Program

Program Overview

The NYUAD Hackathon Program will Include the following:

The Hackathon will start with a series of virtual interactive QC workshops and lightning talks during the third week of March. Attendance is required for all participants.

The event begins on Thursday, April 25, 2024, with a Welcome Reception at 4PM (UAE time). On Friday and Sunday, until 2PM UAE time, teams will develop their applications. On Sunday at 5PM, teams will present their applications to a panel of experts during a public event. Please note that all activities will be held at the NYUAD Conference center (A6).

World NYUAD Hackathon QC Course: Virtual QC Workshops via Zoom (ONLY for Participants) By QWorld and the NYUAD Hackathon

Please note that you will receive a certification for this course from QWorld and the NYUAD Hackathon. This course will run virtually during February and March 2024 and you can take it during your preferred time.

A full month of virtual interactive QC course will be offered from February 15th to March 9th, 2024 for all participants with no or little QC experience by experts from QWorld and the NYUAD Hackathon. This is an excellent professional course that has been offered for a few years now by QWorld and is tailored especially for the NYUAD Hackathon. This will provide an excellent learning experience on QC for all Hackathon participants with certification. It will ensure that you are prepared for the NYUAD hackathon so you can focus on building your application when you arrive at NYUAD.  Please note that the course is structured so that you can complete it during March finishing all the required learning units and tasks during your own preferred time. You must finish all of the learning units and tasks to be admitted to the hackathon and receive the certification. Your participation in the hackathon is contingent upon you receiving the certification for this course. We will provide you with the details about this virtual course by March 1st when you are selected to participate in the Hackathon. 

Virtual Workshops

Open to participants ONLY

8 interactive workshops via Zoom for Participants Only from April 18-24, 2024 at 8PM or 9PM GST (2 hours per day and all required to attend).

    • QC and Ethics (GESDA Workshop)
      Mira L. Wolf-Bauwens, Responsible Quantum Computing Lead at IBM
    • Quantum Tools and Software
      Ricky Young, Quantum software engineer, qBraid
    • An overview of quantum computing with PennyLane
      Ivana Kurecic, Quantum Computing Educator, Xanadu
    • Introduction to Neural Network Quantum States and its Applications
      Oliver Knitter PhD student, SandboxAQ, University of Michigan
    • QC AND Gaming
      Laurentiu Nita CEO founder quarks interactive, coined the term quantum literacy
    • Exploring quantum chemistry workflows on quantum computers with Tangelo
      Valentin Senicourt, Research Scientist SandboxAQ
    • QC for global navigation systems
      Nerrise Favour Njunkeng, PhD student, Stanford University
    • Star to Line Routing for Quantum Circuits
      Benjamin Hall Software Engineer, Infleqtion

Thursday, April  25, 2024

(Arrival Day) Open to participants ONLY

Time Description
3:30 – 4:00PM

Arrive at Meeting Point (Participants Only)

Buses will be available from the hotel for the participants from 3:30 PM. 
4:00 – 6:00PM

Arrival at NYUAD Campus

Arrival Day and Welcome informal food reception at the NYUAD Campus Center; Warm-up activities and introductions; Campus tour;
6:00PM

Take the Bus from the NYUAD Welcome Center to the Cultural Tour

Cultural Tour:
Please RSVP from the link on the program sheet by 4/23 by 2 PM (Kindly note that you can RSVP for only one of these activities):
1) Grand Mosque tour and then Corniche.
2) Louvre Lounge.
Buses will take you back to Sofitel after each trip.

