October 17, 2024
At Qiskit Hackathon Taiwan 2024, Hikaru Yokomori (a fourth-year student in the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies at the time of the award) from Professor Rodney D. Van Meter's laboratory at the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies won the "Grand Jury Prize" (first place). Nachapol Patamawisut (a first-year master's student in the Graduate School of Media and Governance) and Marie Koyama (a third-year student in the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies) each won an "Enterprise Special Prize" (third place).
Qiskit Hackathon Taiwan 2024 is a hackathon co-hosted by IBM and National Taiwan University to encourage innovation in quantum computing technology and promote student research. This year's event was held under the theme "Developing Practical Applications for Quantum Computing." Students from around the world were randomly assigned to teams on-site, with 70 participants competing in 14 teams.
Yokomori's team won the "Grand Jury Prize" (first place) and was highly praised for their proposal of an innovative algorithm, the completeness of its implementation on actual hardware, and their teamwork.
Nachapol Patamawisut's team was recognized for leading a project to enhance the Flexible Representation of Quantum Images (FRQI) encoding method for quantum machine learning tasks, where they designed, implemented, and benchmarked the performance of the improved encoding method. Koyama's team was recognized for implementing the HHL algorithm—a quantum algorithm for numerically solving systems of linear equations—on an actual quantum computer and evaluating its performance. Both teams were awarded an "Enterprise Special Prize" (third place) for their respective achievements.
Comment from Hikaru Yokomori
This was a very enjoyable and valuable experience. We were required to understand complex problems at a high level in multiple languages with people from different universities, backgrounds, and fields of expertise, as well as to research, build, implement, and evaluate solutions. I feel I was blessed with a wonderful team, including our mentors. I was able to learn something from each part of the process, and by challenging myself, I grew considerably. I am grateful that our efforts led to this result. I would also like to thank Rodney D. Van Meter's laboratory (AQUA) at SFC, IBM, and National Taiwan University for making this valuable experience possible. Thank you very much.
Comment from Nachapol Patamawisut
I'm thrilled to have won this prize at the Quantum Hackathon. It was a great opportunity to collaborate and explore new ideas in quantum technologies. I'm excited to see where this journey takes me next.
Comment from Marie Koyama
I am deeply honored to have received the "Enterprise Special Prize" at the Qiskit Hackathon 2024. Our project proposed a new approach using quantum computers, and we dedicated a great deal of time and effort to bring it to fruition. This award is a testament to the recognition of our research, and I am filled with gratitude for my team members who worked alongside me and for everyone who provided guidance.
Source: General Affairs Section, Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC) Office