Sven Schewe

Background

I gained a Diplom degree in Computer Science (Diplom Informatiker) with a minor in Operations Research and Planning in 1997 from the University of the Federal Armed Forces Munich. Then I worked in the Command and Control Systems Command of the German Navy as a Systems Engineer in different fields of the analysis and construction of safety-critical systems, including the specification and construction of such systems as well as quality assurance and project management. To complement this, I gave myself a treat and studied Math at the FernUniversität in Hagen, earning a degree in Mathematics (Diplom Mathematiker) in 2004. Returning to education, I joined the Reactive Systems Group at the Department of Computer Science of Saarland University in 2004, and obtained a PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in Computer Science in 2008, moving on to an academic position in Liverpool.

I am a Professor at the Department of Computer Science of the University of Liverpool, where I have lead the AI Section till our recent restructuring (2021). I am a founding member and former leader of our Verification Group and have a secondary affiliation with the Algorithms, Complexity Theory and Optimisation Group. I am also affiliated with the Institute for Risk and Uncertainty.

Research Interests

I am interested in automata and game theory and its applications in the construction and analysis of safety-critical systems. This includes constructions and decision procedures for automata over infinite words and trees and games with infinite duration, as well as algorithms and tools for the automated verification and synthesis of reactive systems and approaches to learn or infer optimal control strategies. My research concerns reactive computer systems and protocols: systems of concurrent processes that interact with each other and with their environment over a possibly infinite run. This family of systems contains many safety-critical applications like air traffic control systems, communication controllers in automotive systems, and security protocols. I study automated methods that prove that an implementation satisfies a logical property (verification); that derive implementations from logical specifications (synthesis); and that build models from observations (learning).

Research Projects

I am a CI on the EPSRC Programme Grant Digital Navigation of Chemical Space for Function, led by Matthew Rosseinsky (December 2021--November 2026).

Together with Dominik Wojtczak (CI) and Narges Khakpour (Newcastle PI on a sister project), I (PI) will study in our EPSRC project TRUSTED: SecuriTy SummaRies for SecUre SofTwarE Development (September 2023--August 2026).

Together with Pierre Ohlmann (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow), I (PI) will study Valuation Structures for Infinite Duration Games in our Horizon Europe project (from December 2023).

Together with Yong Li (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow), I (PI) study Reinforcement Learning for Finite Horizons in our Horizon Europe project (October 2022--October 2024).

Together with Daniele Dell'Erba, Patrick Totzke, and Dominik Wojtczak (CIs), and Ravi Kant Rai (PDRA), I (PI) study non-terminating games in our EPSRC New Horizons project Under the Branches of Universal Trees (April 2023--September 2024).

Together with Daniele Dell'Erba (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow), I (PI) study Synthesising Game Solving Techniques in our Horizon 2020 project (July 2021--July 2023).

Together with Xiaowei Huang (Liverpool PI) and Qiyi Tang (RA), I (CI) study Foundations for Continuous Engineering of Trustworthy Autonomy on our Horizon 2020 project (October 2020--September 2023).

Together with Dominik Wojtczak (lead PI), Dietmar Berwanger (French PI), I (CI) have studied Bluffing Games on our Royal Society Collaboration Project (September 2020--August 2022).

Together with Karoliina Lehtinen (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow), I (PI) have studied Foundations of Composition in our Horizon 2020 project (April 2020--March 2022).

Together with John Fearnley and Dominik Wojtczak (CIs), and Daniele Dell'Erba; and with Marcin Jurdziński (Warwick PI) and Ranko Lazic (Warwick CI); I (PI) study parity games and the theoretical and practical challenges they pose in our EPSRC project on Solving Parity Games in Theory and Practice (August 2017--February 2021 + a CoViD extentions till June 2021).

Together with Krishna S (IIT Bombay PI), Akshay S, and Dominik Wojtczak (CIs), I (Liverpool PI) am studying Time-Critical Distributed Software on our UKIERI SPARC project TiCDSoft (or rather, we would if CoViD would let us; November 2019--March 2021)

Together with Ernst Moritz Hahn (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow), I (PI) have studied Parametrised Verification and Control in our Horizon 2020 project (November 2017--October 2019).

Together with Nicolas Berthier (RA), Dominik Wojtczak (CI), Richard Mayr (Edinburgh PI), and our industrial partner Atrenta, I (PI) have studied the desing of energy efficient circuits in the EPSRC project Energy Efficient Control (September 2015--August 2019).
Ashutosh Trivedi and Mohamed Faouzi Atig have supported us as visiting researchers.

Together with Hamzah Faraj, I study the Optimal Control of Simple Hybrid Systems, supported by an overseas PhD scholarship from the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (since April 2018).

Together with Mete Özbaltan, I have studied concise and efficient circuit control, supported by an overseas PhD scholarship from the Turkish Government (October 2015--June 2020).

Together with Matthew Stock, I have studied Realistic Model Prediction for Managing Risk in Nuclear Decommissioning, supported by an EPSRC studentship from the RISK CDT (September 2017--September 2018).

Together with Idress Husien, I have studied the control of adaptive systems and self learning intelligent systems, supported by an overseas PhD scholarship from the Iraqi Government (January 2014--December 2017).

Together with Dietmar Berwanger, I have studied Coordination Games and Distributed Architectures. Dietmar's research visit was supported by a Visiting Fellowship.

Together with Doron Peled, I have studied the Fairness in Distributed Systems. Doron's research visit was supported by a Visiting Fellowship.

