doctoral dissertations and masters theses
PhD dissertations and Masters theses completed by members of the research group, 2018 onward. See the publications page for papers and the group page for current members.2026
[PhD] Formal Reasoning for Perceptual Multi-Agent Systems: Verification, Contracts, and Synthesis, Yangge Li. PhD dissertation, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2026. [Local PDF] [Bibtex][MS] Reasoning about stability of visual autonomous systems using perception contracts, Jai Anchalia. MS thesis, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2026. [Local PDF] [Bibtex]
[MS] Methods for better understanding and improving abstract rendering, Douglas Belgorod. MS thesis, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2026. [Local PDF] [Bibtex]
[MS] Evaluation of dynamic Gaussian splatting for autonomous vehicle research through simulation of Openpilot, James Menezes. MS thesis, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2026. [Local PDF] [Bibtex]
[MS] FalconGym: A user-friendly 3D Gaussian splatting simulator for vision-based robotics, Will Shen. MS thesis, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2026. [Local PDF] [Bibtex]
[MS] Tools for formal verification of observation-driven autonomous systems, Alex Yuan. MS thesis, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2026. [Local PDF] [Bibtex]
[MS] Active localization of linear unstable systems with single bit feedback, Ege Yuceel. MS thesis, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2026. [Local PDF] [Bibtex]
2025
[MS] Occlusion-aware tracking for drones using neural methods, Akul Datta. MS thesis, Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2025. [PDF] [Local PDF] [Bibtex][MS] Localization of robot and landmark with indistinguishability, Ye Liu. MS thesis, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2025. [PDF] [Local PDF] [Bibtex]
2024
[PhD] Hierarchical synthesis for finite and infinite horizon specifications of nonlinear systems, Kristina Miller. PhD dissertation, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2024. First position: Air Force Research Laboratory. [PDF] [Local PDF] [Bibtex][MS] On multi-agent hybrid system verification: Modeling in Verse, star sets, and user studies, Katherine Braught. MS thesis, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2024. [PDF] [Local PDF] [Bibtex]
[MS] Safe autonomy: Continuous testing and controller compensation for unreliable perception, Yan Miao. MS thesis, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2024. [PDF] [Local PDF] [Bibtex]
[MS] Agile vision-based tracking: Hardware platform, simulator, and performance evaluation, Benjamin Yang. MS thesis, Dept. of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2024. [PDF] [Local PDF] [Bibtex]
2023
[PhD] Abstractions for safety assurance of autonomous systems, Chiao Hsieh. PhD dissertation, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2023. First position: Postdoctoral scholar, Kyoto University. [PDF] [Local PDF] [Bibtex][PhD] Certifiable synthesis and analysis for autonomy: Data-driven and analytical techniques, Dawei Sun. PhD dissertation, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2023. First position: ByteDance. Currently: Meta. [PDF] [Local PDF] [Bibtex]
[MS] Safety of the Stanley controller with curved lanes and noisy perception: Theories and simulations, Hongyi Li. MS thesis, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2023. [PDF] [Local PDF] [Bibtex]
[MS] Simulation-based validation of a lane-keeping system, Sumedh Sanjay Raghoji. MS thesis, Dept. of Aerospace Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2023. [PDF] [Bibtex]
[MS] Parallel and incremental algorithms in the Verse hybrid system verification library, Haoqing Zhu. MS thesis, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2023. [PDF] [Local PDF] [Bibtex]
2021
[PhD] Accelerating verification of cyber-physical systems using symmetry, Hussein Sibai. PhD dissertation, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2021. First position: Postdoctoral scholar, University of California, Berkeley. Currently: Assistant Professor, Washington University in St. Louis. [PDF] [Local PDF] [Bibtex][MS] Continuous integration and testing for autonomous racing in simulation, Minghao Jiang. MS thesis, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2021. [PDF] [Local PDF] [Bibtex]
[MS] Software tools for scenario verification of autonomous systems exploiting dynamical symmetries, Yangge Li. MS thesis, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2021. [PDF] [Local PDF] [Bibtex]
2020
[PhD] Separation of distributed coordination and control for programming reliable robotics, Ritwika Ghosh. PhD dissertation, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2020. First position: Senior Software Engineer, bodo.ai. [PDF] [Local PDF] [Bibtex][MS] A two-level path planning and monitoring architecture for real-world autonomous driving systems, Tianqi Liu. MS thesis, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2020. [PDF] [Local PDF] [Bibtex]
2019
[PhD] Formal methods for safe autonomy: Data-driven verification, synthesis, and applications, Chuchu Fan. PhD dissertation, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2019. First position: Assistant Professor, Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT. Currently: Associate Professor, MIT. [PDF] [Local PDF] [Bibtex]2018
[MS] Safe reinforcement learning: An overview, a hybrid systems perspective, and a case study, Matthew Potok. MS thesis, Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2018. [PDF] [Local PDF] [Bibtex][MS] Building DryVR: A verification and controller synthesis engine for cyber-physical systems and safety-critical autonomous vehicle features, Bolun Qi. MS thesis, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2018. [PDF] [Local PDF] [Bibtex]