Proc.
of the International Conference on Electrical, Computer and Energy Technologies (ICECET)
Design and Implementation of Efficient Quantum
Support Vector Machine
Mhlambululi Mafu
2021 International Conference on Electrical, Computer and Energy Technologies (ICECET) | 978-1-6654-4231-2/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ICECET52533.2021.9698509
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Botswana International University of Science and Technology
Palapye, Botswana
mafum@biust.ac.bw
Abstract—Machine Learning (ML) is arguably the most ad-
vanced sub-field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). It concerns the
study of computer algorithms that can improve automatically
by learning from data (experience) without being explicitly
pre-programmed. On the other hand, the quantum version
of ML, Quantum Machine Learning (QML), forms one of
the most crucial and recent quantum computing applications.
It uses quantum mechanical principles such as superposition,
interference, and tunneling to enable quantum computers to learn
from data. Some examples of QML algorithms include Quantum
Principal Component Analysis (QPCA) and Quantum Support
Vector Machine (QSVM). The QSVM is a robust supervised
machine learning algorithm used for classification and regression.
Therefore, this paper discusses the design and implementation of
an efficient QSVM model. The model’s efficiency is achieved using
Principal Component Analysis (PCA) on the classical data, then
loading the classical data into a quantum computer. Experimental
results demonstrate the significance and application of the QSVM
model reported in this paper.
Index Terms—Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Quan-
tum Support Vector Machine, quantum computing
I. I NTRODUCTION
Machine Learning allows computing machines to learn from
data through experience [1, 2, 3]. Machine Learning is con-
cerned with designing computational agents (software tools)
that can make accurate decisions on their own without being
explicitly pre-programmed. It is an area of research at the
intersection of statistics, artificial intelligence and computer
science, and recently engineering as researchers translate the
theoretical models to build products for use and commer-
cialization. Notably, it has become one of the key drivers in
digital transformation. Its applications have become seamless
in the commercial sector and everyday life. For instance,
it has found applications in business, finance, advertising,
sports, transportation, manufacturing and the environment. In
scientific research, machine learning has found applications
in understanding stars, DNA sequence analysis and cancer
treatment. The main goal of machine learning is to optimize
This work is supported by the Institute for Intelligent Systems; University
of Johannesburg, The National Institute for Theoretical and Computational
Sciences, and the National University of Lesotho.
978-1-6654-4231-2/21/$31.00 © 2021 IEEE
Authorized licensed use limited to: National Institute of Technology Karnataka Surathkal. Downloaded on May 08,2024 at 18:09:55 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
9-10 December 2021, Cape Town-South Africa
Makhamisa Senekane
Institute for Intelligent Systems
University of Johannesburg
Johannesburg, South Africa
smakhamisa@uj.ac.za
the performances and functionalities of entire sectors. There
are broadly three categories of Machine Learning. These
categories include [4, 5]:
• Supervised machine learning-deals with a labeled dataset
{(xi , yi )}N
i=1 , where xi is the input or feature vector
and the label yi stands for the ground truth where one
builds the knowledge of the learning algorithm. Among
others, a supervised learning algorithm’s primary goal is
to analyze the dataset to produce a model that, when given
an input or feature vector x, one can predict the value
of y. Essentially, all data is labeled, and the algorithm
predicts the output from the input data. The examples
include linear regression, random forest, and support
vector machines.
• Unsupervised machine learning-is a type where the
dataset is a collection of vectors that are not labeled
{xi }N
i . Unsupervised machine learning takes this input
vector and extracts valuable properties from the dataset’s
single or overall data distribution. In other words, all
data is unlabeled, and the algorithms learn to inherent
structure from the data. The examples include clustering
and principal component analysis.
• Reinforcement machine learning-it assumes the machine
”lives” in a domain and can probe the state of the
domain as a feature vector. Consequently, the machine
can perform various actions at different states resulting
in different rewards and punishments. The goal of re-
inforcement machine learning algorithm is to learning a
strategy through trial and error using feedback from its
actions and experiences. Notably, this category finds use
where critical decision-making and long-term objectives
are critical.
