2023 applications are now closed!

The Qiskit Advocate program is a global initiative to support the most active members of the Qiskit community and Qiskit ecosystem. As an Advocate, you will join the most passionate group of people in quantum computing. Since the program was in 2020, more than 400 people with diverse backgrounds from over 45 countries have joined. We work together to grow the Qiskit community through organizing events, making open source contributions to Qiskit code, creating educational content, and more.

As an Advocate, you will be able to attend monthly meetup sessions to share projects and ideas and work together with fellow advocates on new projects and events.

As an Advocate, you will be able to ask questions to members of the Qiskit team and find a mentor through our mentorship program.

As an Advocate, you will have the opportunity to have your work supported and highlighted by IBM.

As an active Advocate, you will be invited to global (physical or virtual) events created for the quantum community such as Qiskit Camps and IBM Quantum Challenges.

• Amir Ebrahimi: I’ve Worked in Game Development My Whole Career — Here’s Why I’m Learning Quantum Computing
• Amira Abbas: I Worked in Finance — Here’s Why I’m Learning Quantum Computing
• Desiree Vogt-Lee: How I’ve Been Able to Improve Qiskit as a Qiskit Advocate
• Farai Mazhandu: Join Qiskit Advocates to Expand Your Network and Grow
• Jack Woehr: Benefits of the Qiskit Advocate: Qiskit Project Access
• Junye Huang: Qiskit Advocate Applications Open Today — Here’s What You Can Expect from the Program
• Kevin Roche: I’m a Maker and Costume Designer, Here’s Why I’m Learning Quantum Computing
• Kiran Johns: Going Quantum, my journey so far as a Qiskit Advocate and a reflection on the things I learned
• Mark Cunningham: How I got started in the world of Quantum Computing and my experiences so far as a Qiskit Advocate!
• Omar Costa Hamido: I’m a Musician, and Here’s Why I’m Learning Quantum Computing
• Rochisha Agarwal: How I became a Qiskit Advocate
• Samanvay Sharma: Quantum Events Are Even Better As A Qiskit Advocate
• Samuel Choi: 학부생은 IBM Qiskit Advocate를 꿈꾸는가? 2020: A Quantum Odyssey — and a year later
• Soyoung Shin: My first month after being Qiskit Advocate
• Vicente Pina Canelles: Why I became a Qiskit Advocate, and why you should, too

We welcome anyone who is enthusiastic about quantum computing and eager to grow the Qiskit community and Qiskit ecosystem.

Here are the steps for applying to become an Advocate:

Note: dates are not final and may be subject to change

1. Make contributions to Qiskit code and community (Deadline: Jul 1, 2023) Community contributions can vary depending on individual interests including code, tutorials, textbook chapters, bug reporting, Slack support, blogs, videos, events, and more. See the Contributions section below for different types of contributions that you could make. All contributions must be made before Jul 1, 2023 and submitted as part of your application.
2. Submit Application Form (Jun 1 - Jul 1, 2023) Applications must be submitted no later than Jul 1, 2023, 11:59 p.m. EDT. Click "Join the program" on the Qiskit Advocate website: https://qiskit.org/advocates/ to apply.
3. Take the Qiskit Developer Certification test (Deadline: Jul 15, 2023) Passing Qiskit Developer Certification test is one of the requirements for becoming a Qiskit Advocate and if you have not yet completed this exam, then you will have an additional 2 weeks to do so. The exam is proctored and will need to be scheduled, so please keep this in mind when submitting your materials and give yourself plenty of time and apply early! You can get a voucher to take the test once you have submitted an appropriate* application for the Qiskit Advcocate program. See the Test section below for more details.
4. Application review (Jul 15 - Aug 15, 2023) Applications will be reviewed by the Qiskit Advocate squad on a rolling basis. All application requirements, excluding the Qiskit Developer Certification test, must be finished by Jul 1, 2023 at 11:59 p.m. EDT. Applicants will have until July 15, 2023 to pass the Qiskit Developer Certification test.

• An appropriate application is one which has been completed with intent to join the Qiskit Advocate program and not submitted merely to obtain an exam voucher. Receiving a voucher from your application does not mean you have been selected as a Qiskit Advocate.

The Qiskit Developer Certification is used to assess your technical competency of Qiskit. You can find exam format, scope and resources on the official website. You can read more here about how to prepare for the test. Join the #qiskit-cert-exam channel in the Qiskit Slack workspace to find even more learning resources, ask questions and interact with others who are also interested in taking the test.

Vouchers: There will be select opportunities to be awarded a voucher.

Here are some examples of contributions we consider valuable for the community. Tier 1 > Tier 2 > Tier 3 > Tier 4 in terms of significance.

Both quantity and quality of contributions will be examined by us. For example, if you have been very active on Slack and answered many questions/participated in many meaningful discussions, these contributions will be considered higher importance than just answering two or three questions. On the other hand, a PR fixing a critical bug or adding a new feature to Qiskit will be considered more important than a few PRs fixing typos of Qiskit textbook chapters. Each submitted contribution will be scored by the application reviewers. You must score at least 20 points to be considered for the program. Below are examples of some common contributions and the anticipated range of points we attribute to those contributions. This rubric gives guidance to the applicant, but is not exhaustive and may not cover every type of contribution and scores may vary in exceptional circumstances.

• Open source contributions that are significant
  • Qiskit code: introduce new features
• Research papers using IBM Quantum systems / Qiskit
• Winners of IBM Quantum / Qiskit events
  • IBM Quantum Challenge top 10
  • Qiskit Camps
  • Qiskit hackathons
  • Open Science Prize
• Qiskit Localization Contributor - Platinum/Gold Level Translator

• Individual Qiskit projects that are comprehensive
• Start a quantum computing club
• Organize a quantum hackathon
• Create quantum / qiskit related content
  • Create a popular Blog site
  • Create a popular YouTube channel
  • Create a popular Podcast series
• Qiskit Localization Contributor - Silver/Bronze Level Translator

• Open source contributions that are relatively simple
  • Qiskit code: simple bug fix
• Create quantum / Qiskit related content
  • Videos
  • Blogposts
  • Talks
  • Workshops
• Individual Qiskit projects that are relatively simple.
• Active participation of IBM Quantum / Qiskit events.

• Qiskit textbook / tutorials: fixing typos
• Qiskit Slack: constructive discussions
• StackExchange: accepted answers to Qiskit related questions

• Make open source contributions
  • The Ultimate Guide for Contributing to Qiskit — No Matter Your Background (blog post)
  • How Do You Contribute to the Qiskit Community? (blog post)
  • Coding with Qiskit S1E7: How to Contribute to Qiskit (video)
  • A Contributors Guide to Installing Qiskit (video)
• Contribute to translations: Qiskit Localization project
• Start a QC club: Quantum Clubs Could Be Your Ticket Into the Quantum Computing Field (blog post)
• Organize a Qiskit hackathon: How to Organize a Qiskit hackathon (slides)
• Conduct workshops and give talks: Qiskit Virtual Event Guide

Make sure to join #qiskit-advocates-application in the Qiskit Slack workspace where you can ask any questions about the application. Sign up the interest form to receive updates when the next application round open.