Great professor! Super clear, nice and helpful. Highly recommended. The workload of the class is a bit heavy but you definitely learn a lot about quantum computing. The first half of the course is relatively theoretical with many linear algebra-like problems. The midterm is based on that and you might need to practice similar problems beforehand to get a good grade. The second half of the course are mainly practical projects and you do get to implement your own quantum computing circuits and run them on REAL quantum computers. My suggestion for this class is that always START YOUR PROJECTS EARLY, or it will be hard to finish them on time.

If you do not take this course with Jens Palsberg, you are missing out. His lectures are super clear and Jens is happy to answer your questions if you ever are in an y confusion. The homework are fun and are of just the perfect length. The midterm is easy too. You also get to work on an actual quantum computer, which is pretty cool. Make sure you also know the expectations for the final project as I felt a lot of points were docked from mine because I did go into a lot of depth.

As for the content of the class, once you are done, you should have a decent idea of the the direction the quantum computing industry is taking and also be able to write quantum programming codes easily.

The course covers some of the most elementary and fundamental concepts in quantum programming, which I personally found quite notation-heavy and generally inaccessible to an outsider when I first explored it on my own. The class does much to break down the layers of notation and start at first principles, which I greatly appreciate.

On the other hand, I wish there were more discussions about how can we learn more about quantum computing on our own. I found that there is still a gap between what’s covered in the course and the literature, which often makes heavy use of terms from physics. I think a component dedicated to reading recent literature would be quite useful, especially for a graduate-level course like this one.

Additionally, I think it would be a very real boon to the CS instruction at UCLA if the course is offered as cross-listed for both undergraduate and graduate students. The course material is, and from what I can tell is designed to be, quite accessible to undergraduates. But the enrollment process was a bit nerve-inducing for myself, an undergrad.