[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":309},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-hackathon-2026\u002Fgeorgia-tech":3,"sibling-dives-hackathon-2026\u002Fgeorgia-tech":306,"learn-track-hackathon-2026\u002Fgeorgia-tech":307,"learn-prereq-hackathon-2026\u002Fgeorgia-tech":308},{"id":4,"title":5,"authors":6,"body":8,"breadcrumb":275,"builders":279,"byline":280,"category":280,"categoryName":280,"challenge":280,"courseAuthor":280,"courseLead":280,"dek":281,"description":282,"draft":283,"extension":284,"eyebrow":280,"featured":283,"finish":280,"fork":280,"group":280,"groupName":280,"hero":280,"heroAlt":280,"heroCta":280,"heroImage":280,"homepageFeatured":283,"kind":280,"lessonCount":280,"meta":285,"navigation":286,"newsItems":280,"next":280,"node":287,"ogImage":294,"order":280,"outcomes":280,"path":295,"prerequisite":280,"prerequisiteLinks":280,"publishDate":296,"readingTime":280,"related":297,"relatedProjects":280,"section":280,"seo":298,"share":286,"spotlight":283,"stem":300,"tags":301,"track":280,"trackName":280,"updates":280,"__hash__":305},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fhackathon-2026\u002Fgeorgia-tech.md","Georgia Tech winners: Qollab x IonQ Hackathon 2026",[7],"qollab",{"type":9,"value":10,"toc":265},"minimark",[11,15,21,24,29,38,46,49,53,56,59,62,68,71,80,89,93,96,99,102,107,110,117,124,128,131,136,139,142,145,152,159,163,166,169,172,245,249,257],[12,13,14],"p",{},"At the Georgia Tech node of the Qollab x IonQ Hackathon 2026, 38 teams signed up, 27 of them solo. Of the 38, 34 were on the student track and 4 on the professional track. The online build weekend ran from 7 PM ET on October 9 to 7 PM ET on October 11. In that time, 8 of the 38 teams entered 13 projects.",[16,17],"youtube-video",{"poster":18,"title":19,"yt":20},"\u002F_content\u002Fimages\u002Fhackathon-2026\u002Fgeorgia-tech\u002Freel-poster.webp","Georgia Tech at the Qollab x IonQ Hackathon 2026","543xrOCpIuE",[12,22,23],{},"The projects range from chip packaging and post-quantum cryptography to a lab on what measurement evidence can certify. Every one of them is open source on Qollab.",[25,26,28],"h2",{"id":27},"the-georgia-tech-node","The Georgia Tech node",[12,30,31,32,37],{},"Georgia Tech's ",[33,34,36],"a",{"href":35},"https:\u002F\u002Fgatech.campuslabs.com\u002Fengage\u002Forganization\u002Fqca","Quantum Computing Association",", a student-led club for quantum computing and quantum information, organised the node. Shivani Mayekar led it with Aarya Anup and Arhan Deshpande.",[12,39,40,41,45],{},"The club meets on Thursdays for workshops and general meetings. Alongside the hackathon, it hosted Qiskit Fall Fest 2026 at Georgia Tech, one of the student-run quantum events that IBM Quantum supports. The School of Physics offers a ",[33,42,44],{"href":43},"https:\u002F\u002Fcatalog.gatech.edu\u002Fprograms\u002Fminor-quantum-sciences-technology\u002F","Minor in Quantum Sciences and Technology"," that is open to students in any major.",[12,47,48],{},"The projects were scored on novelty, technical execution, impact and documentation. The node's judging panel was Dr. Yan Wang, Dr. Martin Mourigal and Conor Fitzmaurice.",[25,50,52],{"id":51},"_1st-place-five-tests-priced","1st place: Five Tests, Priced",[12,54,55],{},"Five Tests, Priced asks which 5 of 13 heart tests a clinic should order, and what each extra dollar buys. The idea came from one of the prompts the node's organisers set: choose the most informative heart-disease tests from a list. To make it more realistic, Samanyu Badam and Sean Lee, team Chocolate Bananas, added real test prices and a budget.",[12,57,58],{},"Samanyu, a third-year Georgia Tech undergraduate double majoring in computer science and math, wrote the code. Sean, a second-year applied physics major, handled the theory.",[12,60,61],{},"The pair's solver