Pierre Vandenhove

Premier Assistant at UMONS

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Summary

As of September 2024, I am a Premier Assistant (Research Associate) in the Computer Science Department at UMONS – University of Mons, Belgium. My research interests are focused on logic in computer science, and more precisely on automata theory, game theory, formal verification, and controller synthesis for reactive systems.

Prior to my current role, I was a postdoctoral researcher at LaBRI, Université de Bordeaux, where I collaborated with Nathanaël Fijalkow on the ANR G4S – Games for Synthesis project. My PhD was jointly supervised by Mickael Randour at UMONS and Patricia Bouyer at the Laboratoire Méthodes Formelles. I defended my thesis on April 26, 2023; see this page for more details.

Publications

See also my publications on DBLP and Google Scholar .

Peer-reviewed journals

  1. Half-Positional Objectives Recognized by Deterministic Büchi Automata. Patricia Bouyer, Antonio Casares, Mickael Randour, Pierre Vandenhove. Logical Methods in Computer Science, volume 20, issue 3, 42 pages, 2024. [DOI] [On arXiv]
  2. Arena-Independent Finite-Memory Determinacy in Stochastic Games. Patricia Bouyer, Youssouf Oualhadj, Mickael Randour, Pierre Vandenhove. Logical Methods in Computer Science, volume 19, issue 4, 51 pages, 2023. [DOI] [On arXiv]
  3. Characterizing Omega-Regularity through Finite-Memory Determinacy of Games on Infinite Graphs. Patricia Bouyer, Mickael Randour, Pierre Vandenhove. TheoretiCS, volume 2, 48 pages, 2023. [DOI] [On arXiv]
  4. Parallel and Memory-Efficient Distributed Edge Learning in B5G IoT Networks. Jianxin Zhao, Pierre Vandenhove, Peng Xu, Hao Tao, Liang Wang, Chi Harold Liu, Jon Crowcroft. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing, volume 17, issue 1, 12 pages, IEEE, 2022. [DOI]
  5. Decisiveness of Stochastic Systems and its Application to Hybrid Models. Patricia Bouyer, Thomas Brihaye, Mickael Randour, Cédric Rivière, Pierre Vandenhove. Information and Computation, volume 289, part B, 25 pages, Elsevier, 2022. [DOI] [On arXiv]
  6. Games Where You Can Play Optimally with Arena-Independent Finite Memory. Patricia Bouyer, Stéphane Le Roux, Youssouf Oualhadj, Mickael Randour, Pierre Vandenhove. Logical Methods in Computer Science, volume 18, issue 1, 44 pages, 2022. [DOI] [On arXiv]

Peer-reviewed conference proceedings

  1. Revelations: A Decidable Class of POMDPs with Omega-Regular Objectives. Marius Belly, Nathanaël Fijalkow, Hugo Gimbert, Florian Horn, Guillermo A. Pérez, Pierre Vandenhove. Accepted to the 39th Annual AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI 2025), 9 pages, 2025. [Extended version on arXiv]
  2. The Power of Counting Steps in Quantitative Games. Sougata Bose, Rasmus Ibsen-Jensen, David Purser, Patrick Totzke, Pierre Vandenhove. 35th International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2024), LIPIcs 311, Schloss Dagstuhl, 18 pages, 2024. [DOI] [Extended version on arXiv] Best Paper Award nomination.
  3. How to Play Optimally for Regular Objectives? Patricia Bouyer, Nathanaël Fijalkow, Mickael Randour, Pierre Vandenhove. 50th EATCS International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP 2023), LIPIcs 261, Schloss Dagstuhl, 18 pages, 2023. [DOI] [Extended version on arXiv]
  4. Half-Positional Objectives Recognized by Deterministic Büchi Automata. Patricia Bouyer, Antonio Casares, Mickael Randour, Pierre Vandenhove. 33rd International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2022), LIPIcs 243, Schloss Dagstuhl, 18 pages, 2022. [DOI] [Extended version on arXiv]
  5. Characterizing Omega-Regularity through Finite-Memory Determinacy of Games on Infinite Graphs. Patricia Bouyer, Mickael Randour, Pierre Vandenhove. 39th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2022), LIPIcs 219, Schloss Dagstuhl, 16 pages, 2022. [DOI] [Extended version on arXiv]
  6. Arena-Independent Finite-Memory Determinacy in Stochastic Games. Patricia Bouyer, Youssouf Oualhadj, Mickael Randour, Pierre Vandenhove. 32nd International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2021), LIPIcs 203, Schloss Dagstuhl, 18 pages, 2021. [DOI] [Extended version on arXiv]
  7. Decisiveness of Stochastic Systems and its Application to Hybrid Models. Patricia Bouyer, Thomas Brihaye, Mickael Randour, Cédric Rivière, Pierre Vandenhove. 11th International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logics, and Formal Verification (GandALF 2020), EPTCS 326, 17 pages, 2020. [DOI] [Extended version on arXiv]
  8. Games Where You Can Play Optimally with Arena-Independent Finite Memory. Patricia Bouyer, Stéphane Le Roux, Youssouf Oualhadj, Mickael Randour, Pierre Vandenhove. 31st International Conference on Concurrency Theory (CONCUR 2020), LIPIcs 171, Schloss Dagstuhl, 22 pages, 2020. [DOI] [Extended version on arXiv] Best Paper Award nomination.

