. The fundamental difference between a classical computer and a quantum
computer is that while classical bit must be either 1 or 0 at a time, a Qubit on the other
hand does not have to be just 1 of 0. According to the principle of superposition, it can
exist in any proportion of those two states at a time. But as soon as you test it value, just
like Schrödinger's Cat it has to be either 1 or 0. So as long it is unobserved, it is in a
superposition of probabilities of 1 and 0 and we can’t predict which one. But it collapses
into one of the definite states, upon observing. This is Superposition.
Superposition as a game-changer
We know that if we have 4 Classical bits, then we have 24 = 16 possible configurations at
a time. Now let us talk about qubits. If we have 4 Qubits, then we get 24 = 16 possible
configurations already but all those 16 combinations owing to the property of
superposition can exist at the same time. This means that with the addition of every qubit,
these combinations grow exponentially. If we have 20 qubits, we can already store a
million values in parallel.

Quantum Entanglement in Qubits

Qubits use an unintuitive property called Entanglement; it is a close connection such that
if a qubit is changed in one place then the other entangled qubit can react to this change
instantaneously. This has serious implications. For instance, when measuring just one
qubit, we can directly deduce the properties of all entangled qubits without having to look
at them separately.
Qubit Manipulation
Just as with classical computers, bit manipulation, there exists a system of Qubit
Manipulation and is extremely impressive. In classical computers, a normal logic gate
gets a set of input and gives one concrete output. But a Quantum Gate manipulates input
of superpositions and produces output which is another superposition. And then finally
measures the outcome by collapsing the superpositions to an actual sequence of 1s and
0s. But by taking into work the clever principles of superposition and entanglement, we
can get the entire calculations that are possible with our setup, all at the same time,
because upon getting the result we get a concrete value of 0 or 1, and in a system of
entangled particles, if we know or observe the state of one system, we can measure the
state of others, without separately checking for them. This gives us drastically fast results

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is exponentially more efficient than what could ever be achieved using a normal
computer.
Interference:
When producing the results interference is used. There are two types of interferences and
by using the constructive interference, the wave forms that are right towards the answer
are amplified and the waveforms that are leading up to the wrong answer types are
destroyed by using destructive interference. And by using this we can get promising
results.

Challenges to the technology

Quantum Computing Technology is at its birth
right now. Just as with present day computers we
had a bunch of problems in the starting,
Quantum Computers are also going through that
phase right now. So, these computers have
following problems which have not been
efficiently solved yet.
 Sensitivity
The quantum processes are extremely sensitive to external influences. This means
that the surroundings can drastically affect the qubits if not maintained properly.
These are affected by even the smallest of temperature changes and with low
radiation. Therefore, if not prevented these outer interferences can cause serious
complications and can alter the qubits states. So, the whole system must be
perfectly isolated.
 High Costs:
To keep the system protective of any outside interferences, the whole quantum
computer setup must be at a temperature very close to the Absolute Zero (i.e.,
-273.16 o C). And this is done with the help of very large cooling systems which
in turn are quite expensive.
 Fragility of Superposition/ Decoherence:
We can perform arithmetic computations on the quantum computer if the qubits
are in the state of superposition or – to say – are coherent. Decoherence is when
the collapse of the superposition of the qubits occurs due to environmental
interferences, thereby altering the quantum state of the qubits uncontrollably and
causing the information stored in a quantum computer to be lost.
 Errors with increasing numbers of qubits:
The computational power of a quantum computer is solely based on its number of
qubits. But the catch is that as we increase the number of qubits, (as stated above)

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due to fragile quantum superposition, the numbers of errors increase

exponentially. This is by far the biggest hindrance to the advancement of the
technology. So, the biggest challenge here is to increase the computational power
of the quantum computer while maintaining the highest achievable accuracy.
Researchers are working to
solve these problems.

Computational Power and

Quantum Supremacy
As described in the working section, we
have seen that the possible
configurations of a quantum computers
increase exponentially with every qubit.
For example, for 20 qubits, basic
possible combinations are 220 = 1,048,576. But with qubit, owing to the principle of
superposition a qubit can exist in all 1048,576 combinations at once. And after solving
for that a system with 20 qubits can have more than a million possible combinations and
can store that amount of data.
Keeping this idea in mind, to a very interesting fact, if we have a system of 300 qubits,
then it has more memory capacity than the number of the atoms in the universe (which
are 10^80 atoms approximately). To internalize this fact, if we can build a regular
computer where every atom is one bit, then still we will not be able to simulate what a
quantum computer with 300 qubits can.
Quantum Supremacy is demonstrating that a programmable quantum device can solve
a problem that no digital computer can solve in any possible amount of time. In the last
couple of years, some companies have already achieved this including IBM, Intel,
Google, and others. Google built a quantum computer with 53 qubit system and
performed a calculation that is larger than the world’s largest supercomputer. This is a
fact, that quantum computer has been made that have outstripped the world’s largest
supercomputer.