is QAOA, a quantum optimisation algorithm, with an XY mixer that keeps exactly five tests in every panel. A single job covers five budgets, and they check the results against an exhaustive search. The circuit does not yet protect against noise, and with more time they would like to learn how to add error correction.",[63,64],"blog-figure",{"alt":65,"caption":66,"src":67},"Samanyu Badam and Sean Lee, with a screenshot of Five Tests, Priced: heart-test panels by one QAOA job","Samanyu Badam and Sean Lee","\u002F_content\u002Fimages\u002Fhackathon-2026\u002Fgeorgia-tech\u002Ffive-tests-priced-heart-test-p-winner.webp",[12,69,70],{},"Sean has worked on graphical representations of neural activity in the brain. Next, he wants to apply optimisation algorithms there and see whether the results match real data.",[72,73,77],"pull-quote",{"avatar":74,"name":75,"role":76},"\u002F_content\u002Fimages\u002Fhackathon-2026\u002Fgeorgia-tech\u002Ffive-tests-priced-heart-test-p-avatar.webp","Sean Lee","Five Tests, Priced",[12,78,79],{},"Before this weekend, I thought quantum computing was this heavily theoretical field that's barely seen practical applications so far, but now I've learned through this hackathon that not only are there some really cool and useful ways we can use QC, it's accessible in a way where if you put in the work, you can pretty quickly start making things.",[81,82],"project-card",{"builder":83,"description":84,"owner":85,"thumb":86,"title":87,"to":88},"Samanyu Badam, Sean Lee","A step-by-step walkthrough with graphs and tables.","sbadam","\u002F_content\u002Fimages\u002Fhackathon-2026\u002Fgeorgia-tech\u002Ffive-tests-priced-heart-test-p.webp","Five Tests, Priced: heart-test panels by one QAOA job","\u002Fu\u002Fsbadam\u002Ffive-tests-priced-heart-test-p",[25,90,92],{"id":91},"_2nd-place-fold-quantum-settlers","2nd place: Fold: Quantum Settlers",[12,94,95],{},"Fold is a Catan-style board game in which one settlement can sit in two places at once. Kevin Gao, Nash Pillai and David Guo, team Spin Up, are roommates and sophomores at Georgia Tech. David, who is pursuing a quantum minor, led the math and the ideas behind the game, and Kevin and Nash wrote the software.",[12,97,98],{},"Spin Up started from quantum chess and reached Catan by way of other board games and a detour into 5D chess. Fold keeps Catan's roads, trading and resource collection. After splitting a settlement, players can use the phase and interference controls or entangle it with another player's settlement. A production roll measures the shared state and decides which site the building stands on before anyone collects resources.",[12,100,101],{},"After a phase flip, Spin Up's settlement still read 50\u002F50, and the two numbers showed no change. Interference then sent it to the opposite site from where an unflipped settlement went, which let the team see what the invisible sign was doing.",[63,103],{"alt":104,"caption":105,"src":106},"Kevin Gao, Nash Pillai and David Guo, with a screenshot of Fold: Quantum Settlers","Kevin Gao, Nash Pillai and David Guo","\u002F_content\u002Fimages\u002Fhackathon-2026\u002Fgeorgia-tech\u002Ffold-quantum-settlers-winner.webp",[12,108,109],{},"At one point the team kept rolling twos, and the ordinary dice began to look more suspicious than the quantum features. Online multiplayer and saved games are next on their list.",[72,111,114],{"avatar":112,"name":105,"role":113},"\u002F_content\u002Fimages\u002Fhackathon-2026\u002Fgeorgia-tech\u002Ffold-quantum-settlers-avatar.webp","Fold: Quantum Settlers",[12,115,116],{},"Pick one thing you want to see happen and start there. We had a building with two possible locations. That was enough to start asking questions about probabilities, then phase, then what happens when two buildings share a state. You do not need to understand the whole field