It helps to first understand the basics of classical computers, like the one you’re using to read this story. Classical computers store and process information in binary bits, each of which holds a value of 0 or 1. A typical laptop could contain billions of transistors that use different levels of electrical voltage to represent either of these two values. While the shape, size, and power of classical computers vary widely, they all operate on the same basic system of binary logic.
But it’s still early days — quantum computing must clear a number of science and engineering hurdles before it can reliably solve practical problems. More than 100 researchers across MIT are helping develop the fundamental technologies necessary scale up quantum computing and turn its potential into reality.
Quantum computers are fundamentally different. Their quantum bits, called qubits, can each hold a value of 0, 1, or a simultaneous combination of the two states. That’s thanks to a quantum mechanical phenomenon called superposition. “A quantum particle can act as if it’s in two places at once,” explains John how to become a computer engineer, a researcher at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory’s Quantum Information and Integrated Nanosystems Group.
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