QOSF Is Back With Cohort 4 Of Quantum Computing Mentorship Program

Quantum Computing / By

The QOSF Foundation supports the development and standardization of open tools for quantum computing. QOSF is back with the 4th Cohort of Quantum Computing Mentorship Program. The announcement was made by the QOSF foundation on Twitter.

With the Quantum Mentorship Program, QOSF aims to bring people into the field of Quantum Computing. The program aims to connect people enthusiastic about Quantum Computing with mentors from Academia and Industry. The program addresses 3 major challenges faced by people willing to enter into the field of Quantum Computing-

  • Shortage of Education Material at an intermediate level.
  • ‘Blind Alleys’ or topics that are difficult to grasp, and understand are pain points that can considerably reduce the pace of progress, but also can be responsible for people giving up on their dreams of learning about Quantum Computing.
  • It is easy to get a very distorted and inaccurate view of the field from outside, mostly due to a lack of proper understanding of the subject.

QOSF aims to bridge all three of the challenges by pairing Quantum Computing Enthusiasts with Mentors from academia and industries.

QOSF has previously held 3 cohorts of the QOSF Quantum Mentorship Program. These were held between March 2020 to June 2020, October 2020 to January 2021, and March 2021 to June 2021. QOSF has opened the application process of the fourth cohort of the program.

About the 4th Cohort

Application Deadline– September 15th, 2021
Applications Review– September 2021
Pairing Mentors and Mentees– early October 2021
Defining Project Scope– early October 2021
Working on Project– October 2021 to January 2022
Promotion of Open Source Projects– Late January 2022

The Process

Application– Interested people fill the application form. Check the form here.
Assessment Task– People who filled the application will be sent tasks to complete. The time duration to complete this task is 2 weeks from the date of submission of the application.
Mentor and Project Assignment– The admission into the mentorship program will be based on performance on the assignment tasks. Following this, mentors will be choosing mentees and the scope of the project will be discussed and decided.
Working on Project– Mentees will be working on a project under the supervision of their Mentors for no more than a time period of 3 months. Although the scope of projects can be very wide, it will primarily be either a Research Project or contributions to an Open Source Project.
Completion– To complete the mentorship program, mentees will be required to promote their work in the mentorship program through the means of a blog post, a paper, a tutorial, or something else.

Prerequisites

Quantum Computing Basics– Since it is a mentorship program, being an expert in the field of Quantum Computing is not expected. However, having a basic understanding of Quantum Computing is necessary to be a part of the Mentorship Program. Having achieved one of the following should suffice for you to qualify on this prerequisite- Read a book on Quantum Computing, Completed a Quantum Computing Course online or in University, or, Implemented some quantum algorithms on a Quantum Computer Simulator or an actual Quantum Computer.

Programming– The mentorship program is going to involve a lot of hands-on software. Therefore, 1 year of experience with Programming is good to have.

Motivation– Learning Quantum Computing isn’t easy. The program will require a commitment of 80-100 work hours, over a period of 3 months. That translates to roughly 6-8 work hours a week.

You can apply for the Mentorship Program here.
Alternatively, you can apply to be a mentor in the program here.

Learn more about QOSF, visit their website here.
Learn more about the QOSF Mentorship Program here.

Check out the blog post on the best book to get started with Quantum Computing for absolute beginners here.