The ability to control individual quantum systems in customised setups and materials, is paving the way for a quantum second revolution where the fundamental notions of quantum superposition and quantum entanglement will be an integral part of the inner workings of operational quantum devices. These will include quantum computers and simulators, quantum sensors and quantum communication systems.
This introductory tutorial will cover the basic aspects of quantum computing and quantum simulation and discuss briefly emerging applications in the area quantum machine learning. After a basic introduction to quantum physics and the early quantum algorithms, a review of the current state of the art in variational and approximate quantum algorithms in hybrid classical-quantum setups will be discussed. The latter have been proposed to solve efficiently otherwise difficult problems in material science, quantum chemistry, finance sector and data science with near term devices of few hundred qubits. In the final part of the talk, a review of the state of the art of quantum hardware and the race for showcasing quantum supremacy will be reviewed as well as the challenges and myths in the field.