8th International Conference on Applied Category Theory

ACT 2025 group photo ACT 2025 group photo

About

The 8th International Conference on Applied Category Theory (ACT) took place together at the University of Florida on June 2-6, 2025. The conferences were preceded by the Adjoint School on May 26-30, 2025.

For more information on the ACT series, see here.

This conference has taken place

ACT 2025 was held at the University of Florida on June 2-6, 2025. This page is kept as a record of the event; the call for participation and the schedule are preserved below. Registration is closed.

Important dates

All deadlines were AoE (Anywhere on Earth).

  • February 26: Title and brief abstract submission
  • March 3: Paper submission
  • April 7: Notification of authors
  • May 19: Registration deadline and Pre-proceedings ready versions
  • June 2-6: Conference

Venue

The conference was held at the UF Reitz Union in the Career Connection Center

J. Wayne, Reitz Student Union, 686 Museum Rd Suite 1300, Gainesville, FL 32603

Parking is available in the Reitz Union Garage at approximately $8 per day. Payments are made through the Passport parking app by credit card or mobile payments.

The conference took place in the Connections room of the Career Connections Center on Level 1 of the Reitz Union. Technology available included a desktop computer, projector screen, and a confidence monitor for the presenter.

Conference info

Lunch and coffee were provided for attendees. This understandably meant that there were registration fees. We used a tiered system based on occupation category:

  • Students $140
  • Academics $300
  • Industry professionals $700

Travel and registration assistance was available to students depending on final registration numbers and funds available. Applications were made through this form.

Due to technological constraints, only the keynote addresses and the community meeting were accessible via Zoom. Recordings of presentations were made available after the conference on a best-effort basis. For exceptional circumstances in which a presenter could not attend in person, submissions could be published in conference proceedings alone, and/or a recorded presentation made available after the conference.

Adjoint School

More information about the adjoint school can be found at adjointschool.com.

LGBTQ+ statement

The 2025 conference for Applied Category Theory was held at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. As organizers, we understand that the current political climate and legal policies of the state of Florida do not instill a sense of comfort and safety in individuals from marginalized communities, especially the LGBTQ+ community. However, the organizers, University, and local community are committed to creating a welcoming environment for all. Along with the ACT community, Gainesville, FL is a kind and welcoming place for individuals of all backgrounds and experiences. Organizers and attendees of ACT 2025 will not tolerate any abuse or discrimination, direct or indirect, against members of the LGBTQ+ community. This event was an opportunity to learn from each other, build connections and collaborations, and discuss our research and pedagogy in applied category theory. We welcome all members of the ACT community to participate in this endeavor, regardless of gender, sexuality, race, religion, etc.

Inclusive spaces resources

Please refer to the UF Libraries page for finding inclusive spaces on campus. Here is a map of inclusive spaces on campus.

Organizers can confirm that most buildings on campus, including the one the conference activities took place in, have multiple accessible, single-occupancy restrooms. The available campus map also shows all locations of single-occupant restrooms, ADA accessible routes between buildings, bus stops, and more via the filter options in the top left corner of the map.

Organizers

Schedule

If the schedule does not load above, open it in a new tab.