before you are allowed to be curious about one small part of it.",[81,118],{"builder":119,"description":120,"owner":121,"thumb":122,"title":113,"to":123},"Kevin Gao, Nash Pillai, David Guo","A pass-and-play game for two to four players that runs in the browser.","pudging","\u002F_content\u002Fimages\u002Fhackathon-2026\u002Fgeorgia-tech\u002Ffold-quantum-settlers.webp","\u002Fu\u002Fpudging\u002Ffold-quantum-settlers",[25,125,127],{"id":126},"_3rd-place-q-scope","3rd place: Q-Scope",[12,129,130],{},"Q-Scope is an autonomous diagnostic for quantum hardware. Quantum systems are sensitive, and a device's Hamiltonian, which governs how its qubits evolve, can drift. Q-Scope treats characterising the device as an active learning problem. Bayesian inference and expected information gain decide which measurement it makes next, first to locate the drift and then to calibrate it.",[63,132],{"alt":133,"caption":134,"src":135},"Dobromir Iliev, Alex Cook and Christian Captain, with a screenshot of Q-Scope","Dobromir Iliev, Alex Cook and Christian Captain","\u002F_content\u002Fimages\u002Fhackathon-2026\u002Fgeorgia-tech\u002Fq-scope-winner.webp",[12,137,138],{},"Dobromir Iliev, Alex Cook and Christian Captain entered it as team Unitary. Dobromir studies computer science and math, has worked at IBM, Sandia National Laboratories and the Georgia Tech Research Institute, and built the Bayesian inference pipeline. Alex, a math and physics double major and a member of the Quantum Computing Association, worked on the code and its testing. Christian, a first-year physics PhD student, guided the Hamiltonian modelling and explained the physics in the demo.",[12,140,141],{},"The method draws on the Hafezi Group's Meta Hamiltonian Learning research. The team ran Q-Scope on a simulator with Qiskit and made Manim animations so viewers can see how it learns from each measurement.",[12,143,144],{},"After two days of debugging quantum algorithms, the team hit its toughest technical problem: Zoom would not record Christian's part of the demo. \"Turns out, recording a physicist was harder than simulating one.\" They got the recording done just in time.",[72,146,149],{"avatar":147,"name":134,"role":148},"\u002F_content\u002Fimages\u002Fhackathon-2026\u002Fgeorgia-tech\u002Fq-scope-avatar.webp","Q-Scope",[12,150,151],{},"Seeing Q-Scope choose its own experiments and narrow down the Hamiltonian drift was the aha moment. We weren't just simulating quantum physics anymore; we had built something that could learn from it.",[81,153],{"builder":154,"description":155,"owner":156,"thumb":157,"title":148,"to":158},"Dobromir Iliev, Alex Cook, Christian Captain","An interactive diagnosis dashboard for Hamiltonian drift in quantum devices.","dobi","\u002F_content\u002Fimages\u002Fhackathon-2026\u002Fgeorgia-tech\u002Fq-scope.webp","\u002Fu\u002Fdobi\u002Fq-scope",[25,160,162],{"id":161},"every-other-project-from-georgia-tech","Every other project from Georgia Tech",[12,164,165],{},"Grover's algorithm runs in three of the other projects. Grover the Seismologist applies it to earthquake records, and QuantumVision uses it to find a target person in a crowd image. Fault-to-Search Runtime Probe runs it as a consistency control.",[12,167,168],{},"Five-Feature Selection Lab takes on a problem close to the 1st-place one, selecting five of thirteen heart-disease features. On the energy side, RePack-Q reuses retired EV battery cells and H2Flex schedules hydrogen production as electricity prices change through the day.",[12,170,171],{},"The other 10 projects entered at the node, A to Z.",[173,174,175,183,190,197,203,210,217,224,231,238],"ul",{},[176,177,178,182],"li",{},[33,179,181],{"href":180},"\u002Fu\u002Fdev\u002Ffault-to-search-runtime-probe","Fault-to-Search Runtime Probe",": PQC fault-exposure evidence with a strong classical residual-verification