We are excited to announce that Prof. Qiaoyan Yu will deliver the keynote talk of the workshop! 

Title: Trustworthy Quantum Sensing: From Noise-Aware Design to Cross-Layer Security and Validation

Abstract:
Quantum sensing promises transformative advances in precision measurement, but realizing its full potential requires more than improving quantum hardware. We expect systems to be robust, reliable, and secure across the entire technology stack. This talk will present a cross-layer perspective on trustworthy quantum sensing, spanning quantum circuits, noise mitigation, sensing systems, validation, and security. First, we will present a cross-layer design and validation framework, Q-STEP, which brings these perspectives together to support systematic development and evaluation of quantum sensing systems. Next, we will introduce localized noise fingerprints for quantum circuit authentication and readout discriminator manipulation attacks against quantum sensing systems. By integrating noise awareness, validation, authentication, and security into the design process, we can move toward quantum sensors that are not only precise, but also robust, verifiable, and resilient in real-world environments.

Date: September 13, 2026

Session 1 — Keynote & Cryptographic Foundations 

10:00–10:05 — Welcome & Opening Remarks

10:05–10:45 — Keynote Talk
      Qiaoyan Yu (University of New Hampshire)

Session Chair:  Samah Saeed
10:45–11:00 — Practical Implementation of Lattice Reduction Algorithms
    Erik Hieta-Aho, Markus Rautell

11:00–11:15 — Clean and Resource-Efficient Quantum Circuits for SHA-3
    Gilad Ezov, Nir Drucker, Nathan Manohar

11:15–11:30 — Securing Shor's Factoring Algorithm Against Quantum Room Adversaries
    Ehud Aharoni, Charanjit S. Jutla, Nathan Manohar

Session 2 - Panel & Quantum Hardware and  Circuit Security

Panel Chair: J.R. Rao (IBM)
1:00–1:45 — Panel: Can We Trust Quantum Computing? Security, Robustness, and Assurance Across the Quantum Stack
Panelists:
Jakub Szefer (Northwestern University)
Zhu Han (University of Houston)
Samuel Yen-Chi Chen (Wells Fargo)
Nathan Manohar (IBM)

Session Chair: Juntao Chen
1:45–2:00 — An Algorithm-Aware Analysis of Quantum Circuit Output Protection: Exploiting Structural Features of QAOA
    Donald Lushi, Christian Rasmussen, Samah Saeed

2:00–2:15 — Buffer-Qubit-Based Quantum Circuit Allocation Method Against Crosstalk Attacks
    Haruki Nakayama, Satoyuki Tsukano, Satoshi Kono, Keita Matsumoto, Toshio Mori, Takumi Oikawa, Ryo Uchida

2:15–2:30 — Hardware Robustness of Sample-Based Quantum Diagonalization
          Ahatesham Bhuiyan, Cheng Chu, Qian Lou, Mengxin Zheng

Session 3 — Quantum Learning, Verification, and Algorithms Security

Session Chair: Ying Wang
3:00–3:15 — QRFed: Quantum-Resistant Federated Learning for Sensitive Data Analytics
      Shahroz Abbas, Wenjun Lin, Mahreen Nasir, Miguel Garcia-Ruiz, Ajmery Sultana

3:15–3:30 — Formal Verification of Hybrid VQE Execution Protocol
       Quanjiang Long, Tom Wray, Ying Wang, Juntao Chen

3:30–3:45 — Proof in a Bottle: Long-Lived Verifiable Secret Sharing via Pre-Quantum Commitment and Immutable Ledger Binding
    Hossein Siadati, Markus Jakobsson, Keir Finlow-Bates

Session Chair: J.R. Rao
3:45–4:00 — Lightweight CHSH-Based Security Verification for Vehicular Quantum Links
       Abhishek Gupta, Shahroz Abbas, Ajmery Sultana

4:00–4:15 — SoK: Adversarial Robustness of the Variational Quantum Eigensolver via Red-Teaming
      Ahmed Azaz Humdoon, Cheng Chu, Lei Jiang, Qian Lou, Mengxin Zheng