Accepted presentations

CategoryAuthor(s)Title
TalkDavid NorrisA Categorical Formulation of Dose-Escalation Trial Protocols Extending Naturally to Admit Titration
TalkJoe Moeller, Aaron Ames and Paulo TabuadaA categorical framework for Lyapunov theory
ProceedingsJoe Pratt-Johns, Toby St Clere Smithe, Chris Guiver, Kevin Hughes and Peter AndrasA Category Theoretic View of Algebraic Artificial Chemistries
ProceedingsAnna Matsui, Innocent Obi, Guillaume Sabbagh, Leo Torres, Diana Kessler, Juan F. Meleiro and Koko MuroyaA Critical Pair Enumeration Algorithm for String Diagram Rewriting
TalkJorge Soto-Andrade and Juan-Carlos LetelierA stochastic mapping approach to the construction of objects according to the biology of cognition
TalkVictor Bloch and Tobias FritzA universal perspective on probability monads
TalkJacob Zelko, Matt Cuffaro and Sean WuACT-Informed Data Science: A Case Study in Public Health Research
Software DemoJames Fairbanks and Evan PattersonAlgebraicJulia: Compositional Development of Compositional Mathematics Software
TalkRuben Van BelleAlgebras of the Giry monad
Software DemoKevin Carlson, Owen Lynch, Kris Brown and Evan PattersonCatColab: formal, interoperable, conceptual modeling
ProceedingsJiaheng LuCategorical Calculus and Algebra for Multi-Model Data
ProceedingsRobin Cockett and Melika NorouzbeygiCategorical Semantics of Higher-Order Message Passing
TalkOwen Lynch, Eigil Rischel, David Jaz Myers and Sam StatonClock systems for stochastic and non-deterministic categorical systems theories
ProceedingsMarius Furter, Yujun Huang and Gioele ZardiniComposable Uncertainty in Symmetric Monoidal Categories for Design Problems
TalkTyler Hanks, Matthew Klawonn, Matthew Hale and James FairbanksCompositional Semantics of Convex Optimization
TalkJonas Forster, Lutz Schröder and Paul WildConformance Games for Graded Semantics
ProceedingsEigil RischelConvex duality made difficult
ProceedingsKeri D'Angelo and Sophie LibkindDependent Directed Wiring Diagrams for Composing Instantaneous Systems
TalkRob CornishEilenberg-Moore categories of Markov monads
TalkPaolo Perrone, Tobias Fritz, Tomáš Gonda, Antonio Lorenzin and Areeb Shah MohammedEmpirical Distributions and Strong Laws of Large Numbers in Categorical Probability
TalkJuan AfanadorGradual Semantics of Abstract Argumentation, categorically through Prisms
Software DemoPaul WilsonHyperSyn: macro morphism metaprogramming (software demonstration)
TalkGabriel Goren-RoigIdempotent Arboreal Covers
TalkSébastien Mattenet, Joe Moeller and Aaron AmesLyapunov's theorem for coalgebras
TalkPaolo PerroneMarkov categories with random variables
TalkAreeb Shah MohammedPartializations of Markov categories
TalkTiffany Duneau, Saskia Bruhn, Gabriel Matos, Tuomas Laakkonen, Katerina Saiti, Anna Pearson, Konstantinos Meichanetzidis and Bob CoeckeScalable and interpretable quantum natural language processing: an implementation on trapped ions
TalkCihan Okay, Victor Castillo and Walker SternSimplicial effects as generalization of effect algebroids
TalkAziz Kharoof and Cihan OkaySimplicial methods in the resource theory of contextuality
TalkJohn Morris, Gregory Mocko and John WagnerSystem Modeling and Simulation via Constraint Hypergraphs
Software DemoChristian WellsVisual Logic Interface (software demonstration)
TalkFabian Wiesner, Ziad Chaoui, Diana Kessler, Anna Pappa and Martti KarvonenWhy quantum state verification cannot be both efficient and secure: a categorical approach

Outing options

Kayaking

Dorrette Pronk pronk@mathstat.dal.ca is leading a kayaking trip in Silver Springs, FL departing the conference venue at 7:30 AM Wednesday. Please email by Monday 6/2/2025 by 6pm to join. Include in the email if you have a vehicle and can drive people to attend.

Sweetwater Wetlands Park

Sweetwater Wetlands is a great place to explore the flora and fauna of north central Florida. Alligators abound along with many different species of native and migratory birds. Bring sun protection and water!

The park entrance fee is just the parking of approximately $5.

UF Art Museum

For those looking for an indoor activity, the Harn Museum of Art is on campus and an entertaining option.

Subsections of ACT 2025

Call for Participation

The Eighth International Conference on Applied Category Theory will take place at the University of Florida on June 2-6, 2025. The conference will be preceded by the Adjoint School on May 26-30, 2025. This conference follows previous events at Oxford (2024, 2019), University of Maryland (2023), Strathclyde (2022), Cambridge (2021), MIT (2020), and Leiden (2019).

Applied category theory is important to a growing community of researchers who study computer science, logic, engineering, physics, biology, chemistry, social science, systems, linguistics and other subjects using category-theoretic tools. The background and experience of our members is as varied as the systems being studied. The goal of the Applied Category Theory conference series is to bring researchers together, strengthen the applied category theory community, disseminate the latest results, and facilitate further development of the field.

Important dates

All deadlines are AoE (Anywhere on Earth).

