This is the Qiskit Fall Fest for The University of Texas at Austin. We're so exciting to have you all here. This event is being hosted by the Quantum Collective at UT Austin. If you don't know us yet, check us out here! The Qiskit Fall Fest is a collection of quantum computing events on college campuses around the world.
In our educationally themed hackathon, we ask participants to take on the challenge of learning a topic in quantum computing as part of our mission to make the entry barrier into quantum science accessible regardless of where you start. Before our kick-off ceremony, we spent a week hosting workshops to get students familiar with Qiskit and the fundamentals of Quantum Computing.
This Year, we are happy to announce an integrated challenge with our Partner-- Azure Quantum! Qiskit projects can be run on real quantum hardware on Azure Quantum from IonQ, Rigetti, and Quantinuum for our Hack-a-thon. If you choose to use Azure Quantum for your Fall Fest project, then you are eligble for a seperate prize pool for our Azure Quantum Challenge. We will have workshops and office hours on Discord from the Microsoft team during the week leading up to the hack-a-thon.
- Before you register, read the full rules here. This is a hackathon for UT Austin Students only, if you are not a student at UT Austin, you may not participate in this hackathon
- REGISTER AS A TEAM OR INDIVIDUAL HERE
- Join the Qiskit Slack workspace here if you haven't already.
- All hack-a-thon updates are through our Discord, so be sure to join after registering!
- All projects must use Qiskit, the open-source SDK for working with quantum computers at the level of pulses, circuits, and application modules. You can learn more about Qiskit and begin getting familiar here.
- All projects submitted must follow the hackathon prompt, which we will reveal at the Opening Ceremony on Oct. 21nd at 5:00 PM
- You may use other languages to build your project, but no more than 50 % of your project may be in a language other than Qiskit.
- All submissions must be built using an open source license, if applicable
- Projects built are owned by the teams which constructed them
- Teams must be as an individual, but no more than 4 members.
- To be eligible for one of our partner challenges, you must run your Qiskit programs on their development environment.
- You cannot begin building your project until the Hack-a-thon KICK-OFF on October 21, 5 PM CST
- You must submit your project before the provided deadline on October 23rd, 11:59 PM
- Full judging criteria can be found here
- Projects will be judged by the Officers of UT Quantum Collective following the Guidelines above
Saturday, 12 PM- 6 PM CST
Sunday, 12 PM - 5 PM CST
If you'd prefer to be on campus, then we will also have office hours in the GDC atrium (TBD)
Food will be provided.
Find the schedule below, or View it here
Session Details: 10/17/2022, GDC 2.104 and virtual, 5:30- 6:30 PM
https://utexas.zoom.us/j/96501812773
Our first workshop will cover the basics of Qiskit and the fundementals of Quantum computing to get get you prepared for a fun weekend of hacking with Qiskit. We will go over what Qiskit is, how to use Quantum gates, run circuits, and some of the math behind what makes quantum computing possible.
Session Details: 10/18/2022, 5:00 PM CST, virtual
https://utexas.zoom.us/j/96501812773
Our second workshop will walk you through how to set up your Azure Quantum Workspace with featured speaker, Mariia Mykhailova, from Azure Quantum. Through Azure Quantum, you can run your Fall Fest projects on real hardware backends.We will have continued support during the week in our Discord to help you set up your AQ workspace.
https://utexas.zoom.us/j/96501812773
Session Details: 10/20/2022, 7:00- 8:00 PM, GDC 1.304 and virtual
Our third workshop will walk you through how to set up your Qiskit environment and run your fall fest projects on IBM's Quantum Computers and simulators.
Session Details: 10/21/2022, GDC 1.304 and Virtual, 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM CST
https://utexas.zoom.us/j/96501812773
In our Fall Fest kick-off, we will go over our Hack-a-thon challenge, judging criteria, and show example Qiskit projects from last years event! We will also refresh on using Azure Quantum. Details about the Strangeworks space and Office Hours will be announced.
Session Details: 10/21/2022, 5 PM - 10/23/2022, 11:59 PM
- office hours TBD @ GDC Atrium and Strangeworks
- Getting to Strangeworks
Dates/Times for Strangeworks:
- Saturday, 12 PM- 6 PM CST
- Sunday, 12 PM - 5 PM CST
Session Details: 10/24/2022, GDC 2.216 and virtual, 9-10 PM
https://utexas.zoom.us/j/96501812773
In our closing ceremony, the winning teams will present their final projects to everyone in-person! Food will be provided.
10/19/22 5:30 PM CST, GDC 6.302
Title: AMA with Dr. Aaronson
https://utexas.zoom.us/j/96501812773
Abstract:
Dr. Scott Aaronson is one of the most prominent names in quantum computing today. He is the Schlumberger Centennial Chair of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin and director of its Quantum Information Center. His research centers around the capabilities and limits of quantum computers, and computational complexity theory more generally. At this meeting, you'll get a chance to ask him anything!
10/18/22 5:00 PM CST, virtual
Title: Getting started with Azure Quantum:
https://utexas.zoom.us/j/96501812773
Abstract:
Mariia Mykhailova is a principal software engineer at Microsoft Quantum, focusing on education and developer outreach. Mariia is the author and maintainer of the Quantum Katas project – an open-source collection of hands-on tutorials and exercises for learning quantum computing – and the author of the O’Reilly book “Q# Pocket Guide”. She is also a part-time lecturer at Northeastern University Seattle, teaching “Introduction to Quantum Computing”.
10/18/22 3:00 PM CST, virtual
Title: Outlook for Quantum Computing with Superconducting Qubits
https://utexas.zoom.us/j/96501812773
Abstract:
Quantum computers promise to solve certain problems that are intractable on any current or future classical computer. Recently, small-scale noisy quantum computing prototypes have been constructed, with those consisting of superconducting qubits a currently popular modality. In this talk, I'll give an overview of the history and physics of superconducting qubits, followed by IBM's hardware and software roadmaps for scaling these processors and their applications. As error mitigation is essential in the current era of noisy quantum hardware, I show how Qiskit Research facilitates the adoption of these research tools without the need for low-level knowledge of the underlying hardware and software.
10/17/2022 12 PM CST, virtual
Title: Quantum Computing 101
https://utexas.zoom.us/j/96501812773
Abstract:
- Why do we need Quantum Computing?
- What is Quantum Computing
- Fundamentals of Quantum Computing
- Different Industry Application.
- How Quantum Computing is accessible via Cloud
- Live Coding Session (Bell state coding)
- Challenges in Quantum Computing
10/20/2022 3 PM CST
Title: Shankar lab projects - Superconducting quantum circuits group in ECE dept.
https://utexas.zoom.us/j/96501812773
Abstract:
Shyam Shankar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Shankar is developing superconducting and semiconducting quantum devices and circuits for applications in quantum information science and engineering.












