Dates

  • Event: Friday, September 25 to Sunday, September 27, 2026, at the Watt Family Innovation Center, Clemson, SC. Check-in opens at 5:00 PM Friday
  • Registration: open now through the event registration form until spots fill. Registering on Devpost is not registering for the event
  • Hacking window: Saturday, September 26 at 10:00 AM through Sunday, September 27 at 10:00 AM
  • Submission deadline: Sunday, September 27 at 10:00 AM
  • Judging presentations: Sunday at 12:00 PM
  • Awards ceremony: Sunday at 6:00 PM

Eligibility

  • Open to undergraduate and graduate students currently enrolled at a degree-granting college or university. Any major
  • Participants must be 18 or older
  • Teams are 3 to 5 students. You may register alone or with a partial team and we will place you with teammates during team formation. Individual submissions are not eligible for awards
  • SC Quantathon v3 is an in-person event. To be eligible for awards, your team must attend in person and present to the judges on Sunday
  • Prizes are awarded to the students on a winning team. Organizing committee members, mentors, judges, and sponsor representatives are not eligible for prizes
  • Everyone at the event agrees to the Clemson Quantum Club code of conduct. Organizers are available all weekend if anything needs to be addressed

Project and Submission Requirements

  • One submission per team, entered against the challenge your team was assigned on Friday night
  • All project work must be done within the hacking window. Planning and learning beforehand is encouraged. Pre-written project code is not allowed
  • Work must be your team’s own. Open-source libraries, public datasets, tutorials, and sponsor-provided starter material are allowed and must be credited in your README
  • AI coding assistants are allowed. Note any substantial use in your README
  • Your submission must include one ZIP upload containing your slides as a PDF, all of your source code, and any supporting files, organized and labeled as described on the Submission Requirements tab. Organizers and challenge sponsors review these materials when judging and when verifying that work was done during the event
  • Every team member must have a Devpost account and be linked on the submission
  • Projects have a 1 hour grace period from 10:00 AM to 11:00 AM. Projects submitted after this grace period on Sunday are not judged
  • Projects must not contain anything illegal, or anything that infringes on someone else’s rights

Judging and Winner Selection

  • Judging panel: Judges will be announced in the opening ceremony
  • The judging rubric is announced at the opening ceremony on Saturday morning, along with the full challenge briefs
  • Teams present in person starting at 12:00 PM on Sunday. Each team presents for 10 minutes, followed by 5 minutes of questions from the judges. Judges may ask to see your code and to have your results explained
  • Judging decisions are final

Prizes

  • First place is awarded in each of the three challenges, and one Grand Prize is awarded across all challenges
  • Prize categories and amounts are announced at the opening ceremony. Winners are announced at the awards ceremony on Sunday at 6:00 PM
  • Prizes offered by sponsors are the responsibility of the sponsoring organization, which handles fulfillment and delivery

Intellectual Property

  • You own what you build. All code, documentation, designs, and other work your team creates during SC Quantathon v3 remains the property of the students who created it. Nothing you make here transfers to the challenge sponsors, the Clemson Quantum Club, or Clemson University. Participating does not assign, license, or otherwise hand over your rights to your work
  • Submitting your project gives us one narrow permission and nothing more. The Clemson Quantum Club and the challenge sponsors may review your project for the purpose of judging, and may use your project name, description, and images to promote the event and future editions. You can keep developing, publishing, open-sourcing, or commercializing your project however you like
  • You are responsible for the rights to anything you bring in. Libraries, datasets, and other third-party material must be used within their licenses and credited in your README

Changes

  • Organizers may update these rules before or during the event. Changes are announced on Discord and posted as a Devpost update
  • Questions about the rules: cqc@clemson.edu