Quantum Materials Hackathon 2026

Hackathon Background and Objectives

Following the successful inaugural event in 2025, the Open Quantum Institute (OQI) at CERN and Quantum4Purpose are co-organising the second Quantum Materials Hackathon, which will be hosted at CERN IdeaSquare on 10-12 July 2026.

Quantum materials are materials that display unique and sometimes unusual properties due to the laws of quantum mechanics, for example, graphene. Given the quantum nature of such materials, their design/modelling is considered by many to be an area in which quantum computing is most likely to show a significant advantage over classical computing, which is why their design has been chosen as the main focus of this hackathon.

This hackathon will explore how quantum computing could be utilised to design novel quantum materials and how these materials can contribute towards the UN-SDGs, aligning with OQI’s overall mission. To achieve this, hackathon participants will be tasked with creating a practical application document, detailing how they would approach developing a quantum algorithm to design such a material. They will then begin to develop an algorithm with the potential to be refined further beyond the hackathon.

Purpose of the Hackathon

Besides the previously mentioned challenge outputs of the event, this hackathon also aims to have a much broader impact on the participants, organisations/institutions, and the overall community engaging with the event. Some of the broader impacts intended for the event are as follows:

• Upskilling/educating new talent in the field of quantum computing/materials.
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• Connecting academic and industrial quantum communities with each other and with new talent.
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• Embedding participants and partnering organisations within the OQI community, facilitating future collaboration with others beyond the hackathon.
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• Start a project that has the chance to continue after the event and become an example use case for quantum computing applications for good.
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• Give participants the unique chance to test their work on quantum hardware!

Who is the Hackathon for?

There will be between 6 teams for the hackathon, with 35-40 participants in total. Each team will consist of students from the prestigious CERN summer program and leading Swiss universities.