ILLC News 2026-31

1) ANNOUNCEMENTS

• 1 October 2026, Logic and Interactive Rationality (LIRa), Matteo Pascucci
• 12 November 2026, Logic and Interactive Rationality (LIRa), Munyque Mittelmann
• 26 November 2026, Logic and Interactive Rationality (LIRa), Wessel Kroon

2) DEFENSES

• 25 August 2026, Master of Logic defense, Paul Weston
• 26 August 2026, Master of Logic defense, Jay Warnock
• 26 August 2026, Master of Logic defense, Merlin Krzemien
• 27 August 2026, Master of Logic defense, Giacomo de Antonelli
• 27 August 2026, Master of Logic defense, Vighnesh Iyer
• 28 August 2026, Master of Logic defense, Tristan Hewitt
• 10 September 2026, Master of Logic defense, Malvin Gattiner
• 17 September 2026, Master of Logic defense, Mette Andersen
• 24 September 2026, Master of Logic defense, Dennis Lindbert

3) OPEN POSITIONS, GENERAL

• 8 PhD positions in knowledge-driven machine learning at the University of Oslo and UiT The Arctic University of Norway [NO]
• PhD Position in Resilient Machine Learning and Formal Methods at Eindhoven University of Technology [NL]
• Tenure-Track Assistant/Associate Professor in Embedded and Distributed AI in Paris [FR]
• Research Assignment in Philosophy of Science (SCIPLU), Ca' Foscari University of Venice [IT]

4) PUBLICATIONS

• ILLC Master of Logic Thesis (MoL) Series MoL-2026-13, Giuseppe Manes
• ILLC Master of Logic Thesis (MoL) Series MoL-2026-14, Raya Mezeklieva
• Chapter by Arteaga, Yoko, Bonanno, Vanessa, Nussbaum, Peter, Martinez Pandiani, D.S., Pescarin, Sofia, Sotiropoulou, Sophia (2026)
• Conference contribution by Martinez Pandiani, D.S., Streefkerk, Ella, Naudts, Laurens, Helm, Paula (2026)
• Conference contribution by Sosto, Mae, Martinez Pandiani, D.S., Hollink, Laura (2026)
• Conference contribution by Wang, B., Titov, I., Andreas, Jacob, Kim, Yoon (2022)

5) VALORISATION ACTIVITIES

• Dwarse wiskundigen willen af van oneindigheid, sleutelbegrip in hun vakgebied: 'Totale onzin'

1) ANNOUNCEMENTS

• 1 October 2026, Logic and Interactive Rationality (LIRa), Matteo Pascucci

  Speaker: Matteo Pascucci (Central European University)
  Date & Time: Thursday 1 October 2026, 16:30-18:00
  For more information, see https://projects.illc.uva.nl/lgc/seminar/2026/08/lira-session-matteo-pascucci/.
   

• 12 November 2026, Logic and Interactive Rationality (LIRa), Munyque Mittelmann

  Speaker: Munyque Mittelmann (CNRS, LIPN, Sorbonne Paris North University)
  Date & Time: Thursday 12 November 2026, 16:30-18:00
  For more information, see https://projects.illc.uva.nl/lgc/seminar/2026/08/lira-session-munyque-mittelmann/.
   

• 26 November 2026, Logic and Interactive Rationality (LIRa), Wessel Kroon

  Speaker: Wessel Kroon (Utrecht University)
  Date & Time: Thursday 26 November 2026, 16:30-18:00
  Location: ILLC Seminar Room F1.15, Science Park 107 and online.
  For more information, see https://projects.illc.uva.nl/lgc/seminar/2026/08/lira-session-wessel-kroon/.
   

