Squankum
In 2003-2004 I developed an interactive Quantum Computation applet, as part of a technology fellowship with the Johns Hopkins Center for Educational Resources.

There has been a fair amount of recent interest in this project, so I have decided to revive this project, rename it as Squankum, and release the source code as Free Open Source Software under the GNU Public License.

The current version of Squankum is 0.4. Run the applet or download the source


Why did you choose the name Squankum?

Firstly, Squankum sounds cool, and sounds something roughly like an abbreviation for Simulation of Quantum Computation.

But more realistically, Squankum is an old name for a town nearby Freehold, New Jersey where I grew up. Squankum itself is a name in the Algonquian language meaning "Place of Evil Ghosts", given to the area by the Native American Lenni-Lenape tribe. They were possibly referring to the mosquitos. The settlement of Squankum was formed in 1737 in what is now known as Monroe Township, and more information can be found at the be found at the History of Monroe Township page.


Jeffrey Wasserman
March 23, 2007
jeffwass@jhu.edu