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Comparison of Classical and Quantum Computers

Digital Computers Quantum Computers

Based on principles of classical Based on principles of Superposition,

electrodynamics, using electric circuits entanglement, where being in more than
being in a single state at time. one state is possible
Basic Information unit is bit Basic Information unit is Qubit
Governed by Classical Physics Governed by Quantum Physics
Transistors are basic block Superconducting Quantum Interference
Device (SQUID) are basic blocks
Data Processing is done in CPU made Data Processing is done by Quantum
of Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU) Processing Unit, which consists of
and Control Unit (CU) interconnected qubits

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Will Quantum Computers replace Classical Computers?

The answer is NO. Companies building these computers have no vision at all to replace
the common digital computers with quantum computers. It is not a substitute, rather it is
built to perform complex calculations in some specific areas of science much efficiently
than digital computers. A perfect analogy is this; Consider a Car and a Rocket. For going
to the university, a car is a better option, (which is classical computer in this case), and
for going to Mars, you need a rocket. Thus, in future both these computers can be seen as
complementary computer systems.

Need of Quantum Computers:

The question arises that why the world is in need of such large computational power and
quantum computers. if already all of the computational problems are being catered by the
classical computers. To emphasize on the need of these computers we look deeply into
the problems faced by today’s world which the quantum computers solve efficiently.

Moore’s Law and Quantum Computing:

Moore’s law states that:

“Every two years the computing power will double and cost becomes
half.”
This basically happens when we decrease the size of transistors every year and the
number of transistors increases which in turn increases the computational power and thus,
we reach closer towards the quantum realm and the quantum effects broaden. According
to Moore, every year the computational power could increase but as every year the size
decreases, the quantum tunneling effect and the quantum superposition principles became
evident. Due to these effects, the transistor was no longer able to control the electrons
with this much power and quantum effects. Hence, Moore’s law became inefficient
because the size of transistor could not be further decreased to get more power and thus
there is a need of quantum computer to gain further computational power.

Present Problems of the Planet:

Today the present world is challenged by many problems which the planet is currently
threatened by and these problems need a quick and fast solution to these problems.
 Climate Change
 Energy Crisis
 Poor Encrypted Systems
 Inefficient Drug Discovery
 Inefficient Fertilization

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 Traffic Jams and fuel consuming traffic

 Reconciliation of Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity

All of these problems which the world faces in the present situation needs a quick and
well-defined solution.

Solutions to the Problems:

The very solution to all the problems the world is facing today is the quantum computer
with the far fledged and incomprehensible computing power which can solve every
problem faced by the present world because
quantum computers decrease the amount of
effort and time required for research and
develops solutions.

Applications of Quantum Computers:

We need quantum computers not as a
replacement of classical computers but to
compute highly intricate problems of the present world. Quantum computers have
revolutionized the world with their incomprehensible computing power which is utilized
for several purposes as:
 Quantum Cryptography:
Quantum computers can be utilized to solve many problems like integer
factorization which is the major process being used in the cryptosystem for secure
and sound transmission of data. Quantum computers can easily break the many
encrypted algorithms and cryptographic systems around the world. Moreover, the
cryptographic tasks that we perform using the quantum computers would certainly
be more efficient and more secure than the public encrypted systems. This solves
the problem of poor encrypted systems and gives rises to cyber secured systems.
 Search Problems:
Quantum Computers are used to find a marked item out of a n items list in an
unstructured search which has its applications in the password cracker which
makes an attempt to guess the secret code or pin for the encrypted systems.
 Quantum Simulation:
Being termed as the major application of quantum computers, quantum simulator
is basically used to simulate the behavior of particles and atoms such as inside a
collider. They can be used to guess the future trail of these particles under
superposition in double slit experiment. Quantum simulations increase the
production by speeding up these processes.

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 Quantum annealing:
Quantum computers are used to make use of fluctuations of quantum of to find
the global minimum of a defined function which further gives the use of adiabatic
optimization to compute and perform calculations and makes use of properties
like quantum tunneling, entanglement and superposition.

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 Machine Learning:
Quantum computers give rise to the hope of integrating quantum-based
algorithms with Machine Learning giving rise to quantum machine learning
which utilizes the qubits of quantum computers and operations to improve the
speed of computers and data storage done by the algorithms in a program. It also
extends to determine the similarities between physical and learning systems as in
the neural networks.
 Artificial Intelligence:
Quantum Computers have their advancements in deep learning and artificial
intelligence and they are outstanding in data pattern recognition as compared to
ordinary ones. This includes a step forward towards acceleration of AI through
these computers including better understanding virtual assistants or video games
without a controlled player. It increases the amount of calculation variables
machines can catch and thus it will allow them to provide faster answers, just like
a person would.

Solution to the Real-World Problems

These applications of quantum computers are solving many problems of our today’s world.
Quantum computers find their applications in almost every field most prominent. A brief
discussion of these problems is described here:
 Health Care and Drug Discovery:
Quantum Computers give rise to secure and efficient drug development for the
pharma companies which has decreased the disease spread and fatality and has
revolutionized the drug development in the world. It can do better in design and
analysis of molecules in drug development using its quantum properties.
 Traffic Optimization:
Quantum Computers have played a great role in managing traffic by forecasting
the traffic several miles away and thus they optimize the traffic system on roads
as well as fleet and air traffic control. Quantum computers can thus help in
figuring out cheap and less fuel consuming routes for vehicles.
 Weather Forecast and Climate Change:
Fighting climate change is difficult due to the amount of time solutions take to be
made. Quantum computing has solved this and improved the weather prediction
accuracy, and it is helping the users build a very good climate model which helps
us predict how the environment is being affected by the humans which helps in
prevention against disasters.

