Amanda Xu


amandax@cs.wisc.edu
amandashoe
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. I am broadly interested in programming languages and formal methods. My current research is at the intersection of programming languages and quantum computing. 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.

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