Making QPong

Random walk to quantum computing

Junye Huang

Quantum Developer Advocate

IBM Quantum Community Team

About me

IBM Quantum Developer Advocate
Focusing on promoting quantum education
Organized the first university Qiskit hackathon in the world
Led IBM Quantum Challenge 2021
I love making quantum games

Agenda

QPong & quantum games (30 min)
- Pygame version
- Unity version
- PICO-8 version
My quantum journey (25 min)
Q&A (5 min)

QPong

Circuit Composer

QuantumCircuit

Quantum paddle

Classical paddle

Before measurement:

superposition => statevector backend

After measurement:

collapsed => qasm_simulator backend

Quantum re-imagination of the classic Pong game.
Explore unfamiliar concepts in a familiar setting.

Github

Game engines

Direct library import

Flask server

(with Qiskit API)

JavaScript

Lua

Twine

Minetest

Python

MicroQiskit

(minimal Qiskit in native language)

QPong

QPong-Unity

QPong-PICO-8

QPong-Unity

QPong-PICO-8

Github

Play online

Minetest + Qiskit circuit puzzles

Qiskit Blocks

Developed by James Weaver (IBM)

Download here

And many more!

My Quantum Journey

Random walk to quantum computing

Get in touch with CQT professors

Apply for CQT PhD

IAS-ICTP Summer School

Work on quantum random walk

Write project proposal for TQC using 2D materials

Get $3 million SGD grant!

Give up on QC, start PhD in 2D materials

PhD application rejected

High

Low

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

QC Career

Failing experiments

High

Low

Feb

Apr

Jun

Aug

Oct

Dec

QC Career

2019

Qiskit Camp

QPong was born!

Qiskit Camp 2019

27 Feb - 1 Mar 2019

High

Low

Feb

Apr

Jun

Aug

Oct

Dec

QC Career

2019

Qiskit Camp

QPong was born!

Boston Museum of Science Demo

NanoDays with a Quantum Leap

Courtesy of James Weaver (IBM)

Clean up and polish QPong

6 Apr 2019

Learning points

Python

Github

High

Low

Feb

Apr

Jun

Aug

Oct

Dec

QC Career

2019

Qiskit Camp

QPong was born!

Boston Museum of Science Demo

Apply for internship at Horizon Quantum. Never heard back

High

Low

Feb

Apr

Jun

Aug

Oct

Dec

QC Career

2019

Qiskit Camp

QPong was born!

Boston Museum of Science Demo

Apply for internship at Horizon Quantum. Never heard back

Work on QPong Arcade

IBM Quantum Arcade

Courtesy of Gregory Boland (IBM)

Remake QPong in Unity game engine

6 Jun - 12 Sep 2019

Learning points

Unity game engine

Game design principles

Open source collaboration

High

Low

Feb

Apr

Jun

Aug

Oct

Dec

QC Career

2019

Qiskit Camp

QPong was born!

Boston Museum of Science Demo

Apply for internship at Horizon Quantum. Never heard back

Work on QPong Arcade

QPong featured in Coding with Qiskit

Coding with Qiskit

2 Aug 2019

91k views!

High

Low

Feb

Apr

Jun

Aug

Oct

Dec

QC Career

2019

Qiskit Camp

QPong was born!

Boston Museum of Science Demo

Apply for internship at Horizon Quantum. Never heard back

Work on QPong Arcade

QPong featured in Coding with Qiskit

QPong Arcade Tour

High

Low

Feb

Apr

Jun

Aug

Oct

Dec

QC Career

2019

Qiskit Camp

QPong was born!

Boston Museum of Science Demo

Apply for internship at Horizon Quantum. Never heard back

Work on QPong Arcade

QPong featured in Coding with Qiskit

QPong Arcade Tour

Qiskit Hackathon @ SG

Qiskit Hackathon @ SG

Source: Centre for Quantum Technologies

Centre for Quantum Technologies

11-12 Oct 2019

Learning points

Event organization

Public speaking

Coaching

High

Low

Feb

Apr

Jun

Aug

Oct

Dec

QC Career

2019

Qiskit Camp

QPong was born!

Boston Museum of Science Demo

Apply for internship at Horizon Quantum. Never heard back

Work on QPong Arcade

QPong featured in Coding with Qiskit

QPong Arcade Tour

Qiskit Hackathon @ SG

Invitation to CERN

CMS detector visit with Dr. James Wootton

Quantum Future Hackathon

CERN

Birth place of Higgs boson

18-19 Oct 2019

Visited

CMS detector

IBM Research Zurich

Google Zurich

ETH Zurich

EPFL

CMS detector visit with Dr. James Wootton (IBM Research)

High

Low

Feb

Apr

Jun

Aug

Oct

Dec

QC Career

2019

Qiskit Camp

QPong was born!

Boston Museum of Science Demo

Apply for internship at Horizon Quantum. Never heard back

Work on QPong Arcade

QPong featured in Coding with Qiskit

QPong Arcade Tour

Qiskit Hackathon @ SG

Invitation to CERN

Become Qiskit Advocate

Qiskit Advocate

28 Oct 2019

Made many good friends

Samanvay Sharma

Vicente Pina Canelles

Amira Abbas

Omar Costa Hamido

...

Coffee with Vicente in Murcia, Spain

Qiskit advocate program

Application open in June

qisk.it/advocate

Mentorship program

working with IBM quantum experts on a 3-month project to develop skills and build meaningful connections

Shantanu Jha

Founder of YuQC

Organizer of QCHack

High

Low

Feb

Apr

Jun

Aug

Oct

Dec

QC Career

2019

Qiskit Camp

QPong was born!

Boston Museum of Science Demo

Apply for internship at Horizon Quantum. Never heard back

Work on QPong Arcade

QPong featured in Coding with Qiskit

QPong Arcade Tour

Qiskit Hackathon @ SG

Invitation to CERN

Join IBM Quantum

Become Qiskit Advocate

Join IBM Quantum

2 Mar 2020

1 year after QPong!

Moral of the story

Many different types of jobs in QC industry
- Quantum Researcher (Zlatko Minev)
- Quantum Developer (Lauren Capelluto)
- Quantum Engineer (Mary Beth Rothwell)
- Quantum Educator (Abe Asfaw)
- Classical Developer (V a Barbosa)
- Technical Writer (Ryan Mandelbaum)
- Human Resources (Bradley Holt)
- ...
Be active in the community and contribute
Make yourself visible (Twitter & LinkedIn)