About us

Hello from the event organizers, Alexandra Ramôa and Mafalda Ramôa!  

No, that's not a typo - we do share a surname, as we are twin sisters... Who just so happen to be doing a PhD in quantum computing at the same time, albeit on different continents. Alexandra is at the University of Minho (Portugal), while Mafalda is at Virginia Tech (USA). However, we have joined forces to host a hackathon together at Virginia Tech (guess who is the younger sibling...). 

We have been excited about quantum computing since we entered the field in 2019. After years of learning and conducting research, we wanted to share our passion with a larger community, which is why we decided to host a hackathon without prerequisites! Anyone can participate, no background required. 

We hope you and your friends (how so, you haven't shared this with your friends yet?!) sign up to learn a bit about quantum computing, have fun, and maybe even win a prize!

This event has been made possible by Sophia Economou, the Director of the Virginia Tech Center for Quantum Information Science and Engineering (VTQ), and with the help of the following volunteers from the Barnes/Economou group at Virginia Tech:

Abhishek Kumar (Postdoctoral Associate)

Arshag Danageozian (Postdoctoral Associate)

Bela Gnasso (Graduate Student)

Bharath Sambasivam (Postdoctoral Associate)

Filippos Dakis (Graduate Student)

Hisham Amer (Graduate Student)

Jason Saroni (Postdoctoral Associate)

Karunya Shirali (Postdoctoral Associate)

Priya Batra (Postdoctoral Associate)

Usman Baig (Graduate Student)

Special thanks to IBM researcher and VT alumna Samantha Barron for kindly accepting to present an introductory session on quantum computing with Qiskit. An exciting way to kick off this event!