I am a PhD student in artificial intelligence in the DTAI lab of KU Leuven under the supervision of Professor Tias Guns. I was granted a personal 4-year PhD fellowship by FWO in November 2023.

My research focuses on the combination of machine learning and constrained optimization, including decision-focused learning, constraint acquisition and algorithm configuration.

Blog posts

• Sudoku Assistant – an AI assistant combining machine learning and reasoning
  Senne Berden, Tias Guns
  We introduce The Sudoku Assistant, an AI assistant that integrates machine learning and reasoning to interpret, solve and explain pen-and-paper Sudokus scanned with a smartphone. The assistant demonstrates three increasingly important concepts in AI research: the integration of learning and reasoning, explainable AI and human-centered AI.
  [Blog post] [Website]

Publications

* denotes co-first author

• Learning to Learn in Interactive Constraint Acquisition
  Dimos Tsouros, Senne Berden, Tias Guns
  Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) 2024
  [Paper] [Code]

• Decision-Focused Learning: Foundations, State of the Art, Benchmark and Future Opportunities
  Jayanta Mandi*, James Kotary*, Senne Berden, Maxime Mulamba, Victor Bucarey, Tias Guns, Ferdinando Fioretto
  [Paper] [Code]

• Sudoku Assistant – an AI-Powered App to Help Solve Pen-And-Paper Sudokus
  Tias Guns, Emilio Gamba, Maxime Mulamba, Ignace Bleukx, Senne Berden, Milan Pesa
  🏆 Best demonstration at the Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) 2024
  [Paper] [Website]

• Score Function Gradient Estimation to Widen the Applicability of Decision-Focused Learning
  Mattia Silvestri, Senne Berden, Jayanta Mandi, Ali İrfan Mahmutoğulları, Maxime Mulamba, Allegra De Filippo, Tias Guns, Michele Lombardi
  Differentiable Almost Everything Workshop of International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) 2023
  [Paper]

• Guided Bottom-Up Interactive Constraint Acquisition
  Dimos Tsouros, Senne Berden, Tias Guns
  International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP) 2023 [Paper] [Code]

• Learning MAX-SAT Models from Examples Using Genetic Algorithms and Knowledge Compilation
  Senne Berden, Mohit Kumar, Samuel Kolb, Tias Guns
  International Conference on Principles and Practice of Constraint Programming (CP) 2022 [Paper] [Code]

• Model-Based Algorithm Configuration with Adaptive Capping and Prior Distributions
  Ignace Bleukx*, Senne Berden*, Lize Coenen, Nicholas Decleyre, Tias Guns
  International Conference on the Integration of Constraint Programming, Artificial Intelligence, and Operations Research (CPAIOR) 2022
  [Paper] [Code]