KFUPM — AI Verification & Validation Lab
Building AI Systems
Building AI Systems
Worthy of Trust
Rigorous verification, validation, and optimization for safety-critical AI — from autonomous vehicles to sustainable energy systems.
50+
Publications
3
Research Themes
8
Focus Areas
2
Research Centers
What We Study
As AI systems make decisions affecting millions of lives — from autonomous vehicles to energy grids — ensuring they are safe, fair, and aligned with human values is no longer optional. Our lab develops the methods to make that possible.
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 transitions to clean energy — ensuring the green revolution serves all communities.
Affiliated with IRC Smart Mobility & Logistics and KFUPM-SDAIA Joint Research Center in AI.
Updates
Recent News
2026
- 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. ArXiv TBA.
- Jan 5 Happy to teach Engineering Statistics (ISE315) at KFUPM. Teaching tools and materials incorporating AI safety and engineering verification and validation problems will be made to public at the course website soon.
- Jan 2 Congrats to William Xu for publishing AI-Driven Optimization under Uncertainty for Mineral Processing Operations in Sustainable Earth Resources Communications!
- Jan 1 I am excited to start a new role as Assistant Professor in the Industrial and Systems Engineering, College of Computing and Mathematics at King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Saudi Arabia.
2025
- Jul 4 Excited to see that the agenda for Stanford Center for AI Safety annual meeting 2025 is out! Come join us in September 2025!
- Jul 1 Abstract submission for our AGU 2025 session on Advancing Toward More Sustainable and Resilient Mineral Supplies-Bridging Earth, Data, and Social Sciences is open! Submit your work and see you in New Orleans in December!
- Jul 1 I am excited to be a part of the AI Safety Indonesia community, which is a group of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers dedicated to bulding AI safety capacity in Indonesia.
- Jun 17 Our group at Mineral-X hosted the Silicon Valley Minerals Forum (SVMF 2025) with 200+ participants from academia, industry, and government from all over the world!
- Jun 10 Discussed an overview of “Intelligent Transportation Systems” in ULBI Global Lecture Series 2025.
- May 19 Presented Meta RL Importance Sampling paper at ICRA 2025.
- May 17 Discussed the “Paradox of Indonesia’s Top AI Optimism Globally - Is it a grounded enthusiasm or blindfolded ignorance?” with Indonesian Academic Faculty Association (ADI) in TeachTalk 47.
- May 3 Moderated a panel on Digitalization and AI Safety in Indonesia with AI Safety Indonesia.
- Apr 1 I am excited to start a new role as Executive Director of the Stanford Center for AI Safety, coordinating research initiatives on trustworthy AI systems and safety-critical applications across 18+ labs at Stanford.
- Mar 1 I am excited to accept a new role as an Editor-in-Chief for the Operations and Supply Chain Management-An International Journal (OSCM), a fast-growing journal in supply chain management with unique model (open access with no/minimal publication fee).
- Feb 13 Took on the Cluster Coordinator for AFS San Francisco Bay Area team. If you are interested in hosting an AFS student, please let me know!
- Feb 13 Presented a review on Certifiable Failure Rate Validation (for Autonomous Systems) using Importance Sampling Deep Learning at UCSD MAE207 Safety for Autonomous Systems Seminar.
- Feb 10 Our Lithium supply chain POMDP paper is submitted for publication.
- Feb 3 Presented a work on Geothermal Well Placement Optimization to a sponsor. Stay tune for the paper!
- Jan 31 A short review on morphing design in aviation by a high-school student mentee is out.
- Jan 3 A short review on hydrogen fuel in aviation by a high-school student mentee is out.
Research Output
Selected Publications
- 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