Introduction to quantum algorithms

Seminar Scientific culture
On  March 12, 2026Agglomération grenobloise
There are two aspects to quantum computing: how to build the hardware and what to do with it if we manage to make it work. In these two and half hours, Xavier Waintal, Director of Maison du Quantique Alpes and researcher at Phéliqs (CEA, UGA) will look at the second part, coldly examining the different quantum algorithms that have been put forward.
During this seminar organised jointly by the Quantum Hub and the House of Quantum Alps, Xavier Waintal will look in turn at the four classes of algorithms that currently form the corpus of proposed solutions and discuss their relative merits and the constraints they put on the specifications of the hardware:
  • Algorithms based on the quantum Fourier transform (e.g. Shor, Quantum Phase Estimation)
  • Variants of the Grover algorithm 
  • Variational algorithms (e.g. VQE, QAOA)
  • Quantum annealing (pseudo-) algorithms
The lecture is aimed at scientists and engineers that have not been exposed to the topic before. We will start with a concise introduction to the minimum facts of quantum mechanics that are needed to understand what a quantum algorithm is at a technical level, assuming only a reasonable understanding of linear algebra***.

*** Attendants that have not used linear algebra for some time might want to refresh their memory on the following concepts: vector space, unitary matrices, tensor products. If you have a bit more time, reading section 2 of these notes would help: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2601.03035. If you have even more time, reading section 3 and 4.1 would help even more.

How to attend this seminar? 

Attendance is free. You can attend the seminar at the Y.SPOT partners (in the room Plateau de création) or remotely by registering at this link : https://app.livestorm.co/y-spot/initiation-a-lalgorithmie-quantique-par-xavier-waintal

The seminar will be presented in french. 
Published on  March 2, 2026
Updated on  March 2, 2026