McKelvey Engineering alumnus Vasileiou honored for contributions to explainable AI systems
Stylianos Vasileiou receives ICAPS Outstanding Dissertation, Turner Dissertation and KR Early Career awards
Stylianos Vasileiou, who earned a doctorate in computer science & engineering from the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis in 2026, has received the International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS) 2026 Outstanding Dissertation Award for his dissertation, Explainable Decision-Making: From Formal Logic to AI Systems with Explainable Behavior, which introduces a novel approach to explainable AI planning using formal logic as a unifying backbone for generating interpretable and user-tailored explanations of automated decisions. Vasileiou’s dissertation was also recognized with the Turner Dissertation Award granted by the Department of Computer Science & Engineering in McKelvey Engineering.
Vasileiou leverages formal logic as an explanatory layer to make AI decisions transparent, intelligible and justifiable to human users. His research has resulted in not only multiple publications in top venues in AI and logic but also prototype systems, including a demonstration at the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) conference in 2025.
In July, Vasileiou received the Early Career Award at the 23rd International Conference on Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR 2026). The award honors early-career researchers who make major contributions to knowledge representation and reasoning, recognizing their strong research impact and future potential in artificial intelligence and KRR theory or practice.
Vasileiou, who as a doctoral student conducted research in the lab of William Yeoh, associate professor of computer science & engineering, is now an assistant professor at New Mexico State University.