  • February 26: Title and brief abstract submission
  • March 3: Paper submission
  • April 7: Notification of authors
  • May 19: Pre-proceedings ready versions
  • June 2-6: Conference

Submissions

The submission URL is: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=act2025

We accept submissions in English of original research papers, talks about work accepted/submitted/published elsewhere, and demonstrations of relevant software. Accepted original research papers will be published in a proceedings volume. The conference will include an industry showcase event and community meeting. We particularly encourage people from underrepresented groups to submit their work and the organizers are committed to non-discrimination, equity, and inclusion.

  • Conference Papers should present original, high-quality work in the style of a computer science conference paper (up to 12 pages, not counting the bibliography; more detailed parts of proofs may be included in an appendix for the convenience of the reviewers). Such submissions should not be an abridged version of an existing journal article although pre-submission arXiv preprints are permitted. These submissions will be adjudicated for both a talk and publication in the conference proceedings.

  • Talk proposals not to be published in the proceedings, e.g. about work accepted/submitted/published elsewhere, should be submitted as abstracts, one or two pages long. Authors are encouraged to include links to any full versions of their papers, preprints or manuscripts. The purpose of the abstract is to provide a basis for determining the topics and quality of the anticipated presentation.

  • Software demonstration proposals should also be submitted as abstracts, one or two pages. The purpose of the abstract is to provide the program committee with enough information to assess the content of the demonstration.

The selected conference papers will be published in a volume of Proceedings. Authors are advised to use EPTCS style; files are available at style.eptcs.org.

Reviewing will be single-blind, and we are not making public the reviews, reviewer names, the discussions nor the list of under-review submissions. This is the same as previous instances of ACT.

In order to give our reviewers enough time to bid on submissions, we ask for a title and brief abstract of your submission by February 26. The full two-page pdf extended abstract submissions and up to 12 page proceedings submissions are both due by the submissions deadline of March 3 11:59pm AoE (Anywhere on Earth).

Please contact the Programme Committee Chairs for more information: Amar Hadzihasanovic (amar.hadzihasanovic@taltech.ee) and JS Lemay (js.lemay@mq.edu.au).

Programme Committee

See conference website for full list: https://gataslab.org/act2025

  • PC Chairs

    • Amar Hadzihasanovic (PC Chair), Tallinn University of Technology
    • JS Lemay (PC Chair), Macquarie University
  • PC Members

    • Benedikt Ahrens, Delft University of Technology
    • Robert Booth, University of Edinburgh
    • Cameron Calk, Laboratoire d’Informatique et Systèmes (LIS)
    • Cole Comfort, Université de Lorraine
    • Valeria de Paiva, Topos Institute
    • Elena Di Lavore, Oxford University
    • Martin Frankland, University of Regina
    • Jonas Frey, Laboratoire d’Informatique de Paris-Nord (LIPN)
    • Tobias Fritz, University of Innsbruck
    • Zeinab Galal, University of Bologna
    • Léonard Guetta, Utrecht University
    • Robin Kaarsgaard, University of Southern Denmark
    • Martti Karvonen, University College London
    • Shin-Ya Katsumata, Kyoto Sangyo University
    • Alex Kavvos, University of Bristol
    • Kohei Kishida, University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne
    • Gabriele Lobbia, Università di Bologna
    • Fosco Loregian, Tallinn University of Technology
    • Giulio Manzonetto, L’Institut de Recherche en Informatique Fondamentale (IRIF)
    • Dan Marsden, University of Nottingham
    • Adrian Miranda, University of Manchester
    • Koko Muroya, National Institute of Informatics
    • Nina Otter, Université Paris-Saclay
    • Hugo Paquet, Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique (INRIA), Paris
    • John Power, Macquarie University
    • Dorette Pronk, Dalhousie University
    • Callum Reader, University of Sheffield
    • Martina Rovelli, University of Massachusetts Amherst
    • Mehrnoosh Sadrzadeh, University College London
    • Peter Selinger, Dalhousie University
    • David Sprunger, University of Indiana
    • Alex Toumi, PlantingSpace
    • Todd Trimble, Western Connecticut State University
    • Sean Tull, Quantinuum
    • Paul Wilson, Hellas.AI
    • Dusko Pavlovic, University of Hawaii
    • Ruben Van Belle, University of Oxford
    • Priyaa Varshinee Srinivasan, Tallinn University of Technology
    • Gioele Zardini, Massachusettes Institute of Technology