BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:researchseminars.org CALSCALE:GREGORIAN X-WR-CALNAME:researchseminars.org BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Bob Coecke (University of Oxford) DTSTART:20251114T163000Z DTEND:20251114T173000Z DTSTAMP:20260422T171846Z UID:CompMath/22 DESCRIPTION:Title: Kindergarten Quantum Mechanics\, now for real!\nby Bob Coecke (Unive rsity of Oxford) as part of Relatorium seminar\n\n\nAbstract\nOver some 20 years we have developed a diagrammatic quantum formalism\, sometimes refe rred to as quantum picturalism\, or categorical quantum mechanics. We hav e written two books on it [2\, 3]. This project was in part initiated in a talk some 20 years ago\, with the title Kindergarten Quantum Mechanics [ 1]. Two things have happened since:\n\n(1) We showed that this formalism e nabled secondary school students to perform exceptionally well on an Oxfor d University post-grad quantum exam\, as reported in The Guardian/Observer [4]. Almost 50% of the students obtained a distinction\, and 80% passed [5]. Those numbers are better than typical Oxford University MSc students . In Greece quantum picturalism is already used to teach quantum at secon dary school level\, and several other countries are in the process of doin g so too.\n\n(2) John von Neumann himself who denounced `his own’ quantu m formalism\, that relies on Hilbert space. Alternatives had been propose d\, including by von Neumann himself\, but none play a role in quantum the ory today. On the other hand\, quantum picturalism is now widespread in quantum industry\, with applications including circuit optimisation and er ror-correction\, with Peter Shor among the proponents. The formalism is a lso used as the basis for interpretable AI\, and even music [6]. \n\nHenc e quantum picturalism has succeeded in providing an alternative formalism for quantum\, with several advantages over the usual formalism\, be it as an educational tool\, an engineering tool\, or a vehicle to explore applic ations in new areas.\n\n[1] Bob Coecke (2006) Kindergarten quantum mechani cs. Quantum Theory: Reconstructions of the Foundations III. AIP Conferenc e Proceedings. Vol. 810. No. 1. American Institute of Physics.\n\n[2] Bob Coecke & Aleks Kissinger (2017) Picturing Quantum Processes. Cambridge Un iversity Press.\n\n[3] Bob Coecke & Stefano Gogioso (2022) Quantum in Pict ures. Quantinuum.\n\n[4]https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/dec/16/ph ysicist-bob-coecke-its-easier-to-convince-kids-than-adults-about-quantum-m echanics\n\n[5] Selma Dündar-Coecke\, Caterina Puca\, Lia Yeh\, Hamza Was eem\, Emmanuel Pothos\, Thomas Cervoni\, Sieglinde M-L. Pfaendler\, Vince nt Wang-Maścianica\, Peter Sigrist\, Ferdi Tomassini\, Vincent Anandraj\, Ilyas Khan\, Stefano Gogioso\, Aleks Kissinger\, & Bob Coecke (2025). Ma king the quantum world accessible to young learners through Quantum Pictur alism: An experimental study. arXiv preprint arXiv:2504.01013.\n\n[6] http s://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7q7n8TYPdo\n\n---------\n\nSpeaker Bio: Profe ssor Coecke is a theoretical physicist and logician\, and a former Chief S cientist at Quantinuum\, leading its Quantum-Compositional Intelligence (Q CI) research team. He is also Distinguished Visiting Research Chair at Per imeter Institute for Theoretical Physics\, Emeritus Professor at Wolfson C ollege\, Oxford University\, and a Visiting Fellow at the Computer Science Department and the Mathematical Institute of Oxford University.\n\nHe is a founding father of the QPL (Quantum Physics and Logic) and ACT (Applied Category Theory) communities\, of the diamond-open-access journal Composit ionality\, and Cambridge University Press' Applied Category Theory book se ries. \n\nHe is best known for pioneering a simple\, picture-based approac h to quantum mechanics—sometimes called “Kindergarten Quantum Mechanic s”—that allows anyone to grasp quantum ideas with no formal background in mathematics.\n\nhttps://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/people/bob.coecke/\n\nBob Coec ke\n\nWolfson College Oxford\, Perimeter Institute\n\n--------\n\nModerato r: The talk will be moderated by Priyaa Varshinee Srinivasan. Priyaa is a postdoctoral fellow at the Tallinn University of Technology researching ca tegorical quantum mechanics. Her vision is for everyone to experience the joy of mathematics in their own way. She has co-authored a live digital bo ok titled “Relational thinking: from abstractions to applications” whi ch reveals the thought-process behind creating mathematics (category theor y) using story-telling\, illustrations\, and visualization of computations . The material is available at https://toposinstitute.github.io/Relational Thinking-Book/cover.html.\n LOCATION:https://researchseminars.org/talk/CompMath/22/ END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR