Quantum Events Are Even Better As A Qiskit Advocate
Hey Qiskitters!
I am Samanvay Sharma and I’m a Qiskit Advocate based in India. As part of one of the first cohorts of the Qiskit Advocates program, I will be sharing my experience briefly and expressing my opinions on why you should consider joining this group of quantum computing professionals — specifically about how Qiskit-exclusive events make this a worthwhile experience.
Before we move ahead, I suggest checking out the previous articles written by fellow Advocate members and friends. Here, they collectively compile their own wonderful experiences as Advocate members focusing on other aspects of the program:
- Join Qiskit Advocates to Expand Your Network and Grow by Farai Mazhandu;
- Why I became a Qiskit Advocate, and why you should, too by Vicente Pina Canelles;
- Benefits of the Qiskit Advocate: Qiskit Project Access by Jack Woehr;
My Journey as a Qiskit Advocate
Prior to the Qiskit Advocates program, I was exploring quantum computing pretty much on my own with little support. When I found out about the program last year in September, I just knew I had to apply. The opportunity to be a part of a global community of quantum computing experts was exactly what I was looking for.
I had previously made open-source contributions to the Qiskit project, which came in handy as one of the requirements to join. The next was an assignment of sorts: we were given a series of questions based on the four elements of the Qiskit stack (Terra, Aer, Aqua, Ignis) to be completed in just a few days. Despite being from a software background, I was presented the opportunity to learn much more about the hardware behind Qiskit, since working through the questions meant that we were learning more broadly about the packages and the workings of each element. Getting the recognition and the badge of approval that came with joining the program made the effort even more fruitful.
Once I became a Qiskit Advocate, an even bigger world of possibilities had opened up for me than I expected. Not only was I able to interact with like-minded people with a common desire to advance quantum computing, but the experience helped shape the kind of contributions I intend to make to the field. I realized I wanted to work on growing and improving the experience of the global community of fellow quantum computing enthusiasts, on top of my own research interests. This is one of the reasons I helped start the IndiQ Meetups initiative with students from India and fellow Qiskitters. I wanted to bring a similar community experience to places lacking organization and awareness of the field by creating an avenue to bring together people enthusiastic about quantum computing and by organizing events, all with the support of fellow program members and friends.
As other Qiskit Advocates have pointed out, we are given the opportunity to present and participate in demos of our current projects and work. I too was able to deliver an interactive presentation along with a fellow Advocate and IndiQ organizer in a team-based demo. This was helpful to people interested in creating their own sub-communities, and resulted in a lot of useful feedback for us as organizers.
This has been experience unlike any other, and it would’ve been much more difficult to explore the field with so much flexibility and enthusiasm had it not been for this program. Creating a space conducive for interaction, discussion and exchange of ideas has been central to the experience, and most of all we have a lot of fun.
There are a lot of benefits to being a Qiskit Advocate which have been elaborated on by other Advocates, so I will be focusing on one specific element of the Qiskit Advocates experience from my perspective: events.
Events — The social core of Qiskit Advocates
An environment for exchanging ideas and creating a social experience in quantum computing is essential to the Qiskit community, and that is what puts Qiskit at the top of the game. The quality of events — global and local — makes the Qiskit experience arguably the best in the world, and these events have played a vital role in the social and collaborative experience of the quantum community as well as the Advocates program.
Active Qiskit Advocates not only get invited to attend global events created for the quantum computing community which range from conferences, hackathons, meetups and Qiskit Camps, but they also get priority access to both open-community and advocate-exclusive events.
Before I became a Qiskit Advocate, like many other enthusiasts I too was interested in joining the first editions of Qiskit Camp and Qiskit Camp Europe, but by the time I had found out about them and applied to attend, all of the open spots were already filled. Once I became a Qiskit Advocate, I was notified of my very first event days before the announcement — that is how I successfully registered for the first edition of Qiskit Camp Asia in Japan. If not for this program, I might’ve been late again to register due to the immense popularity of Qiskit events, and I certainly wouldn’t have been able to have the amazing experiences that I had. At that event, I was able to compete and complete a project out of my comfort zone, and I’m still in contact with the friends I made during that journey, even as we interact from different parts of the world.
Being a Qiskit Advocate has opened up a number of similar experiences since then, such as camp invites, internal hackathons, research presentations, and virtual hangouts, to keep us excited for new developments in quantum computing. I even had the opportunity to collaborate with fellow Advocates to organize events like this — As part of my IndiQ group we hosted our very first quantum game jam in which a number of Advocates participated and helped organize.
There are still ongoing events for you to take part in. As Qiskit Advocates you will have the opportunity to be pre-invited to events like the recently concluded Qiskit Summer Jam and the highly-anticipated upcoming Qiskit Global Summer School which is currently taking applications. Even non-advocates can keep a track of all community events by following the Events page as well as following Qiskit on all social platforms, but as Advocates you don’t even have to worry about these steps since you’ll notified anyway!
In order to re-emphasise the importance of quantum computing community events, I’ll leave you with part of a story that I find really interesting. In October 1979 during the 20th Annual IEEE Symposium on the Foundations of Computer Science, quantum information researcher Gilles Brassard, who was scheduled to give a talk at the event later, was swimming at the beach of the conference hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, when fellow researcher Charles Bennett, who was attending the same conference independently and thinking the former might be interested in the idea, suddenly swam up to him and started talking about how to use quantum mechanics to make banks notes that are impossible to counterfeit. By the time they swam back ashore, Brassard had found a way to improve it. That was the start of what would eventually become the BB84 Quantum Crpytography protocol.
Think of it as one of the first hacks in quantum computing, and an event brought the two together back when quantum computing was a very limited topic of research. Today with easier access to research and smoother flow of ideas, researchers and enthusiasts in quantum computing can come together to collaborate and build upon the progress of the past. Qiskit events are helping create that reality each time with better and improved experiences.
I’ll just say that personally I’ve had a great experience with the community and I’ve been grateful for the opportunity to learn about quantum computing in the most inventive and interactive of ways. For future applicants and interested candidates, I want you to experience the same and much more. How much benefit you can get from the program depends on your own initiative, but rest assured the community will be here to support you and most of all make quantum computing fun for you. I can’t wait to meet you all!
The Qiskit Advocates program is resuming the next round of cohort applications soon. In the meanwhile if you are interested to know more please fill out this form to register for prompt updates on the program.