As already mentioned, the quantum counterpart of conven-
tional ML is an emerging field called QML [6, 7, 8]. Like
conventional ML, its goal is developing quantum algorithms
and optimizing performance to achieve the required results in
today’s industries and applications. Notably, QML is based
on the theory of quantum physics and combines conventional
 ML and quantum mechanics. QML uses quantum mechanical
principles like superposition, interference, and entanglement
to enable computational agents to learn from data in a manner
that offers some advantage over conventional ML [9]. More
specifically, it is responsible for generating improved statistical
interpretations and accuracy by manipulating quantum systems
to process information and gaining computational speed by us-
ing quantum systems to process information. Due to increased
experiments in quantum physics generating increased data,
QML would be an incredible resource to perform analysis,
make predictions, and, where possible, control the experiment.
Moreover, it allows one to perform powerful data visualization
techniques. Thus, it will be critical for theoreticians and exper-
imentalists to understand the structure of complex manifolds
better or predict theoretical models [4].
To date, various QML schemes have been proposed [6, 7,
8, 10]. Examples of QML schemes include:
• Quantum Support Vector Machine (QSVM),
• Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE),
• Quantum Boltzmann Machine (QBM), and
• Quantum Generative Adversarial Networks (QGAN).
The QSVM algorithm finds applications in classification prob-
lems requiring a feature map for which computing the col-
lection of the kernel (i.e., collection of the inner product) is
inefficient classically [11]. The QSVM is an example of super-
vised learning, consisting of training and test or classification
phases. The Variational-Quantum-Eigensolver (VQE) refers to
a quantum or classical hybrid algorithm that can be used to
find eigenvalues of an (often large) matrix H [12, 13]. The
variational quantum eigensolvers are demonstrating promise
for solving hard problems relating to quantum chemistry and
performing data-classification tasks [14, 15]. The quantum
Boltzmann machines are neural networks used for genera-
tive machine learning [16]. Then, the Quantum Generative
Adversarial Networks (QGAN) are Generative adversarial
networks (GANs) have become the most widely adopted semi-
supervised and unsupervised ML methods applied in high-
definition image, video, and audio generation [17].
The fusion of machine learning and quantum mechanics
can drive new quantum technologies, algorithms and explore
novel ways to speed computations, improve existing models,
and devise novel learning quantum schemes. This fusion can
be realized using four approaches [7]. One of the approaches
involves the processing a classical dataset by using a quan-
tum computer. The challenge that this approach poses is
that it requires an appropriate quantum-classical interface in
order to efficiently load a classical dataset on a quantum
computer [7, 18]. However, quite fortunately, this challenge
was addressed in Ref. [18], where an efficient data loading
(quantum state preparation) based on the divide-and-conquer
algorithm was presented. Therefore, in this paper, we propose
and implement an efficient QSVM algorithm. The QSVM
proposed in this paper uses a classical dataset on a quantum
computer approach. Furthermore, it consists of the following
stages:
Authorized licensed use limited to: National Institute of Technology Karnataka Surathkal. Downloaded on May 08,2024 at 18:09:55 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
a) Principal Component Analysis in order to improve com-
putation efficiency and
b) Quantum Support Vector Machine.
Except for this introduction, the rest of the paper is struc-
tured according to the following manner. The next section
covers the theory on quantum computing and Quantum Ma-
chine Learning. Furthermore, Section III provides a detailed
explanation of the efficient QSVM scheme proposed in this
paper. Additionally, results are provided and discussed in
Section IV. Then, in section V, we provide a conclusion to
this paper.
II. T HEORY
As already mentioned in this paper, this section provides
background information on quantum computing and QML.
Thus, it is divided into two subsections; the first subsection
covers quantum computing, while the second covers Quantum
Machine Learning.
A. Quantum Computing
Quantum computing uses quantum mechanical principles
like superposition, interference, entanglement, including tun-
neling to perform computation in a manner that outperforms
conventional computing [10, 19, 20]. Therefore, the devices
that perform quantum computations are called quantum com-
puters. Notably, quantum computers can significantly solve
specific computational problems. For example, in contrast to
a conventional computer, which uses a binary digit (bit) as a
fundamental unit of information, a quantum computer uses a
quantum bit (qubit). Therefore, the principle of superposition
allows computational speeds up due to the simultaneous execu-
tion of quantum states. Moreover, quantum states can interact
with each other due to entanglement, despite how further they
might be from each other. Thus, the proven advantages of us-
ing quantum computers for optimization problems suggest that
these systems may solve classification problems by improving
artificial intelligence models.
