The initiative KYMA, an acronym in Greek of “Quantum Computing for Students” is synergy is coordinated by Prof. Ioannis Antoniou (Department of Mathematics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) and Prof. Stavros Stavrinides as a service to society.
It was initially discussed as an educational need in 2020, with the goal to contribute to Greece’s Quantum Readiness, by bringing high school students in contact with the world of Quantum Information.
It consists of a lecture series of about 22 sessions (2-hours lecture + 1-hour discussion) that include a short introduction to quantum mechanics, the essential mathematics and introduction to quantum gates and algorithms, quantum programming, quantum games and quantum cryptography basics.
The realization was achieved as a synergy of university professors and instructors from secondary education, with the permission of the Hellenic Governmental Authorities and under the auspices of the Hellenic Mathematical Society and the Hellenic Physical Society.
As the response of both students and instructors in the first pilot implementation ΚΥΜΑ 2021-2022 was enthusiastic, the second, the third implementations followed (namely ΚΥΜΑ 2022-2023, ΚΥΜΑ 2023-2024,), with the participation of students from schools in selected regions in Greece.
From the fourth implementation and on (ΚΥΜΑ 2024-2025, ΚΥΜΑ 2025-2026), participation is nation-wide including also university students. In this year’s curriculum the diagrammatic approach, introduced by Bob Coecke, has been included as an extra module, making this initiative a pioneering action.