Debasmita Lohar

Debasmita Lohar is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), working with Bernhard Beckert in the Application-oriented Formal Verification group at KASTEL — Institute of Information Security and Dependability. She is set to join the IT University of Copenhagen as an Assistant Professor starting December 2024.

Her educational background includes:

• PhD from Saarland University in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (MPI-SWS), Saarbrücken, advised by Eva Darulova
• Graduate studies at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, advised by Soumyajit Dey

Dr. Lohar's research focuses on the intersection of program analysis, approximate computing, and probabilistic analysis, with applications spanning embedded systems, scientific computing, and machine learning. Her work addresses critical challenges in numerical error analysis, particularly in the context of finite-precision arithmetic and its implications for system reliability and safety. She has made significant contributions to sound static program analysis techniques for neural networks and cyber-physical systems, developing novel approaches for mixed-precision tuning and quantization that balance computational efficiency with numerical accuracy guarantees.

Her recent publications demonstrate a strong trajectory in formal methods for numerical programs, with increasing focus on neural networks and cyber-physical systems. The research shows a clear progression from fundamental numerical error analysis to practical applications in machine learning systems, reflecting the growing importance of formal verification in AI safety-critical domains.

Her scientific recognition includes:

• Selected to participate in the 10th Heidelberg Laureate Forum, 2023
• Best Presentation Award (iFM PhD Symposium), 2019

Dr. Lohar has extensive teaching experience across multiple institutions, having taught courses on Floating-Point Analysis, LLMs in Formal Verification, Neural Networks in Formal Verification at KIT, Advanced Program Analysis and Program Analysis at Saarland University, and Fault Tolerant Systems, Theory of Computation, and Computer Organization and Architecture Lab at IIT Kharagpur. Her research is supported through her position at KASTEL and likely through competitive research grants given her publication record in top-tier venues.

She leads research in the Application-oriented Formal Verification group at KASTEL, collaborating with researchers like Bernhard Beckert, Eva Darulova, and others. Her work on the Aster project demonstrates her leadership in developing practical tools for sound mixed fixed-point quantization of neural networks.