 Day 1 – Friday, April  26, 2024

Open to participants ONLY

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9:00am-9:15am

Hackathon Welcome, Opening Remarks and Agenda

Sana Odeh, NYUAD Hackathon Founder and Chair, and a Clinical Professor, NYU NY and Affiliated Faculty at NYUAD

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9:15–11:00am

Inspirational Technical Lighting Talks and Keynotes

Open to Participants ONLY (Conference Center Auditorium, A6)

Title

Speaker and Description

Sustainable Development Goals, Quantum Global Governance Efforts, Challenges, Ethics and Responsibilities for the International Community in Relation to Quantum Computing

Luca Mira Wolf-Bauwens & Davide Fanciulli

Luca Mira Wolf-Bauwens, IBM Research Europe, Switzerland

Davide Fanciulli, Assistant Program Management Officer, UN SDG Lab, Switzerland

Quantum Computing Meets Machine Learning: Unleashing New Frontiers

Kaoutar El Maghraoui

Principal Research Scientist and Technical Leader, IBM Research AI, USA

Technology Innovation Institute Sponsor Talk

Leandro Aolita

Executive Director of the Quantum Algorithms division, Technology Innovation Institute

Storytelling framework

John Rolf Elbing

Storybuilder, Standpoint, Switzerland

QC for Healthcare

Kenneth Heitritter

Quantum Research Scientist, qBraid, USA

Sanabox and QC

Amro Imam

Education Outreach Resident at SandboxAQ

Human-Centered Design: Empowering Youth for Social Positive Impact

Teresa Alaniz & Alessandra Motteran

Director of Design Delivery, NiEW

Associate Manager, NiEW, Italy, Mexico

Vision of the NYUAD Center for Quantum and Topological Systems (CQTS)

Hisham Sati

Director of the NYUAD Center for Quantum and Topological Systems (CQTS); NYUAD Associate Dean of Science; Professor and Program Head of Mathematics at NYUAD; A member of the NYUAD Hackathon Program Committee, UAE

Quantum Key Stakeholders Assembly and The Intersection of Quantum Computing with Arts, Culture, and Society

David Morcuende Cantador

New Technologies Expert, Mahou – San Miguel, Spain

How our applications from the previous NYUAD Hackathon (2023) inspired our published paper “QML for finance fraud detection.”

Nouhaila Innan

PhD student, Hassan II University of Casablanca, Morocco

Quantum Computing Talk

Philipp Kammerlander

Executive Director of the Quantum Center at ETH Zurich, Switzerland

QWorld

Pawel Gora

Founder & CEO @ Quantum AI Foundation, Chairperson @ World, Poland

QUAE

Husayn Gokal

AI and QC Researcher, tech and business advisor, QUAE

Anomaly detection with quantum circuits for high-energy physics

Simone Bordoni

Associate Researcher at TII, UAE

ANNOUNCING Prize for winning team from Womanium

Vardaan Sahgal

Quantum Software and Solutions Head, Womanium Quantum, USA

ANNOUNCING Prize for winning team FROM OQI’S GESDA AND CERN

Catherine Lefebvre

Senior Advisory Open Quantum Institute, GESDA, USA

Q/A Keynote Panel

Q/A Keynote Panel

Experience of 2023 NYUAD Hackathon Winning Team

MC: Sama & Amro

Sama Kanbour & Amro Saidelahel

Sama Kanbour, AI & Lean Program Director, GE Aerospace, USA
Amro Saidelahel, Education Resident at SandboxAQ, USA
Yafa JARADAT, Student, Palestine Polytechnic University, Palestine
Nouhaila Innan, PhD student, Hassan II University of Casablanca, Morocco
Sahar Ben Rached, PhD Student, University of Tunis El Manar, Spain
Elena Acinapura, Student, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Elias Xaver Huber, ETH Zürich / NUS Singapore, Singapore
Ricky Young, Quantum Software Engineer, qBraid
Mohammed Alghadeer, PhD Candidate University of Oxford, UK
Kamila Zaman, Senior QML Researcher, Ebrains lab, CQTS group at NYUAD, Pakistan

Key deliverable for today

Professor Sana Odeh

NYUAD Hackathon Founder and Chair, and a Clinical Professor, NYU and Affiliated Faculty at NYUAD
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11:00am –1:00pm

Conference Center 001

Ideation (Partipants Only)

Team challenge (idea) and team formation

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1:00am – 2:00pm

Lunch

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2:00 – 4:00pm

Ideation Continued

Finalize team challenge and team formation and set team schedule for the hackathon

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4:00 – 4:30pm

Napkin Pitches (30 secs per team)

1 member from each team will pitch team idea. Each pitch should have 1 sentence capturing the problem, solution and tech ingredient. Each pitch will be 30 seconds per team. This is a good exercise to get all sharpen their idea and get feedback from judges and other teams. We want to make sure everyone has a solid and exciting ideas. The order of the pitch will start with team 1 to 15.

