Find Academic Supervisors

Kaushik MallikView profile

Assistant Professor

• Controller Synthesis
• Cyber-Physical Systems
• Combinatorial Games on Graphs
• +4 more

Kaushik Mallik is an Assistant Professor at the IMDEA Software Institute in Madrid, Spain. His research focuses on formal methods for Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS), algorithmic fairness in AI, and combinatorial game theory. He holds a PhD from the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (MPI-SWS) and has been recognized with the 2023 ETAPS Doctoral Dissertation Award. Education: B.Tech in Electrical Engineering, Meghnad Saha Institute of Technology, 2012 M.Tech in Systems and Control, IIT Roorkee, 2015 (with DAAD-funded research at TU Berlin) PhD in Computer Science, MPI-SWS, 2022 Research Interests: Verification & synthesis of CPS controllers Bidding games and algorithmic game theory Runtime fairness monitoring for AI systems Symbolic control for stochastic systems Awards: 2023 ETAPS Dissertation Award CONCUR 2024 Best Paper Nomination IIT Master-Sandwich-Programme DAAD Scholarship (2014) Current Projects: Developing fairness shields for AI decision-making systems Advancing bidding game theory for CPS control Runtime verification frameworks for dynamic fairness His work bridges formal methods with emerging AI challenges, focusing on verifiable safety and ethical algorithm design. Tools like Mascot-SDS and BOCoSy reflect his contributions to practical controller synthesis.

Johnnatan MessiasView profile

Researcher

• Blockchain governance
• Decentralized finance
• Network transparency
• +1 more

Johnnatan Messias is a Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (MPI-SWS), specializing in blockchain governance, decentralized finance, and network transparency. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from MPI-SWS in collaboration with Universität des Saarlandes, advised by Prof. Krishna P. Gummadi. His work focuses on improving fairness and accountability in decentralized systems through empirical analysis of blockchain transactions and governance mechanisms. Primary research areas include DeFi protocol vulnerabilities, blockchain scalability solutions (especially rollups), and transparency in transaction ordering. He develops measurement tools like Glasnost for detecting network differentiation and SatelliteLab for heterogeneous network testing. Recent work examines governance centralization in DeFi, arbitrage dynamics in layer-2 systems, and economic sustainability of token distribution mechanisms. Publications demonstrate consistent methodological innovation in analyzing blockchain data, combining network measurements, statistical modeling, and game-theoretic frameworks. Key contributions include revealing voting power concentration in DAOs, quantifying rollup performance during inscription surges, and detecting opaque transaction prioritization in Bitcoin and Ethereum. His empirical studies have exposed systemic issues like miner collusion in fee markets and arbitrage inefficiencies in AMMs. Dr. Messias has contributed to academic service as program committee member for FC, AFT, WWW, and other major conferences. He developed open-source tools including WhatsApp Monitor for tracking misinformation and public datasets for ZK-Rollup research. Current projects investigate the impact of inscriptions on EVM networks and design frameworks for decentralized insurance on blockchain infrastructures.

Barbara KönigView profile

Professor

• Automata Theory
• Formal Languages
• Software Security
• +5 more

Barbara König is a Professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen, affiliated with the Department of General Computer Science within the Faculty of Computer Science. Her research focuses on theoretical computer science, with a strong emphasis on formal methods, graph transformation systems, coalgebraic semantics, and behavioral metrics. She leads a team of researchers including postdocs and PhD students like Rebecca Bernemann and Sebastian Gurke. Her work integrates mathematical rigor with practical applications in formal verification, probabilistic systems, and automated reasoning. König has organized and contributed to numerous international conferences such as CSL, CONCUR, and ICGT, highlighting her role in advancing the field’s research agenda. Key research themes include fixpoint theory, coalgebraic modal logics, and the development of tools like CoReS for graph analysis. Her current projects explore quantitative logics, behavioral distances, and abstraction-refinement techniques for complex systems analysis. König actively contributes to academic communities through editorial roles and serves as a mentor in the university’s theoretical computer science department. Her interdisciplinary approach bridges foundational theory with applied challenges in software engineering and system modeling.