Together with Anshul Gupta, I have studied equilibria of non-terminating multi player games, supported by a studentship of the School of Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Computer Science (February 2013--July 2016).

Together with Thomas Praveen Methrayil Varghese, I have studied finite automata over infinite objects, supported by the competitive International Doctoral Studentship, funded by the EPSRC (November 2011--July 2015).

Together with Doron Peled, I have studied the Fairness in Distributed systems. Doron's research visit was supported by a Visiting Fellowship.

Together with Ashutosh Trivedi, I have studied the Stochastic Control of Cyber-Physical Systems. Ashutosh's research visit is supported by a Liverpool India Fellowship.

Together with Lijun Zhang, I have studied the Analysis and Control of Markovian Systems. Lijun's research visit is supported by a Visiting Fellowship.

Together with John Fearnley (RA), Lesie Ann Goldberg (CI till June 2013), Tom Shenton (CI), and Dominik Wojtczak (CI since June 2013), I (PI) have studied the control of Markov games and decision processes in the EPSRC project Synthesis and Verification in Markov Game Structures (October 2010--November 2013).

I have visited Anca Muscholl on a Visiting Professorship from Université Bordeaux I in September 2012 and January 2013.

I have visited Farn Wang on a travel grant for international scholars from the National Taiwan University in October 2012.

Together with Doron Peled, I have studied the synthesis of concise systems in February 2012, supported by a travel grant of the ESF Networking Programme on Games for Design and Verification.

Together with Nathlie Bertrand, I have studied the Analysis of Probabilistic Systems. Nathalie's sabbatical visit from November 2011 till July 2012 was supported by a Leverhulme Visiting Fellowship.

Together with Doron Peled, I have studied the control of distributed monitors on our joint Royal Society grant Synthesising Permissive Monitors (November 2010--February 2011).

I have also been associated with the EPSRC funded project Verifying Interoperability Requirements in Pervasive Systems.

If you are interested in drafting a research project with me, please contact me. If you want to do a PhD with me, please contact me as well.

Teaching

Current Courses

COMP524 - Safety and Dependability (since 2008/2009)

The module on "safety and dependability" covers topics such as: safety-critical systems, security, trusted systems, dependability and reliability, formal requirements engineering, design and development techniques and verification techniques. The module is intended for MSc students of six MSc programmes, MRes students, and MEng students in their final year.

Previous Courses

University of Liverpool

COMP516 - Research Methods in Computer Science (2014/15, 2015/16, and 2016/17, with Dominik Wojtczak)

The module on "research methods" spans four MSc programmes. It is an introductory course on research in computer science on the postgraduate level.

COMP525 - Reasoning About Action and Change (2009/2010)

Dynamism and rapid change are features of the modern world. The module on "reasoning about action and change" is concerned with how to specify and verify dynamic systems. Different approaches to representing and reasoning about systems that change are studied, including topics such as: temporal logic, model checking, dynamic logic, and modelling change in artificial intelligence. Such techniques are useful in detecting errors in the design of systems at an early stage. The module is intended for MSc students.

Saarland University, Co-Lectured with Bernd Finkbeiner

Automata, Games, and Verification (SS 08)

The theory of automata over infinite objects provides a succinct, expressive and formal framework for reasoning about reactive systems, such as communication protocols and control systems. Reactive systems are characterized by their non-terminating behaviour and persistent interaction with their environment. In this course we study the main ingredients of this elegant theory, and its application to automatic verification (model checking) and program synthesis.

Games in Verification and Synthesis (SS 08)

In this seminar, we will study game-theoretic methods that derive implementations from formal specifications (synthesis) and that prove that a given implementation satisfies a logical property (verification). In both cases, we view the interaction between a software component and its environment as an infinite game; verification then amounts to checking that the strategy represented by the program is winning; synthesis amounts to deriving a winning strategy from a logical description of the winning condition.

Bachelor Seminar (WS 07/08)
Verification (WS 07/08)

This course gives an introduction to various fields of systems verification, with an emphasis on algorithmic verification (model checking) and deductive verification (theorem proving).

Automata, Games, and Verification (WS 06/07)
Bachelor Seminar (SS 05)

Research Students

Current Students

First Supervisor

Tansholpan Zhanabekova studies the joy and complexity of automata transformations in her PhD. Second Supervisor: Xiaowei Huang.

Michael Hughes studies how to make neuronal netwroks safe in his PhD. Second Supervisor: Xiaowei Huang.

Hamzah Faraj studies optimal control of simple hybrid systems in his PhD. Second Supervisor: Dominik Wojtczak.

Second Supervisor

Joseph Livesey studies Epistemic Logic his PhD. First Supervisor: Dominik Wojtczak.

Ioannis Lamprou studies Distributed Algorithms and Combinatorial Games during his PhD. First Supervisor: Russell Martin.

Faisal Alotaibi studies DDoS attacks during his PhD. First Supervisor: Alexei Lisitsa.

Mahmoud Mousa studies Energy Efficient Control during his PhD. First Supervisor: Dominik Wojtczak.

Roberto Rocchetta studies Robust Probabilistic Risk & Safety Analysis in his PhD studies. First Supervisor: Edoardo Patelli.

Mehmet Kurucan studies Energy Efficient Control in Embedded Systems in his PhD studies. First Supervisor: Dominik Wojtczak.

