Quantum Computing in Design Optimization

Repository of demonstration materials developed for the undergraduate research project at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI): "Quantum Computing in Design Optimization." The notebooks and supporting files demonstrate core quantum computing concepts, practical Qiskit workflows, and example applications in optimization and algorithm design.

Table of Contents

1. Set Up and Installation — A guided setup notebook that walks through environment preparation and package installation for running the examples locally.
2. Basics of Qiskit — A practical introduction to the Qiskit workflow (map → optimize → execute → post-process) with runnable examples using both local simulators and IBM Quantum backends.
3. Single-Qubit Systems — Covers mathematical foundations for single-qubit states and gates including simple demonstrations.
4. Multi-Qubit Systems — Explains multi-qubit concepts and demonstrates phenomena such as entanglement, swap operations, Bell states, and the no-cloning theorem.
5. Quantum Adder — Demonstrates how to implement basic arithmetic (addition) using quantum gates and circuit constructions.
6. Genetic Quantum Algorithm (GQA) — Demonstrates a hybrid genetic-quantum approach for combinatorial optimization (example: knapsack problem), illustrating how classical heuristics can be combined with quantum circuits.

Quick start

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/Luxque/Quantum-Computing-in-Design-Optimization.git
   cd Quantum-Computing-in-Design-Optimization

2. Follow each instructions in Set Up and Installation notebook.
3. Read and use the notebooks:
   • Launch JupyterLab or Jupyter Notebook and open files in the notebooks/ directory.
   • Run cells in order. Some notebooks require API credentials to access IBM Quantum backends (see notes below).

Running on Real Quantum Backend

• To execute circuits on IBM Quantum systems you must provide your IBM Quantum API token and Cloud Resource Name (CRN). Keep these credentials private.
• Transpilation is required before submitting circuits to remote backends to ensure compatibility with the device’s native gates and topology.
• Expect queue times when using real hardware; results may differ from simulator output due to noise and device-specific characteristics.

Contributing

You are more than welcome to contribute by helping fix any mistakes. Please feel free to open an issue or submit a pull request to this repository.

License

The Unlicense license.