• Embedded Systems Verification
• Real-Time Systems
• Program Verification
• +3 more

Sergio Feo-Arenis is a Researcher at the Department of Informatics, University of Freiburg, affiliated with the Software & Systems Theory (SWT) group. His research focuses on Embedded Systems Verification, Real-Time Systems, and Formal Methods, with expertise in Program Verification and Static Analysis. He contributes to the Salomo project and has published extensively in areas like timed automata and network protocols. Teaching responsibilities include courses such as Program Verification, Cyber-Physical Systems, and Software Engineering, spanning undergraduate and graduate levels. He has advised numerous student projects and theses, emphasizing practical applications of theoretical concepts. Research highlights include formal verification of data aggregation protocols, GPU-accelerated model checking, and semantic layer development for aerospace systems. His work bridges theoretical computer science with industrial applications, ensuring compliance with safety-critical standards. Key projects include Salomo, exploring parametric analysis models, and contributions to interdisciplinary system design. Consultation hours require appointment scheduling via email.

Stefan HerzogView profile

Researcher

• Decision-Making
• Artificial Intelligence
• Collective Intelligence
• +6 more

Stefan Herzog is a Senior Research Scientist and Head of the Research Area Boosting Decision-Making at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. He leads interdisciplinary projects integrating psychology, artificial intelligence, and computational social science to address global challenges like misinformation, climate change, and AI's societal impact. PhD in Psychology (2009, University of Basel) M.Sc. in Psychology (2005, University of Basel) B.Sc. in Psychology (2003, University of Basel) His research focuses on boosting human decision-making through: Hybrid human-AI collective intelligence Strengthening resilience against disinformation Behavioral interventions in digital environments Transparent, non-manipulative policy design Self-nudging strategies Methodological innovation in social science Recent publications emphasize AI ethics , digital sovereignty , and democratic resilience . He has secured significant funding from the EU Horizon program, DFG, and Volkswagen Stiftung. Scientific recognition includes the Hillel Einhorn New Investigator Award (2010).

Jens LienigView profile

Professor

• Electronic Design Automation
• Electromigration
• 3D Integrated Circuit Design
• +5 more

Jens Lienig has been a Professor at Technische Universität Dresden since 2002, where he directs the Chair of Development and Design of Precision Engineering and Electronics. His research spans Electronic Design Automation (EDA), electromigration analysis, 3D IC design, constraint-driven methodologies, and precision device development. He holds memberships in IEEE, VDE/VDI GMM, and technical committees, and has led conferences like ISPD 2021 as General Chair. Research interests focus on: Reliability Engineering : Electromigration-aware IC design, thermal/stress modeling in interconnects. Advanced Design Automation : 3D physical design algorithms, analog layout generators, constraint propagation. Precision Devices : MEMS sensors, peristaltic pumps, SAW motors, pyroelectric detectors. Recent articles (2019–2025) emphasize electromigration robustness, aerosol sensor signal processing, and open-source EDA tools. Over 15 doctoral students have completed under his supervision, including dissertations on electromigration, MEMS, and infrared sensors.

• Natural Language Processing
• Temporal Information Extraction
• Misinformation Detection
• +2 more

Leon Derczynski is a researcher at the IT University of Copenhagen with a focus on Natural Language Processing and computational linguistics. His work spans multiple NLP subfields including temporal information extraction , misinformation detection , and social media analysis . He has contributed to the development of NLP resources for Danish and Nordic languages, and created frameworks like garak for model security probing. Research interests include: Temporal relation classification and time expression modeling Social media analysis and misinformation detection Model efficiency and resource-aware NLP Scandinavian language processing Ethical considerations in NLP Publications highlight trends in transformer architecture optimization , set-to-sequence modeling , and abusive language detection . His work frequently appears in top venues like Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics , EMNLP , and COLING . Key collaborations include work with Kalina Bontcheva on rumor evaluation, Manuel R. Ciosici on efficient NLP methods, and Erick Galinkin on model security. He has also contributed to datasets like the Danish Gigaword Corpus and evaluation frameworks like Risk Cards for model deployment assessment.

