By Brian Ingmanson
Today’s students are the future of the quantum computing industry. IBM Quantum and the Qiskit team know that empowering students will benefit the entire field. That’s why we’re thrilled to be once again hosting the Qiskit Fall Fest.
The Qiskit Fall Fest is a collection of quantum computing events on college campuses around the world. Every Fall Fest event is organized and run by the students on each campus, with support from the entire IBM Quantum team. Student leaders work alongside IBM throughout the month of September to design and plan their event, which are then run in October. The events vary from technical hackathons to beginner-friendly challenges, all with the goal of helping to grow the local community’s skill set.
This year marks the second annual Qiskit Fall Fest. We’ve already seen over 15,000 students get hands-on experience using real quantum computers from Qiskit student events over the last three years, with many more to join this year. The 2022 Fall Fest already has more than 100 student organizers spread across 34 different locations, all preparing to host an amazing event.
These organizers aren’t just randomly picked — they are former IBM Quantum interns, Qiskit Advocates, and other leaders in the field. Although most are still students, they are already proficient in QC applications and use cases. IBM Quantum runs a series of trainings all throughout September that help empower the students to act as leaders, to share their knowledge, and to run a successful event.
Take it from Michelle Gelman — a UT Austin Senior who ran a hackathon last year. “The Fall Fest was an amazing experience for the Quantum Collective at UT Austin. We got to design our hackathon from the ground up. I invited guest speakers that our participants loved, and used IBM’s workshops to help everyone learn the basics. Most importantly, everyone had a blast building quantum projects regardless of their background. Being part of such an amazing community event really helped drive participation for our club, and our officers had a wonderful experience working with IBM Quantum.”
The Fall Fest is supported by IBM Quantum, which means every student organizer receives support and resources for their event. This includes workshops on how to be an event planner, tutorials and educational materials to help teach others about quantum computing and Qiskit, as well as fun graphics and challenges to use. Every Fall Fest event this year will have a home on www.qiskit.org as well, so student organizers can add this achievement to their portfolio.
Each Fall Fest event is truly owned by the organizers of that location. They decide the scale, the topic, the structure, the dates, the invites, the tweets, the winners, and the after-party. It’s one of the things that we love most about the Qiskit Fall Fest — the diversity of what gets created when we hand the student organizers the keys to event planning.