A qubit can be represented mathematically as a superposi-
tion of two states as follows [6, 19]:
|ψi = α|0i + β|1i, (1)
where α and β are probability amplitudes and satisfy the
condition:
|α|2 + |β|2 = 1. (2)
On the other hand, geometrically, a qubit is represented as a
point on a surface of a Bloch sphere [19, 20, 21], and is shown
in Fig. 1. On a Bloch sphere, orthogonal quantum states are
antipodal; that is, they are diametrically opposite to each other.
Quantum computing can be implemented using various
models of computation. Notably, one quantum computing
model is a quantum circuit model. This model is analogous to
the conventional model of computing. Additionally, this model
performs computation through the use of quantum gate [19].
Furthermore, a collection of quantum gates in turn forms a
quantum circuit; which can be used to implement quantum
algorithms such as QML.

Fig. 1. A qubit representation on a Bloch sphere.
B. Quantum Machine Learning
As already stated, QML fuses the fields of ML and quantum
computing. Additionally, the implementation of ML, both con-
ventional and quantum, can be realized using four approaches
[7, 8]. These approaches are:
• using a classical dataset on a conventional computer,
• using a classical dataset on a quantum computer,
• using a quantum dataset on a classical computer, and
• using a quantum dataset on a quantum computer.
The efficient QSVM algorithm proposed in this paper is
based on using a classical dataset on a quantum computer. The
design and implementation of this algorithm will be covered
in the next section.
III. A N E FFICIENT QSVM
The algorithm proposed in this paper uses Python program-
ming language, especially the following two Python packages:
• SKLearn for Principal Component Analysis and
• IBM‘s Qiskit for the implementation of Quantum Support
Vector Machine.
The proposed algorithm can be summarized as fol-
lows. First, the Breast Cancer dataset is loaded from
sklearn.datasets. This is followed by applying the Principal
Component Analysis, which reduces the dimensionality of the
dataset from 30 dimensions to 2 dimensions. It is worth noting
that this step is responsible for the efficiency of the QSVM
algorithm presented in this paper. The next step involves the
loading of the resultant 2-dimensional dataset into a quantum
computer. This, in turn, is followed by the implementation of
the QSVM algorithm using Qiskit. Finally, the accuracy values
for different training and testing sizes are recorded.
IV. R ESULTS AND D ISCUSSION
The accuracy results for various sizes of both training test
data are provide in Table I.
Authorized licensed use limited to: National Institute of Technology Karnataka Surathkal. Downloaded on May 08,2024 at 18:09:55 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
TABLE I
P REDICTION ACCURACY OF THE SVM FOR VARIOUS TRAINING AND TEST
SIZES .
Training Size Test Size Accuracy (%)
100 20 50
50 10 60
25 5 70
20 4 62
As can be observed from Table I, the reasonably high accu-
racy values justify the utility of this efficient QSVM algorithm.
Lastly, it can be observed from Table I that incredible results
are obtained if the training size is 25, and a test size is 5.
Therefore, the optimal training size for this algorithm is 25,
while the optimal test size is 5.
V. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, we have reported the implementation of an
efficient QSVM . This efficiency is achieved by using PCA on
the classical dataset, loading data into the quantum computer,
and performing QSVM on a quantum computer. The accuracy
results obtained from this work underline the utility of the
efficient QSVM algorithm proposed in this paper. However,
future work is going to focus on incorporating the efficient
data loading scheme proposed in Ref. [18] to further improve
the efficiency of the QSVM.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Makhamisa Senekane wants to thank the University of
Johannesburg through the Institute for Intelligent Systems for
the support provided during the research work reported in
this paper. This work is funded by the National Institute for
Theoretical and Computational Sciences, South Africa.
R EFERENCES
[1] D. L. Poole and A. K. Mackworth, Artificial Intelligence:
foundations of computational agents, 2nd ed. Cambridge
University Press, 2017.
[2] M. Mohri, A. Rostamizadeh, and A. Talwalkar, Founda-
tions of machine learning, 2nd ed. MIT press, 2018.
[3] S. Russell and P. Norvig, Artificial Intelligence: A Mod-
ern Approach, 4th ed. Pearson, 2021.
[4] S. Marsland and M. Learning, An Algorithmic Perspec-
tive, 2nd ed. CRC Press, 2015.
