D-Wave Systems Quantum Programming QIR

This lecture/lab format will provide information and a hands-on experience programming a D-Wave quantum computer system.  The goal of this class is to expand attendees' understanding of quantum computing as implemented on the D-Wave System.  Labs are integrated into each module; attendees will have access to a live system located in Canada.  During class you will learn: 

- about the hardware and software environment for a D-Wave quantum computer  

- how to solve and think about problems on a D-Wave quantum computer

- methods of programming a D-Wave quantum computer

- to use tools and run problems on a live D-Wave quantum computing system

- about customer prototype applications and discuss your application ideas. 

The class location - 250 Consumers Road, Suite 901, Toronto, Ontario                                                   

09:00 to 17:00 on December 4, 2018

09:00 to 17:00 on December 5, 2018    

System Requirements: Participants are asked to bring their own device to class.  Devices need to be set up prior to class with a 64-bit operating system (Windows, MacOS, or Linux) with Python 3.6 or 3.7 and pip installed. A program for editing code such as Vim or Visual Studio Code will be needed. 

Setting Up Your System For Class

Before coming to our class, it is helpful for you to have Python 3.6 or 3.7, Pip, and Virtualenv installed on your system.  Please follow the instructions in this document and let us know if you run into any issues.

Python

We will use the programming language Python in our class, specifically version 3.6 or 3.7.  

First, you should check if you already have Python installed.

1. Open up your terminal, shell, or command prompt.
2. Type “python --version” and hit Enter.

• If you see “Python 2.7….” then you have Python 2 installed.  Check for Python 3 by typing “python3 --version”.  If you see something like “Command not recognized” then you need to install Python for our class, follow the steps below.  If the “python3" command worked, then you will need to always type “python3” for our class.

Note for  Windows Users:  If “python3” does not work, try “py -3 --version”.

• If you see “Python 3.X” where X < 6, then you need to update to Python 3.6 or 3.7 for our class, follow the steps below.

• If you see “Python 3.6.X” or “Python 3.7.X”, then you are ready for class and can go down to the next section (“Pip”).

Here are the steps you should follow to install Python 3.6 or 3.7 on your system.

1. Go to https://www.python.org.
2. Click on “Downloads”.
3. Click on the appropriate version of Python 3.7 to download for your system. Make sure that you select the 64-bit installer option (a 64-bit operating system is required for our class).
4. Open and run the downloaded file and follow the prompts to install Python.  

For more detailed instructions, check out these links and videos: 

Installing on Windows:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dX2-V2BocqQ

Installing on MacOS:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uA8SA81nivg

Installing on Linux:  https://docs.aws.amazon.com/cli/latest/userguide/awscli-install-linux-python.html 

Pip

We will use Pip to install Python packages for the class.

First, you should check if you already have Pip installed.

1. Open up your terminal, shell, or command prompt.
2. Type “pip --version” and hit Enter.

• If you see “pip” followed by a number and a system location/folder, then you have pip installed.

• If you have to type “python3 --version" in order to see the correct version of Python 3 on your system, you may need to type “pip3 —version”.  If the “pip3” command works, then you will need to always type “pip3” for our class.

• If you see something like “Command not recognized” when trying “pip --version” and “pip3 --version”, then you need to install Pip.  Follow the directions below.

To install Pip on your system, follow these directions:  

https://ehmatthes.github.io/pcc/chapter_12/installing_pip.html#installing-pip-on-os-x.

Virtualenv

We will use Virtual Environments to program in our class.  This will allow you to set up and install packages separately from your main system, so that we do not change any of your current settings on your system.

First, check if you already have Virtualenv installed.

1. Open up your terminal, shell, or command prompt.
2. Type “virtualenv --version” and hit Enter. 

• If you see “16.0.0” or some similar number, than you have virtualenv installed and you are all set!

• If you see something like “Command not found”, then you need to install virtualenv.  Follow the steps below.

To install Virtualenv on our system, we will use Pip.

1. Open up your terminal, shell, or command prompt.
2. Type “pip install virtualenv” and hit Enter.

Education Requirements: It is recommended attendees have a Bachelor’s Degree or higher in one of the following disciplines Computer Science, Math, and Physics or equivalent as well as experience implementing algorithms in languages such as Python, C/C++, Matlab, etc.  Attendees should be comfortable writing and editing programs in a language such as Python that: - import packages such as NumPy - use for-loops- use arrays to store, access and edit data.

Instructors:

Aaron Lott - received his PhD in Applied Mathematics and Scientific Computation from the University of Maryland, College Park. He completed postdoctoral work on scalable solvers National Institutes of Standards and Technology and Lawrence Livermore National Lab before joining D-Wave in 2014. Aaron will discuss how the D-Wave system can be used for sampling and how this can be applied to help train machine learning algorithms for data analytics.

Dr. Victoria Goliber - Victoria recently joined D-Wave Systems after working as a mathematician for the US Air Force Research Laboratory.  She completed her PhD in Discrete Mathematics at Arizona State University, and is currently pursuing a MS degree in Computer Science through Georgia Tech.  With several years of experience in using D-Wave quantum computers from the customer side, she now works with the training team to teach others how to use our systems.