MIT’s hackathon iQuHACK (interdisciplinary Quantum HACKathon) is back and it is focusing on helping participants learn what quantum computers are and how to use them.

One track for this hackathon focuses on gate-based quantum computing division while the other is for quantum annealing. 

The hackathon will take place between January 30th and 31st online with an optional workshop on the properties and applications of NISQ devices as well as preparation for the hackathon taking place on January 29th. It is open to students at any level and non-faculty university affiliates. 

Additional details on the event are available here

Workato announces $110 million in funding for integration-led automation 
Integration-led automation provider Workato said that it will use the $110 million in new investment to ramp up its product innovation and technology development. The Series D funding round was led by global investment firm Altimeter Capital alongside Insight Partners.

“There’s been explosive growth in business apps and cloud technologies, but their potential remains largely untapped. This explosion has created tech chaos with siloed data, fragmented business processes and broken UX,” said Vijay Tella, the CEO and co-founder of Workato. “Workato addresses this with a single platform built for business and IT that easily, reliably, and securely connects their apps, data, and business processes so teams can work smarter and faster.”

Workato offers a no code/low code platform that combines integration and automation capabilities so that organizations don’t have to worry about melding together different robotic process automation (RPA), integration platform as a service (iPaaS), and business process management (BPM) solutions together. 

Veriton and Alteryx team up on unstructured data
The strategic partnership between Veritone and the analytic process automation platform Alteryx enables Alteryx’s customers to gain insight into unstructured data sources such as video, images, audio, and text. 

Veritone’s operating system for AI, aiWare, will be integrated into Alteryx’s platform and will be available for download from the Alteryx Gallery. 

The aiWare is capable of processing around four years-worth of unstructured video and audio-based data every day, according to Veritone. 

Additional details on possible use cases of the platform are available here.

New Google Smart Home App Discovery features 
Google introduced App Discovery and Deep Linking as two new convenience features that help users find Google-Assistant compatible devices and help with faster onboarding, according to Toni Klopfenstein, a developer advocate in a blog post.

Klopfenstein explained Google’s new App Discovery feature helps users find a smart home Action while Deep Linking enables developers to guide their app users to an account linking flow within the Google Home app. 

“Deep Linking and App Discovery can help you create a more streamlined onboarding experience for your users, driving increased engagement and user satisfaction, and can be implemented with minimal engineering work,” Klopfenstein added. 

Jellyfish announces $31.5 Million in funding to expand its engineering management platform
Jellyfish plans to use the Series B funding to “accelerate its mission of helping engineering leaders connect their team’s day-to-day operations to business priorities—elevating engineering leaders from executors to influencers of business strategy.”

The company saw a five-fold growth as engineering leaders sought to gain visibility into what their remote teams were doing to contribute value.

Jellyfish’s engineering management platform helps users analyze engineering signals and contextual business data to provide complete visibility. 

“Companies spend millions of dollars on engineering resources with little understanding of where it’s being spent or how resources are being allocated. Jellyfish is the clear leader in solving this, and we’re excited to partner with them as they seize this massive market opportunity,” said Matt Gatto, the managing director at Insight Partners, who will join the Jellyfish Board of Directors.