Get Involved With These 3 Qiskit Contributor Events This Year
Qiskit and IBM Quantum host a TON of events throughout the year, and it can be hard to keep track of the ones that are most important to you. There are events for beginners, for advanced users, for students, for researchers, for open source enthusiasts — and so much more. So in this blog, we’re going to focus on the regular open-source- and open science-focused events that are happening this year.
You can also see a list of these events (and more) upcoming this month at https://qiskit.org/events.
Qiskit DemoDays
When is it?
Every other Thursday, 3pm UTC
Where is it?
Virtual, hosted on Webex
What is it?
DemoDay is where Qiskit maintainers and contributors come together to watch demos of upcoming features, improvements, bug fixes, and ecosystem components. Anyone can volunteer to demo something (as long as it is Qiskit related). We also announce and discuss any upcoming release news for Qiskit modules. And if you miss a week or forgot the syntax for a key code demo you wanted to try — don’t worry! All the sessions are recorded and accompanying code examples are shared here. You can also see the agendas for upcoming sessions there, too.
Additional Info
If you would like to volunteer to do a demo at an upcoming DemoDay, please reach out to Luciano Bello or Abby Mitchell via Qiskit Slack. This is a great opportunity to showcase something you’re working on and gather questions and feedback from other Qiskit developers. Work-in-progress features or projects are also acceptable demos (and actively encouraged!).
Qiskit Seminar Series
When is it?
Every Friday, 5pm UTC
Where is it?
Virtual, hosted live on the Qiskit YouTube channel
What is it?
Started during the COVID-19 pandemic as a way for the quantum research community to stay connected during global lockdowns, the Qiskit Seminar Series is a weekly gathering of researchers and developers to discuss the newest academic and research topics within quantum computing. The sessions are hosted by Zlatko Minev, PhD, and feature a different speaker each week, focusing on deep dives into advanced topics on quantum computing.
Qiskit Office Hours
When is it?
- 2nd Monday of every month, at 2pm UTC
- 4th Monday of every month, at 5pm UTC
Where is it?
Virtual, hosted on Webex
What is it?
This drop-in session is for you if you are currently working on a GitHub issue for Qiskit. If you are stuck, have a question, or just need some core maintainer input, then you can drop into this call and get live support from a Qiskit maintainer. This session is mainly focused on supporting people who are contributing to one of our open source repos, but if you have a general Qiskit user question, we may be able to help depending on the context.
Additional Info
These sessions are not recorded as they are intended to be more casual conversations where contributors can drop in and out to get support without the pressure of a large audience. These sessions are most valuable if you come prepared to the call with a specific question or issue you are having. We can’t always solve every issue, but hopefully you should at least come away with useful additional context or ideas to help you move forward.
Sync your calendar!
To keep up with the details of these sessions, as well as other Qiskit events, you can refer to this calendar to keep yourself informed. The calendar invites include scheduling info, Webex links etc. All times are pinned to UTC. We will continuously update this view if there are cancellations or time changes. You can also download an iCal file from there, or sync to your own calendar app using this link.
Don’t forget about asynchronous communication!
Remember, you don’t have to wait for one of these events to get involved in the Qiskit open-source community! If you have a question or idea but aren’t sure where to go or who to discuss with, you can check out this wiki of support channels or start a discussion in our GitHub. And if you’re new to the open source side of our Qiskit community but not sure how to get started, check out our contributing guidelines here.
That’s all for now, folks! Whether you are a seasoned Qiskit contributor or just starting to get involved in our open-source community, these are great opportunities to engage with other contributors and maintainers, so keep these events and activities on your radar for 2023!
