A quantum computer doesn’t magically break your code, it just exploits its power to perform period finding.Arnold Overwater MSc Student

What was your idea of ‘quantum mechanics’ before taking the course and has it changed?

“To me, the term ‘quantum’ sounded very science fiction. While the course that I did mainly dealt with a lot of linear algebraic constructs, the actual physical aspects, which were introduced in the evening lecture during a special lab tour, were quite awe-inspiring. I found that quite fascinating.”

What was something that, when you got out of the class, kept you thinking?

“What really fascinates me is one of the algorithms I learned (called the Shor’s algorithm), which doesn’t exactly speed up in exponential steps; it actually translates the problem (of period computation) into an efficient one. And such a translation is not feasible on a classical computer. A quantum computer doesn’t magically break your code, it just exploits its power to perform period finding, which happens to be related to cryptography.”