Introduction to quantum algorithms

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, Director of the House of Quantum Alps 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. 

Watch the replay

You can acess to all replays of our event on our youtube channel : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCN_fM_AbGwan8XBX5iLoBxQ


 
Published on  March 25, 2026
Updated on March 25, 2026