AI讲座 | Verification and Control for Autonomy under Uncertainty

🎤 Speaker

Prof. Sofie Haesaert

Associate Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e)

📰 Title

Verification and Control for Autonomy under Uncertainty

⏰ Time

14:00 -14:45, Beijing Time

📅 Date

18 Aug 2026, Wednesday

📍 Venue

W1-102

In this talk, I will present recent advances in (data-driven) verification and control synthesis for both linear and nonlinear stochastic models present in autonomous control problems. I will first discuss how approximate stochastic simulation relations can be exploited to reduce the complexity of verification problems, enabling scalable formal verification of systems with uncertainty.

In many practical scenarios, exact knowledge of a system’s dynamics is unavailable—whether due to incomplete modeling of the physical components and their environment, or due to degradation and changes during operation. To address this challenge, I will show how controllers can still be systematically designed and formally verified using data-driven techniques. These methods allow us to guarantee correct behavior with minimal assumptions on the underlying model, bridging the gap between theoretical rigor and real-world applicability.

Sofie Haesaert is an Associate Professor in the Control Systems group within the Department of Electrical Engineering at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). Her research interests lie in the development of verification and control synthesis methods for cyber-physical systems. She is leads the European funded AIGGREGATE consortium on AI-enhanced collective intelligence for resilient, ethical and user-centric awareness and decision making in autonomous driving.

She holds a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering and a master's degree in Systems and Control from Delft University of Technology, both cum laude.  Haesaert obtained her PhD from TU/e in 2017 after which she did a postdoc at Caltech. In 2018, she returned to TU/e as an Assistant Professor in the Control Systems group, before being promoted to Associate Professor in 2025. She received the best PhD Thesis award from the Dutch institute of Systems and Control (DISC) and has co-authored several best (student) paper awards.