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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesEdinburgh’s Quantum Software Lab (QSL) marked its third anniversary with a Quantum Fringe programme spanning research workshops, student events and a public performance. Physics World reported 16 events this year, bringing together people working on quantum software, hardware and applications alongside students and the public. The account is a sponsored feature, so its attendance, staffing and funding figures are attributed to that report rather than independently verified.
What is the Quantum Fringe?
The Quantum Fringe is a programme of events about quantum science and technology. Physics World says it debuted in 2025 to mark UNESCO’s International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, and that this year’s programme comprised 16 events organized by different groups. The feature does not independently confirm the UNESCO connection.
The events addressed both specialist and general audiences, from researchers and industry scientists to school students and members of the public. Examples reported by Physics World include:
- Integrated Quantum Networks (IQN): a two-day event on authentication for future quantum communications.
- QCi3: a workshop on quantum-computing applications and integration challenges in defence.
- TartanQEC: a practical quantum error-correction workshop organized by the Universities of Edinburgh and Strathclyde. Physics World reports that it welcomed more than 120 researchers from the UK and Europe. Its keynote speaker, Andreas Wallraff of ETH Zürich, discussed error-correction schemes for superconducting quantum computers.
- QSL’s verification and benchmarking workshop: a meeting of hardware vendors and researchers to discuss how quantum systems can be tested.
- AIMday: an event where companies and academics explored industry problems. The feature reports more than 60 participants.
- Learning events: a three-day summer school for high-school students covering quantum-computing basics and coding, and a week-long quantum-informatics event on the Isle of Skye for postgraduate students and early-career researchers.
- Quantum Worlds: a music-and-poetry performance presenting quantum concepts to a general audience.
Elham Kashefi, QSL director and National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) chief scientist, said the festival “belongs to everyone who takes part.” She described the events as opportunities for the community to come together, rather than work on quantum technology in isolation.
What does Edinburgh’s Quantum Software Lab do?
QSL is a University of Edinburgh lab working across quantum applications, algorithms, foundational theory and software. The Physics World feature says the lab launched in 2023 with around 15 members and had grown to almost 100 researchers by the feature’s publication on 1 October 2026. It also separately describes more than 70 researchers working across the lab’s subject areas. These are the feature’s differently scoped figures, not a single precise headcount.
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The lab’s work, as portrayed in the feature, includes developing software and methods for quantum computers and collaborating with hardware providers. Kashefi argued that a quantum machine matters only if it can produce an answer that is useful and can be trusted, calling that a software problem. Senior QSL researcher Caitlin Jones emphasized the need to build the engineering knowledge and skills required to work with the machines.
How do QSL’s hardware collaborations fit in?
The feature describes a strategic partnership between QSL and the NQCC, whose testbed facilities it says offered seven platforms across leading qubit modalities. It also reports that the four-year QATCH (Quantum Advantage TurboCHarger) programme is a £20 million UK government initiative led by QSL. Its stated aim is to develop tools, methods and systems for useful, evidenced impact from quantum computing. These descriptions and figures are reported by the sponsored feature, not independently confirmed here.
Two research examples illustrate the range of work described:
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- Hybrid quantum machine learning: Mario Herrero Gonzáles’s work uses a classical computer for training and a quantum device to generate samples, with the aim of using an Infleqtion neutral-atom platform.
- Sampling with photonic platforms: Leo Monbroussou’s work concerns classically hard sampling using photonic platforms from ORCA Computing and Aegiq.
These are examples of research activity, not evidence that either approach has demonstrated commercial advantage or independently validated performance. The feature does not give comparable specifications or results for the platforms, so it does not support ranking the hardware providers. A meaningful technical comparison would need to account for modality, software and control interfaces, error characteristics and connectivity, benchmark methods, and the task being tested.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What does the feature establish—and what does it not?
Physics World reports that around 170 people attended QSL’s third annual showcase. It also lists support for the Quantum Fringe from NQCC, Infleqtion, Quantinuum, Riverlane, Classiq, IBM, the Institute of Physics, the National Physical Laboratory and Nu Quantum. The feature names Edinburgh Innovations, the Centre of Doctoral Training in Quantum Informatics, QCi3 and IQN, the Quantum Software Alliance, and the Quantum Computing Application Cluster as contributors.
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The feature, “Festival season finds Quantum Software Lab in high spirits,” was published on 1 October 2026 and sponsored by the NQCC. Its figures and descriptions offer a picture of the festival and QSL’s reported activities, but the feature is not independent verification of attendance, lab size, funding or programme impact. It also does not provide test results that would establish quantum advantage or allow hardware vendors to be compared. Read the Physics World feature.
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