benchmark and a separate runnable Grover consistency control.",[176,184,185,189],{},[33,186,188],{"href":187},"\u002Fu\u002Fdev\u002Ffive-feature-selection-lab","Five-Feature Selection Lab",": Exact and Qiskit XY feature selection for five of thirteen heart-disease features.",[176,191,192,196],{},[33,193,195],{"href":194},"\u002Fu\u002Fdev\u002Fgrover-the-seismologist","Grover the Seismologist",": A coherent earthquake-record predicate with Grover amplification, complete measured-index checks and a cost-honest classical comparison.",[176,198,199],{},[33,200,202],{"href":201},"\u002Fu\u002FQSoorya\u002Fh2flex","H2Flex",[176,204,205,209],{},[33,206,208],{"href":207},"\u002Fu\u002Fdev\u002Fquantum-evidence-lab","Quantum Evidence Lab",": Three states share the same Z statistics.",[176,211,212,216],{},[33,213,215],{"href":214},"\u002Fu\u002Fdev\u002Fquantum-kernel-shot-audit","Quantum Kernel Shot Audit",": A shot-aware four-qubit fidelity-kernel audit with frozen classifier evidence and a live selected-pair measurement.",[176,218,219,223],{},[33,220,222],{"href":221},"\u002Fu\u002Fand\u002Fquantumvision","QuantumVision",": A quantum crowd searcher: a trained 4-qubit quantum neural network scores windows of a crowd image for the target person, and Grover's algorithm amplifies the matches so one measurement finds them.",[176,225,226,230],{},[33,227,229],{"href":228},"\u002Fu\u002Faashrithnalluri\u002Frepack-q","RePack-Q",": Retired lithium-ion cells can be reused in new packs, but a pack wired in series is only as good as its weakest cell.",[176,232,233,237],{},[33,234,236],{"href":235},"\u002Fu\u002Faashrithnalluri\u002Frepack-q-qiskit-second-term-ba","RePack-Q (Qiskit Second term Battery Repacking)",": RePack-Q is a hybrid quantum-classical pipeline for recommissioning retired EV battery cells.",[176,239,240,244],{},[33,241,243],{"href":242},"\u002Fu\u002FShivaniMayekar\u002Fwarm-icing-model","Warm Icing Model",": The Warm Icing Model asks whether the way a chip package bends as it cools can reveal its hidden copper layout.",[25,246,248],{"id":247},"georgia-tech-on-qollab","Georgia Tech on Qollab",[12,250,251,252,256],{},"Specialty awards follow on Wed Oct 28 and global winners on Thu Oct 29, and the ",[33,253,255],{"href":254},"\u002Fexplore\u002Fhackathon-2026","Hackathon 2026 results page"," links to every node's post.",[12,258,259,260,264],{},"Open any project on Georgia Tech's ",[33,261,263],{"href":262},"https:\u002F\u002Fqollab.xyz\u002Fnodes\u002Fgeorgia-tech-qc","node page on Qollab"," to read its code, run it and fork it. You can also follow the node there. The page shows the node's numbers, its members and node team, and all 13 hackathon projects.",{"title":266,"searchDepth":267,"depth":267,"links":268},"",2,[269,270,271,272,273,274],{"id":27,"depth":267,"text":28},{"id":51,"depth":267,"text":52},{"id":91,"depth":267,"text":92},{"id":126,"depth":267,"text":127},{"id":161,"depth":267,"text":162},{"id":247,"depth":267,"text":248},[276,277,278],"Qollab","Explore","Hackathon 2026: Georgia Tech",[],null,"Three winning projects from 13 entered at the Georgia Tech node.","Five Tests, Priced: heart-test panels by one QAOA job took 1st place at the Georgia Tech node of the Qollab x IonQ Hackathon 2026.",false,"md",{},true,{"slug":288,"name":289,"logo":290},"georgia-tech-qc","Georgia Tech",{"src":291,"width":292,"height":293},"\u002F_content\u002Fimages\u002Fhackathon\u002Flogo-georgia-tech.svg",225,40,"\u002F_content\u002Fimages\u002Fhackathon-2026\u002Fgeorgia-tech\u002Fshare.jpg","\u002Fblog\u002Fhackathon-2026\u002Fgeorgia-tech","2026-10-27",[],{"title":299,"description":282},"Georgia Tech winners, Qollab x IonQ Hackathon 2026","blog\u002Fhackathon-2026\u002Fgeorgia-tech",[302,303,304],"hackathon","ionq","quantum","GoGfdILWcLp9HUE7vrECSFJGXyZSIw025m-qdV2lClk",[],[],[],1793105466880]