“We invite everyone to be part of the second quantum revolution!”
With the success of the QDrive project (summer 2019), we are taking the next step.
We are now five QCousins (QLatvia, QTurkey, QHungary, QBalkan, and QPoland) looking for entangling with new ones. Potential new QCousins should invite some of the present QCousins, and organize a public educational event together with them. We aim to expand our scope globally by having 50+ QCousins by the end of 2023.
Quantum cousins (QCousins) are operational groups all around the world willing to popularize quantum technologies and quantum software and to involve more people to the field by working locally and/or internationally.
The idea behind “being cousins” is to create active groups on a global scale, who can support and encourage each other, even though they may operate only locally.
If you are interested, please check the details below.
The outline for a candidate
Please first check the information on the pages QWorld and QCousins, and the minimal expectations of being a QCousin: three public-education and one academic-education challenges.
Local team: If you are interested in being a QCousin, you should have a local team with at least two people who are interested in (i) teaching and popularizing science and technology and (ii) organizing and leading academic and public workshops.
The first event for entangling with new QCousins
During QDrive, we organized 10 three-day long workshops in eight different countries on the basics of quantum computation and programming. We handed out more than 200 diplomas. These workshops were welcomed by the local participants and they created considerable interests for further collaboration and activities.
During the workshops, we used an open source and free introductory material called Bronze (a collection of Jupyter notebooks using python and Qiskit library) to introduce the basics of quantum computation and quantum programming. The outline of a typical workshop using Bronze can be found here.
At this moment we, as QCousins, offer to organize a 3-day long workshop together with the local team in a local venue as the first step of the entanglement. In this way, we can raise local interest and also exchange our knowledge and experiences for future events.
Over time, different activities can be formulated similar to the first entangling event. We are also open to proposals of the candidates.
QHosT
The local team, called QHost, should take care of the local organization of the first event. We refer to the QHost page of the QDrive project to give some ideas on organizational matters.
QMentors
The local team should have at least two mentors for the first event. These mentors can be the local leaders and/or mentors for future events. The local mentors (QMentors) should check the material in advance and then should help the participants during the first workshop.
Visiting team
Depending on the availability of QCousins, ideally two experienced workshop leaders[*] visit the candidate group to lead the workshop.
In principle the QHost should cover the expenses of the visiting group, however, exceptions can be made.
[*] Any person who has led at least two workshops.
Application
The candidate should send an e-mail to the project coordinators (see below) with the following information:
- Local team members;
- Preferred time-intervals to organize the first event, preferably within 12 months;
- Venue of the workshop;
- Confirmation of taking care of the organization of the first event;
- Names of the two local mentors;
- Whether the expenses of the visiting team can be covered or not.
Processing applications
Our intention is to give priority to those countries in which quantum computing is less developed.
The coordinator replies within 72 hours to confirm the application.
All applications are kept in a pool. Depending on the availability (and budget) of people from QCousins, a tentative date is scheduled, and then the candidate is informed, and a video call is scheduled. This may take up to 2 months.
It is expected that all QCousins will be visiting a similar number of candidates per year.
Project team and contacts
Current coordinators (2019):
Abuzer Yakaryilmaz (abuzer [at] lu.lv)
Paweł Gora (pgora85 [at] gmail.com)
QCousins’ contacts:
QLatvia: Abuzer Yakaryilmaz (abuzer [at] lu.lv)
QTurkey: Özlem Salehi Köken (ozlemsalehi [at] gmail.com)
QHungary: Zoltán Zimborás (zimboras.zoltan [at] mta.wigner.hu)
QBalkan: Mohamed Elsayed Yahia (myahia [at] ius.edu.ba)
QPoland: Paweł Gora (pgora85 [at] gmail.com)
Designer: Agnieszka Wolska (agnieszka.k.wolska [at] gmail.com)
Frequently asked questions
1) What is the relation of this project with IBM?
QWorld is a not-for-profit network, founded with the goal of serving society and humanity in general, and not to generate income. We do not have a formal relation with IBM. Nevertheless, currently our project (e.g., our educational materials Bronze and Bronze+) does rely on, and benefit a lot from, the recent public project Qiskit founded by IBM Research, and we are grateful to IBM for this. Beyond acknowledging this, we do not promote IBM products at our workshops or other public interfaces. Also, we wish to diversify our activities by involving different, competing public quantum technology platforms.