AI Lecture Series meets CASA Distinguished Lectures

We were very pleased to welcome Prof. Joost-Pieter Katoen (RWTH Aachen University) for a joint lecture in the AI Lecture Series and the CASA Distinguished Lectures. His talk, When Programming Meets Probability Theory, attracted a strong audience and sparked lively discussion.

Prof. Katoen is a Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at RWTH Aachen University, where he also serves as Vice-Rector for Teaching and Studies and leads the Software Modeling and Verification (MOVES) group. He is internationally recognized for his research in probabilistic programming, model checking, and formal verification, and is co-author of the highly influential book Principles of Model Checking.

In his talk, Prof. Katoen introduced probabilistic programs—a powerful framework that underpins randomized algorithms, robot controllers, AI learning components, and even mechanisms for security and privacy. He highlighted the unique challenges of analyzing such programs, especially when even basic questions like termination are harder to decide than for ordinary programs. The talk provided an accessible overview of both practical applications—a real-world example where probabilistic programs are used in today’s earthquake detection systems—and the state of the art in the verification of probabilistic programs.

We are grateful to Prof. Katoen for sharing his insights and to all participants for their engaging questions and discussions.

The event was part of our AI Lecture Series, organized in collaboration with the CASA Distinguished Lectures. For more information about the lecture series, visit https://informatik.rub.de/ai-lecture-series/.