Qiskit Fall Fest 2024
SIGQuantum is proud to be partnering with the Qiskit team at IBM to present UIUC’s inaugural Fall Fest!
Join us on a monthlong exploration of quantum computation and information, with:
- Guest speakers from UIUC’s IQUIST and from industry partners
- A quantum software development workshop series covering everything you need to implement a quantum algorithm in Qiskit
- Open-signup undergrad lightning talks to share your research and/or learn about what other people are doing
- And more!
Quick links
Give a lightning talk!
Register here!
Join our Discord
Event calendar
Zoom meeting for upcoming meeting
View previous Fall Fest events
Schedule
- (Oct 1) Kickoff + Qiskit workshop
- (Oct 8) Qiskit 1.0 language tour w/ Ruchi Pendse (IBM)
- (October 20-30) Undergrad research lightning talks
- (Nov 16-18) Hackathon
Unless noted otherwise, the time and location of events are not finalized. Be sure to check back later, or join our Discord and self-assign the “Fall Fest” role to get the latest updates.
Speakers
TBA
Hackathon
Fall Fest will culminate in a hackathon where you can apply everything you learned in the previous month to build something amazing.
There will be free food and prizes!
The hackathon prompts are designed to be very multidisciplinary in nature (just like QIS!): from the lab coat clad experimentalists to the turtleneck touting theorists, and from the grizzled Unix hackers to the seasoned UX designers; we’re excited to see the ideas you come up with!
Information regarding team formation and prompts will be released in mid-October.
FAQ
Q: What is Qiskit?
A: Qiskit is a software ecosystem for writing and running quantum circuits (via simulation or on actual quantum hardware!).
Prior knowledge of Qiskit (or Python) is not stricly required to participate in the hackathon, but we suggest that attendees unfamiliar with quantum computing or software development attend our Qiskit workshops to get a feel for it.
Q: Has anyone actually built a quantum computer?
A: Yes, including many people here in Champaign—Urbana!
Q: Do I have to be a student at UIUC to participate?
A: Nope! Anyone can join in, although most events will be in-person.
Q: But I don’t know quantum mechanics..?
A(ssurance): Fear not!
The majority of activities at Fall Fest will not require more than some elementary linear algebra knowledge (it’s not rocket science, after all 😉).
And if you haven’t taken linalg yet, don’t worry!
3B1B has an excellent course available freely on YouTube, and if you just want the bare essentials you can check out some of our previous meetings to get the gist of things.