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4:30 – 5:00pm

Idea Refinement

Teams meet and start working on their projects, each team determines their own schedule. Judges pass by the teams to give feedback (5 minutes with each team).

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5:30 – 9:30pm

Desert Safari

Buses will be available from Campus at 4:50PM. Please note that Dhow Cruise Dinner was canceled because of damage from the storm last week, rest assure that the desert Safari is one of the top activity for the UAE:
Please RSVP from the link in the program sheet by 4/23 by 2 PM

*Lunch and dinner will be served at A6

Day 2 – Saturday, April 27, 2024

Teams Work on their own schedule (Only Participants): NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

Open to participants ONLY

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9:00am – 12:00pm

Teams meet and start working on their projects

Each team determines their own schedule

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12:00am – 1:00pm

Lunch

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1:00am – 6:00pm

Teams meet and working on their projects

Each team determines their own schedule

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6:00am – 7:00pm

Dinner

 

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6:00 – 10:00pm

Teams may continue working on their projects

Each team determines their own schedule

Transportation to the hotel will be available from 6:30 – 10:30 PM from Campus.

*Lunch and dinner will be served at A6

Day 3 – Sunday, April 28, 2024

Team Presentations and Judging

PUBLIC EVENT

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9:00 – 1:00pm

Team work on thier own time

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1:00 – 2:00pm

Lunch

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2:00 – 4:00pm

Rehearsal

Rehearsal Team in the Auditorium (the order will be listed on the team Document)

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5:00 – 5:10pm

Welcome

Sana Odeh, NYUAD Hackathon Founder & Chair and Clinical Professor at NYU NY and Affiliated Faculty at NYUAD

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5:10 – 5:15pm

NYUAD Vision, QC, and UN SDGs

Arlie Petters, Provost, New York University Abu Dhabi

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5:15 – 5:40pm

Keynote Panel Discussion

The Future of Quantum Computing, Challenges, Opportunities, Ethics, and how we can implement UN Sustainable Goals (SDGs) and QC to bring about a better future for our planet and world!

Heike Rill, Head of Science & Technology and Lead of IBM Research Quantum Europe, Switzerland

Prince Koree Osei, Lead Scientist, Quantum Leap Africa, African Institute for Mathematical Science, Ghana

Julia Theodora Thiele, EMEA SARL Account Manager, Germany Amazon Web Services

Dr Abdullah Al Shimmari, Senior Director AI and Data Solutions, Core42, UAE

Kaoutar El Maghraoui, Principal Research Scientist and Technical Leader, IBM Research AI, USA

Philipp Kammerlander, Executive Director of the Quantum Center at ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Catherine Lefebvre, Senior Advisory Open Quantum Institute, GESDA, USA

Davide Fanciulli, Assistant Program Management Officer, UN SDG Lab, Switzerland

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5:40 – 7:30pm

Team Presentations

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7:30-8:00pm

Judging

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7:30 – 7:37pm

Keynote: Quantum is not just about computing!

Urbasi Sinha, Professor at the Raman Research Institute (RRI), India

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7:37-7:44pm

Keynote: The future of Quantum Computing: Challenges and Opportunities

Christian Weedbrook, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Xanadu, Canada

 

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7:45 - 8:00pm

Announce Winning Teams

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8:00pm - 9:00pm

Reception with Food

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9:00pm

Take bus back to Hotel

*Lunch and dinner will be served at A6

Past Hackathons

2020 Hackathon Winnders

Hackathon 2022

2020 Hackathon Winnders

Hackathon 2020

2020 Hackathon Winnders

Hackathon 2019

View All Past Hackathons