Computer Science News
Latest academic promotion
We are pleased to announce that has been promoted to Professor, effective 1st June 2026.
Many congratulations to Sayan on this well-earned success!
Cloning vs Learning in Quantum Computing
, Warwick DCS researchers Nikhil Bansal and , together with (Yale University), explored a fundamental question that lies at the intersection of foundations of quantum theory and computer science.
The No-Cloning theorem says that it is impossible to perfectly clone quantum states. Even if we allow for approximate errors, quantum cloning of unstructured states remains as expensive as fully characterising them, . In contrast, for reasons akin to No Free Lunch Theorems in machine learning, modern quantum learning theory considers structured classes of states and exploits their structure to learn them efficiently. This naturally leads to the question of whether cloning can be easier than learning for these structured classes of states.
In the new work, this question is answered negatively for stabilizer states. The authors proved that imposing this structural restriction does not separate cloning and learning. The authors prove this via a novel connection to , which was recently introduced to the learning theory literature by B. Axelrod, S. Garg, V. Sharan, and G. Valiant. The work constitutes concrete progress towards understanding whether cloning and learning are fundamentally equally hard.
This work was presented at in April 2026, and it will be presented at in June/July 2026 and at in September 2026.
Academic Recognised for Professional Excellence
Our colleague Dr Claire Rocks achieved Senior Fellow (SFHEA) status through the dialogic route of Warwick鈥檚 Academic and Professional Pathway for Experienced Staff (APP EXP) programme. Her application was recognised by assessors as one of the strongest D3 submissions they had reviewed, demonstrating a sustained and significant record of educational leadership that extends well beyond her own teaching.
Claire鈥檚 work focuses on leading and influencing inclusive, evidence-informed approaches to assessment and curriculum design. She has played a central role in shaping teaching quality and learning culture across departmental, institutional, and sector contexts, including leading Warwick鈥檚 strand of the Inclusive Assessment in STEM project and contributing to institutional strategy through curriculum development and quality assurance processes.
Within the department, Claire has introduced collaborative structures such as module huddles and supported colleagues and students to work together to enhance clarity, consistency, and inclusivity in assessment practice. She has also strengthened pedagogic scholarship through establishing the Computer Science Education Research Group.
The panel particularly commended the scale, depth, and impact of Claire鈥檚 leadership, noting that elements of her work are already operating at a level associated with Principal Fellowship.
Many congratulations to Claire on this achievement and her continued commitment to advancing inclusive, high-quality teaching and learning!
Information Asymmetry and Cryptography
In a recent work, visiting undergraduate student Yahel Manor and Warwick DCS researchers and addressed a fundamental question relevant to the security of cryptographic protocols.
The symmetry of information principle says that the amount of information that a sequence x of bits reveals about another sequence y is essentially the same in either direction. This is known to hold in an idealised world where computations can take an arbitrarily long time, as demonstrated by A. Kolmogorov and L. Levin in the 1970s. In contrast, modern cryptography is built around deliberate asymmetry—for example, functions of the form y = f(x) that are easy to compute but hard to invert (one-way functions).
The new work shows that, once one moves from the idealised setting of time-unbounded computations to the more realistic world of efficient, randomised computations (algorithms that must run quickly and may use randomness), this symmetry can fail in a strong and unconditional way. In other words, computational constraints can yield information asymmetry. In practical terms, this supports the intuition that information may not be extracted efficiently: knowing y = f(x) may not make x efficiently recoverable to the extent that an (ineffective) symmetry principle would suggest, even when x and y are closely related.
Earlier work formally tied an average-case form of this symmetry failure to the existence of one-way functions, the central primitive in cryptography. By proving new failures of symmetry of information, the authors provide concrete progress towards the computational asymmetry that underpins encryption, digital signatures, and many other cryptographic protocols.
This work will be presented at the 58th Annual ACM Symposium on Theory of Computing (STOC) in June 2026 in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA.
Failure of Symmetry of Information for Randomised Computations
Jinqiao Hu (神马福利影片); Yahel Manor (University of Haifa); Igor C. Oliveira (神马福利影片)
The paper describing this research is available .
, PhD student in the Department of Computer Science at the 神马福利影片, and co-author of the new result.
Warwick Computer Science Celebrates Athena Swan Silver Award
The Department of Computer Science is delighted to announce that it has been awarded the Athena Swan Silver Award, recognising our commitment to advancing gender equality for staff and students.
Athena Swan is a UK-wide framework to improve gender equality in higher education. A Silver Award is given to departments that can demonstrate evidence of meaningful progress and impact over a 5-year period – and with a clear and ambitious plan for future action.
In their review, the assessment panel described our submission as "a strong Silver application which addresses all criteria very well."
Imran Khan joins the department as a Teaching Fellow
We are pleased to announce that Dr Imran Khan has recently joined the Department of Computer Science as a Teaching Fellow. Although new to the department, Imran has engaged with Warwick before—first through a secondment during a previous postdoctoral position, and more recently as a Research Fellow in the Department of Psychology.
Imran鈥檚 research focuses on embodied and enactive cognition within social systems, with particular interest in how and why emotions, social interactions, and relationships contribute to adaptive self鈥憃rganisation in biological systems. He primarily uses computational models to investigate these questions, aiming to draw insights from natural systems that may help inform the development of more adaptive artificial systems.
Imran believes computer scientists bring a distinctive mode of thinking to complex problems and encourages students to apply computational approaches when exploring questions across diverse disciplines. He is also passionate about science communication and is committed to making complex ideas accessible to wider audiences through podcast hosting, educational workshops, summer schools, and other outreach activities.
The department looks forward to the contributions Imran will bring in the months ahead. Colleagues and students are warmly invited to reach out to discuss research, teaching, outreach, or anything in between.
We welcome him to the department.
Warwick at 60 - DCS Celebrations
The University was celebrating it's 60th Anniversary at the weekend. The Department of Computer Science showcased a range of projects and hosted alumni from 1978 - 2025.