4:15–4:30 — Decoder-Prior Poisoning in Quantum Error Correction: Attacks and PriorGuard Defense
     Xinyi Li, Yifeng Peng, Juntao Chen, Ying Wang

Quantum computing holds immense potential to revolutionize fields ranging from cryptography to artificial intelligence. However, as the field advances, concerns regarding security, privacy, and resilience become increasingly critical. As quantum hardware and architectures mature, safeguarding quantum infrastructure against emerging threats is essential. Despite ongoing advancements, the research community faces major challenges in developing robust security models, ensuring quantum-safe cryptographic techniques, and mitigating side-channel vulnerabilities in quantum systems. This workshop on Quantum Computing Security, Privacy, and Resilience (Q-Sec)  aims to address these challenges by fostering interdisciplinary discussions among researchers, industry professionals, and policymakers.

The Q-Sec Workshop is motivated by critical issues in quantum security, privacy, and resilience. It aims to bring together academia, industry, and government stakeholders to discuss state-of-the-art research, share practical experiences, and shape future directions for securing quantum computing systems. This workshop solicits novel contributions, ongoing research results, open challenges, and emerging trends. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:

• Security and privacy challenges in quantum computing

• Assurance and trust evaluation in quantum computing systems

• Cross-layer and runtime assurance for hybrid quantum-classical systems 

• Post-quantum cryptography and hybrid quantum-classical security frameworks

• Privacy-preserving quantum computations and secure multi-party quantum computing

• Threat modeling and mitigation strategies for quantum hardware

• Secure architectures for quantum networking and communication protocols

• Security risks in quantum-enhanced AI and adversarial robustness

• Verification and validation of quantum security frameworks

• Real-world case studies and attack simulations on quantum systems

• Hardware-level vulnerabilities in superconducting, trapped-ion, and photonic quantum processors

• Trusted execution environments for quantum computing

• Formal verification techniques for quantum security protocols

• Quantum-safe identity and authentication mechanisms

• Standardization and policy challenges for quantum cybersecurity

• Proactive defenses for quantum side-channel attacks, including quantum-assisted anomaly detection, dynamic circuit obfuscation, and timing randomization

• Quantum Neural Networks (QNN) for security and anomaly detection in quantum systems

• Quantum AI for threat prediction and mitigation in quantum computing

Each technical paper must conform at the time of submission to the IEEE Formatting Instructions (i.e., title in 24pt font and full text in 10pt type, LaTEX users must use \documentclass[10pt,conference]{IEEEtran} without including the compsoc or compsocconf option), and must not exceed 4 pages in length (including references).  The submission must also comply with the IEEE Policy on Authorship.  All submitted papers will go through a peer review process, and all accepted papers, which are presented by one of the authors at the workshop, will be published in the QCE26 proceedings. 

Organizing Chairs: 

Juntao Chen (Fordham University, NY, USA); Main Contact: jchen504@fordham.edu

Ying Wang (Stevens Institute of Technology, NJ, USA); Main Contact: ywang6@stevens.edu 

J.R. Rao (CTO, Security Research at IBM)

Junaid Farooq (University of Michigan-Dearborn, MI, USA)

Tao Li (City University of Hong Kong)

Shengjie Xu (University of Arizona)

TPC Members: 

Hao Chen (Stevens Institute of Technology)

Makenzie Cosgrove (AFRL)

Tasnuva Farheen (Louisiana State University)

Salvador de la Puente González, (IBM)

Xinyi Li (Stevens Institute of Technology)

Quanjiang Long (Fordham University)

Lac Nguyen (Quantum Computing Inc.)

Wojciech Ozga (IBM)

Yifeng Peng (Stevens Institute of Technology)

Satoyuki Tsukano (Osaka University)

Theodoros Trochatos (Yale University)

Wenqi Wei (Fordham University)

Flavjo Xhelollari (Fordham University)