Me!

About Me

I'm pursuing a PhD at the University of Antwerp in the lab of Prof. Guillermo A. Pérez. My research focusses on applying techniques from formal methods to AI and dynamical systems. Aside from research I also teach four courses on compilers, software engineering, and computer architecture.

Publications

Graph-Based Reductions for Parametric and Weighted MDPs

Kasper Engelen, Guillermo A. Pérez, Shisha Rao
ATVA 2023, vol 1, pp 137–157

Arxiv Springer Zenodo

Analyzing Value Functions of States in Parametric Markov Chains

Kasper Engelen, Guillermo A. Pérez, Shisha Rao
Principles of Verification: Cycling the Probabilistic Landscape, part II, pp 145–165. 2024.

Arxiv Springer Zenodo

Data-Efficient Safe Policy Improvement Using Parametric Structure

Kasper Engelen, Guillermo A. Pérez, Marnix Suilen
To be published.

Arxiv Zenodo

Mobility

ESSLLI 2023 summer school

Ljubljana, Slovenia
August 2023

This was a summer school on logic, language, and computation. I attended courses on linear arithmetic, formal language theory applied to RNNs, PAC learning of logical formulas, natural language parsing, etc.

MOVEP 2024 summer school

Rennes, France
May 2024

There were courses on SMT-solving, model checking, and reinforcement learning. This was also a great opportunity to meet other people in the field of theoretical computer science.

BNAIC 2024 conference

Utrecht, Netherlands
Nov 2024

I attended talks on reinforcement learning and SAT-solving and had the opportunity to meet many interesting people doing research in AI.

Storm days 2025

Nijmegen, Netherlands
March - April 2025

This event brought together researchers that make use of the Storm model checker. People presented their Storm-related research during various talks and we brainstormed (pun!) on how to further improve Storm.

BeNeRL 2025

Eindhoven, Netherlands
July 2025

This was a workshop that brings together reinforcement learning researchers from across Belgium and the Netherlands. People could attend a number of talks by invited speakers and also had the opportunity to present their own poster. In between the talks there were various opportunities to network and meet interesting people.

CAV 2025

Zagreb, Croatia
July 2025

The 37th International Conference on Computer Aided Verification was an event that brought together researchers in formal methods from around the world. People attended talks and expanded their network during the various coffee breaks and social events. I am also a big fan of Balkan food, so this event was an excellent opportunity to enjoy some Ćevapi and Štrukli!

Academic service

  • Organising committee CONFEST 2023 (CONCUR, FORMATS, QEST, FMICS)
  • External reviewer for AAMAS 2024
  • External reviewer for ECAI 2025
  • External reviewer for AAAI 2026

Teaching

Teaching assistance

I oversee the lab sessions of multiple courses:

  • Project software engineering: a project over the course of an entire semester where students have to put together a software system. In doing so, the students have to pay attention to project management, software testing, quality control, and object oriented programming principles.
  • Compilers: groups of students build a compiler that translates C code into LLVM IR, MIPS, and native binary code.
  • Software engineering: in this course we cover a different topic in each lab session. Topics include formal methods, software testing, software architecture, quality control, etc.
  • Introduction to databases: In this course students get taught the basic principles of databases: relational databases, SQL, relational algebra, normal forms, concurrency, etc.
  • (2023-2025) Computer systems and architecture: a course where students build their own CPU in Logisim, a simulator for digital circuits.

Thesis supervision

I have supervised multiple thesis and research projects on topics that are related to my PhD, such as reinforcement learning and dynamical systems.

Education

Bachelors in Computer Science

University of Antwerp
Sep 2016 - Feb 2020
  • Grade: distinction
  • Elective courses on computational biology and applied logic.

Masters in Computer Science

Specialisation Data Science and AI
University of Antwerp
Sep 2019 - Jun 2022
  • Grade: great distinction
  • Thesis on Graph-Based Reductions for Parametric and Weighted MDPs.
  • Elective courses on neural networks, functional programming, and data science ethics.