Can We Entangle?

I’m an MS research student working in quantum computing. Over the past 8 months, I’ve mainly been working with quantum ML, PennyLane, VQCs, GPU/CUDA, and quantum simulation. My guide has asked me to develop stronger expertise in quantum-computing software and simulation. I feel that I’m currently somewhere between a researcher and a software developer: I can implement pipelines, reproduce experiments, debug environments, and run simulations, but I don’t yet feel that I have a strong understanding of the underlying software/simulation stack. For people working in quantum computing/software: What skills, concepts, or projects would you recommend to develop genuine expertise in quantum-computing software and simulation? For example, should I focus more on building a simulator from scratch, circuit compilation, tensor networks, GPU acceleration, automatic differentiation, noise simulation, benchmarking, or something else? I’d particularly like to know what kind of projects would make someone go from “I can use PennyLane/Qiskit” to “I understand how quantum-computing software actually works.” submitted by /u/Ill-Operation-8238 [link] [comments]