KFUPM — AI Verification & Validation Lab
Building AI Systems
Building AI Systems
Worthy of Trust
Rigorous methods for verifying, validating, and optimizing AI in autonomous vehicles, energy systems, and critical infrastructure.
50+
Publications
3
Research Themes
8
Focus Areas
2
Research Centers
What We Study
When AI systems control vehicles, allocate resources, or guide medical decisions, getting it wrong has real consequences. We build the mathematical tools and validation methods to make sure these systems work as intended.
Safety & Verification
Mathematical frameworks and validation methods that find potential failures in autonomous systems 1000x faster than conventional approaches, enabling safety validation in weeks instead of decades.
Optimization & Decision Making
Algorithms for sequential decision-making under uncertainty, integrating reinforcement learning, Bayesian methods, and mathematical optimization for high-stakes environments.
Sustainability & Supply Chains
AI-powered systems for critical mineral exploration, energy resilience, and equitable clean energy transitions that serve all communities.
Interactive Supply Chain MapAffiliated with IRC Smart Mobility & Logistics and KFUPM-SDAIA Joint Research Center in AI.
Updates
Recent News
2026
- Jul 10 Riya, Yan, and Dino submitted a paper to IEEM 2026 on MDP comparison for equitable renewable energy policy in mature and emerging markets.
- Jul 1 Yan submitted his undergrad thesis as a paper to IEEM 2026 on EV charging station placement under uncertainty.
- Jul 1 Dino submitted a paper to ICT-PEP 2026 on PSO for electricity transmission with real data.
- Jun 28 Welcoming our newest mentee Ali Balfaqih to the lab. His program is supported by the KFUPM Inbound Summer Research Program 2026
- Jun 25 Our lab RA Nur Ahmad Khatim got awarded the prestigious MEXT Scholarship to study at NARA Institute of Science and Technology, Japan
- Jun 17 Presented a guest lecture on ‘Trustworthy AI for Resilient Supply Chains’ for Airlangga University (Indonesia)
- Jun 15 Our lab will be teaching the Engineering Economic Analysis course (ISE 307) for the Summer semester in KFUPM. Course slides and teaching materials will be made available online.
- Jun 10 One paper on explainable AI for knee osteoarthritis grading accepted at AIIH in Oxford, UK
- May 19 Presented an explainable AI framework to Saudi GADD in JISR 3, Riyadh
- May 13 Presented a talk on ‘Ensuring Safe and Reliable AI Systems Through Verification and Validation’ for Binus University @ Semarang (Indonesia)ISE Department
- May 4 Presented a talk on ‘Trustworthy AI for Resilient Supply Chains’ at CESI (France) and IPB University (Indonesia) Workshop on Sustainable Supply Chains for Manufacturing and Agro-Industry in the Era of 5.0
- Apr 25 New paper out: Knee-xRAI: An Explainable AI Framework for Automatic Kellgren-Lawrence Grading of Knee Osteoarthritis! This work presents a modular, explainable pipeline for radiographic knee OA grading.
- Apr 20 Awarded a project on ‘Risk-Optimized Human-AI Co-Dispatch for Autonomous Mineral Haulage in Saudi Context’ by the KFUPM IRC Smart Mobility and Logistics (IRC-SML)
- Apr 16 New paper out: Deepbullwhip: An Open-Source Simulation and Benchmarking for Multi-Echelon Bullwhip Analyses! DeepBullwhip is available on PyPI for easy installation. Read more on the blog post.
- Apr 2 Presented a talk on Scalable Verification and Validation for AI Systems at KFUPM. The summary of the talk is available here.
- Mar 10 Excited to be joining both the IRC Smart Mobility and Logistics (IRC-SML) and the KFUPM-SDAIA Joint Research Center in AI (JRC-AI) as a scholar.
- Mar 6 One paper on Optimized Human-Robot Co-Dispatch Planning by a student is accepted for a poster presentation at INCOSE IS 2026 in Japan.
- Mar 3 One paper on validation of decision-making systems for energy transition minerals supply chains is accepted for presentation at ICRS 2026.
- Feb 17 Discussed the “Practical Challenges and Opportunities of Systems Verification and Validation for AI Safety” for ISE Student Club Seminar. Article | Slides
- Jan 5 Our lab is now involved in the teaching team of Engineering Statistics (ISE315). Teaching tools and materials incorporating AI safety and engineering verification and validation problems are available at the ISE 315 course website.
- Jan 2 Congrats to William Xu for publishing AI-Driven Optimization under Uncertainty for Mineral Processing Operations in Sustainable Earth Resources Communications!
- Jan 1 Excited to join the Industrial and Systems Engineering, College of Computing and Mathematics at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Saudi Arabia.
Research Output
Selected Publications
- 2026 Azmul A. Irfan, Nur Ahmad Khatim, Alfan Alfian Irfan, Achmad Zaki, Erike A. Suwarsono, Mansur Arief. “Knee-xRAI: An Explainable AI Framework for Automatic Kellgren-Lawrence Grading of Knee Osteoarthritis.” arXiv preprint. Link
- 2026 Mansur Arief. “Deepbullwhip: An Open-Source Simulation and Benchmarking for Multi-Echelon Bullwhip Analyses.” arXiv preprint. Link
- 2026 Saleh Afroogh, Seyd Ishtiaque Ahmed, Petra Ahrweiler, David Alvarez-Melis, Mansur Arief, Emilia Barakova, Falco J. Bargagli-Stoffi, Erdem Biyik, et al. “Beyond Explainable AI (XAI): An Overdue Paradigm Shift and Post-XAI Research Directions.” arXiv preprint. Link
- 2026 Nur Ahmad Khatim, Mansur Arief. “Optimized Human-Robot Co-Dispatch Planning for Petro-Site Surveillance under Varying Criticalities.” arXiv preprint. Link
- 2025 William Xu, Amir Eskanlou, Mansur Arief, David Zhen Yin, Jef K. Caers. “AI-Driven Optimization under Uncertainty for Mineral Processing Operations.” Sustainable Earth Resources Communications, 1(2): 100-112, 2025. Link