---
title: "Applied Compositional Thinking for Engineers"
authors:
  - "Andrea Censi"
  - "Jonathan Lorand"
  - "Gioele Zardini"
year: 2024
venue: "work-in-progress book"
arxiv: null
doi: null
source: "https://applied-compositional-thinking.engineering/"
topics:
  - "applied-category-theory"
  - "compositionality"
  - "engineering"
seed_rank: 960
seed_batch: "user-add-2026-08-13"
reviewed: "2026-08-13"
pool: "maths-foundations"
relevance_score: 8
lineage: categorical-deep-learning
cites:
  - title: "Co-Design of Complex Systems: From Autonomy to Future Mobility Systems"
    url: "https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000648075"
    year: 2023
    doi: "10.3929/ethz-b-000648075"
see:
  - "959-co-design-of-complex-systems-zardini-phd"
---

# Applied Compositional Thinking for Engineers

## One-sentence takeaway

Censi, Lorand, and Zardini's work-in-progress textbook teaches applied category theory as an engineering method — systems analysis, co-design, and compositionality — rather than as a rewrite of Mac Lane.

## Why it matters here

ACT-for-engineers on-ramp from the same lab Weaves cites. Composition as a design discipline for Anoptic/GRID: interconnect components with typed interfaces instead of hoping a monolith stays coherent.

## Key ideas

- Canonical site: https://applied-compositional-thinking.engineering/ (the old bit.ly/3qQNrdR redirect is unstable).
- Engineering-facing: posets, monoidal categories, and co-design problems as tools for building systems, not as abstract algebra for its own sake.
- Companion to Zardini's 2023 ETH thesis; used in ETH 'Applied Category Theory for Engineering' courses.
- Weaves cites it as the compositional-thinking backdrop, not as a deep-learning paper.

## Caveats

## Links

- https://applied-compositional-thinking.engineering/