Coffee Hour Mentors

We are honored that our mentors are offering an hour of their time to chat with QC Hack participants in breakout rooms. Here is some information about the incredible people who will be available to answer your questions about pursuing a career in QIS!

Event begins at 1:00 pm EDT on Thursday, April 7th.

Che Allen
IBM

Cheniqua “Che” Allen works in IBM Quantum as a Project and Events Manager for Workforce Advocacy. Her day to day responsibilities are talent pipeline development where her focus is working toward building a diverse and equitable workforce. She is energetic and outgoing with over 20 years of experience in the IT industry. She is known for putting clients first and executing with speed and quality. Since joining IBM in 2000, Che has held different positions within several divisions of IBM. These varied experiences result in a broad view of the company and its various functional areas.

Ryan Hill
qBraid

I'm CTO at qBraid, a cloud-based platform / IDE built specifically for quantum computing. I completed my Master's in Engineering Physics at Cornell University, where my research focused on quantum machine learning, specifically quantum neural networks.

Katherine Hyatt
Amazon

I'm a scientist at Amazon Braket. In graduate school, I focused on numerical methods for condensed matter systems, and now I work on classical simulators for quantum circuits.

Brian Ingmanson
IBM

Brian is the Education Engagement Lead for IBM Quantum, and loves a good hackathon. Good luck to all the participants!

Sam Kearney
Creative Destruction Lab

Sam is a Venture Manager and Recruitment Lead for the Quantum Stream at the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL). The Creative Destruction Lab is an objectives-based mentorship program for early-stage science- and tech-based companies from around the world. The Quantum Stream at CDL-Toronto brings together entrepreneurs, investors, scientists in quantum technologies, and quantum technology partners (D-Wave Systems, IBM Q, Rigetti Computing, Xanadu and Zapata Computing) to build ventures in the emerging domains of quantum computing, communication, optimization, sensing and other applications of quantum technologies. Before joining CDL, Sam worked with two startup programs, worked at an energy tech startup and started a social venture - aside from holding various other positions and self-owned businesses. He holds a Master of Global Affairs from the University of Toronto, and a BA in Public Administration from uOttawa.

Saravana Kumar
Amazon

I'm currently a Software Development Engineer at Amazon Web Sevices, where I'm part of the team that builds Amazon Braket, Amazon's Quantum Computing on the cloud platform. I completed my Master's degree at The Ohio State University where I worked with Dr. Srinivasan Parthasarathy on problems in unsupervised representation learning in networks. Previously, I worked as a Research Assistant at Precog Lab at IIIT-D in New Delhi, India advised by Dr. Ponnurangam Kumaraguru (PK) where I worked on problems in social networks and security. I completed my Bachelor's in Computer Science and Engineering at the College of Engineering, Guindy - Anna University. I

Ryan LaRose
Unitary Fund

Ryan LaRose is a PhD Candidate at MSU, NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Fellow, and incoming Postdoctoral Researcher jointly with the Computational Quantum Science Lab at EPFL and IBM Quantum. He has worked in quantum computing at Google, Alphabet X, IBM, and Unitary Fund.

Dr. Mathias Soeken
Microsoft

A researcher and software engineer interested in efficient implementations of quantum algorithms, automatic quantum compilation, and formal methods.

Juan Moreno
Amazon

Quantum computing enthusiast, helping customers to get the most of Amazon Braket.

Mariia Mykhailova
Microsoft

Mariia Mykhailova is a principal software engineer at Microsoft Quantum, focusing on education and developer outreach. Mariia is the author and maintainer of the Quantum Katas project – an open-source collection of hands-on tutorials and exercises for learning quantum computing using Microsoft Quantum Development Kit – and the organizer of the Q# Coding Contests series. She is also a part-time lecturer at Northeastern University Seattle, teaching “Introduction to Quantum Computing”, and the author of the O’Reilly book “Q# Pocket Guide”.

Dr. James Daniel Whitfield
Amazon

James Whitfield is an Amazon Visiting Academic working on quantum education. James has spent over a decade working at the intersection of quantum chemistry and quantum computing. James has a PhD in Chemical Physics from Harvard University and is currently an Assistant Professor at Dartmouth College in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Lishuai Xu
Amazon

Software engineer at Amazon. I love learning, cooking and coding.

Ricky Young
qBraid

Ricky Young is a software developer and COO of qBraid. He received a B.S. in engineering physics at Stanford University.