Former Students

Mete Özbaltan. Achieving Power Efficiency in Hardware Circuits with Symbolic Discrete Control. PhD thesis (2020)

Idress Husien. Synthesis of Protocols and Discrete Controllers. PhD thesis (2017)

Anshul Gupta. Equilibria in Finite Games. PhD thesis (2016)

Thomas Praveen Methrayil Varghese. Parity and Generalised Büchi Automata. PhD thesis (2015)

Roberto Rocchetta. Robust Probabilistic Risk/Safety Analysis of Complex Systems and Critical Infrastructures. MRes thesis (2015)

Markus Rabe. Optimal Schedulers for Time-Bounded Reachability in CTMDPs. Master thesis (2009) (Won the Günter Hotz Medaille 2010)

Thomas von Bomhard. Minimization of Tree Automata. Bachelor thesis (2008)

Arnaud Fietzke. Learning Minimal Requirements for Compositional Verification. Bachelor thesis (2006)

Hans-Jörg Peter. Controller Program Synthesis for Industrial Machines. Diploma thesis (2005) (Won the Software-Engineering-Prize 2006 of the Ernst Denert Stiftung)

Jens Regenberg. Synthesis of Reactive Systems. Diploma thesis (2005)

Tobias Maurer. Distributed Games For Reactive Systems. Diploma thesis (2005)

External Examinees

Nathanaël Fijalkow. The Game of Synthesis. Habilitation thesis, University of Bordeaux (2022)

Pierre Ohlmann. Monotonic graphs for parity and mean-payoff games. PhD thesis, IRIF, University of Paris (2021)

Ruben Lapauw. Reconstructing and Improving Parity Game Solvers with Justifications. PhD thesis, KU Leuven (2021)

Anton Pirogov. Determinization and Ambiguity of Classical and Probabilistic Büchi automata. PhD thesis, RWTH Aachen (2021)

Daniele Dell'Erba. Solving Infinite Games on Graphs via Quasi Dominions. PhD thesis, University of Naples (2020)

Yong Li. Büchi automata. PhD thesis, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (2020)

Ayrat Khalimov. Reactive Synthesis: Branching Logic & Parameterized Systems. PhD thesis, TU Graz (2018)

Hassan Hatefi Ardakani. Finite Horizon Analysis of Markov Automata. PhD thesis, Saarland University (2016)

Marie van den Bogaard. Information-Flow Patterns in Games with Imperfect Information. PhD thesis, LSV, ENS de Cachan (2016)

Wladimir Fridman. A Study of Pushdown Games. PhD thesis, RWTH Aachen (2013)

Internal Examinee

Reino Niskanen. Reachability games and related matrix and word problems. PhD thesis, University of Liverpool (2018)

Publications

Here is a BibTex file containing references to most items listed below.

Journals

Ernst Moritz Hahn, Mateo Perez, Sven Schewe, Fabio Somenzi, Ashutosh Trivedi, and Dominik Wojtczak. Multi-Objective Omega-Regular Reinforcement Learning. Formal Aspects of Computing, 2023.

Yi Dong, Wei Huang, Vibhav Bharti, Victoria Cox, Alec Banks, Sen Wang, Xingyu Zhao, Sven Schewe, and Xiaowei Huang. Reliability Assessment and Safety Arguments for Machine Learning Components in System Assurance. ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems, 2023.

Daniele Dell'Erba and Sven Schewe. Smaller Progress Measures and Separating Automata for Parity Games. Frontiers in Computer Science, 2022.

Karoliina Lehtinen, Pawel Parys, Sven Schewe, and Dominik Wojtczak. A Recursive Approach to Solving Parity Games in Quasipolynomial Time. Logical Methods in Computer Science, 2022.

Gaojie Jin, Xinping Yi, Pengfei Yang, Lijun Zhang, Sven Schewe, Xiaowei Huang: Weight Expansion: A New Perspective on Dropout and Generalization. Transactions on Machine Learning Research, 2022.

Ioannis Lamprou, Russell Martin, Sven Schewe, Ioannis Sigalas, and Vassilis Zissimopoulos. Maximum rooted connected expansion. Theoretical Computer Science, 2021.

Alon Eliyahu Faraggi, Benjamin Percival, Sven Schewe, and Dominik Wojtczak. Satisfiability modulo theories and chiral heterotic string vacua with positive cosmological constant. Physics Letters B, 2021.

Ioannis Lamprou, Russell Martin, and Sven Schewe. Fast Two-Robot Disk Evacuation with Wireless Communication. Theoretical Computer Science, 2020.

Sven Schewe, Alexander Weinert, and Martin Zimmermann. Parity Games with Weights. Logical Methods in Computer Science, 2019.

Ioannis Lamprou, Russell Martin, and Sven Schewe. Eternally Dominating Large Grids. Theoretical Computer Science, 2019.

John Fearnley, Sanjay Jain, Bart de Keijzer, Sven Schewe, Frank Stephan, and Dominik Wojtczak. An ordered approach to solving parity games in quasi-polynomial time and quasi-linear space. International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer, 2019.

Anshul Gupta and Sven Schewe. Buying Optimal Payoffs in Bi-matrix Games. Games, 2018.

Sven Schewe. Solving Parity Games in Big Steps. Journal of Computer and System Sciences, 2017.

Chung-Hao Huang, Sven Schewe, and Farn Wang. Model-Checking Iterated Games. Acta Informatica, 2017.