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 Better Batteries:
Quantum computers give rise to better batteries using physical testing and by
using quantum simulating to develop better batteries to improve the working
speed. Quantum simulation helps in improved aging of batteries giving forward
concept of electric cars and other vehicles with better performance.
 Cleaner Fertilization:
The quantum computers have solved the problem of inefficient fertilization by
decreasing the immense amount of energy required by the process and just doing
it through quantum simulation.

Quantum Computers in use

Owing to the surprising capabilities of the Quantum Computers, many companies have started to
build the quantum computers and “a race” has begun to build a sustained and error free quantum
computer and to solve large real-life problems with it.
 ProteinQure
o Location: Toronto
o ProteinQure is a Toronto-based biotech startup whose focus right now is
molecular simulations, specifically protein behavior using Quantum Computing.
o To give a general idea, according to Boston Consulting Group, only modeling a
penicillin molecule using a classical computer would require a staggering 10-to-
the-86th-power bits system. Which with advance Quantum Computing Systems
will only be a matter of few snaps.
o This will lead to the discovery of new drugs for different illnesses such as heart
disease, Alzheimer’s and even cancer.
 Daimler AG
o Location: Stuttgart, Germany
o German car manufacturer Daimler AG in 2018 announced two partnerships with
the leading Quantum-Computing giants: Google and IBM.
o Their main aim is the research on building better and longer lasting batteries.
Which will pave the way for the acceptance of electric vehicles by most of the
auto-manufacturing industries.
 Microsoft
o Location: Redmond, Wash
o The Haber process which is used to make plant fertilizers by pressurizing
atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, is responsible for 3% of global energy
output.

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o What’s so exciting is that some natural bacteria do this job naturally, the only
problem is that we don’t have the computational powers to calculate how the
bacteria does it. In 2017, researchers from Microsoft isolated the cofactor
molecule that is necessary to simulate. Now they’re only waiting for quantum
hardware to have sufficient qubits and noise stabilizations.
 Google’s CEO has predicted the improvement of Haber process by quantum computing
in about a decade’s time.
 Volkswagen Group
o Location: Wolfsburg, Germany
o The types of problems that quantum computing will and is helping is very
versatile.
o D-Wave, a Canadian quantum computing company and Volkswagen (VW) have
run several pilot programs regarding traffic and travel optimization problems such
as improving the traffic flows in high traffic cities like Beijing, Barcelona and the
latest Lisbon.

Future Prospects
Quantum computing is still an emerging field and once we get a complete hold of the simulation
will further polish these applications and until the next decade the quantum computers will
revolutionize the world with their ability to sort climate, health and financial data and managing
work and traffic flow.
 Quantum Artificial Intelligence:
The Quantum computers can give a boost to AI and Machine Learning which will
help us in tackling more complex problems. In the near future researchers aim to
design algorithms that will help in design problems, game theory etc.
 Semantic Analysis
It is a field of AI that allows computers to comprehend the tone of a text i.e. it
tells whether a text is written in a positive way or in a negative way. Researchers
have found similarities between proposed quantum algorithms and the existing
semantic analysis techniques.
 Quantum Teleportation:
Through quantum teleportation we can make use of the quantum to transfer
information from the sender at one location to the receiver at the other. It is
achieved through quantum entanglement and will help in secure voting and
efficient data transmission.

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 Superconductivity:
Through the quantum simulation, in the near future, we can achieve super
conductors at room temperature which can help us in clean and resistance less
electricity cables and electricity as well.
 Simulation of Particle Collisions:
Quantum computers can be used to collide particles and molecule in the near
future using quantum simulation which will reduce the effort and the money
utilized on the billion-dollar hadron collider in Cern Geneva.
 Future Horizon:
Quantum computing will revolutionize the world with its full-fledged computing
power and ability to solve problems in a matter of seconds once fully developed.
It finds its applications in all fields such as health, medicines, management areas
and the classical computers will be totally replaced once these get into play.
 Security Challenges
One of the main downsides of quantum computing are the risks that it poses to
cyber security. To quote Philipp Gerbert, Managing Director & Senior Partner at
Boston Consulting Group ,
“The big elephant out there is quantum computing will ultimately crack the
current encryption”
Quantum communication will help the government the giant industries but it will
completely destroy the current cryptography, hence leaving the current system
totally useless.

Conclusion
Quantum computing is the next big thing that will completely change the scenario of
ICT. It will change ICT as we know it, ranging from different computing techniques to
the complex encryptions and cryptography. It has already completely outstripped the
world’s largest supercomputer and is day by day proving to become more and more
useful.
Quantum computing is already proving to be a giant leap in ICT, and one can only
imagine the changes that it will cause once it is fully functional.

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