Research

Reasoning and decision making under uncertainty

I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Telecooperation Lab, Technical University of Darmstadt. I received my PhD in Computer Science from TU Darmstadt in 2025 (summa cum laude) for my dissertation On Uncertainty-Aware Perception, Prediction, and Planning.

My research develops methods for reliable reasoning and decision making under uncertainty. It connects statistical reliability in machine learning with structured reasoning, human–AI interaction, and the post-training and evaluation of large language models. I am particularly interested in systems that must remain dependable when data distributions, sensing conditions, model representations, or decision contexts change after development.

This agenda spans uncertainty quantification and conformal prediction under distribution shift, reliable reasoning and post-training of foundation models, and decision mechanisms that use uncertainty to govern interaction between AI systems and human users.

Research Interests: Uncertainty Quantification & Conformal Prediction · Distribution Shift & Calibration Transfer · Foundation Models & LLM Reasoning · LLM Post-Training & Evaluation · Neuro-Symbolic AI · Human–AI Decision Making

News

Recent research and academic activities
  • May 2026 Received the ICML 2026 Gold Reviewer Award.
  • May 2026 Conformal Calibration Transfer accepted at ICML 2026.
  • May 2026 Position: Uncertainty is a Strategic Signal in Human–AI Decision Making accepted at ICML 2026.
  • Jul 2025 Began a research visit at Tongji University, Shanghai, focusing on LLM-based structured reasoning and decision making for urban planning.
  • Jun 2025 PhD in Computer Science awarded summa cum laude at TU Darmstadt.

Selected Publications

Selected work · full list on Google Scholar
  • ICML 2026
    Conformal Calibration Transfer
    Achref Doula
    Single-author paper ICML OpenReview PDF Code
  • ICML 2026
    Position: Uncertainty is a Strategic Signal in Human–AI Decision Making
    Achref Doula, Otthein Herzog, Siegfried Zhiqiang Wu, Max Mühlhäuser
  • NAACL 2025
    CLEAR-Command: Coordinated Listening, Extraction, and Allocation for Emergency Response with Large Language Models
    Achref Doula, Bela Bohlender, Max Mühlhäuser, Alejandro Sanchez Guinea
  • ICSE 2025
    MARQ: Engineering Mission-Critical AI-Based Software with Automated Result Quality Adaptation
    U. Gropengießer, E. Dietz, F. Brandherm, Achref Doula, O. Abboud, X. Xiao, Max Mühlhäuser
  • CoRL 2024
    Conformal Prediction for Semantically-Aware Autonomous Perception in Urban Environments
    Achref Doula, Tobias Güdelhöfer, Max Mühlhäuser, Alejandro Sanchez Guinea
  • IROS 2024
    NeSyMoF: A Neuro-Symbolic Model for Motion Forecasting
    Achref Doula, Huijie Yin, Max Mühlhäuser, Alejandro Sanchez Guinea
  • arXiv 2025
    SafePath: Conformal Prediction for Safe LLM-Based Autonomous Navigation
    Achref Doula, Max Mühlhäuser, Alejandro Sanchez Guinea