Chung-Hao Huang, Doron Peled, Sven Schewe, and Farn Wang. A Game-Theoretic Foundation for the Maximum Software Resilience against Dense Errors. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 2016.

John Fearnley, Markus Rabe, Sven Schewe, and Lijun Zhang. Efficient Approximation of Optimal Control for Continuous-Time Markov Games. Information and Computation, 2016.

Anca Muscholl and Sven Schewe. Controlling Loosely Cooperating Processes. Theoretical Computer Science, 2016.

Sven Schewe, Farn Wang, and Chung-Hao Huang. An Extension of ATL With Strategy Interaction. ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems, 2015.

John Fearnley, Doron Peled, and Sven Schewe. Synthesis of Succinct Systems. Journal of Computer and System Sciences, 2015.

Farn Wang, Sven Schewe, and Jung-Hsuan Wu. Complexity of Node Coverage Games. Theoretical Computer Science, 2015.

Sven Schewe. Distributed Synthesis is Simply Undecidable. Information Processing Letters, 2014.

Savas Konur, Michael Fisher, and Sven Schewe. Combined Model Checking for Temporal, Probabilistic, and Real-Time Logics. Theoretical Computer Science, 2013.
The artical was honoured at the 40th Anniversary of Theoretical Computer Science celebration at LICS/ICALP 2015 as the most downloaded TCS article.

John Fearnley and Sven Schewe. Time and Parallelizability Results for Parity Games with Bounded Tree and DAG Width. Logical Methods in Computer Science, 2013.

Markus Rabe and Sven Schewe. Optimal Time-Abstract Schedulers for CTMDPs and Continuous-Time Markov Games. Theoretical Computer Science, 2013.

Bernd Finkbeiner and Sven Schewe. Bounded Synthesis. International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer, 2013.

Markus Rabe and Sven Schewe. Finite Optimal Control for Time-Bounded Reachability in CTMDPs and Continuous-Time Markov Games. Acta Informatica, 2011.

Bernd Finkbeiner, Hans-Jörg Peter, and Sven Schewe. Synthesizing Certificates in Networks of Timed Automata. IET Software, 2010.

Sven Schewe and Bernd Finkbeiner. Semi-Automatic Distributed Synthesis. International Journal of Foundations of Computer Science, 2007.

Conferences

Ernst Moritz Hahn, Mateo Perez, Sven Schewe, Fabio Somenzi, Ashutosh Trivedi, and Dominik Wojtczak. Omega-Regular Reward Machines. ECAI 2023.

Yong Li, Sven Schewe, and Qiyi Tang. A novel family of finite automata for recognizing and learning omega-regular languages. ATVA 2023.

Sven Schewe, Qiyi Tang, and Tansholpan Zhanabekova. Deciding What is Good-for-MDPs. CONCUR 2023.

Yong Li, Sven Schewe, and Moshe Vardi. Singly Exponential Translation of Alternating Weak Büchi Automata to Unambiguous Büchi Automata. CONCUR 2023.

Ernst Moritz Hahn, Mateo Perez, Sven Schewe, Fabio Somenzi, Ashutosh Trivedi, and Dominik Wojtczak. Mungojerrie: Linear-Time Objectives in Model-Free Reinforcement Learning. TACAS 2023.

Amany Alshareef, Nicolas Berthier, Sven Schewe, and Xiaowei Huang. Robust Bayesian Abstraction of Neural Networks. ICMLC 2023.

Nouf Al-Juaid, Alexei Lisitsa, and Sven Schewe. Secure Joint Querying over Federated Graph Databases Utilising SMPC Protocols. ICISSP 2023.

Ernst Moritz Hahn, Mateo Perez, Sven Schewe, Fabio Somenzi, Ashutosh Trivedi, and Dominik Wojtczak. Recursive Reinforcement Learning. NeurIPS 2022.

Rödiger Ehlers and Sven Schewe. Natural Colors of Infinite Words. FSTTCS 2022.

Sougata Bose, Thomas Henzinger, Karoliina Lehtinen, Sven Schewe, and Patrick Totzke. History-deterministic Timed Automata are Not Determinizable. RP 2022.

Ernst Moritz Hahn, Mateo Perez, Sven Schewe, Fabio Somenzi, Ashutosh Trivedi, and Dominik Wojtczak. Alternating GFM Automata. ATVA 2022.

Ernst Moritz Hahn, Mateo Perez, Sven Schewe, Fabio Somenzi, Ashutosh Trivedi, and Dominik Wojtczak. An Impossibility Result in Automata-Theoretic Reinforcement Learning. ATVA 2022.

Mehmet Kurucan, Mete Özbaltan, Sven Schewe, and Dominik Wojtczak. An Impossibility Result in Automata-Theoretic Reinforcement Learning. IJCAI 2022.

Gaojie Jin, Xinping Yi, Wei Huang, Sven Schewe, and Xiaowei Huang. Enhancing Adversarial Training with Second-Order Statistics of Weights. CVPR 2022.

Chen Fu, Ernst Moritz Hahn, Yong Li, Sven Schewe, Meng Sun, Andrea Turrini, and Lijun Zhang. EPMC Gets Knowledge in Multi-Agent Systems. VMCAI 2022.

Nouf Al-Juaid, Alexei Lisitsa, and Sven Schewe. SMPG: Secure Multi Party Computation on Graph Databases. ICISSP 2022.

Ernst Moritz Hahn, Mateo Perez, Sven Schewe, Fabio Somenzi, Ashutosh Trivedi, and Dominik Wojtczak. Model-Free Reinforcement Learning for Lexicographic Omega-Regular Objectives. FM 2021.

