Amanda Xu


amandax@cs.wisc.edu
· · CV
fun art: ceramics · leather

I am a CS Ph.D. candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison advised by Aws Albarghouthi. I also work part-time at Google Quantum AI as a Student Researcher. My current research is at the intersection of programming languages and quantum computing. I am also broadly interested in programming languages and formal methods. My work has been recognized with the 2025 ACM SIGPLAN John Vlissides Award, a 2025 Rising Stars in EECS Award, and a Cisco Systems Distinguished Graduate Fellowship.

I interned at Google Quantum AI during the summer of 2025, working with Matt Harrigan on compiling quantum algorithms. I also interned at AWS during the summer of 2023, working with Ankush Desai and Lauren Pick on checking database correctness.

I received my B.S. in Computer Science from Cornell University in May 2020 and spent a year working at AWS as a software engineer. As an undergraduate, I had the privilege of working on Petr4 with Nate Foster.

I am on the tenure-track faculty job market.

News

[Oct 2025] Abtin and I will be reprising our tutorial at SPLASH '25. I will also be presenting my work at the Doctoral Symposium. Update: I won the ACM SIGPLAN John Vlissides Award!

[Oct 2025] Generating Compilers for Qubit Mapping and Routing conditionally accepted to POPL '26!

[Sep 2025] I was selected as a Rising Star in EECS, hosted this year by MIT and BU!

[May 2025] Honored to receive a Cisco Systems Distinguished Graduate Fellowship for 2025-26.

[Apr 2025] I will be interning this summer as a Student Researcher at Google Quantum AI!

[Mar 2025] Had fun presenting at APS March Meeting again and giving a tutorial on compiling quantum circuits at ASPLOS.

[Feb 2025] Two papers to appear at OOPSLA '25! Checking Observational Correctness of Database Systems and Dependency-Aware Compilation for Surface Code Quantum Architectures

[Feb 2025] Released wisq, our quantum-circuit compiler. pip install wisq

[Oct 2024] Optimizing Quantum Circuits, Fast and Slow accepted to ASPLOS '25!

[Mar 2024] Had a great time attending and giving a talk at APS March Meeting.

[Mar 2023] Synthesizing Quantum-Circuit Optimizers will appear at PLDI '23!

[Mar 2023] I will be returning to AWS this summer as an Applied Scientist Intern on Ankush Desai's team!

[Aug 2022] Qubit Mapping and Routing via MaxSAT will appear at MICRO '22!

[Aug 2021] Moved to Madison to start my Ph.D. at UW-Madison!

[Oct 2020] Petr4: Formal Foundations for P4 Data Planes will appear at POPL '21!

[Jun 2020] I started working as an SDE at Amazon Web Services (AWS) on the NYC Fraud Prevention team.

[May 2020] I graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Computer Science!

Publications

Generating Compilers for Qubit Mapping and Routing
Abtin Molavi, Amanda Xu, Ethan Cecchetti, Swamit Tannu, Aws Albarghouthi
POPL '26

Reducing T Gates with Unitary Synthesis
Tianyi Hao, Amanda Xu, Swamit Tannu
ASPLOS '26

Optimizing Quantum Circuits, Fast and Slow
Amanda Xu, Abtin Molavi, Swamit Tannu, Aws Albarghouthi
ASPLOS '25
[code] [slides]

Checking Observational Correctness of Database Systems
Lauren Pick, Amanda Xu, Ankush Desai, Sanjit A. Seshia, Aws Albarghouthi
OOPSLA '25

Dependency-Aware Compilation for Surface Code Quantum Architectures
Abtin Molavi, Amanda Xu, Swamit Tannu, Aws Albarghouthi
OOPSLA '25

Synthesizing Quantum-Circuit Optimizers
Amanda Xu, Abtin Molavi, Lauren Pick, Swamit Tannu, Aws Albarghouthi
PLDI '23
[code] [slides]

Qubit Mapping and Routing via MaxSAT
Abtin Molavi, Amanda Xu, Martin Diges, Lauren Pick, Swamit Tannu, Aws Albarghouthi
MICRO '22

Petr4: Formal Foundations for P4 Data Planes
Ryan Doenges, Mina Tahmasbi Arashloo, Santiago Bautista, Alexander Chang, Newton Ni, Samwise Parkinson, Rudy Peterson, Alaia Solko-Breslin, Amanda Xu, Nate Foster
POPL '21

Preprints and Peer-Reviewed Workshop Papers

The FLuid Allocation of Surface code Qubits (FLASQ) cost model for early fault-tolerant quantum algorithms
William J. Huggins, Tanuj Khattar, Amanda Xu, Matthew Harrigan, Christopher Kang, Guang Hao Low, Austin Fowler, Nicholas C. Rubin, Ryan Babbush
arXiv 2025

How to Synthesize Quantum-Circuit Optimizers
Amanda Xu
SPLASH 2025

Service

• ASPLOS '26, External Review Committee
• PLDI '25, Artifact Evaluation Committee
• OOPSLA '24, Artifact Evaluation Committee
• WACM Mentoring Program, Co-Chair (UW-Madison's chapter of ACM-W)
• WACM Mentoring Program, Mentor
• SIGPLAN-M, Mentor