Rolf DrechslerView profile

Professor

• Formal Verification
• Quantum Computing
• RISC-V Architecture
• +4 more

Rolf Drechsler is a Full Professor and Head of the Group of Computer Architecture at the University of Bremen's Institute of Computer Science since 2001, and Director of the Cyber-Physical Systems Group at DFKI Bremen since 2011. He holds an adjunct professorship at the Indian Statistical Institute and has been affiliated with Duke University. Education: Diploma (1992) and Dr. phil. nat. (1995) in Computer Science from Goethe University Frankfurt Academic Leadership: Dean of Mathematics and Computer Science Faculty (2018-2025), Vice Rector for Research (2008-2013) His research focuses on formal verification , RISC-V architectures , and quantum/in-memory computing . Recent work explores LLM integration in hardware testing and polynomial-based verification techniques. Publications from 2024-2025 span IEEE Transactions , DATE , and DAC , emphasizing automated verification , quantum circuit mapping , and LLM-driven testbench generation . Scientific Awards IEEE/ACM Best Paper Awards (2013, 2018) Berninghausen-Preis for Innovative Teaching (2018) IEEE Fellow (2015) Founder Award for Solvertec (2013) He has served on program committees for DAC, ICCAD, DATE, and founded graduate schools in Embedded Systems and System Design under Germany's Excellence Initiative.

Matteo CamilliView profile

Associate Professor

• Software Engineering
• Software verification
• Automated testing
• +4 more

Matteo Camilli is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering (DEIB) at Politecnico di Milano, Italy, where he leads research in software engineering and verification. His academic journey includes positions as Assistant Professor at Free University of Bozen-Bolzano and postdoctoral research at the University of Milan and University of Bergamo. His educational background includes a PhD in Computer Science (2015), MSc in Computer Science (2012), and BSc in Computer Science (2009), all from the University of Milan. His doctoral research focused on combining advanced abstraction techniques and big data approaches to address state explosion problems in formal verification. Camilli's research primarily centers on software verification, testing, and methods to improve dependability of autonomous, cyber-physical, service-based, and ML-enabled critical systems. His work spans formal methods, model-based testing, uncertainty quantification, and design-time/runtime verification with applications to complex distributed systems. His recent publications reflect a growing focus on explainable self-adaptation, quality assurance for LLM-based systems, and managing uncertainty in adaptive systems. His publication record includes papers in top journals (TOSEM, TAAS, JSS, EMSE) and conferences (ICSE, ISSRE, ICST, ICSA). He serves on program committees for prestigious conferences including ICSE, ICSA, ICST, and ECSA, and is on the steering committee for the International Workshop on Formal Approaches for Advanced Computing Systems (FAACS). Camilli actively contributes to the academic community through conference organization, including serving as Program Committee Member for numerous conferences and as Program Co-Chair for the Software Architecture track at ACM SAC. He also serves as guest editor for special issues on automated testing and dependable AI systems. His teaching portfolio at Politecnico di Milano includes Software Engineering 2, Software Engineering for Automation, and Distributed Software Development. Previously at Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, he taught Systems Engineering and Verification and Reliability for Dependable Systems.

