Quantum computing online workshops and hackathon for Spanish speakers: A case study

We discuss the challenges and findings of organizing an online event in Spanish, consisting of a series of introductory workshops leading up to a quantum hackathon for Latin America. 220 Spanish speakers were registered, 66% of whom self-identified as being at an introductory level of quantum computing. We gain a better picture of the impact of quantum computing in Latin America, and the importance of generating educational resources in Spanish about quantum computing. Additionally, we report results on surveying the participants by country; educational status; self-reported levels of quantum computing, linear algebra, and Python competency; and their areas of interest within quantum. This event was organized by Quantum Universal Education with the Centro de Investigación en Computación del Instituto Politécnico Nacional (CIC-IPN) as the host institution, in collaboration with a number of organizations and companies: IBM Quantum, Xanadu, Multiverse Computing, Quantum Universal Education, Quantum Hispano, QMexico, Haq.ai, Dive in Learning. This was part of a larger event, the Qiskit Fall Fest 2021, as one of several hackathons organized around the world in a similar span of time. In each Qiskit Fall Fest hackathon, participants were challenged to form teams of up to 5, to develop in 5 days a project using the IBM Qiskit framework.