Invited papers in international conferences

  1. Half-Positional Objectives Recognized by Deterministic Büchi Automata (Extended Abstract). Patricia Bouyer, Antonio Casares, Mickael Randour, Pierre Vandenhove. 32nd International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI 2023), Sister Conferences Best Papers, 6 pages, 2023. [DOI] [Extended version on arXiv]
  2. The True Colors of Memory: A Tour of Chromatic-Memory Strategies in Zero-Sum Games on Graphs. Patricia Bouyer, Mickael Randour, Pierre Vandenhove. Keynote lecture at the 42nd IARCS Annual Conference on Foundations of Software Technology and Theoretical Computer Science (FSTTCS 2022), LIPIcs 250, Schloss Dagstuhl, 18 pages, 2022. [DOI]

Preprints

  1. A positional \(\mathbf{\Pi}_0^3\)-complete objective. Antonio Casares, Pierre Ohlmann, Pierre Vandenhove. 7 pages, 2024.

PhD Thesis

Strategy Complexity of Zero-Sum Games on Graphs. April 2023. Supervised by Patricia Bouyer and Mickael Randour. [Manuscript] [Webpage]

Where you may have seen me

My talks (with slides).
  • 2024: Journées du GT Vérif (Lille, France), Dagstuhl Seminar 24231: Stochastic Games (Dagstuhl, Germany), Journées du GT DAAL (Rennes, France).
  • 2023: Belgian Mathematical Society Young Scholar Day (Brussels, Belgium), Highlights 2023 of Logic, Games and Automata (Kassel, Germany), ICALP 2023: 50th EATCS International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (Paderborn, Germany), STIC doctoral day on the Saclay plateau (Gif-sur-Yvette, France).
  • 2022: CONCUR 2022: The 33rd International Conference on Concurrency Theory (Warsaw, Poland), LAMAS and SR 2022: Logical Aspects in Multi-Agent Systems and Strategic Reasoning (Rennes, France), Highlights 2022 of Logic, Games and Automata (Paris, France), Current Trends in Graph and Stochastic Games (GAMENET Workshop) (Maastricht, The Netherlands), 39th International Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science (STACS 2022) (Online).
  • 2021: Journées du GT Vérif (ENS Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France), Highlights 2021 of Logic, Games and Automata (Online), CONCUR 2021: The 32nd International Conference on Concurrency Theory (Online), Reinforcement Learning - From Theory to Practice Summer School (Alan Turing Institute), GT ALGA - Journées annuelles 2021 (Online).
  • 2020: Spotlight on Games (Online), GandALF 2020: 11th International Symposium on Games, Automata, Logics, and Formal Verification (Online), Highlights 2020 of Logic, Games and Automata (Online), CONCUR 2020: The 31st International Conference on Concurrency Theory (Online), MOVEP 2020: 14th Summer School on Modelling and Verification of Parallel Processes (Online).
  • 2019: Highlights 2019 of Logic, Games and Automata (Warsaw, Poland), 13th International Conference on Reachability Problems (RP'19) (Brussels, Belgium), Theory and Algorithms in Graph and Stochastic Games (Mons, Belgium), Mardi des Chercheurs (Mons, Belgium).
  • 2018: FoPSS Logic and Learning School (Oxford, UK), MOVEP 2018: 13th Summer School on Modelling and Verification of Parallel Processes (Cachan, France), International Conference on Functional Programming (ICFP'18) (St. Louis, Missouri, United States).
  • 2017: Computers in Scientific Discoveries 8 (Mons, Belgium).

Projects

Regular Memory Requirements [link]
Algorithms that compute minimal memory structures to play optimally in two-player zero-sum games with regular reachability and safety objectives.
Mask R-CNN in OCaml [link]
Implementation and optimisation of the Mask R-CNN architecture for image segmentation and classification using OCaml's numerical library Owl. Work produced during an internship at OCaml Labs, University of Cambridge. See my internship report for more details.

Teaching

Operating Systems

Teacher
Sept 2024 - Present
Université de Mons, 2nd year

Machine Learning and Deep Learning

Teaching Assistant
Jan 2024 - Jun 2024
Université de Bordeaux, 4th year

Computer Science

Teaching Assistant
Jan 2024 - Jun 2024
Lycée Montaigne (CPGE), 1st year

Formal Methods for System Design

Teaching Assistant
Sept 2019 - Aug 2023
Université de Mons, 4th year