The 2026 Agenda

4PM - 7PM

4PM - 7PM Food will be served to participants

Auditorium, NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

7:30PM - 9:30 PM

7:30PM - 9:30 PM Private reception for judges/speakers and mentors

TBA

9:00 - 9:15

9:00 - 9:15 Hackathon Welcome and Agenda

Sana Odeh

Auditorium, NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

9:15 - 9:20

9:15 - 9:20 Inspiring Career KeyNote Talk: Superconducting Quantum Hardware

Aziza Almanakly

Auditorium, NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

9:20 - 9:25

9:20 - 9:25 Inspiring Journey: Sharing Success stories, opportunities and challenges from previous Hackathon participants (NYUAD, MIT, ETH, Uruguay, Ghana, Egypt, Palestine, & Lebanon)

TBA

Auditorium , NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

9:25 - 9:30

9:25 - 9:30 The Beyond Lab: Enabling Long-Term Sustainability for Now and Beyond.

Davide Fanciulli

Auditorium, NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

9:30 - 9:35

9:30 - 9:35 Quantum-Centric Supercomputing: The Next Frontier

Kaoutar El Maghraoui

Auditorium , NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

9:35 - 9:40

9:35 - 9:40 Quantum Machine Learning: Beyond Classical Boundaries

Nouhaila Innan

Auditorium , NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

9:40 - 9:45

9:40 - 9:45 Vision of the NYUAD Center for Quantum and Topological Systems (CQTS)

Hisham Sati

Auditorium , NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

9:45 - 9:50

9:45 - 9:50 QWorld, A Global Network of Quantum Collaboration

Paweł Gora

uditorium , NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

9:50 - 9:55

9:50 - 9:55 Quantum Games

Ioannis Theodonis

Auditorium , NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

9:55 - 10:00

9:55 - 10:00 Classical Simulation of Quantum Circuits

Aniruddha Sen

Auditorium , NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

10:00 - 10:05

10:00 - 10:05 When in Doubt, Improv it Out!

Benjamin Hall

Auditorium , NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

10:05 - 10:10

10:05 - 10:10 Quantum-Centric Supercomputing: The Next Frontier

Kaoutar El Maghraoui

Auditorium , NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

10:10 - 10:15

10:10 - 10:15 Womanium Quantum Prizes @ NYUAD Hackathon 2025: Announcing Prize for winning team

Vardaan Sahgal

Auditorium , NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

10:25-10:35 AM

10:25-10:35 AM Panel 1: How has the Hackathon impacted your career? MC: Aziza Almanakly & Ricky Young

Aziza Almanakly		Auditorium , NYUAD Conference Center (A6)
Ricky Young		Auditorium , NYUAD Conference Center (A6)
Nouhaila Innan		Auditorium , NYUAD Conference Center (A6)
Alberto Marchisio		Auditorium , NYUAD Conference Center (A6)
Yousra Farhani		Auditorium , NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

10:40-10:50 AM

10:40-10:50 AM Panel 2: How to build a hackathon application with strong impact, grow and win in the Hackathon? MC: Nouhaila Innan & Amro Saidelahel

Nouhaila Innan		Auditorium , NYUAD Conference Center (A6)
Amro Saidelahel		Auditorium , NYUAD Conference Center (A6)
Yafa JARADAT		Auditorium ,NYUAD Conference Center (A6)
Alberto Marchisio		Auditorium ,NYUAD Conference Center (A6)
Saleh Naghdi		Auditorium , NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

11:00 -11:05 AM

11:00 -11:05 AM Key Deliverable for Today

Sana Odeh

Auditorium, NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

11:05 – 1:00 PM

11:05 – 1:00 PM Ideation

Upper Atrium , 006, 007, 009, 012, and StartAD rooms (015, 016) in A6

1:00 – 1:45 PM

1:00 – 1:45 PM Lunch

Upper Atrium A6

1:45 – 3:45 PM

1:45 – 3:45 PM Finalize the Ideation Process

Upper Atrium , 006, 007, 009, 012, and StartAD rooms (015, 016) in A6

3:45 – 4:20 PM

3:45 – 4:20 PM Napkin pitches to update on project progress (30 secs per team)

Room: Auditorium, room 008 (in A6)

9:00 – 12:00 PM

9:00 – 12:00 PM Teams revision of task and finalization of presentation

Upper Atrium & 001C, 006, 009, 012 and StartAD Rooms (015, 016) in A6.

004, 005, 006, 017, 018, 019 in A5.

12:00 - 1:00PM

12:00 - 1:00PM Lunch

Upper Atrium NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

1:00 – 5:00PM

1:00 – 5:00PM Teams meet and work on their projects

Upper Atrium & 001C, 006, 009, 012 and StartAD Rooms (015, 016) in A6.

004, 005, 006, 017, 018, 019 in A5.

6:00 - 7:00PM

6:00 - 7:00PM Dinner

Upper Atrium NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

9:00 – 12:00 PM

9:00 – 12:00 PM Team work on their own

pper Atrium & 001C, 006, 007, 009, 012 and StartAD rooms (015, 016) in A6

004, 005, 006, 017, 018, 019 in A5.

12:00 – 1:00 PM

12:00 – 1:00 PM Lunch

Upper Atrium ,NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

1:00 – 4:00 PM

1:00 – 4:00 PM Team Rehearsal

Auditorium , NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

3:30 – 4:00 PM

3:30 – 4:00 PM Judges Meeting

006 NYUAD Conference Center (A6)

5:00 - 5:10PM

5:00 - 5:10PM Welcome

Auditorium , A6 Conference Building

5:10 - 5:15 PM

5:10 - 5:15 PM NYUAD Vision, QC, And UN SDGs

Auditorium , A6 Conference Building

5:15 - 5:20PM

5:15 - 5:20PM Keynote: Dr Graham Alabaster Challenges and opportunities of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the role of technology within this framework with focus on using quantum to prevent Water Losses in Mexico City

Auditorium , A6 Conference Building

5:20 - 5:30 PM

5:20 - 5:30 PM KeyNote: Aziza Almanakly A Quantum Future of Computing

Auditorium , A6 Conference Building

5:30 - 5:40 PM

5:30 - 5:40 PM Keynote: Marieke Hood CERN's Open Quantum Institute and the vision for quantum digital gap

Auditorium , A6 Conference Building

5:40 - 6:00 PM

5:40 - 6:00 PM KeyNote Panel Discussion: The Future of Quantum Computing, and AI: Challenges, Opportunities, Ethics, and How can we implement UN Sustainable Goals (SDGs), AI and QC to bring about a better future for our planet and world! And Impact of Hackathons on Bridging the Digital Gap.

Auditorium , A6 Conference Building

6:00 - 7:40 PM

6:00 - 7:40 PM Team Presentations

Auditorium , A6 Conference Building

7:40pm – 8:00pm

7:40pm – 8:00pm Judging

Auditorium , A6 Conference Building

8:00 - 8:15 PM

8:00 - 8:15 PM Announce Winning Teams

Auditorium , A6 Conference Building

8:15 - 8:20 PM

8:15 - 8:20 PM Group picture with everyone (on stage)

Auditorium , A6 Conference Building

8:00 - 9:00 PM

8:00 - 9:00 PM Reception with food in A6

Upper Atrium , A6 Conference Building

The 2026 Agenda

Pre-Hackathon Schedule

Hackathon Event Schedule