QCCS 2025

3rd Annual Quantum Computer Cybersecurity Symposium

November 6 and 7, 2025 at The Guild Lounge in Scott Hall at Northwestern University

Register for QCCS now

Program First Day: Nov. 6

  • 09:00 — Venue Opens for Attendees

  • 9:10 — Welcome Remarks by Northewestern's Dean of Engineering
  • 9:20 — Logistics and Day Overview — Prof. Jakub Szefer

  • 9:30 — Keynote: "NSF/CISE Quantum Investments", Dr. Dilma Da Silva (National Science Foundation)

  • 10:15 — "Pulse-to-Circuit Characterization of Stealthy Crosstalk Attack on Multi-Tenant Superconducting Quantum Hardware", Prof. Tasnuva Farheen (Louisiana State University)
  • 10:30 — "Security Perspectives on Control System for Superconducting Quantum Computers ", Mr. Zhemin Zhang (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)

  • 10:45 — Coffee and Networking Break

  • 11:00 — "State Information Leakage Through Quantum Error Correction Syndromes", Ms. Devon Campbell (Columbia Univeristy)
  • 11:15 — "Expanding the Security Paradigm for Fault-Tolerant Quantum Computing", Prof. Swamit Tannu (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
  • 11:30 — "Power Side-Channel in Distributed Quantum Computing Systems", Prof. Juntao Chen (Fordham Univesity)
  • 11:45 — "Secure and Practical Quantum Computing in the NISQ Era", Mr. Satwik Kundu (Pennsylvania State University)

  • 12:00 — Lunch / Networking

  • 13:00 — "Side-Channel Attacks on QSVT Algorithm", Mr. Kidus Tessma (Northwestern University)
  • 13:15 — "Circuit Integrity Checking in Quantum Controllers", Ms. Barbora Hrda (TU Munich and Fraunhofer AISEC)
  • 13:30 — "Crosstalk Attack Resilient Quantum Circuit Design", Prof. Himanshu Thapliyal (Southern Methodist University)
  • 13:45 — "TBD", Prof. Samah Saeed (The City University of New York)

  • 14:00 — Coffee and Networking Break

  • 14:30 — "QRAM Security", Ms. Yizhuo Tan (Yale University)
  • 14:45 — "Applying Quantum Computing for Program Analysis and Software Vulnerability Discovery", Prof. Yueqi Chen (University of Colorado Boulder)
  • 15:00 — "Practical Software Design for Secure Quantum Computer Systems: An Early-Stage Case of OQTOPUS", Mr. Satoyuki Tsukano (Osaka Univeristy)

  • 15:15 — Conclusion of Day 1 — Prof. Jakub Szefer

  • 16:00 — Venue Closes for Attendees

Program Second Day: Nov. 7

  • 09:00 — Venue Opens for Attendees

  • 9:10 — Welcome Remarks by Northewestern's ECE Dept. Chair Randy Berry
  • 9:20 — Logistics and Day Overview — Prof. Jakub Szefer

  • 9:30 — "Tracing Framework for Faul Tolerant Quantum Computers for Side-Channel Analysis and Beyond", Mr. Theodoros Trochatos (Yale University)
  • 9:45 — "Hardware-Agnostic Modeling of Quantum Side-Channel Leakage via Conditional Dynamics and Machine Learning", Mr. Brennan Bell (TU Graz)
  • 10:00 — "Context Switching for Secure Multi-programming of Near-Term Quantum Computers", Prof. Poulami Das (UT Austin)
  • 10:15 — "Quantum Cybersecurity Challenges: Malware and Side-Channel Perspectives", Dr. Siyi Wang (Nanyang Technological University)

  • 10:30 — Coffee and Networking Break

  • 11:00 — "Quantum Circuit Protection via Obfuscation Quantum Computer Trusted Execution Environments", Mr. Konstantinos-Nikolaos Papadopoulos (Northwestern University)
  • 11:15 — "Attestation for the Quantum Software Stack", Prof. Jean-Pierre Seifert (TU Berlin)
  • 11:30 — "Quantum Computer Antivirus", Dr. Sanjay Deshpande (Northwestern University)
  • 11:45 — "Protecting Intellectual Property in Quantum Circuits", Prof. Yuntao Liu (Lehigh University)