Radu CalinescuView profile

Professor

• formal methods
• software engineering
• self-adaptive systems
• +7 more

Radu Calinescu is Professor of Computer Science at the University of York, UK, where he serves as Principal Investigator for the UKRI Trustworthy Autonomous Systems Node in Resilience and leads the Trustworthy Adaptive and Autonomous Systems and Processes (TASP) Research Team. His academic career includes previous positions as Lecturer in Computer Science at Aston University (2009-2012), Senior Researcher at the University of Oxford (2008-2009), and part-time Lecturer at Oxford (2005-2009). Professor Calinescu's research focuses on formal modelling, analysis, verification and controller synthesis for autonomous and self-adaptive systems, with particular emphasis on parametric and probabilistic model checking, automated and model-driven software engineering. His work applies these approaches to robotic, cyber-physical, embedded and service-based systems, with a strong commitment to using formal methods at runtime to enhance the resilience and safety of critical autonomous systems. His extensive publication record spans top-tier journals including IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Journal of Systems and Software, and Automated Software Engineering. His research demonstrates consistent focus on verification techniques for adaptive systems, with increasing attention to safety-critical applications in recent years. His work bridges theoretical formal methods with practical applications in robotics and autonomous systems. British Computer Society Distinguished Dissertation Award for his DPhil thesis on Autonomic-Independent Loop Parallelisation Principal Investigator for multiple major projects including Continual Verification and Assurance of Robotic Systems under Uncertainty (ORCA Hub/EPSRC), Safety of AI Techniques (AAIP/Lloyd's Register Foundation), and CSI:Cobot Program Committee Co-Chair for major conferences including SEFM 2021, SEAMS 2020, and SERENE 2019 Professor Calinescu actively supervises numerous PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, with current team members including Faisal Alhwikem, Xinwei Fang, Mario Gleirscher, James Harbin, and Colin Paterson. His research group is based at the Ron Cooke Hub in York, a purpose-built facility housing world-class research groups and startups. His former students have gone on to academic positions at institutions worldwide and industry roles at major technology companies.

Antonio FilieriView profile

Visiting Associate Professor

• Static analysis
• Privacy
• Automated test generation
• +5 more

Antonio Filieri is a Senior Applied Scientist at Amazon Web Services (AWS) and holds a Visiting Associate Professor position at the Department of Computing, Imperial College London. Previously, he was a tenured Associate Professor at Imperial College London (2022-2024) and Assistant Professor (2016-2022), and served as Assistant Professor at the University of Stuttgart between 2013 and 2015. His academic career spans over a decade with significant contributions to software engineering research. Dr. Filieri's research focuses on formal mathematical methods for software design, verification, self-adaptation, and security. His primary research areas include static analysis, privacy, and automated test generation for security; exact and approximate methods for probabilistic program analysis; control theory for adaptive software; quantitative verification and model checking; and runtime-efficient and incremental verification. His work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications in industry settings, particularly in cloud computing and security domains. His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on probabilistic methods for software analysis, security testing, and performance modeling. The research trends show increasing integration of formal methods with machine learning techniques, particularly in test oracle generation and neural network analysis. There's also a clear emphasis on scalability and practical applicability of verification techniques to real-world systems like serverless computing and microservices architectures. Dr. Filieri has received numerous prestigious awards for his contributions: Best Student Paper Award (2025) for 'Robust Probabilistic Model Checking with Continuous Reward Domains' ACM Distinguished Paper Award (2023) for 'Sibyl: Improving Software Engineering Tools with SMT Selection' Best Paper Award (2022) for 'Enhancing Performance Modeling of Serverless Functions via Static Analysis' Best Artifact Award (2017) for 'Self-adaptive video encoder: comparison of multiple adaptation strategies made simple' Most Influential Paper Award (awarded at SEAMS 2025) for 'Software Engineering Meets Control Theory' ACM SigSoft Distinguished Paper Award (2011) for 'Run-time Efficient Probabilistic Model Checking' Dr. Filieri has advised several PhD students including Donato Clun (2024), Runan Wang (2024), and Xiaotong Ji (expected 2025). His advising focuses on probabilistic program analysis, automated testing, and security verification. His research has been supported by significant grants from both academic and industry sources, enabling collaborations across multiple institutions and contributing to advancements in software engineering practices. While specific lab information isn't prominently featured in the provided materials, Dr. Filieri's work suggests strong connections with research groups focused on formal methods, software verification, and adaptive systems at both Imperial College London and AWS. His research often involves interdisciplinary collaboration between theoretical computer science and practical software engineering challenges.