2) DEFENSES

• 25 August 2026, Master of Logic defense, Paul Weston

  Title: Urban Development Feasibility as Constraint Satisfaction
  Date & Time: Tuesday 25 August 2026, 15:00
  Location: F1.15, Science Park 107, Amsterdam
  Supervisor: Ronald de Haan
   

• 26 August 2026, Master of Logic defense, Jay Warnock

  Title: The GL Expressive Containment Problem for Simple Modal Fragments
  Date & Time: Wednesday 26 August 2026, 11:00
  Location: F1.15, Science Park 107, Amsterdam
  Supervisor: Balder ten Cate and Xi Yang
   

• 26 August 2026, Master of Logic defense, Merlin Krzemien

  Title: Spanner Queries: A Query Language for Information Extraction
  Date & Time: Wednesday 26 August 2026, 13:00
  Location: F1.15, Science Park 107, Amsterdam
  Supervisor: Balder ten Cate
   

• 27 August 2026, Master of Logic defense, Giacomo de Antonelli

  Title: Initial algebras for endofunctors preserving filtered colimits
  Date & Time: Thursday 27 August 2026, 09:00
  Location: F1.15, Science Park 107, Amsterdam
  Supervisor: Aybüke Özgün
   

• 27 August 2026, Master of Logic defense, Vighnesh Iyer

  Title: What Makes a Productive Completeness Theory?
  Date & Time: Thursday 27 August 2026, 11:00
  Location: F1.15, Science Park 107, Amsterdam
  Supervisor: Ronald de Haan
   

• 28 August 2026, Master of Logic defense, Tristan Hewitt

  Title: Focus-style proof system for the alternation-free coalgebraic mu-calculus
  Date & Time: Friday 28 August 2026, 15:00
  Location: F1.15, Science Park 107, Amsterdam
  Supervisor: Yde Venema
   

• 10 September 2026, Master of Logic defense, Malvin Gattiner

  Title: One Knowledge Transformer to Rule Them All: Toward Symbolic Epistemic Planning
  Date & Time: Thursday 10 September 2026, 13:00
  Location: F1.15, Science Park 107, Amsterdam
  Supervisor: Aybüke Özgün
   

• 17 September 2026, Master of Logic defense, Mette Andersen

  Title: Semantic projection as a category mistake towards achieving faithful LLM explanations
  Date & Time: Thursday 17 September 2026, 15:00
  Location: F1.15, Science Park 107, Amsterdam
  Supervisor: Giovanni Cinà
   

• 24 September 2026, Master of Logic defense, Dennis Lindbert

  Title: Solving Logic Puzzles with Answer Set Programming and Large Language Models
  Date & Time: Thursday 24 September 2026, 09:00
  Location: F1.15, Science Park 107, Amsterdam
  Supervisor: Arie Soeteman and Ronald de Haan
   

3) OPEN POSITIONS, GENERAL

• 8 PhD positions in knowledge-driven machine learning at the University of Oslo and UiT The Arctic University of Norway [NO]

  Deadline: Sunday 9 August 2026

  As an Integreat PhD fellow, you will become part of a collaborative research environment that brings together researchers from multiple disciplines, institutions, and career stages. These eight positions are connected to interdisciplinary research projects spanning machine learning, statistics, logic, language technology, and ethics. Together, the projects address fundamental challenges in modern machine learning and contribute to developing new theoretical and methodological foundations for the field.

  Four of the positions are co-funded with TRUST – The Norwegian Centre for Trustworthy AI, providing all recruited fellows with access to an even broader national AI research environment. Join the information meeting on 22 July via Zoom (see the website).

  For more information, see https://www.integreat.no/about/vacancies/phd-recruitment/2026/index.html or contact Maria Dikova at mariyad at uio.no.
   

• PhD Position in Resilient Machine Learning and Formal Methods at Eindhoven University of Technology [NL]

  Deadline: Thursday 20 August 2026

  The newly established "Center for Safe AI" at Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands) is looking for a PhD candidate to bring rigorous formal methods to resilient machine-learning systems. The candidate will join a unique interdisciplinary project at the interface of automated reasoning, probabilistic verification, and machine learning. Over this four-year PhD position, the goal is to develop machine-learning algorithms that are not only robust but also resilient by recovering and learning from failures at runtime. To ensure trustworthiness, these algorithms will be developed with a focus on formal guarantees on resilience.

  A prerequisite is a very good Master's degree in computer science, mathematics, or a related field, and a strong background in theory (formal methods, theoretical computer science, foundations of machine learning).

  For more information, see https://www.tue.nl/en/working-at-tue/vacancy-overview/phd-in-resilient-machine-learning-and-formal-methods or contact c.dubslaff at tue.nl.
   