  • 12:00 — Lunch / Networking

  • 13:00 — "Networking Attacks that Turns QKD Optimism into Systems Realism", Dr. Kashyap Thimmaraju (TU Berlin)
  • 13:15 — "Toward Noise-Resilient Quantum Sensing Networks", Ms. Gabbie MacNeil (University of New Hampshire)
  • 13:30 — "Attacks on HHL Algorithm", Mr. Hrvoje Kukina (TU Wien)
  • 13:45 — "Distributed Consistency Verification in Quantum Variational Workflows", Prof. Ying Wang (Stevens Institute of Technology)

  • 14:00 — Coffee and Networking Break

  • 14:30 — "Security Issues in Multi-Tenant Quantum Computers", Prof. Kanad Bassu (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)
  • 14:45 — "QPU Fingerpriting", Prof. Kate Smith (Northwestern University)
  • 15:00 — "Access Control Threatened by Quantum Entanglement", Prof. Mingsheng Ying (University of Technology Sydney)

  • 15:15 — Conclusion of Day 2 — Prof. Jakub Szefer

  • 16:00 — Venue Closes for Attendees

Sponsors

We are grateful for the sponsorship provided by the below companies.

Further sponsorship opprotunities are still available, pease contact Jakub Szefer if you would like to sponsor this event.

Quantum Sponsor:

Silver Sponsor:

Bronze Sponsor:

Venue

The Guild Lounge in Scott Hall at Northwestern University

Physical Location: Scott Hall is located at 601 University Pl, Evanston, IL 60208. Please follow directions for getting to the venue.

Remote Participation: Participants will be provided Zoom link by e-mail if they are not able to join in-person.

Hotel

Recommended Hotel information.

Participants wishing to stay close to campus are suggested to book their rooms at the Hilton Orrington or The Graduate. Both hotels are within 10 minute walking distance of the venue.

For those who will attend other events that are part of the Midwest Quantum Week, Oct. 30 to Nov. 7, can consider staying in Chicago and can easily commute to Evanston from Chicago. Please see directions for information on how to travel to Evanston and our venue if you are staying in a hotel outside of Evanston.

Directions

QCCS 2025 will be at The Guild Lounge in Scott Hall at Northwestern University, located at 601 University Pl, Evanston, IL 60208.

By Car: participants driving to the venue are encouraged to park at the South Campus Parking Garage located at 1847 Campus Drive which is within about 8 minutes walking distance to the venue; alternatively, North Campus Parking Garage located at 2311 North Campus Drive is within about 15 minutes walking distance to the venue. The parking garage cost is about 10$ per day.

By Metro: participants arrving via metro should take the Purple line form Chicago to the Davis station located at 1612 Benson Ave, Evanston, IL; the walking distance from the station is about 13 minutes.

By Train: participants arrving via train should take the Metra train from Chicago to the Davis Street/Evanston station located at 901 Davis St, Evanston, IL; the walking distance from the station is about 14 minutes.

By Plane: participants flying to the event can fly to O'Hare (ORD) airport. Lyft or Uber from ORD to the venue should take about 35 minutes if there is not traffic and cost about 50$.

Organizer

QCCS 2025 is organized by Prof. Jakub Szefer

Prof. Jakub Szefer leads the Computer Architecture and Security Laboratory (CASLAB) at Northwestern University. His research focuses on security of computer systems, architectures, hardware, and cloud cyber-infrastructures. He is pioneering the field of Quantum Computer Security, with extensive prior research on processor security, DRAM security, FPGA security, and Post-Quantum Cryptographic hardware.

Resources

List of Resources Relevant to the Symposium

BibTeX with Relevant Publications: A (naturally incomplete) bibliography file containing references to Quantum Computer Hardware Cybersecurity research papers is available at https://github.com/caslab-code/qc-hardware-cybersecurity-bibtex, the bibliography will be continuously updated.