LSU is using this in their quantum computing course: arxiv.org/pdf/2511.02844 "Students begin with ... QWLA, a lightweight simulation framework that supports intuitive engagement with core quantum ideas without requiring prior knowledge of matrix algebra."

The work winning this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry is science-fiction-like-materials-wizardry, but this insight about people from one of the winners (also a UCB alumnus!) is particularly profound: www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/s...

In this episode of Current Continuation, Adrian Sampson and I talk to Prof. Sarah E. Chasins of UC Berkeley. Sarah does awesome work at the intersection of PL, HCI, and social science! Enjoy! www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NPI...

the latest SIGPLAN blog post is front page on HN: blog.sigplan.org/2025/08/29/a...

Here's a paper describing quantum computing using standard programming constructs, w/o the linear algebra! The hope is that this will demystify quantum computing and serve as a formal foundation for reasoning about quantum programs. paper eprint.iacr.org/2025/1091.pdf code github.com/qqq-wisc/qwla

We’ve started a podcast! @awsto.bsky.social and @samps.phd host “Current Continuation,” a little interview series with PL researchers. The first two episodes are with @ranjitjhala.bsky.social and @satnam6502.bsky.social. sigplan.org/cc/

In this episode of current continuation, Adrian (@samps.phd) and I talk to the incredible Dr. Satnam Singh (@satnam6502.bsky.social) from Groq. A far-ranging conversation—from SAT to Haskell to chip design to HDLs to Scotch to castles to HR :) www.youtube.com/watch?v=_g5f...

Advice from Ranjit Jhala for young researchers includes "As you get older your interests shrink to just a few topics. Resist this urge for as long as possible and try to be interested in as many things as possible for as long as possible."

As part of SIGPLAN blog, @samps.phd (Cornell) and I started an interview series where we talk to luminaries in the field of Programming Languages. Our first one is a super fun conversation with Ranjit Jhala (UCSD). 1h26m of goodness. www.youtube.com/watch?v=goUZ...

I'm joining Wisconsin CS as an assistant professor in fall 2026!! There, I'll continue working on language models, computational social science, & responsible AI. 🌲🧀🚣🏻‍♀️ Apply to be my PhD student! Before then, I'll postdoc for a year in the NLP group at another UW 🏔️ in the Pacific Northwest

One of the main reasons quantum computing can be scary for many CS students is the notation. E.g., what's the probability of measuring 0 for the ith qubit? The standard construction is horrendous, but it's really just a simple filter/map/reduce:

A text from my brother: "You ever cook with induction?" Me: hell, yeah! I'm always cooking with induction. Then I realize he's talking about food preparation.

Why are soccer parents always in sports clothing? Like you’re just here to bring snacks and tie shoe laces.

US politics right now is like that episode of Oprah where she gave away all the cars, but instead she kept giving cars and taking cars away and setting cars on fire and making people beg for cars and also didn't understand what cars actually were

my group is giving two talks at the APS Global Physics Summit this week: Amanda Xu | Optimizing Quantum Circuits, Fast and Slow lnkd.in/gqGny85V Abtin Molavi | Dependency-Aware Compilation for Surface Code Quantum Architectures lnkd.in/g6AcM3wD

Which university presidents have condemned kidnapping students?

you've heard about the recent breakthroughs in building quantum computers...how do you compile programs for such computers? At OOPSLA, Abtin Molavi will present new algorithms and insights for compiling quantum circuits to fault-tolerant architectures. arxiv.org/pdf/2311.18042

today is the day I fill out the forms

We’re excited to release wisq, a state-of-the-art compiler for quantum circuits that consolidates our research on the topic. Excitingly, a good chunk of wisq is automatically synthesized and verified. code: github.com/qqq-wisc/wisq pip install wisq

excited to be speaking today at CMU's PoP seminar

Enjoyed working on this project & am super excited to share it at #chi25 ! Thankful to Yea-Seul for the HCI mentorship and @lorisdanto.bsky.social & @awsto.bsky.social for supporting me in trying something different

Great capstone project for soon to be Prof Anna’s thesis.

Congratulations to the new #ACM Fellows of 2024, including Satish Chandra, Marsha Chechik, Derek Dreyer, Tim Menzies, Mira Mezini, Bashar Nuseibeh, Abhik Roychoudhury @abhikrc.bsky.social, and Ben Zorn. What a great year this is!

the problem with this AI summer is it's way too hot

There’s a quirky bar in Madison where people often spotted David Lynch. It’s only open 3 days a week and my theory is he owned it. RIP

What role should Student Research Competitions play in mentoring new researchers? @notypes.bsky.social and @avh.bsky.social argue for a renewed focus on feedback and visibility for SRCs. blog.sigplan.org/2025/01/13/t...

Mentoring is incredibly important to students and young researchers. @notypes.bsky.social and @avh.bsky.social talk about the "missing mentoring pillar" in our latest PL Perspectives blog post blog.sigplan.org/2025/01/13/t...

NYPD: Italian, UPenn CS alum Me: Sir, I know exactly who you’re looking for.

Door County, Oct 2024, 35mm film

Adrian's "Advanced Compilers" is really great, and comes with its own learning-focused compiler IR www.cs.cornell.edu/courses/cs61...

How come some academics have thousands of followers here? It’s only Tuesday.

The PL community is the Bene Gesserit of Computer Science

👋🦋 Consider following @sigplan.bsky.social, if you want. We've got cool blog posts like this: bsky.app/profile/sigp...

Amanda Xu is at it again. In ASPLOS 25, she shows how to optimize quantum circuits by mixing *fast*, peephole optimization, with *slow*, search-based rewriting. This simple algorithm beats all other optimizers. arxiv.org/abs/2411.04104

I’m redesigning our undergraduate compilers class. Which classes should I look at for inspiration?

I’m redesigning our undergraduate compilers class. Which classes should I look at for inspiration?

If you’d like to write a blog post for the SIGPLAN blog, reach out to me or @samps.phd