Abstract: In some implementations, an olfaction system may receive partition coefficients associated with one or more molecules detected in a headspace of a sample captured from an environment. The olfaction system may generate a quantum-ready dataset based on the partition coefficients using a partial quantum autoencoder that includes one or more quantum gate layers. The olfaction system may use a quantum approximate optimization algorithm to identify, within a spectrum of potential smells simulated by a quantum circuit, a set of smells emitted by the sample based on the quantum-ready dataset. The olfaction system may map a set of objects to the set of smells emitted by the sample. The olfaction system may predict a future state associated with the set of smells emitted by the sample using one or more hybrid quantum machine learning models.