Reddit reviews An Introduction to Quantum Computing

A decent book that isn't too complicated (some matrix algebra is really the only background necessary, some probability wouldn't hurt);

http://www.amazon.ca/Introduction-Quantum-Computing-Phillip-Kaye/dp/019857049X

Your best bet is to read an introductory text first and wrap your head around what quantum computing is.

I suggest this one: Intro Text

I like it because it isn't very long and still gives a good overview.

My former supervisor has a web tutorial: here

Lastly, Michael Nielson has a set of video lectures: here

The issue is, there is a decent sized gap between what these introductions and tutorials will give you and the current state of the art (like the articles you read on arxiv). A good way to bridge this gap is to find papers that are published in something like the Physical Review Letters here is their virtual journal on quantum information and see what they cite. When you don't understand something either refer to a text, or start following the citations.

Basically, if you can start practicing this kind of activity (the following of references) now, you'll already have a good grasp on a large part of what grad school is about.

Best of luck!

As someone who just finished their MSc at the Institute for Quantum Computing there is a lot of interest for those with EE experience in quantum computing. The IQC has people from many disciplines, including EE.

In our group I was one of the few people that had any EE experience. I did a lot of circuit design and microwave engineering. You'd be surprised how poor the average physics grad student is at the basics of using T&M equipment. If you're more into the chip fabrication side of EE there also is groups for that in QC.

You will want to take as many quantum mechanics electives as you can. If your school does not offer a QC specific course I suggest you read this book: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Quantum-Computing-Phillip-Kaye/dp/019857049X

If you have any specific questions feel free to ask me either here or in a PM.

Ah gotcha, yeah to be honest this approach probably won't be terribly illuminating. The problem is that the D-Wave really doesn't work in any kind of classically equivalent way. When you think about algorithms classically, the procedure is highly linear. First you do this, then that, and finally the other. The D-Wave One involves nothing of the sort.

Here's a quick rundown of what a quantum annealing machine actually does, with analogies to (hopefully) clarify a few things. In fact, an analogy is where I'll start. Suppose you had a problem you were working on, and in the course of trying to find the solution you notice that the equation you need to solve looks just like the equation describing how a spring moves with a mass hanging from it. Now you could continue your work, ignoring this coincidence, and solve out the equation on your own. Alternatively, you could go to the storage closet, grab a spring and a mass, and let the physics do the work for you. By observing the motion of the spring, you have found the solution to your original problem (because the equations were the same to begin with).

This is the same process used by the D-Wave One, but instead of a spring and a mass, the D-Wave system uses the physics of something called an Ising system (or model, or problem, etc.). In an Ising system, you have a series of particles^ with nonzero spin that can interact with each other. You arrange this system so that you can easily solve for the ground state (lowest energy) configuration. Now with the system in this ground state, you very, very slowly vary the parameters of the system so that the ground state changes from the one you could easily solve to one that you can't. Of course this new ground state, if you've done things correctly, will be the solution to the problem you were actually concerned with in the first place, just like the spring-mass example above.

So perhaps now I have explained at least a little bit of why I don't call the D-Wave One a "computer". It doesn't compute things. Rather, by a happy coincidence, it sets up an experiment (i.e. the Ising system) which results in a measurement that gives you the answer to the problem you were trying to solve. Unfortunately for you, the software engineer, this resembles precisely nothing of the usual programming-based approach to solving problems on a classical computer.

My advice is this: if you want to learn some quantum computing, check out An Introduction to Quantum Computing by Kaye, Laflamme, and Mosca, or the classic Quantum Computation and Quantum Information by Nielson and Chuang.

^ They don't actually have to be single particles (e.g. electrons), but rather they are only required to have spin interactions with each other, as this is the physical mechanism on which computations are based.

Edit: Okay, this was supposed to be a reply to achille below, but apparently I'm not so good with computers.

The good thing about quantum information is that it's mostly linear algebra, once you're past the quantization itself. The good thing though is that you don't have to understand that in order to understand QI.

There are books written about quantum computing specifically for non-physicists. Mind you, they are written for engineers and computer scientists instead and they're supposed to know more maths and physics than you as well. Still, you could pick up one of those, e.g. the one by Mosca, or even better the one by David Mermin.

There are also two very new popular-science books on the topic, one by Jonathan Dowling, Schrödinger's Killer App, and one by Scott Aaronson, Quantum computing since Democritus.

I don't know too much about quantum computing, I've just had some basic courses in quantum physics and a side interest in it. I recently started reading An Introduction to Quantum Computing. It's a pretty great book.

My school doesn't offer any undergrad courses (or possibly even grad, I haven't checked) on the subject, but from what I've learned it's basically a mix of linear algebra, cs, ee, and physics.

...also I recommend to you the textbook by Kaye, Laflamme, and Mosca. Alternatively, if you're feeling daring you can pick up the QC bible. And if you're feeling too cheap to buy books, you can find lecture notes from a lot of QC courses posted online. Check out John Preskill's website, or maybe MIT open courseware.