19–26 October 2026 · Warsaw
Qiskit Fall Fest comes to Warsaw. A week of online lectures, a 48-hour hackathon over the weekend, and one in-person day with talks, project demos and 300+ people in the room.
Follow Discord for announcements.
IBM Quantum is the technical partner.
01 / About
A gathering for curious minds. AIQT invites students, makers, researchers, and anyone ready to explore what quantum computing can become.
Start with the fundamentals, move through expert-led lectures, build with Qiskit in the lab, then turn your ideas into a challenge-ready hackathon.
02 / Why join
No quantum background needed
The lecture week starts from zero, and complete beginners are part of the intended audience.
Mostly online
Seven of the eight days are online; only Monday 26 October is in person.
Attend any part
The lecture days, the hackathon weekend and the in-person day can be attended independently.
Held in English
Everything is in English, and there is a daily Q&A for questions.
Hands-on
The hackathon is 48 hours of hands-on Qiskit work.
Teams and networking
Team-forming happens on Discord, and the in-person day ends with networking time.
What you leave with
Working knowledge of Qiskit and a project built with it.
03 / Speakers
Talks for the online lecture week and the main day in Warsaw.
On Discord
Talk times and lineup changes are posted on Discord.
Speaker announcements on DiscordIf you work on quantum computing in research, industry or as a student and would like to give a talk, get in touch with a topic and a rough length. Lecture-week talks are online; main-day talks are in person in Warsaw.
04 / Programme
All times are Warsaw time: CEST (UTC+2) until Saturday 24 October, CET (UTC+1) from Sunday 25 October.
Mon 19 – Fri 23 Oct
OnlineOne live session each evening: a lecture on the day’s lab notebook, then a Q&A. Monday starts from zero, and each day builds on the one before. Recordings, slides and notebooks follow in #materials.
Online, live in #lectures-live on Discord for registered participants
Mon 19 Oct · 19:30–21:00 CEST
Notebook: Lab 0
Set up Qiskit and an IBM Quantum account, run a first circuit with Sampler and Estimator, then build a 6-qubit entangled state.
Tue 20 Oct · 17:00–18:30 CEST
Kiran Kaur Raina · NucleQi
Notebook: Lab 1
Bits versus qubits, superposition and the Bloch sphere, then gates and circuits built in Qiskit and run on a simulator.
Wed 21 Oct · 18:00–19:30 CEST
Notebook: Lab 2
What defines a backend, how noise changes results, how IBM’s Heron and Nighthawk processors compare, and dynamic circuits.
Thu 22 Oct · 18:00–19:30 CEST
Notebook: Lab 3
Error suppression and mitigation in Qiskit Runtime, from dynamical decoupling to ZNE and PEC, then Samplomatic and NoiseLearner.
Fri 23 Oct · 18:00–19:00 CEST
Notebook: Lab 4a + 4b
QAOA for the partition problem and sample-based quantum diagonalization (SQD) of the nitrogen molecule.
Mon–Fri · After each lecture
Questions on the day’s material, on setup problems and on the hackathon.
Fri 23 – Sun 25 Oct
OnlineKick-off on Friday evening, then 48 hours of building through the weekend.
Online — coordinated on Discord
Fri 23 Oct · Evening
The weekend opens with a briefing. Team-forming happens on Discord.
Fri–Sun · 48 hours
Mentors and organisers are reachable on Discord across the weekend.
Sun 25 Oct · Set at kick-off
The deadline is posted on Discord, in UTC.
Mon 26 Oct
The in-person day: five talks, the hackathon results and networking. Doors open at 10:30 CET; the programme runs 11:00–15:00.
Warsaw
10:30 CET
Registration and coffee before the programme starts at 11:00.
11:00–11:15
Welcome from the organisers, AI Quantum Tech.
11:15–12:00
Dr Răzvan Ghiță · IBM
How quantum computers differ from classical ones, and how IBM Quantum and Qiskit make quantum computing accessible.
Discover the fundamentals of quantum computing, how quantum computers differ from classical systems, and the potential of quantum technologies to address problems beyond the reach of conventional computing. This introductory session explores IBM Quantum and Qiskit, IBM’s open-source quantum computing software framework, and how they are helping make quantum computing accessible to developers, researchers, and technology enthusiasts.
