FreeYa Mind Campus

Qiskit Fall Fest 2026 in Iași – QML Conference and Quantum Hackathon, 2nd Edition

From 6 to 8 November 2026, the Qiskit Fall Fest 2026 series in Romania continued in Iași with a hybrid conference on Quantum Machine Learning & Optimization and the 2nd edition of the Quantum Hackathon. Both were organized by FreeYa Mind Campus – the first and only IBM Quantum Innovation Center in Romania – together with IBM Quantum, with the Faculty of Computer Science of “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași and the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Engineering of “Gheorghe Asachi” Technical University of Iași (TUIASI) as hosts.

Day 1 – Conference on Quantum Machine Learning & Optimization

The hybrid conference of 6 November brought together three talks and closed with a round table on QML and optimization, with questions from the room and from online participants:

  • Rodica Ioana Lung – Babeș-Bolyai University: “An Evolutionary Strategy–Inspired Approach to Barren Plateaux Mitigation Using Local Cost Functions”
  • Sabina Drăgoi – IBM Research – Zurich: “Towards Quantum Advantage in Optimization: Current Capabilities and Emerging Methods”
  • Ștefan Bălăucă – “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași: “Quantum Language Modeling”

Hosts: Prof. Dr. Adrian Iftene, Vice-Rector, Prof. Dr. Lenuța Alboaie, Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Andreea-Valentina Arusoaie (UAIC); Assoc. Prof. Dr. Eng. Simona Caraiman, Vice-Rector, Prof. Dr. Eng. Adrian Burlacu, Dean of the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Engineering, and Prof. Vasile Manta (TUIASI).

Conference on Quantum Machine Learning & Optimization, Iași, 6 November 2026Conference on Quantum Machine Learning & Optimization, Iași, 6 November 2026Conference on Quantum Machine Learning & Optimization, Iași, 6 November 2026Conference on Quantum Machine Learning & Optimization, Iași, 6 November 2026Conference on Quantum Machine Learning & Optimization, Iași, 6 November 2026Conference on Quantum Machine Learning & Optimization, Iași, 6 November 2026Conference on Quantum Machine Learning & Optimization, Iași, 6 November 2026Conference on Quantum Machine Learning & Optimization, Iași, 6 November 2026
Conference on Quantum Machine Learning & Optimization, Iași, 6 November 2026

Quantum Hackathon, 2nd edition

In the evening of 6 November, 15 teams with 66 participants – students, master’s and PhD students – started the hackathon at the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Engineering, TUIASI. Teams of four worked in Qiskit with QAOA for three days, in the faculty’s laboratories and online, each with 40 minutes on IBM quantum processors. The evaluation weighed real understanding, a correct quantum component and a fair comparison with the classical method.

  • Beginners – Quantum Railways: the teams designed a railway network between eight major Romanian cities (Iași, București, Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Brașov, Sibiu, Craiova, Constanța) on a limited budget, encoded the plans as bit strings, turned the problem into an energy model and let QAOA choose the routes.
  • Advanced – Quantum Genome Detectives: starting from DNA read fragments, some with errors, the teams reconstructed the two copies of a chromosome by building a signed graph and an Ising model, wrote the QAOA layers from scratch and studied compilation and noise.

Mentors and specialists stayed with the teams for three days, in the labs and online: Prof. Dr. Radu Strugariu, Andreea-Valentina Arusoaie, Cosmin Curuliuc, Matei Mardare, Adrian Prodan, Alexandru-Gabriel Tudorache, Ștefan Bălăucă, Cosette Lupu and others.

Opening in amphitheatre A1 and team work in the laboratories of the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Engineering, TUIASIOpening in amphitheatre A1 and team work in the laboratories of the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Engineering, TUIASIOpening in amphitheatre A1 and team work in the laboratories of the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Engineering, TUIASIOpening in amphitheatre A1 and team work in the laboratories of the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Engineering, TUIASIOpening in amphitheatre A1 and team work in the laboratories of the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Engineering, TUIASIOpening in amphitheatre A1 and team work in the laboratories of the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Engineering, TUIASIOpening in amphitheatre A1 and team work in the laboratories of the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Engineering, TUIASIOpening in amphitheatre A1 and team work in the laboratories of the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Engineering, TUIASIOpening in amphitheatre A1 and team work in the laboratories of the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Engineering, TUIASIOpening in amphitheatre A1 and team work in the laboratories of the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Engineering, TUIASIOpening in amphitheatre A1 and team work in the laboratories of the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Engineering, TUIASIOpening in amphitheatre A1 and team work in the laboratories of the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Engineering, TUIASI
Opening in amphitheatre A1 and team work in the laboratories of the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computer Engineering, TUIASI

