Important Information at a Glance
AQUARIUM will take place at Lancaster University Leipzig in Leipzig, Germany, on 24.-25.03.2026 (Tue & Wed).
- Where:
Room 716 (7th floor), equipped with beamer and flipchart
Strohsack Passage / Nikolaistrasse 10 (GMaps, OSM), Leipzig, Germany - When: (Detailed programme below)
Tuesday 24.03. 10:30 – 17:00 (social dinner from 18:15)
Wednesday 25.03. 09:00 – 12:00 - What to bring:
- Introduction slide: Prepare a slide to introduce yourself to the other participants within 2 minutes. (The presentation will only be shared among participants, link and details have been sent via email.) This is for all participants, including those not giving a presentation.
- Your presentation: If you are giving a presentation, you can bring it on your own laptop (connection to display via HDMI cable) or send a pdf to t.meggendorfer@lancaster.ac.uk (to minimize the risk of technical problems).
- Discussion topics: There will be ample opportunity to interact with the other participants. In particular, there are two slots allocated for discussion sessions. You are welcome to suggest topics of interest at any time before or during the workshop.
- Food: There will be coffee breaks and lunch and a social dinner on Tuesday, 18:15.
Please inform the organizers (t.meggendorfer@lancaster.ac.uk) if you have any dietary restrictions or any other questions.
Programme
Tuesday 24.03.26
10:30 – 11:00: Coffee break and informal warmup (Room 723 + Rooftop terrace)
11:00 – 12:00: Session 1 (Room 716)
- Welcome
- Introduction round (2 minutes per participant)
- Tobias Meggendorfer (Lancaster University Leipzig)
How to Tame a Dragon: Conditional Value-at-Risk in Probabilistic Decision Making
12:00 – 13:30: Lunch (Room 723 + Rooftop terrace)
13:30 – 15:00: Session 2 (Room 716)
- Jakob Piribauer (Technical University Dresden)
Optimization of Multiplicative Rewards in Markov Decision Processes - Tabea Frisch (University of Tübingen)
An Axiomatic Characterization of Risk: Analyzing Risk Measures Used in Finance, Decision Theory and Formal Methods - Axel Benyamine (École polytechnique)
Dynamic Programming for Epistemic Uncertainty in Markov Decision Processes
15:00 – 15:30: Coffee break (Room 723 + Rooftop terrace)
15:30 – 17:00: Session 3 (Room 716)
- Maximilian Weininger (Ruhr-University Bochum)
Cumulative Prospect Theory in Markov Decision Processes - Discussion round: Notions of risk and their suitability for different settings
After 18:00: Social dinner (at the Leipzig original restaurant “Auerbachs Keller”, GMaps, OSM)
Wednesday 25.03.26
09:00 – 10:30: Session 4 (Room 716)
- Milan Lopuhaä-Zwakenberg (University of Twente)
Universal BDD-based Risk Analysis via Operads - Prince Mathew (Université libre de Bruxelles)
Synthesizing POMDP Policies: Sampling Meets Model-checking via Learning - Deep Kumar Ganguly (Technical University Munich)
Quantifying Risk Under Evolving Uncertainty
10:30 – 11:00: Coffee break (Room 723 + Rooftop terrace)
11:00 – 12:00: Session 5 (Room 716)
- Discussion round: Take-aways and the future of risk research
12:00 – 13:30: Lunch and informal wrap-up (Room 723 + Rooftop terrace)
Registration
Please send an Email to Tobias Meggendorfer (see Organizers below) to register. You can also join without a presentation!
Topics
While established in finance and operations research, formally quantifying (and managing) risk is an emerging topic in various fields connected to automated decision making, e.g. verification or reinforcement learning. There are numerous ways to quantify risk and similarly many sources, e.g. probabilistic uncertainties or lack of knowledge. AQUARIUM aims to bring together researchers investigating different notions of risk and foster exchange between them.
Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
- Different definitions of risk and their properties
- Complexity analysis of and algorithmic solutions for automated risk-aware decision making
- Different sources of risk, such as stochastic or epistemic uncertainties
- Case-studies and real-world applications of risk
- Connections between risk and security
Format
The workshop is planned as a two-day event, with a mixture of presentations and guided discussion sessions, aimed to stimulate discussion on the topic of risk awareness and its many facets. To encourage lively discussion, the workshop is planned as in-person only.
We can support travel and accommodation costs for a limited number of participants, prioritizing early-career researchers. Please contact Tobias Meggendorfer (see organizers) in case you require support.
Submissions
Due to the informal format of the workshop, we invite / encourage presentation of possibly already published as well as ongoing work. Submissions should be 1-2 page abstracts of such work in Springer LLNCS style. There will be no formal publication or post-proceedings.
Travel & Accommodation
LU Leipzig is located in the heart of Leipzig (📍Strohsack Passage / Nikolaistrasse 10, GMaps, OSM) and lies within walking distance of Leipzig central station (approx. 5 min).
Leipzig central station is a major railway hub with frequent connections to many other German / European cities. Leipzig Airport is also close-by and well connected to Leipzig central station. If you plan to arrive by car, we recommend parking in the suburbs of Leipzig and taking a bus / tram, as parking space is limited and expensive in the city center.
There are several reasonably priced hotels nearby and we can offer special prices for the Leipzig Marriott Hotel (📍GMaps, OSM) and the Vienna House (📍GMaps, OSM) (both are within few walking minutes of the University and Central Station).