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QHack Open Hackathon

Share your ideas with the quantum world in QHack's famous open-ended hackathon!

This year's Open Hackathon features a number of sponsored challenges, each with unique prizes. Your project could potentially qualify for multiple prizes!

See below for challenge topics and additional eligibility criteria. Complete details for prize eligibility is available in the 2022 QHack Terms & Conditions.

Power Ups

Free AWS Credits

Thanks to Amazon Braket you can power up your projects during the QHack Open Hackathon:

  • $400 in AWS Credits are available for up to 100 teams: To unlock this Power Up, your team must place in the top 100 of the QHack Coding Challenges at 17h00 ET on Fri, Feb 18.
  • $2000 in AWS Credits are available for up to 15 teams: To unlock this Power Up, your team must submit a draft of your QHack Open Hackathon project by 12h00 ET on Wed, Feb 23. Fifteen winners will be selected from the received submissions.

Exclusive access to IBM Quantum machines

Thanks to IBM Quantum you can power up your projects during the QHack Open Hackathon:

  • Access to 7-Qubit IBM Quantum machine: To unlock this Power Up, your team must place in the top 70 of the QHack Coding Challenges at 17h00 ET on Fri, Feb 18.
  • Access to 16-qubit IBM Quantum machine: To unlock this Power Up, your team must submit a draft of your QHack Open Hackathon project by 11h59 ET on Tues, Feb 22. Ten winners will be selected from the received submissions.

Timeline

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
Feb 21: Open Hackathon begins Feb 22: Submit draft Open Hackathon project if you want to be considered for access to IBM Quantum's 16-qubit machine (10 teams; must submit before 23h59 ET) Feb 23: Submit draft Open Hackathon project if you want to be considered for $2000 USD in AWS credits (15 teams; must submit before 12h00 ET) Feb 25 (17h00 ET): Open Hackathon project submissions are due

Challenges

Amazon Braket Challenge

Sponsored by Amazon Braket

Awarded for:

  • Best Open Hackathon experiment on Braket QPUs
  • Best Open Hackathon experiment on Braket Simulators
  • Most creative Open Hackathon experiment on Braket

Prize:

In each of the categories, the top team will receive

Info:

Join the Amazon Braket office hours daily from 1 to 2pm PST. Whether you have a question about AWS and Amazon Braket, want to discuss your approach to the Hackathon Challenge, or just want to drop by to say hello and meet the team — we have you covered. The details are posted in the #amazon-braket-support channel on the Xanadu Slack.

IBM Qiskit Challenge

Sponsored by IBM Quantum and Université de Sherbrooke

Awarded for:

Best Open Hackathon project which uses IBM’s Qiskit

Prize:

  • 1st place: Two hours of access to IBM Q systems (up to 127-qubit machine) + 10 hours of coaching on Qiskit project + swag packs (only students who are full-time registered can win this prize)
  • 2nd place: 4 Apple watches (3 series) + swag pack
  • 3rd place: 4 AirPods (2nd gen) + swag pack

Info:

Only students who are full-time registered at a university are eligible to win the 1st place prize (access to IBM Q system provided by Université de Sherbrooke). Proof of full-time registration at a university will be asked before the prize is handed out.

Analog Quantum Computing Challenge

Sponsored by Pasqal

Awarded for: Best Open Hackathon project which uses analog quantum computing

Prize:

Two hours of QPU time on Pasqal's cloud platform (usable in June 2022)

Info:

In contrast to the digital mode where the time evolution of qubits is described by discrete quantum gates, control over the device can be realized at the so-called analog level, where the user can directly manipulate in a continuous manner the mathematical operator (the Hamiltonian) describing the evolution of the ensemble of atoms. Not only does it allow for a finer level of control over pulses during the application of gates, but it also makes it possible to directly use the Hamiltonian of the system as a resource for computation. The fine level of control allowed by this analog setting, together with the large number of possible geometric configurations of neutral atom registers, makes it a powerful tool for quantum processing. A good starting point for analog quantum computing is the Pulser framework, developed by Pasqal.