Xingyu Zhao, Wei Huang, Sven Schewe, Yi Dong, and Xiaowei Huang. Detecting Operational Adversarial Examples for Reliable Deep Learning. DSN 2021.

Ernst Moritz Hahn, Mateo Perez, Sven Schewe, Fabio Somenzi, Ashutosh Trivedi, and Dominik Wojtczak. Model-Free Reinforcement Learning for Branching Markov Decision Processes. CAV 2021.

Richard Mayr, Sven Schewe, Patrick Totzke, and Dominik Wojtczak. Simple Stochastic Games with Almost-Sure Energy-Parity Objectives are in NP and coNP. FoSSaCS 2021.

Sven Schewe. Minimising Good-for-Games Automata is NP-Complete. FSTTCS 2020.

Gaojie Jin, Xinping Yi, Liang Zhang, Lijun Zhang, Sven Schewe, Xiaowei Huang. How does Weight Correlation Affect Generalisation Ability of Deep Neural Networks? NeurIPS 2020.

Ernst Moritz Hahn, Mateo Perez, Sven Schewe, Fabio Somenzi, Ashutosh Trivedi, and Dominik Wojtczak. Faithful and Effective Reward Schemes for Model-Free Reinforcement Learning of Omega-Regular Objectives. ATVA 2020.

Ernst Moritz Hahn, Mateo Perez, Sven Schewe, Fabio Somenzi, Ashutosh Trivedi, and Dominik Wojtczak. Model-Free Reinforcement Learning for Stochastic Parity Games. CONCUR 2020.

Ernst Moritz Hahn, Mateo Perez, Sven Schewe, Fabio Somenzi, Ashutosh Trivedi, and Dominik Wojtczak. Good-for-MDPs Automata for Probabilistic Analysis and Reinforcement Learning. TACAS 2020.

Ernst Moritz Hahn, Mateo Perez, Sven Schewe, Fabio Somenzi, Ashutosh Trivedi, and Dominik Wojtczak. Omega-Regular Objectives in Model-Free Reinforcement Learning. TACAS 2019.

Paul Gainer, Ernst Moritz Hahn, and Sven Schewe. Accelerated Model Checking of Parametric Markov Chains. ATVA 2018.

Sven Schewe, Alexander Weinert, and Martin Zimmermann. Parity Games with Weights. CSL 2018.

Ioannis Lamprou, Russell Martin, Sven Schewe, Ioannis Sigalas, and Vassilis Zissimopoulos. Maximum Rooted Connected Expansion. MFCS 2018.

Paul Gainer, Ernst Moritz Hahn, and Sven Schewe. Incremental Verification of Parametric and Reconfigurable Markov Chains. QEST 2018.

Yong Li, Andrea Turrini, Lijun Zhang, and Sven Schewe. Learning to Complement Büchi Automata. VMCAI 2018.

Idress Husien, Sven Schewe, and Nicolas Berthier. PranCS: A Protocol and Discrete Controller Synthesis Tool. SETTA 2017.

Mahmoud A. A. Mousa, Sven Schewe, and Dominik Wojtczak. Optimal Control for Multi-Mode Systems with Discrete Costs. FORMATS 2017.

Idress Husien, Nicolas Berthier, and Sven Schewe. A Hot Method for Synthesising Cool Controllers. SPIN 2017.

John Fearnley, Sanjay Jain, Sven Schewe, Frank Stephan, and Dominik Wojtczak. An Ordered Approach to Solving Parity Games in Quasi Polynomial Time and Quasi Linear Space. SPIN 2017.

Richard Mayr, Sven Schewe, Patrick Totzke, and Dominik Wojtczak. MDPs with Energy-Parity Objectives. LICS 2017.

Ioannis Lamprou, Russell Martin, and Sven Schewe. Perpetually Dominating Large Grids. CIAC 2017.

Ernst Moritz Hahn, Sven Schewe, Andrea Turrini, and Lijun Zhang. Synthesising Strategy Improvement and Recursive Algorithms for Solving 2.5 Player Parity Games. VMCAI 2017.

Mahmoud A. A. Mousa, Sven Schewe, and Dominik Wojtczak. Optimal Control for Simple Linear Hybrid Systems. TIME 2016.

Ioannis Lamprou, Russell Martin, and Sven Schewe. Fast Two-Robot Disk Evacuation with Wireless Communication. DISC 2016.

Ernst Moritz Hahn, Sven Schewe, Andrea Turrini, and Lijun Zhang. A Simple Algorithm for Solving Qualitative Probabilistic Parity Games. CAV 2016.

Idress Husien and Sven Schewe. Program Generation using Simulated Annealing and Model Checking. SEFM 2016.
Best paper award.

Anshul Gupta, Sven Schewe, Ashutosh Trivedi, Maram Sai Krishna Deepak, and Bharath Kumar Padarthi. Incentive Stackelberg Mean-payoff Games. SEFM 2016.

František Blahoudek, Matthias Heizmann, Sven Schewe, Jan Strejček and Ming-Hsien Tsai. Complementing Semi-deterministic Büchi Automata. TACAS 2016.

Alon Brook, Doron Peled, and Sven Schewe. Local and Global Fairness in Concurrent Systems. MEMOCODE 2015.

Anshul Gupta, Sven Schewe, and Dominik Wojtczak. Making the Best of Limited Memory in Multi-Player Discounted Sum Games. GandALF 2015.