Bernd FischerView profile

Professor

• Automated Software Engineering
• Program Verification
• Logic-based Techniques
• +7 more

Bernd Fischer is a Professor and the current Head of Division in the Division of Computer Science at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Previously, he held positions at TU Braunschweig, NASA Ames Research Center, and University of Southampton, establishing a strong international academic background in software engineering and formal methods. Professor Fischer's research focuses on automated software engineering, particularly logic-based techniques. His work spans specification-based component reuse, program synthesis, and program verification, with current emphasis on annotation inference, software model checking, and human-oriented presentation of verification results. His research bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications, particularly in concurrent program verification, grammar-based testing, and fault localization techniques. His work has significant implications for improving software reliability and developer productivity. Analysis of his recent publications reveals a strong focus on concurrent program verification through lazy sequentialization techniques, with substantial contributions to tools like CSeq and ESBMC. His research demonstrates consistent innovation in software verification, particularly in addressing the challenges of concurrency, bounded model checking, and fault localization. The interdisciplinary nature of his work connects theoretical computer science with practical software engineering challenges. ASE 2012 Most Influential Paper Award ACM Distinguished Paper Award Best Presentation Award Professor Fischer has successfully advised PhD students including Gillian Greene, who defended her thesis on "Concept-Based Exploration of Rich Semi-Structured Data Collections," and Geoff Birch, who completed work on "Fast, Fully-Automated, Model-Based Fault Localisation and Repair with Test Suites as Specification." His mentoring approach integrates theoretical rigor with practical tool development. His research has been supported through various academic grants enabling the development of multiple software verification tools. Professor Fischer leads development of several important software engineering tools including AutoBayes for statistical program synthesis, ConceptCloud for interactive visualization of software repositories, CSeq for concurrent program verification, and ESBMC for software model checking. These tools represent significant contributions to the software engineering research community and have been recognized in international verification competitions.

Minxue PanView profile

Professor

• Software Modelling and Verification
• Software Analysis and Testing
• Cyber-Physical Systems
• +5 more

Minxue Pan is a Professor and PhD supervisor at the Software Institute, State Key Laboratory for Novel Software Technology, Nanjing University, China. His research focuses on the dependability of complex software systems, with expertise spanning software modeling and verification, software analysis and testing, cyber-physical systems, mobile computing, and intelligent software engineering. Ph.D. in Computer Science and Technology from Nanjing University (2014), supervised by Prof. Xuandong Li B.Sc. from Nanjing University Studied at UC Berkeley's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (2009-2010) under Prof. Edward A. Lee Professor Pan's research interests center on improving software dependability through innovative approaches to modeling, analysis, and testing. His work spans traditional software systems, mobile applications (particularly Android), cyber-physical systems, and the application of AI techniques to software engineering problems. He has made significant contributions to GUI testing, vulnerability detection, and deep learning applications in software engineering. His recent publications (2024-2025) demonstrate a strong focus on applying advanced machine learning techniques to software testing and security challenges. Key trends include leveraging large language models for test migration, enhancing fault localization with graph learning and contrastive learning, developing specialized frameworks for Android security analysis, and improving test efficacy through GUI and functional equivalence. His work consistently targets real-world industrial settings and addresses practical challenges in mobile and complex software systems. ISSTA 2020 Distinguished Paper Award ICSE 2025 Best Artifact Award Professor Pan actively advises graduate students and has developed several notable tools including Q-testing (reinforcement-learning based Android testing), ISDChecker (model checking for interrupt-driven systems), PREFEST (preference-wise testing for Android), Sketchoid (GUI code search), and PI-REC (hand-drawn draft conversion). His research is supported by extensive publication records in top-tier software engineering venues including ASE, ICSE, FSE, ISSTA, and TOSEM. He teaches undergraduate courses in Advanced Programming with C++, Software System Design, and Software Construction, as well as graduate courses in Advanced Software Design. His laboratory work focuses on developing practical solutions for real-world software dependability challenges through the State Key Laboratory for Novel Software Technology.