Razvan Ghita is a Staff Solutions Engineer at IBM, with a PhD in Telematics and a background in cloud infrastructure, automation, and security. As an IBM Quantum Ambassador and Qiskit Advocate, he is passionate about making quantum computing accessible and helping audiences explore the emerging quantum ecosystem.
12:00–12:30
Mikolaj Olszewski · Google
What quantum computing means for everyday life: real use cases and common myths. Questions follow the talk.
12:30–13:00
Klem Jankiewicz · Classiq
Designing visual interfaces and intuitive experiences for quantum computing, told through Klem’s own work in the field.
13:00–13:45
Dr Paweł Gora · Quantum AI Foundation
How quantum computers can be used for machine learning.
From 13:45
Volodymyr Yurchenko · AWS
How AI agents are used in research.
After the talks
The hackathon winners are announced, and the organisers wrap up the week.
Until 15:00
Participants, speakers, partners and organisers. The day ends at 15:00.
Changes go out first in #announcements on Discord, and this page is updated to match. Hackathon times are posted in #schedule.
06 / Hackathon
Friday 23 – Sunday 25 October. It starts with a Friday-evening kick-off, then 48 hours of building.
On Discord
Team-forming, the rules and the deadline (in UTC) are posted on Discord.
Updates on Discord07 / Prerequisites
Setup takes about fifteen minutes. Do it before the first session.
08 / Partners
Technical partner
IBM Quantum — technical partner. Provides Qiskit, the SDK used throughout the event, and the IBM Quantum Platform participants run circuits on.
Companies, start-ups and research institutions interested in sponsoring or collaborating on the Warsaw edition — talks, challenge prompts, mentors, prizes or funding — are welcome to get in touch.
09 / Contact
Discord for anything about the programme. Email for anything that needs a written record.
Registration, the programme, or anything not covered in the FAQ.
Access needs for the in-person day, or anything that would make the online sessions easier to follow. Tell us early.
Companies and institutions interested in collaborating on the Warsaw edition.
The links above fill in the right address and subject line. For anything else, write directly to
Announcements, setup help, team-forming and hackathon updates.
10 / FAQ
No. The lecture week is built to start from zero. Total beginners are an explicit part of the audience, alongside CS students and people already studying quantum computing.
Basic Python helps, and it matters most during the hackathon weekend, where you will be writing Qiskit code. You do not need to be an expert. If you have never written Python, the lecture week is still followable, and working through a beginner Python tutorial beforehand will help.
English, for all eight days. Lectures, the hackathon and the in-person day are all held in English.
Only for one day. Monday 19 to Sunday 25 October is fully online — lectures, Q&As and the hackathon. Monday 26 October is the in-person day in Warsaw.
You can take part in the online week from anywhere and skip the in-person day, or come to the in-person day without having done the hackathon.
No. The week is built in three parts — the lecture days, the hackathon weekend, and the in-person main day — and you can take part in whichever of them you want.
Nothing. The event is free, including the in-person day. Registration is on Luma.
You do not need to arrive with one. Team-forming happens on Discord in the run-up to the weekend, and there is a channel for finding teammates.
Team size limits and the submission rules are posted on Discord.
Python, Qiskit, and a way to run notebooks, plus a free IBM Quantum account if you want to run on real hardware. The prerequisites page has the full list and the commands.
Per-session requirements — anything a specific lecture needs beyond the base setup — are published with the schedule.
Yes. Complete every graded task in the lecture-week notebooks to receive the Qiskit Fall Fest 2026 Certificate of Participation; the notebooks' grader checks completion. The hackathon winners receive the Certificate of Winning Achievement.
Both certificates are designed and signed by IBM Quantum.
Discord is the main channel: schedule changes, speaker announcements, hackathon updates and setup help are posted there first. This page is updated to match.
The Code of Conduct applies to everyone at every part of the event, online and in person, and lives at its own page linked from the footer.
19–26 October 2026 · Warsaw · Held in English
Registration is open. The speaker lineup, schedule updates and hackathon updates are announced on Discord.