High-school track (pilot) – The Quantum Clock of Iași

For the first time, the hackathon included high-school students. Three teams from Liceul Teoretic de Informatică „Grigore Moisil”, Colegiul Național „Costache Negruzzi” and Colegiul Național „Emil Racoviță” took on a mission: the clock in the tower of the Palace of Culture had stopped at 3:14. To restart it, they sent secret messages with entangled qubits, caught a spy listening in on the line and searched for a hideout with a quantum algorithm. Awards were presented on 7 November:

  • Qubizzi (Colegiul Național „Costache Negruzzi”) – the boldest idea: a Quantum GPS for Iași’s traffic jams
  • Don’t quit, qubit (Liceul Teoretic de Informatică „Grigore Moisil”) – first to restart all eight bells of the clock, collecting every reward
  • Mixture (mixed team from the three high schools) – the clearest explanation of Grover’s algorithm for a 9th grader

The students were accompanied by Prof. Ciprian Baghiu (Colegiul Național „Costache Negruzzi”) and Prof. Bogdan-Ionuț Lefter (Liceul Teoretic de Informatică „Grigore Moisil”) and guided by TUIASI students Cosette Lupu, Mihai Bandur, Matei Mardare and Cosmin-Ștefan C.; the track was designed with Prof. Dr. Radu Strugariu.

High-school teams presenting their solutions and at the award ceremony, 7 November 2026High-school teams presenting their solutions and at the award ceremony, 7 November 2026High-school teams presenting their solutions and at the award ceremony, 7 November 2026High-school teams presenting their solutions and at the award ceremony, 7 November 2026High-school teams presenting their solutions and at the award ceremony, 7 November 2026High-school teams presenting their solutions and at the award ceremony, 7 November 2026
High-school teams presenting their solutions and at the award ceremony, 7 November 2026

Final presentations and winners

On 8 November, the teams submitted their notebooks and presented their solutions in three-minute presentations, followed by the jury’s deliberation and the award ceremony.

Beginners – Quantum Railways

  • 1st place – Team MX4: Mihnea-Andrei Buzdugan, Matei Vesel, Cristian-Mihai Adascalitei, Matei Busuioc
  • 2nd place – Team Quantum Rangers: Iulia-Georgiana Darie, Andrei-Vlad Jitaru, Ana Maria Stanciu, Ioana Căprariu

Advanced – Quantum Genome Detectives

  • 1st place – Team Toffoli Toffifee: Carla Cotea, Tudor-Constantin Pricop, Alexandru Picioroagă, Alexandra-Maria Enachescu
  • 2nd place – Team NeuroQ: Stefan Ionut Constandache, Lavinia-Gabriela Manolescu, Adrian Mârza, Ana-Maria Pîrvu, Iuliana-Daniela Gurzu
Final presentations, all participants and award-winning teams, 8 November 2026Final presentations, all participants and award-winning teams, 8 November 2026Final presentations, all participants and award-winning teams, 8 November 2026Final presentations, all participants and award-winning teams, 8 November 2026Final presentations, all participants and award-winning teams, 8 November 2026Final presentations, all participants and award-winning teams, 8 November 2026Final presentations, all participants and award-winning teams, 8 November 2026Final presentations, all participants and award-winning teams, 8 November 2026Final presentations, all participants and award-winning teams, 8 November 2026Final presentations, all participants and award-winning teams, 8 November 2026
Final presentations, all participants and award-winning teams, 8 November 2026

In the press

Știrile ProTV Radio Iași Adminis.ro FreeYa Mind Campus on LinkedIn

Citește în română: Qiskit Fall Fest 2026 la Iași – conferința QML și Quantum Hackathon, ediția a 2-a

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