Bio-QML Challenge

Sponsored by Menten AI

Awarded for:

Best Open Hackathon project applying quantum machine learning to a biotechnology use-case

Prize:

One winner will receive a 12-week paid ($14K USD) remote internship at Menten AI as well as an awesome swag package.

Info:

For any questions, please reach out directly to [email protected]

Google Quantum AI Research Challenge

Sponsored by Google Quantum AI

Awarded for:

Best Open Hackathon project which implements/extends a concept in a Google Quantum AI research paper

Prize:

  • Virtual visit to Google Quantum AI campus
  • Virtual meet-and-greet with members of the Google Quantum AI team

Info:

Check out the Google Quantum AI team's year-in-review blog post for helpful links to their papers as well as context of the research results.

Hybrid Algorithms Challenge

Sponsored by AQT

Awarded for:

Best Open Hackathon project that makes use of quantum-classical hybrid algorithms

Prize:

Two hours of access to AQT's QPU over the cloud

QAOA Challenge

Sponsored by Entropica

Awarded for:

Best Open Hackathon project using the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm

Prize:

One winner will receive a 12-week paid remote internship at Entropica Labs (2,800 SGD/2,080 USD per month); if conditions allow the internship can be done in Singapore).

Info:

QAOA is a heuristic quantum algorithm based on the adiabatic theorem and may offer a quantum advantage for discrete optimisation in the NISQ era. However, the performance can depend strongly on the specific problem being tackled. In this challenge, you will select your favourite combinatorial optimisation problem and analyse how QAOA fares against it. Hint: You could pick bin packing, the knapsack problem, vertex cover, or maybe a scheduling problem. And there are many more!

If you need some structure to get started, you could:

  1. Pick an optimisation problem
  2. Implement a QAOA workflow using a QC framework of your choice
  3. Hack the day away! Experiment with different problem instances, change the meta-parameters of QAOA, experiment with different classical optimisers, and try to find the optimal solutions to the problem

In order to qualify for the internship you will need to meet the following requirements:

  • Be able to commit for 12 consecutive weeks of internship before the end of 2022
  • You are a full-time University student (BSc, Masters or PhD Candidate) or recently graduated (within the last 12 months)
  • For the in-person internship in Singapore: To qualify for and obtain a WHP (https://www.mom.gov.sg/passes-and-permits/work-holiday-programme)

Quantum Chemistry Challenge

Sponsored by QunaSys

Awarded for:

Best Open Hackathon project using quantum computing for quantum chemistry

Prize:

  • One-month summer internships (in Tokyo or virtual) with QunaSys. 300,000 yen ($2,600 USD) salary, travel & accommodation included. (Two internships available)
  • 10 physical goods (choice of Nintendo Switch or Sony Wireless Headphone)

Info:

Please register with QunaSys using this form for additional information.

Quantum algorithms for chemistry applications are expanding. We can now calculate the ground-state energy of molecules, excited-states energy, energy derivatives, periodic systems, and so on! With quantum algorithms, we can test wide varieties of industrial applications like reaction path search, photochemical reaction, molecular dynamics, etc.

Coding tool: QunaSys will open their software product Qamuy—Gaussian-like quantum chemistry software—for all participants. You can use it to build chemistry applications easily! Of course, you are welcome to build using Pennylane, Qiskit, Cirq, etc.

For detail please check Youtube video Introduction to the Quantum Chemistry Challenge hosted by QunaSys

Quantum Entrepreneur Challenge

Sponsored by Creative Destruction Lab

Awarded for:

Best Open Hackathon project that includes a business pitch

Prize:

  • Invitation to CDL bootcamp (top 1 team)
  • Access to CDL mentorship session (top 2 teams)
  • Exclusive 1-on-1 business coaching session with a CDL Quantum mentor (1-hr each, top 2 teams)

Info:

For this challenge, you will need to include a brief business pitch along with your Open Hackathon project. This can take the form of a video (under 90 seconds) and/or a slide deck (max 7 slides including the title slide). Your pitch should explain how you would form a company around the ideas in your Open Hackathon project.