[5] R. S. Sutton and A. G. Barto, Reinforcement learning:
An introduction, 2nd ed. MIT press, 2018.
[6] P. Wittek, Quantum machine learning: what quantum
computing means to data mining. Academic Press, 2014.
[7] M. Schuld and F. Petruccione, Supervised learning with
quantum computers. Springer, 2018.
[8] M. Senekane, M. Maseli, and M. B. Taele, “Noisy,
intermediate-scale quantum computing and industrial
revolution 4.0,” in The Disruptive Fourth Industrial Rev-
olution. Springer, 2020, pp. 205–225.
[9] L. Buffoni and F. Caruso, “New trends in quantum
machine learning (a),” EPL (Europhysics Letters), vol.
132, no. 6, p. 60004, 2021.
 [10] A. Asfaw, A. Corcoles, L. Bello, Y. Ben-Haim,
M. Bozzo-Rey, S. Bravyi, N. Bronn, L. Capelluto, A. C.
Vazquez, J. Ceroni, R. Chen, A. Frisch, J. Gambetta,
S. Garion, L. Gil, S. D. L. P. Gonzalez, F. Harkins,
T. Imamichi, H. Kang, A. h. Karamlou, R. Loredo,
D. McKay, A. Mezzacapo, Z. Minev, R. Movassagh,
G. Nannicini, P. Nation, A. Phan, M. Pistoia, A. Rattew,
J. Schaefer, J. Shabani, J. Smolin, J. Stenger, K. Temme,
M. Tod, S. Wood, and J. Wootton. (2020) Learn
quantum computation using qiskit. [Online]. Available:
http://community.qiskit.org/textbook
[11] P. Rebentrost, M. Mohseni, and S. Lloyd, “Quantum sup-
port vector machine for big data classification,” Physical
review letters, vol. 113, no. 13, p. 130503, 2014.
[12] J. R. McClean, J. Romero, R. Babbush, and A. Aspuru-
Guzik, “The theory of variational hybrid quantum-
classical algorithms,” New Journal of Physics, vol. 18,
no. 2, p. 023023, 2016.
[13] A. Peruzzo, J. McClean, P. Shadbolt, M.-H. Yung, X.-Q.
Zhou, P. J. Love, A. Aspuru-Guzik, and J. L. O’brien,
“A variational eigenvalue solver on a photonic quantum
processor,” Nature communications, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 1–
7, 2014.
[14] Y. Cao, J. Romero, J. P. Olson, M. Degroote, P. D.
Johnson, M. Kieferová, I. D. Kivlichan, T. Menke,
B. Peropadre, N. P. Sawaya et al., “Quantum chemistry
in the age of quantum computing,” Chemical reviews,
vol. 119, no. 19, pp. 10 856–10 915, 2019.
[15] V. Havlı́ček, A. D. Córcoles, K. Temme, A. W. Harrow,
A. Kandala, J. M. Chow, and J. M. Gambetta, “Super-
vised learning with quantum-enhanced feature spaces,”
Nature, vol. 567, no. 7747, pp. 209–212, 2019.
[16] M. H. Amin, E. Andriyash, J. Rolfe, B. Kulchytskyy,
and R. Melko, “Quantum boltzmann machine,” Physical
Review X, vol. 8, no. 2, p. 021050, 2018.
[17] M. Y. Niu, A. Zlokapa, M. Broughton, S. Boixo,
M. Mohseni, V. Smelyanskyi, and H. Neven, “Entangling
quantum generative adversarial networks,” arXiv preprint
arXiv:2105.00080, 2021.
[18] I. F. Araujo, D. K. Park, F. Petruccione, and A. J.
da Silva, “A divide-and-conquer algorithm for quantum
state preparation,” Scientific Reports, vol. 11, no. 1, pp.
1–12, 2021.
[19] M. A. Nielsen and I. Chuang, Quantum computation and
quantum information, 10th ed. Cambridge University
Press, 2010.
[20] M. M. Wilde, Quantum information theory, 2nd ed.
Cambridge University Press, 2017.
[21] M. Mafu, “Security in quantum key distribution proto-
cols.” Ph.D. dissertation, 2013.

Authorized licensed use limited to: National Institute of Technology Karnataka Surathkal. Downloaded on May 08,2024 at 18:09:55 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.