Ernst Moritz Hahn, Guangyuan Li, Sven Schewe, Andrea Turrini, and Lijun Zhang. Lazy Probabilistic Model Checking without Determinisation. CONCUR 2015.

Sven Schewe, Ashutosh Trivedi, and Thomas Varghese. Symmetric Strategy Improvement. ICALP 2015.

Anshul Gupta and Sven Schewe. It Pays to Pay in Bi-Matrix Games -- a Rational Explanation for Bribery. AAMAS 2015.

Devendra Bhave, Sagar Jha, Krishna S., Sven Schewe, and Ashutosh Trivedi. Bounded-Rate Multi-Mode Systems Based Motion Planning. HSCC 2015.

Blaise Genest, Doron Peled, and Sven Schewe. Knowledge = observation + memory + computation. FoSSaCS 2015.

Anshul Gupta and Sven Schewe. Quantitative Verification in Rational Environments. TIME 2014.

Sven Schewe and Thomas Varghese. Determinising Parity Automata. MFCS 2014.

Sven Schewe and Thomas Varghese. Tight Bounds for Complementing Parity Automata. MFCS 2014.

Ernst Moritz Hahn, Yi Li, Sven Schewe, Andrea Turrini, and Lijun Zhang. IscasMC: A Web-Based Probabilistic Model Checker. FM 2014.

Nadeschda Nikitina and Sven Schewe. Simplifying Description Logic Ontologies. ISWC 2013.

Anca Muscholl and Sven Schewe. Unlimited decidability of distributed synthesis with limited missing knowledge. MFCS 2013.

Chung-Hao Huang, Sven Schewe, and Farn Wang. Model-Checking Iterative Games. TACAS 2013.

Thomas Brihaye, Julie De Pril, and Sven Schewe. Multiplayer Cost Games with Simple Nash Equilibria. LFCS 2013.

John Fearnley, Doron Peled, and Sven Schewe. Synthesis of Succinct Systems. ATVA 2012.

Sven Schewe and Thomas Varghese. Tight Bounds for the Determinisation and Complementation of Generalised Büchi Automata. ATVA 2012.

Nathalie Bertrand and Sven Schewe. Playing Optimally on Timed Automata with Random Delays. FORMATS 2012.

Chung-Hao Huang, Doron Peled, Sven Schewe, and Farn Wang. Rapid Recovery for Systems with Scarce Faults. GandALF 2012.

Nathalie Bertrand, John Fearnley, and Sven Schewe. Bounded Satisfiablity for PCTL. CSL 2012.

John Fearnley and Sven Schewe. Time and Parallelizability Results for Parity Games with Bounded Treewidth. ICALP 2012.

John Fearnley, Markus Rabe, Sven Schewe, and Lijun Zhang. Efficient Approximation of Optimal Control for Continuous-Time Markov Games. FSTTCS 2011.

Gal Katz, Doron Peled, and Sven Schewe. The Buck Stops Here: Order, Chance, and Coordination in Distributed Control. ATVA 2011.

Sven Schewe and Cong Tian. Synthesising Classic and Interval Temporal Logic. TIME 2011.

Gal Katz, Doron Peled, and Sven Schewe. Synthesis of Distributed Control through Knowledge Accumulation. CAV 2011.

Sven Schewe. Beyond Hyper-Minimisation--Minimising DBAs and DPAs is NP-Complete. FSTTCS 2010.

Bernd Finkbeiner and Sven Schewe. Coordination Logic. CSL 2010.

Sven Schewe. From Parity and Payoff Games to Linear Programming. MFCS 2009.

Sven Schewe. Tighter Bounds for the Determinisation of Büchi Automata. FoSSaCS 2009 (extended version).

Sven Schewe. Büchi Complementation Made Tight. STACS 2009.

Bernd Finkbeiner, Hans-Jörg Peter and Sven Schewe. Synthesizing Certificates in Networks of Timed Automata. RTSS 2008.

Sven Schewe. An Optimal Strategy Improvement Algorithm for Solving Parity and Payoff Games. CSL 2008.

Sven Schewe. ATL* Satisfiability is 2EXPTIME-Complete. ICALP 2008.

Bernd Finkbeiner, Hans-Jörg Peter and Sven Schewe. RESY: Requirement Synthesis for Compositional Model Checking. TACAS 2008.

Sven Schewe. Solving Parity Games in Big Steps. FSTTCS 2007.

Sven Schewe and Bernd Finkbeiner. Distributed Synthesis for Alternating-Time Logics. ATVA 2007.

Sven Schewe and Bernd Finkbeiner. Bounded Synthesis. ATVA 2007.

Sven Schewe. Synthesis for Probabilistic Environments. ATVA 2006

Malte Helmert, Robert Mattmüller, and Sven Schewe. Selective Approaches for Solving Weak Games. ATVA 2006

Bernd Finkbeiner, Sven Schewe, and Matthias Brill. Automatic Synthesis of Assumptions for Compositional Model Checking. FORTE 2006

Sven Schewe and Bernd Finkbeiner. Satisfiability and Finite Model Property for the Alternating-Time μ-Calculus. CSL 2006

Sven Schewe and Bernd Finkbeiner. Synthesis of Asynchronous Systems. LOPSTR 2006.

Bernd Finkbeiner and Sven Schewe. Semi-Automatic Distributed Synthesis. ATVA 2005.