Quantum Finance Challenge

Sponsored by Agnostiq and Multiverse Computing

Awarded for:

Best Open Hackathon project using quantum computing for finance problems

Prize:

  • 1st place: 13-inch Macbook Pro
  • 2nd place: 11-inch iPad Pro
  • 3rd place: Oculus Quest 2 128GB VR Headset with Touch Controllers

Science Challenge

Sponsored by CERN

Awarded for:

Best Open Hackathon project that uses quantum computing to tackle a fundamental scientific problem or use-case

Prize:

Win the opportunity to visit CERN for a special tour and/or potential paid internship (Three internships available)

Info:

To be eligible for the CERN internship, some eligibility and pre-registration conditions apply. Please see here and here for a description of the CERN internship program.

Simulation Challenge

Sponsored by IQM and VTT

Awarded for:

Best Open Hackathon project that uses quantum computing to simulate a physical system

Prize:

  • Trip to Finland with on-site tour of IQM and VTT offices. Flight & accommodation included. (Four spots available).
  • Exclusive access to five-qubit quantum computer at VTT (total 10 hours of access including preparation, calibration, and runtime)

Young Scientist Challenge

Sponsored by University of Waterloo (IQC), University of Calgary, University of Toronto (CQIQC), Quantum Algorithms Institute, Perimeter Institute, and Université de Sherbrooke (IQ).

Awarded for:

Best Open Hackathon project by an undergraduate or pre-undergraduate scientist

Prize:

  • Signed textbooks (Eight available)
  • Swag packs
  • Invitation to the Quantum School for Young Students (QSYS) Virtual and consideration for QSYS On-Campus (High-School Students only)

Info:

To be eligible for the QSYS program, participants must be enrolled in a secondary school and be at least 15 years old or older. Please see the QSYS website for further eligibility considerations.

How do I take part?

To submit your team's entry for any of these prizes, simply open an Issue using this template summarizing your project. Specifically, this issue should contain:

  1. The name of your team (if you took part in the QHack Coding Challenge, this name should match the name used there).
  2. A brief description of your project (1-2 paragraphs).
  3. A hyperlink to an explanatory presentation of your team’s hackathon project in a non-technical form (e.g., video, blog post, jupyter notebook, website, slideshow, etc.).
  4. A hyperlink to the final source code for your team's hackathon project (e.g., a GitHub repo).
  5. A list of all Open Hackathon challenges/prizes you would like your project to qualify for.

What hackathon project should my team do?

The QHack Open Hackathon is open-ended. The choice of topic is completely up to you! You could brainstorm a new idea with your team, or start from one of the following seed ideas:

  1. Implement a idea from the quantum literature—or from one of our guest speaker presentations—in code
  2. Create a self-contained tutorial or demonstration of an idea from quantum computing (and submit it the PennyLane Community page!)
  3. Extend one of the QHack Coding Challenge problems in a novel or interesting way
  4. Repurpose one of the PennyLane demos to run on a quantum hardware device
  5. Submit a Pull Request to an open-source library with a new feature

All entries are subject to the QHack Terms & Conditions.

What is the judging criteria for ranking the Open Hackathon projects?

The QHack organizing team will grade every Open Hackathon submission based on three criteria:

  • Scientific and/or technical ability demonstrated.
  • Overall quality of presentation.
  • Depth of use of the quantum computing software and hardware stack.

Specific Open Hackathon Challenges may be judged by that Challenge's sponsors. The QHack organizing team will provide the sponsor with a ranked list of the top candidate projects that are eligible for that Challenge. The final winner will be chosen by the sponsor from this list of top candidates.