• Tenure-Track Assistant/Associate Professor in Embedded and Distributed AI in Paris [FR]

  Deadline: Thursday 20 August 2026

  Télécom Paris, a founding member of Institut Polytechnique de Paris (IP Paris), is inviting applications for a tenure-track faculty position associated with the prestigious Hi! PARIS Chairs.

  Research topics include, but are not limited to, efficient AI models, distributed and multi-agent systems, reinforcement learning, and formal methods for AI verification.

  For more information, see https://institutminestelecom.recruitee.com/l/en/o/assistantassociate-professor-in-embedded-and-distributed-ai-tenure-track.
   

• Research Assignment in Philosophy of Science (SCIPLU), Ca' Foscari University of Venice [IT]

  Deadline: Tuesday 25 August 2026

  This is to advertise a position for an "incarico di ricerca" (research assignment) in Philosophy of Science at the *Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage, Ca' Foscari University of Venice*, to work within the SCIPLU project. The aim of the position is to *investigate scientific pluralism from a historical and philosophical perspective*. Its primary objective is to analyze and suggest solutions to the contradictions that characterize some of the leading contemporary versions of pluralism and that undermine their effectiveness as a framework for science policy. In this study, the humanities and social sciences will play a central role, together with the idea that science consists of a plurality of distinct "styles" of thought and practice.

  For more information, see https://www.unive.it/web/it/17536/bandi-incarichi-di-ricerca?tipologia=Incarichiricerca&cod=2026-UNVE000-0177209&hash=57405a2ea6d5a627f3dbbde0c605cd29.
   

4) PUBLICATIONS

• ILLC Master of Logic Thesis (MoL) Series MoL-2026-13, Giuseppe Manes

  Title: Updating Uncertain Evidence - Conditionalization and Complexity in Multi-Layer Belief Models
  For more information, see https://www.illc.uva.nl/Research/Publications/Reports/reportlist/?Series=MoL#MoL-2026-13.
   

• ILLC Master of Logic Thesis (MoL) Series MoL-2026-14, Raya Mezeklieva

  Title: Machine Speech, Human Speech
  For more information, see https://www.illc.uva.nl/Research/Publications/Reports/reportlist/?Series=MoL#MoL-2026-14.
   

• Chapter by Arteaga, Yoko, Bonanno, Vanessa, Nussbaum, Peter, Martinez Pandiani, D.S., Pescarin, Sofia, Sotiropoulou, Sophia (2026)

  Title: Perception.
  In Chromatic Visions: Exploring Colour in Art, Archaeology and Digital Realities (pp 1-28) (Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 15750). Springer.

  For more information, see https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-07792-9_1.

   

• Conference contribution by Martinez Pandiani, D.S., Streefkerk, Ella, Naudts, Laurens, Helm, Paula (2026)

  Title: From Vulnerable Data Subjects to Vulnerabilizing Data Practices: Navigating the Protection Paradox in AI-Based Analyses of Platformized Lives.
  In ACM FAccT 2026 - Proceedings of the 9th annual ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (pp 106-128). Association for Computing Machinery.

  For more information, see https://doi.org/10.1145/3805689.3806735.

   

• Conference contribution by Sosto, Mae, Martinez Pandiani, D.S., Hollink, Laura (2026)

  Title: QueerGen: How LLMs Reflect Societal Norms on Gender and Sexuality in Sentence Completion Tasks.
  In 19th Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Findings of EACL 2026 (pp 4305-4326). Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL).

  For more information, see https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2026.findings-eacl.225.

   

• Conference contribution by Wang, B., Titov, I., Andreas, Jacob, Kim, Yoon (2022)

  Title: Hierarchical Phrase-based Sequence-to-Sequence Learning.
  In Goldberg, Y. Kozareva, Z. Zhang, Y. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2022 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing: December 7-11, 2022, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (pp 8211-8229). Association for Computational Linguistics.

  For more information, see https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/2022.emnlp-main.563.

   

5) VALORISATION ACTIVITIES

• Dwarse wiskundigen willen af van oneindigheid, sleutelbegrip in hun vakgebied: 'Totale onzin'

  

  Benno van den Berg en Klaas Pieter Hart- De Volkskrant, 30 July 2026

  For more information, see https://www.volkskrant.nl/wetenschap/dwarse-wiskundigen-willen-af-van-oneindigheid-sleutelbegrip-in-hun-vakgebied-totale-onzin~bf9073c4/.