[Event at CIG] [fm-announcements] Call for Papers: AAAI’26 Bridge Program “Making Embodied AI Reliable with Testing and Formal Verification”

[Ivan Ruchkin via fm-announcements]

*Announcing a AAAI Bridge: *Making Embodied AI Reliable with Testing and
Formal Verification

Description of the Bridge

This bridge addresses one of the most urgent challenges in AI: how to make
embodied AI systems — such as autonomous vehicles, UAVs, and robots —
interpretable,
testable, and formally verifiable. While modern AI models excel in
perception and decision-making, they pose significant challenges for
traditional verification techniques, raising critical risks in
safety-sensitive domains. The goal of this bridge is to unite diverse
communities—AI/ML, formal methods, software engineering, robotics, and
cyber-physical systems—in developing a shared roadmap for reliable embodied
AI. Participants will engage with cutting-edge approaches in neurosymbolic
reasoning, LLM-guided specification mining, scenario-based testing,
compositional verification, and robustness under uncertainty, and explore
their potential to support certification and assurance of AI-enabled
autonomy.

Topics

- Testability and verifiability of AI-enabled autonomy
- LLM-guided specification mining and scenario generation
- White-box and compositional verification of neural and neurosymbolic
components
- Neurosymbolic architectures for modular reasoning and distillation
- Robustness under sensing noise, ambiguous instructions, and human-robot
interaction
- Formal guardrails for LLMs and VLMs in embodied decision-making

Format of the Bridge

This one-day event will combine tutorials, keynote talks, technical
presentations, panel discussions, and interactive breakout sessions. The
morning program will feature tutorials and invited keynotes from leaders in
neurosymbolic AI, formal verification, and embodied autonomy, followed by
selected paper presentations. The afternoon will include a panel on
certification challenges and breakout discussions organized around open
problems such as scenario-based testing, compositional verification, and
robustness under uncertainty.

Attendance

We anticipate 50–80 participants, with priority given to researchers and
practitioners in AI, robotics, formal methods, and autonomous
cyber-physical systems. Early-career researchers and graduate students are
strongly encouraged to participate, with mentoring opportunities included.

Submission requirements

We invite 2–4 page extended abstracts or position papers describing
research advances, tools, or case studies relevant to reliable embodied AI.
Submissions should emphasize how the work enhances testability,
interpretability, or verification of embodied AI. Accepted contributions
will be presented as talks, posters, or lightning sessions.

Submission site information

Submissions should be made via
https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Feasychair.org%2Fconferences%2F%3Fconf%3Daaai26bridgereai&data=05%7C02%7Cfm-announcements%40lists.nasa.gov%7Cb19be1296b2f4ac8818a08de051b506d%7C7005d45845be48ae8140d43da96dd17b%7C0%7C0%7C638953812034609774%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=7oKGJcZyrzNVRSGTsRo9%2FdSCFrJmQoKFEfUVRqKAFRc%3D&reserved=0

Bridge Chairs

Assoc. Prof. Xi (James) Zheng
Macquarie University
james.zheng at mq.edu.au

Prof. Corina S. Pasareanu
Carnegie Mellon University / NASA Ames
corina.pasareanu at cmu.edu

Asst. Prof. Ivan Ruchkin
University of Florida
iruchkin at ece.ufl.edu

Prof. Archan Misra
Singapore Management University
archanm at smu.edu.sg

Bridge Program Committee

Ziyang Li (Johns Hopkins University)

David Lo (Singapore Management University)

Djordje Žikelić (Singapore Management University)

Anna Lukina (Delft University of Technology)

Aloysius K. Mok (University of Texas at Austin)

Kenneth Kwok (A-STAR, Singapore)

Daniel Neider (TU Dortmund University)

Vijay Ganesh (Georgia Institute of Technology)

Biplav Srivastava (University of South Carolina)

Guy Van Den Broeck (University of California, Los Angeles)

Basura Fernando (A-STAR, Singapore)

Bridge URL
https://gcc02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.tacps.org%2F&data=05%7C02%7Cfm-announcements%40lists.nasa.gov%7Cb19be1296b2f4ac8818a08de051b506d%7C7005d45845be48ae8140d43da96dd17b%7C0%7C0%7C638953812034625311%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=cHybpxSw4ITl9e%2FQPek3KBASSomF6Bf%2BYz4sFamj2Es%3D&reserved=0

Important dates

– Submissions due: October 31, 2025

– Notifications: November 14, 2025
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