Quantum Hackathon 2026

Interstate Quantum Hackathon for Beginners 2026

The Interstate Quantum Hackathon for Beginners is a hands-on, three-day event where undergraduate students, graduate students, and working professionals come together to explore the exciting world of quantum computing. Working in teams of two to four, participants will learn the basics of quantum computing through pre-hackathon online training, develop quantum programs with hands-on Qiskit, and run their ideas on quantum simulators.

No prior experience with quantum computing is required. If you have a basic working knowledge of Python and are curious about how quantum computers work, you have everything you need to get started.

Dates	October 22–24, 2026 (kickoff Oct 22 at 5:00 PM CDT; closing ceremony Oct 30)
Format	Hybrid: at partner institutions and online via Zoom
Who	Beginners welcome! Undergraduate students, graduate students, and working professionals
Team size	2–4 people
Registration	Open Sept 24 – Oct 4, 2026

Register to participate: Registration form   |   Download the flyer

Participating institutions

Teams are forming now at these partner institutions from Tennessee, Indiana, Missouri, Alabama, and Florida. Studying or working somewhere else? Register anyway, independent participants and mixed-institution teams are welcome.

Sponsors

This event is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Middle Tennessee Electric, and is part of Qiskit Fall Fest 2026.

Agenda

Training sessions run online before the hackathon. All times are Central Daylight Time (CDT).

Before the Hackathon

When	What
Sept 24 – Oct 4	Registration open
Oct 9 and Oct 16, 12:00–1:30 PM CDT	Online training sessions (Quantum basics, Qiskit, VQE, QML)

Hackathon Week

When	What
Oct 22, 5:00–6:30 PM CDT	Launch & project selection
Oct 23, 5:00–6:30 PM CDT	Keynote industry talk
Oct 24, 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM CDT	Hacking, project submission, presentations & judging
Oct 30	Closing ceremony

This year’s challenges

This year’s hackathon features three challenges:

Challenge	Description
VQE for Chemistry & Materials	Quantum algorithms for molecular and materials problems.
Quantum Machine Learning	Build a quantum/classical model for real-world data problems.
Optimization for Energy & Grid	Quantum algorithms for optimization problems in energy systems and the electric grid.

The goal is to build a functional prototype that runs on a quantum simulator, with bonus points for anything that also runs on real quantum hardware. The full brief — problem statements, starter notebooks, and judging criteria — is published in the challenge repository.

Judging weighs technical depth, creativity of the approach, and how clearly the team can explain what their quantum implementation improves upon the given prototype.

Implementation	Noiseless and noisy hardware implementations
Awards & perks	Awards for the top three teams, plus food and stipends. All participants receive an IBM Certificate of Participation and an MTSU badge.

View the challenge brief (Inactive)

Keynote Speaker

Our keynote speaker will share insights on the latest developments in quantum computing and how they are shaping the future of the field.

Name of the keynote speaker and details will be announced soon.

Organizers & mentors

The people running the event, your point of contact at each partner institution, and the mentors who’ll be on the floor throughout the event to help teams get unstuck.

Executive Committee

Hanna Terletska, MTSU

David Liu, Purdue University-Fort Wayne

Abhijit Chakraborty, MTSU

Organization Committee

John Villanova MTSU	Pushpita Chatterjee MMC	Varun Puram MTSU	Ning Zhang Fisk University
Lei Qian MMC	Aaron Wade UWF	Dinh Nguyen UAH	Ridwan Sakidja MSU

Mentors

Md Arif Hossain MTSU

Wasim R Mondal MTSU

Anirudh Mirmira MTSU

Suggested reading

Nothing here is required before you arrive — the Friday workshops start from first principles. These are just good places to look if you want a head start or want to go deeper after the event.

Foundations

• Quantum Computation and Quantum Information — Michael A. Nielsen and Isaac L. Chuang — the standard graduate reference
• Quantum Computing: An Applied Approach — Jack D. Hidary — a gentler, code-first introduction

Hands-on tools

• IBM Quantum Learning — Free courses covering Qiskit, circuits, and quantum algorithms
• PennyLane — Quantum machine learning library, with a codebook and demos
• Azure Quantum Katas — Self-paced exercises for learning quantum programming

Papers and talks

• Quantum Computing in the NISQ Era and Beyond — John Preskill, 2018 — why near-term quantum hardware is hard and interesting
• Quantum Supremacy Using a Programmable Superconducting Processor — Arute et al., Google AI Quantum, Nature 2019

Contact

Questions? Contact Hanna Terletska at hanna.terletska@mtsu.edu and Abhijit Chakrabarty at abhijit.chakrabarty@mtsu.edu

Challenge repo (Inactive)