How to Host Your Own Quantum Computing Hackathon: A Guide
By Brian Ingmanson, Education Engagement Lead — IBM Quantum and Qiskit
The best way to learn a new skill is to dive in and apply the skill wherever you can. That’s what makes hackathons such a useful tool if you want to learn quantum computing with Qiskit — by exploring quantum and building applications in a hackathon setting, you can quickly grow a quantum intuition on your own.
Hackathons are time-limited events where participants gather to bring an idea to reality. These short events are often competitions (but don’t have to be), and many participants choose to develop their projects into research papers or new applications long after the hackathon ends. The Qiskit Community team has hosted successful hackathons around the world, which have generated exciting new ideas that have pushed Qiskit and quantum computing forward.
You don’t need anyone’s blessing to host a Qiskit hackathon — students at dozens of universities are running them yearly. Our team is working to make it easier than ever for new leaders to host a quantum computing hackathon of their own.
We recently organized the Qiskit Fall Fest, a collection of student-led hackathons on college campuses around the world. Participating colleges ran these hackathons themselves for their own community members with the support of IBM Quantum. Local Fall Fest events took place in Germany, Spain, Nigeria, Mexico, USA, France, India, and elsewhere. These hackathons yielded all sorts of exciting new projects; one team built a quantum music composer, another explored a quantum machine learning algorithm for stock market prediction, and another team explored employing quantum algorithms for quantum-inspired news suggestions, among plenty of other projects.
You can read blogs from Fall Fest participants at the University of Texas at Austin here, from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee here, and from PIQUE in Mexico here.
But hackathons need not be focused solely on software. Recently, the New School in New York City hosted a Design Jam where students employed quantum computing to create art and compose music. Meanwhile, the Qiskit Hackathon Korea, co-hosted by IBM Quantum, KAIST and the QCenter at SKKU and supported by KIAS, Korea University and Seoul National University, featured participants designing their own quantum hardware with the help of Qiskit Metal.
So, what makes a hackathon successful? We’ve put together a list of tips and a guide below — and the Qiskit team is willing to help you organize.
The Teams
You can’t have a hackathon without people, including both organizers and participants. For organizers, we suggest you put together your organizing team early, set clear roles, and be okay to change and pivot in order to make your event as successful as possible. Paperwork, permissions, and data privacy are all things the organizing group will need to think about on top of event logistics, so make sure organizers have an array of different skills.
As for the participants, allow their teams to be flexible and embrace their excitement; a team with two people might have as positive an experience as a team of six. Some team members might need to drop out or switch midway through. Make sure you’re dealing with all teams fairly and consistently — they’ll notice and appreciate it! It will also help to pull in a varied group participants. Bringing people from different backgrounds, including non-technical backgrounds, could lead to ideas and perspectives that a homogeneous group might miss.
The Schedule
A hackathon is about more than just hacking. As you’re planning your event, make sure to build in a number of other events to keep participants excited and engaged. The most successful hackathons we’ve seen have included a workshop for new users to get up to speed on quantum computing, social events for participants to network, and a dedicated time to discuss project ideas and form teams.
You’ll also want to include both an opening ceremony to get participants excited about your event, and a closing ceremony. If you’re treating it as a competition, the closing ceremony is where you’ll announce the winners and give out prizes. If your hackathon is more of a learning exercise, you’ll use the closing ceremony to show off some of the exciting projects that came out of your event, and for the mentors to provide constructive feedback. Ensure that participants feel like every part of your hackathon is equally important so that they’ll get the most out of your event. Finally, if your event is in person, don’t forget to find time for food!
Set Expectations
The most successful hackathons are those where participants can step out of their comfort zone without feeling like they’re totally in over their heads. Set expectations with your organizers and mentors that the comfort zone might be different for different participants, and that people might be coming in with various levels of prior knowledge. Projects might not all be amazing, and that’s ok! A simple project relying on solely the basics may be equally as valuable to one team’s experience as a research paper-worthy project is to another.
Your participants will have expectations, too, about the amount of time they should devote to the hackathon or the amount of knowledge they need up front. Communicate early and clearly about prerequisites if there are any, about the event schedule and required commitment time, and any other expectations you may have of your participants. Most importantly, tell them what to do if something goes wrong, and have support staff on call to follow up quickly if anything does.
Customize your event
Hackathons can be whatever you want them to be, and there’s no limit to the level you can customize the event to make it feel like your own. We’ve seen hackathons in dorm rooms, on mountain tops, and everywhere in between. Consider experimenting with different themes; will your hackathon be a general Qiskit hackathon, or will it cover specific topics like gaming, data analysis, art and design, or location-specific issues? The “flavor” of your hackathon will also change based on who you engage in your event promotions, be it campus clubs, students taking a particular course, specific cohorts of researchers, or just a general audience.
The time frame is another important element. Some hackathons might be a 24 hours sprint, while others may extend for several weeks and run part-time alongside participants’ school assignments or personal lives. It’s up to the organizers which format will be best for their audience, and there’s no single right answer. Finally, some hackathons might have prizes for winners, while some might have giveaways for everyone such as custom swag, certificates, or other ideas. Plan this early, as some items can take a long time to ship. Ensure that you factor giveaways into your budget.
Help from the Qiskit team
The Qiskit Community team includes a dedicated group of event planners who are experienced in organizing hackathons. We are willing to provide support to some events; the larger and more organized the event, the more likely we’ll be able to offer support, though we encourage all of those interested in organizing hackathons to reach out if they need help. Typically, we can connect organizers with IBMers as coaches or money for refreshments, and sometimes we can assist with prizes or organize quantum computing workshops.
We encourage you to check out our full hackathon guide, which includes details on best practices for putting together a hackathon of your own. We’re excited to see organizers around the world continuing to experiment with quantum computing hackathons, and hope you’ll consider organizing one, too. If you’re interested in support from the Qiskit Community team, we encourage you to email us at qiskit.events@us.ibm.com.
