Many of the topics below are very broad, and so you should conduct some preliminary investigations before writing your project proposal so that you can appropriately scope your project.

• Simulation of physical systems on quantum computers
• Simulation of quantum computers on classical computers
• Quantum advantage
• Measuring quantum entanglement
• Variational quantum eigensolver (VQE) algorithms
• Quantum Approximate Optimisation Algorithm (QAOA)
• Quantum programming languages
• Design of quantum processing units (QPUs)
• Physical realisations of quantum computing
• Quantum error-correction
• Quantum cryptography
• Quantum state tomography
• Learning quantum systems
• Non-local games/Bell tests
• Distance measures for quantum states
• Quantum Shannon theory
• The Solovay-Kitaev theorem
• The Gottesman-Knill theorem

The project is graded out of 30, according to the following criteria.

Category	Excellent	Satisfactory	Poor
Understanding of course material (10 points)	Demonstrates deep understanding of, and ability to apply, core quantum computing concepts.	Demonstates adequate understanding, perhaps with minor misconceptions.	Fails to demonstrate understanding, or demonstrates significant misunderstandings.
Technical correctness (8 points)	Technically accurate throughout, with credible sources.	Minor factual errors, or lack of technical depth.	Major inaccuracies or unreliable sources.
Organisation and clarity (8 points)	Well-structured, logical flow; clear language.	Generally organized; some unclear sections or awkward phrasing.	Disorganized or unclear writing that hinders understanding.
Citation (4 points)	All sources properly cited.		Citations missing or incorrect.

You may work in a pair. You should aim for your report to be about five pages in length (excluding citations) if you work by yourself, or eight pages (excluding citations) if you work as a pair.

As with all coursework, you must abide by Cornell's academic integrity policy. Failure to do so may result in severe academic penalties. In addition, you are not permitted to submit any text that was generated by an AI tool, but you may use AI tools to help edit text that you wrote.

Reports from 5813 students will be held to a higher standard of quality as appropriate for earning a master's degree.