Bernd Finkbeiner and Sven Schewe. Uniform Distributed Synthesis. LICS 2005.

Workshops

Amany Alshareef, Nicolas Berthier, Sven Schewe, and Xiaowei Huang. Quantifying the Importance of Latent Features in Neural Networks. AISAFETY@IJCAI 2022.

Xingyu Zhao, Wei Huang, Alec Banks, Victoria Cox, David Flynn, Sven Schewe, and Xiaowei Huang. Assessing the Reliability of Deep Learning Classifiers Through Robustness Evaluation and Operational Profiles. AISAFETY@IJCAI 2021.
Best paper award.

Roderick Bloem, Sven Schewe, and Ayrat Khalimov. CTL* synthesis via LTL synthesis. SYNT 2017.

Nadeschda Nikitina and Sven Schewe. More is Sometimes Less: Succinctness in EL. DL 2013.

Myrto Arapinis, Muffy Calder, Louise Denis, Michael Fisher, Philip Gray, Savas Konur, Alice Miller, Eike Ritter, Mark Ryan, Sven Schewe, Chris Unsworth and Rehana Yasmin. Towards the Verification of Pervasive Systems. Electronic Communications of the EASST, 2010.

Markus Rabe and Sven Schewe. Optimal Time-Abstract Schedulers for CTMDPs and Markov Games. QAPL 2010.

Bernd Finkbeiner and Sven Schewe. SMT-Based Synthesis of Distributed Systems. AFM 2007.

Thesis

Sven Schewe. Synthesis of Distributed Systems. PhD Thesis.

Invited

Ernst Moritz Hahn, Mateo Perez, Sven Schewe, Fabio Somenzi, Ashutosh Trivedi, and Dominik Wojtczak. Reinforcement Learning with Guarantees that Hold for Ever. FMICS 2022.
Ernst Moritz Hahn, Mateo Perez, Sven Schewe, Fabio Somenzi, Ashutosh Trivedi, and Dominik Wojtczak. Limit reachability for model-free reinforcement learning of $\omega$-regular objectives. SNR 2019.
Doron Peled and Sven Schewe. Distributed Control Synthesis. HOWARD-60, 2014.
Doron Peled and Sven Schewe. Practical Distributed Control Synthesis. INFINITY 2011.
Sven Schewe. Synthese Verteilter Systeme. it - Information Technology, 2010.
Sven Schewe. Software Synthesis is Hard -- and Simple. Dagstuhl Seminar 09501 on Software Synthesis, 2009.
Sven Schewe. Synthese Verteilter Systeme. Ausgezeichnete Informatikdissertationen, LNI, 2009.

Edited

Sven Schewe and Lijun Zhang. Editorial \96 Special issue on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2018). Journal of Computer and System Sciences, 2021.
Sven Schewe, Thomas Schneider, and Jef Wijsen. Special issue on Temporal Representation and Reasoning (TIME 2017). Theoretical Computer Science, 797:1, 2019.
Sven Schewe and Lijun Zhang. Proceedings of 29th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2018). Leibnitz International Proceedings in Informatics 118, 2018.
Sven Schewe, Thomas Schneider, and Jef Wijsen. Proceedings of 24th International Symposium on Temporal Representation and Reasoning (TIME 2017). Leibnitz International Proceedings in Informatics 90, 2017.
Doron Peled and Sven Schewe. Editorial: Special Issue on Synthesis. Acta Informatica 51(3-4), 2014.
Doron Peled and Sven Schewe. Proceedings of the First Workshop on Synthesis. EPTCS 84, 2012.

Professional Activities

Member of the Steering Committee of the Workshop on Synthesis (SYNT).

Speciality Chier Editor (Theoretical Computer Science) of Frontiers in Computer Science.

Member of EPSRC's College of Peer Reviewers.

Carnegie Research Assessor.

20th International Symposium on Automated Technology for Verification and Analysis (ATVA 2022), PC member.

20th ACM-IEEE International Conference on Formal Methods and Models for System Design (MEMOCODE 2022), PC member.

49th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages, and Programming (ICALP 2022), PC member.

28th International Conference on Tools and Algorithms for the Construction and Analysis of Systems (TACAS 2022), PC member.

23rd International Conference on Verification, Model Checking, and Abstract Interpretation (VMCAI 2022), PC member.

19th International Symposium on Automated Technology for Verification and Analysis (ATVA 2021), PC member.

Workshop on Automata Theory and Its Applications, National University of Singapore, Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Co-Organiser.

19th ACM-IEEE International Conference on Formal Methods and Models for System Design (MEMOCODE 2021), PC member.

38th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2021), PC member.

Member of the UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowships (UKRI FLF) programme Peer Review Colleges.

18th International Symposium on Automated Technology for Verification and Analysis (ATVA 2020), PC member.

21st International Workshop on Verification of Infinite-State Systems (INFINITY 2019), Co-Chair.

17th International Symposium on Automated Technology for Verification and Analysis (ATVA 2019), PC member.

Eights Workshop on Synthesis (SYNT 2019), PC member.

Sixth International Symposium on Formal Approaches to Parallel and Distributed Systems (4PAD 2019), PC member.

46th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP 2019), PC member.

13th International Conference on Language and Automata Theory and Applications (LATA 2019), PC member.

29th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2018), PC co-chair.

25th International Symposium on Temporal Representation and Reasoning (TIME 2018), PC member.

Fifth International Symposium on Formal Approaches to Parallel and Distributed Systems (4PAD 2018), PC member.

