Tutorials

This year, QPL will be preceded by a weekend workshop consisting of tutorials on some of the main specialised topics of the conference. This is to give, especially junior attendees and those for whom this is their first QPL, a chance to learn some more background on these important topics so that they can better follow the research-level talks in the main conference.

	Saturday, August 15th	Speakers	Sunday, August 16th	Speakers
10:00 - 10:50	Category Theory Part 1	Priyaa Varshinee Srinivasan	Generalised Probabilistic Theories Part 1	David Schmid
10:50 - 11:10	Coffee Break
11:10 - 12:00	Category Theory Part 2	Priyaa Varshinee Srinivasan	Generalised Probabilistic Theories Part 2	David Schmid
12:00 - 12:30	Lightning Talks
12:30 - 14:30	Lunch Break
14:30 - 15:20	ZX Calculus Part 1	Lia Yeh	Causality Part 1	Jessica Bavaresco
15:20 - 15:40	Coffee Break
15:40 - 16:30	ZX Calculus Part 2	Razin A. Shaikh	Causality Part 2	Jessica Bavaresco
16:30 - 17:00	Lightning Talks

Speaker Bios and Tutorial Abstracts

Razin A. Shaikh & Lia Yeh: ZX Calculus

Bio. Lia Yeh is Dowling Fellow Research Associate in the Department of Computer Science and Technology at the University of Cambridge, investigating the intersection of quantum computer architectures, quantum error correction, and quantum algorithms. She completed her PhD in Computer Science at the University of Oxford on the Clarendon Scholarship and the Google PhD Fellowship, during which she worked as a Research Scientist at Quantinuum. Her research objective is to address each layer of the quantum computing stack, from hardware systems to applications, through co-designing with quantum graphical languages, particularly the ZX-calculus. She is especially interested in constructions for fault-tolerant gate sets, quantum error correcting codes, dynamical quantum programs, and fermionic, bosonic, and higher-dimensional quantum systems. She is also active in quantum education: teaching high school students and educators, open-source software and hackathons, co-founding the Quantum Science and Engineering Education Conference, and establishing the not-for-profit Quantum Universal Education.

Bio. Razin Shaikh is an R&D Scientist at Quantinuum and a PhD student in Computer Science at the University of Oxford, where he was awarded the Clarendon Scholarship. His research focuses on graphical languages for quantum computation, especially the ZX calculus and its generalisations. His work combines foundational and applied aspects of diagrammatic reasoning, including completeness results for finite-dimensional ZX calculi, graphical calculi for continuous-variable quantum systems, and applications in quantum chemistry and condensed matter physics. He also develops graphical methods for GKP codes and fault-tolerant quantum computation. In conjunction with his research, he is a core developer and maintainer of ZXLive and PyZX, open-source tools for creating, manipulating, and reasoning with ZX diagrams.

Abstract. This tutorial will introduce the ZX-calculus from first principles, showing how quantum computations can be represented and reasoned about using ZX diagrams. We will also cover related graphical calculi such as ZH-, ZW- and scalable ZX-calculus. From there, the content is tailored to prepare you for the talks of this year’s QPL program, overviewing the fundamentals of using ZX-calculus for:
  •  Measurement-based quantum computing
  •  Quantum error correction
  •  Qudits and mixed-dimensional quantum information
  •  Photonic/bosonic quantum computing: discrete- and continuous-variable
Both sessions are designed to be accessible to newcomers while offering refreshing insights for more experienced participants. By the end of this tutorial, you will have an understanding of both the formal underpinnings and practical utility of the ZX-calculus, and a structured entry point into diagrammatic reasoning techniques that are increasingly central to modern quantum computing research in academia and industry.

David Schmid: Generalised Probabilistic Theories

Bio. David Schmid is a postdoc at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. He obtained his PhD in Quantum Information from the University of Waterloo in 2021. His work focuses on formalizing the sense(s) in which quantum theory is genuinely nonclassical. A central focus of this research is on generalized noncontextuality, which serves as our most well-motivated and useful benchmark for classical explainability. Another key instance of nonclassicality are nonclassical correlations in Bell scenarios, and David uses resource theories to better understand different types of correlations. He also studies generalized probabilistic theories as a way to better understand the structure of scientific theories, and to understand quantum theory from the outside. A final important focus is the study of metaphysical no-go theorems such as Extended Wigner's Friend arguments.

Abstract. This tutorial will provide an introduction to generalized probabilistic theories—a framework for possible theories of the world, described at the level of the operational predictions they make for experiments. This framework allows us to better understand which features of quantum theory are unique, and which are generic features of any theory of the world. It also gives us tools to re-axiomatize quantum theory using axioms that are more physical and less abstract than the usual axioms, as well as tools for analyzing experiments without assuming the correctness of quantum theory and without assuming prior characterization of one's laboratory devices. Finally, it provides a powerful framework for benchmarking nonclassicality in various observed phenomena. We will see simple examples of all of these uses in this tutorial.

Jessica Bavaresco: Causality

Bio. Jessica Bavaresco is a research faculty member at the computer science institute LIP6 of Sorbonne University and CNRS, in Paris, where she has led a group working on higher-order quantum computing and quantum foundations since 2025. She obtained a PhD in Physics from the University of Vienna in 2021, following an internship at the University of Tokyo, and subsequently held postdoctoral positions at IQOQI Vienna and at the University of Geneva, where she was awarded an SNSF Swiss Postdoctoral Fellowship. Her work on quantum correlations, which started with topics such as joint measurability, Bell nonlocality, and entanglement theory, currently focuses on quantum correlations in networks and in signaling scenarios. In higher-order quantum computing, her interests are in applications of this formalism to tasks such as channel discrimination, metrology, and purification, and in more foundational questions such as the certification and simulation of indefinite causal order.

Abstract. This tutorial will provide an overview of indefinite causal order in quantum information theory, from the perspective of higher-order quantum operations. We examine the structural aspects of the framework, showing how transformations of quantum channels can go beyond the quantum circuit model by describing computations without a fixed causal order. We discuss which computational tasks can benefit from this feature, as well as the resources required to simulate such advantages within standard quantum circuits. Finally, we turn to a more operational perspective, outlining how these transformations can generate correlations that violate causal inequalities.

The schedule contains a number of slots for lightning talks. These are 5-minute informal talks where you can introduce yourself and your research. We will ask for contributed lightning talks of the workshop attendees closer to the date of the conference.

There is limited availability for attending these tutorials, preference will be given to registrations from junior attendees and early registrations.

Location: Amsterdam University Library UvA, Vendelstraat 2-8, 1012 XX Amsterdam.

Room: Surgical Theatre (A1.01), First floor of the A-wing