Skip to main content

Staff Profile

Dr Abolfazl Lavaei

Lecturer in Formal Methods

Background

I am an Assistant Professor in the School of Computing at Newcastle University in the UK. Between January 2021 and July 2022, I was a Postdoctoral Associate in the Institute for Dynamic Systems and Control at ETH Zurich working with Prof. Emilio Frazzoli. I was also a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Computer Science at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) between November 2019 and January 2021. I received my Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), in October 2019.

For more details, please visit my official website at www.lavaei-cps.de.

Research
  • Cyber-physical systems
  • Large-scale stochastic networks
  • Data-driven formal methods
  • Formal Learning & control
  • Safe autonomy & AI

For more details, please visit my official website at www.lavaei-cps.de.

Teaching
  • Spring 2024: Fundamentals of Computing (CSC1031)
  • Autumn 2023: Computer Systems Design and Architectures (CSC1032)
  • Spring 2023: Fundamentals of Computing (CSC1031)
  • Spring 2023: Research Methods and Group Project in Security and Resilience (CSC8208)
  • Autumn 2022: Computer Systems Design and Architectures (CSC1032)
  • Autumn 2022: Computer Networks (CSC8021)
Publications

  • Articles

  • Authored Book

  • Book Chapters

    • Lavaei, A, Khaled, M, Soudjani, S, Zamani, M. AMYTISS: PArallelized AutoMated Controller SYnthesis for Large-Scale STochastIc SystemS. In: 32nd International Conference on Computer-Aided Verification (CAV), Lecture Notes in Computer Science 12225. Springer, 2020, pp.461-474.
    • Lavaei, A, Soudjani, S, Zamani, M. Approximate Probabilistic Relations for Compositional Synthesis of Stochastic Systems. In: Numerical Software Verification (NSV), Lecture Notes in Computer Science 11652. Springer, 2019, pp.101–109.

  • Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

    • Lavaei A. Symbolic Abstractions with Guarantees: A Data-Driven Divide-and-Conquer Strategy. In: 62nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC). 2023, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore: IEEE.
    • Wooding B, Lavaei A, Vahidinasab V, Soudjani S. Robust Simulation Functions with Disturbance Refinement. In: 21st European Control Conference (ECC). 2023, Bucharest, Romania: IEEE.
    • Lavaei A. MDP Abstractions from Data: Large-Scale Stochastic Networks. In: 62nd IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC). 2023, Singapore: IEEE Control Systems Society.
    • Lavaei A, Frazzoli E. Scalable Synthesis of Finite MDPs for Large-Scale Stochastic Switching Systems. In: 61st IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC 2022). 2022, Cancun, Mexico: IEEE.
    • Lavaei A, Soudjani S, Frazzoli E. Safety Barrier Certificates for Stochastic Hybrid Systems. In: 2022 American Control Conference (ACC). 2022, Atlanta, GA, USA: IEEE.
    • Lavaei A, Mohajerin Esfahani P, Zamani M. Data-Driven Stability Verification of Homogeneous Nonlinear Systems with Unknown Dynamics. In: 61st Conference on Decision and Control (CDC 2022). 2022, Cancun, Mexico: IEEE.
    • Lavaei A, Di Lillo L, Atzei M, Censi A, Frazzoli E. Data-Driven Estimation of Collision Risks for Autonomous Vehicles with Formal Guarantees. In: 25th ACM International Conference on Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control (HSCC). 2022, Milan: Association for Computing Machinery.
    • Zhong B, Lavaei A, Zamani M, Caccamo M. Controller Synthesis for Nonlinear Stochastic Games via Approximate Probabilistic Relations. In: 25th ACM International Conference on Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control (HSCC). 2022, Milan: Association for Computing Machinery.
    • Lavaei A, Frazzoli E. Compositional Controller Synthesis for Interconnected Stochastic Systems with Markovian Switching. In: American Control Conference (ACC). 2022, Atlanta: IEEE.
    • Abate A, Blom H, Delicaris J, Haesaert S, Hartmanns A, van Huijgevoort B, Lavaei A, Ma H, Niehage M, Remke A, Schön O, Schupp S, Soudjani S, Willemsen L. ARCH-COMP22 Category Report: Stochastic Models. In: 9th International Workshop on Applied Verification of Continuous and Hybrid Systems (ARCH22). 2022, Munich, Germany: EasyChair.
    • Lavaei, A, Zhong, B, Caccamo, M, Zamani, M. Towards Trustworthy AI: Safe-visor Architecture for Uncertified Controllers in Stochastic Cyber-Physical Systems. In: CPS-IoT Week workshop on Computation-Aware Algorithmic Design for Cyber-Physical Systems. 2021.
    • Lavaei, A, Nejati, A, Jagtap, P, Zamani, M. Formal Safety Verification of Unknown Continuous-Time Systems: A Data-Driven Approach. In: 24th ACM International Conference on Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control (HSCC). 2021.
    • Lavaei, A, Nejati, A, Soudjani, S, Zamani, M. Estimating Infinitesimal Generators of Stochastic Systems with Formal Error Bounds: A Data-Driven Approach. In: 24th ACM International Conference on Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control (HSCC). 2021.
    • Salamati, A, Lavaei, A, Soudjani, S, Zamani, M. Data-Driven Safety Verification of Stochastic Systems via Barrier Certificates. In: 7th IFAC Conference on Analysis and Design of Hybrid Systems (ADHS). 2021.
    • Nejati, A, Lavaei, A, Soudjani, S, Zamani, M. Data-Driven Estimation of Infinitesimal Generators of Stochastic Systems. In: 7th IFAC Conference on Analysis and Design of Hybrid Systems (ADHS). 2021.
    • Abate A, Blom H, Bouissou M, Cauchi N, Chraibi H, Delicaris J, Haesaert S, Hartmanns A, Khaled M, Lavaei A, Ma H, Mallik K, Niehage M, Remke A, Schupp S, Shmarov F, Soudjani S, Thorpe A, Turcuman V, Zuliani P. ARCH-COMP21 Category Report: Stochastic Models. In: 8th International Workshop on Applied Verification of Continuous and Hybrid Systems (ARCH), EPiC Series in Computing. 2021.
    • Lavaei, A, Somenzi, F, Soudjani, S, Trivedi, A, Zamani, M. Formal Controller Synthesis for Continuous-Space MDPs via Model-Free Reinforcement Learning. In: 11th ACM/IEEE Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems (ICCPS). 2020.
    • Anand, M, Lavaei, A, Zamani, M. Compositional Construction of Control Barrier Certificates for Large-Scale Interconnected Stochastic Systems. In: 21st IFAC World Congress. 2020.
    • Abate A, Blom H, Cauchi N, Delicaris J, Hartmanns A, Khaled M, Lavaei A, Pilch C, Remke A, Schupp S, Shmarov F, Soudjani S, Vinod AP, Wooding B, Zamani M, Zuliani P. ARCH-COMP20 Category Report: Stochastic Models. In: 7th International Workshop on Applied Verification of Continuous and Hybrid Systems (ARCH), EPiC Series in Computing. 2020.
    • Lavaei, A, Khaled, M, Soudjani, S, Zamani, M. AMYTISS: A Parallelized Tool on Automated Controller Synthesis for Large-Scale Stochastic Systems. In: 23rd ACM International Conference on Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control (HSCC). 2020.
    • Lavaei, A, Zamani, M. Compositional Verification of Large-Scale Stochastic Systems via Relaxed Small-Gain Conditions. In: 58th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC). 2019.
    • Lavaei, A, Soudjani, S, Zamani, M. Compositional Synthesis of not Necessarily Stabilizable Stochastic Systems via Finite Abstractions. In: 18th European Control Conference (ECC). 2019.
    • Lavaei, A, Zamani, M. Compositional Finite Abstractions for Large-Scale Stochastic Switched Systems. In: 5th International Workshop on Symbolic-Numeric Methods for Reasoning about CPS and IoT (SNR) in conjunction with Cyber-Physical Systems and Internet-of-Things Week (CPS-IoT Week). 2019.
    • Lavaei, A, Zamani, M. Compositional Construction of Finite MDPs for Large-Scale Stochastic Switched Systems: A Dissipativity Approach. In: 15th IFAC Symposium on Large-Scale Complex Systems: Theory and Applications (LSS). 2019.
    • Lavaei, A, Soudjani, S, Zamani, M. From Dissipativity Theory to Compositional Construction of Finite Markov Decision Processes. In: 21st ACM International Conference on Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control (HSCC). 2018.
    • Lavaei, A, Soudjani, S, Zamani, M. Compositional Synthesis of Interconnected Stochastic Control Systems based on Finite MDPs. 2018.
    • Lavaei, A, Soudjani, S, Zamani, M. Compositional Synthesis of Finite Abstractions for Continuous-Space Stochastic Control Systems: A Small-Gain Approach. In: 6th IFAC Conference on Analysis and Design of Hybrid Systems (ADHS). 2018.
    • Lavaei, A, Soudjani, S, Zamani, M. Compositional Abstractions of Interconnected Discrete-Time Stochastic Control Systems. In: 56th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC). 2017.