12th International Conference on Language and Automata Theory and Applications (LATA 2018), PC member.

Seventh Workshop on Synthesis (SYNT 2018), PC member.

24th International Symposium on Temporal Representation and Reasoning (TIME 2017), PC co-chair.

Second International Workshop on Verification and Validation of Cyber-Physical Systems (V2CPS 2017), PC member.

Sixth Workshop on Synthesis (SYNT 2017), PC member.

Fourth Special Session on Formal Approaches to Parallel and Distributed Systems (4PAD), PDP 2017, PC member.

13th International Colloquium on Theoretical Aspects of Computing (ICTAC 2016), PC member.

14th International Symposium on Automated Technology for Verification and Analysis (ATVA 2016), PC member.

Seventh International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logics and Formal Verification (GandALF 2016), PC member.

23rd International Symposium on Temporal Representation and Reasoning (TIME 2016), PC member.

41st International Symposium on Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science (MFCS 2016), PC member.

Cassting Final Conference (Cassting 2016), PC member.

13th International Symposium on Automated Technology for Verification and Analysis (ATVA 2015), PC member.

AVACS School on Automatic Verification and Analysis of Complex Systems (AVACS 2015), Invited Tutorial.

AVACS Final Colloquium, Invited Alumni Presentation.

Sixth International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logics and Formal Verification (GandALF 2015), Invited Speaker.

22nd International Symposium on Temporal Representation and Reasoning (TIME 2015), PC member.

Fourth Workshop on Synthesis (SYNT 2015), PC member.

Second Special Session on Formal Approaches to Parallel and Distributed Systems (4PAD), PDP 2015, PC member.

Eleventh Summer School on Modelling and Verifying Parallel Processes (MOVEP 2014), Invited Tutorial.

21st International Symposium on Temporal Representation and Reasoning (TIME 2014), PC member.

Workshop on Verification and Program Transformation (VPT 2014), PC member.

17th International Conference on Foundations of Software Science and Computation Structures (FoSSaCS 2014), PC member.

31st International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2014), PC member.

20th International Symposium on Temporal Representation and Reasoning (TIME 2013), PC member.

Workshop on Verification and Program Transformation (VPT 2013), PC member.

Second Workshop on Synthesis (SYNT 2013), PC member.

Third Workshop on Automated Verification, Analysis, and Synthesis (WAVAS 2012), Keynote Speaker.

Annual Meeting of GT Jeux 2012, Keynote Speaker.

Annual Workshop of the ESF Networking Programme on Games for Design and Verification (GAMES 2012), PC member.

Third International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logics and Formal Verification (GandALF 2012), PC member.

4th Workshop on Games for Design, Verification and Synthesis (GASICS 2012), Invited Speaker.

Workshop on Synthesis (SYNT 2012), Co-Chair.

Fourth International Workshop on Foundations of Interface Technologies (FIT 2012), PC member.

Ninth International Symposium on Automated Technology for Verification and Analysis (ATVA 2011), PC member.

Annual Workshop of the ESF Networking Programme on Games for Design and Verification (GAMES 2011), Invited Tutorial.

Past Visitors

Nathlie Bertrand, INRIA Rennes Bretagne-Atlantique

Dietmar Berwanger, CNRS Cachan

Yu-Fang Chen, Academia Sinica

Amélie David, Laboratoire IBISC, Université d'Evry Val d'Essonne

Rüdiger Ehlers, UC Berkeley

Wladimir Fridman, RWTH Aachen

Orna Kupferman, Hebrew University

Ben Moszkowski, De Montfort University

Damian Niwiński, University of Warsaw

Paritosh Pandya, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (joint host)

Doron Peled, Bar Ilan University

Markus Rabe, Saarland University

Philippe Schnoebelen, CNRS Cachan

Wolfgang Thomas, RWTH Aachen

Ashutosh Trivedi, IIT Bombay

Moshe Vardi, Rice University (joint host)

Farn Wang, National Taiwan University

Lijun Zhang, Chinese Academy of Science

Administration

I am head of our AI Section since 2018. Before that, I have led the Verification Group from its introduction in 2015. I am also affiliated with the Institute for Risk and Uncertainty.
I am a member of our Senate.
I also serve as the Admission Officer for Postgraduate Research students of the Department of Computer Science, and as a reviewer of our Ethics committee.
From 2010 to 2013, I have served as Undergrad Admission Officer, as an elected member of our Board of Studies, and as a member of the Board of Examiners for our joint courses with Carmel College and our disance learning programmes with Laureate, and as Widening Participation Officer of the School of Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Computer Science. Prior to that, I was the Deputy Exams and Assessment Officer of our department.

Awards

Finalist for the ERCIM Cor Baayen Award 2010. Annual career award of the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) for young researchers in computer science and applied mathematics.

Dr. Eduard Martin Preis 2009. Annual interdisciplinary award for outstanding theses of Saarland University.

GI Dissertation Award 2008. Annual award for the best computer science dissertation in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. The prize is jointly awarded by the Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), Schweizer Informatik Gesellschaft (SI), Österreichischen Computergesellschaft (OCG), and the German Chapter of the ACM (GChACM).

Contact Details

Sven Schewe University of Liverpool Department of Computer Science Ashton Building Ashton Street Liverpool L69 3BX United Kingdom

Office: Room 2.15, Ashton Building email sven.schewe@liverpool.ac.uk tel (+44 151) 795 0396 fax (+44 151) 795 4235