Volume 67, Issue 4  

New Quantum Computing Course:
Students Claim Ignorance

by Moshe Greenbaum

Yeshiva College is currently offering a one-time, cross-disciplinary quantum computing course this fall taught by Professor Joseph Stampfli, a visiting mathematician from the University of Indiana.  Meant to satisfy those students who expressed interest in the emerging field of molecule-sized computers, the new course will fulfill an advanced elective requirement for physics, mathematics, and computer science majors and has no prerequisites save a first year calculus course.

Quantum computing is a dramatic departure from the realm of traditional computing, mostly because it involves harnessing the power of molecules to provide calculation speeds that greatly exceed those of computers on the market today.

Students in the course, numbering six in total, are expressing their satisfaction about the material and the professor, adding that they are happy that the YC administration has taken pains to expand and increase the quality of the computer science department. 

“Thank God they also made this a physics course,” said Yeshiva College senior Lrfunln Xboyvpx, who is at present the only physics major in the class. “ They simply do not have enough advanced physics courses in the department, mainly because so many of the students taking physics are doing it for the engineering program with Columbia. There are only two or three physics majors graduating each year, and that’s the problem.”

Xboyvpx, along with YC senior Menachem Lazar, approached the deans of YC last semester and requested that the new course be added to the fall catalogue. The cross-disciplinary idea was also that of the students in the course, who hoped to attract as many other students as possible.  Xboyvpx has extensive experience in the field, having previously researched relations to applications of quantum-computing this past summer in the University of Chicago.

Stampfli, who has a Ph.D. in mathematics, is halfway through his sabbatical at the University of Indiana and will be returning there at the semester’s end. Last spring, he taught another elective course, financial mathematics, which in addition to the quantum- computing course, has only been offered only once in YC history.

Stampfli, who authored the textbook for the financial mathematics course, apparently has ties to Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Morton Lowengrub, who suggested Stampfli for the position.  He had been intimately involved in research and development in the field of quantum computing while teaching in Indiana and was interested in taking a teaching position in the New York area for his sabbatical year.

Much to the dismay of many students, however, the new course was not printed in the YC catalogue at registration last semester; only after Lazar sent out a ymail did word slowly spread, making some students forego the opportunity.

“They muffed it up,” said Yeshiva College senior Ben Shimshack who is a computer science major. “I only found out about the course two to three weeks into the semester, and by that time I had missed the introductory lessons. It’s too bad. They could have had a lot more than six students in the course if they would have publicized it.”

Lazar, while lamenting the fact the course was not properly publicized, nonetheless stressed that the final details of the new course were only worked out by the beginning of the fall semester. He did not pin the blame on the administration either, adding that he was surprised that the course got off the ground so quickly, only a few months after he had first suggested it.

What do you think? Click here to send a letter to the editors.
All content is copyright © Yeshiva University Commentator.