I'm Hendrik Henk Bierlee, a researcher in the field of optimisation: computationally finding the best needle in large haystacks.

at the DTAI lab, KU Leuven, Belgium. My work focuses on constraint solving and explainability.

Bio

  • The Netherlands -- Where I grew up, studied CS in Delft, and started my career in Amsterdam.
  • Sweden -- Master's studies in Uppsala, land of fika and long winters.
  • Taiwan -- Dual-degree semester at National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei.
  • Australia -- PhD and thesis work at Monash University in Melbourne.
  • Belgium -- Current home, postdoc at KU Leuven.

Research interests

Optimisation, constraint programming, satisfiability, integer programming, logic-based Benders' decomposition, constraint modelling, constraint acquisition, explainability, pseudo-Boolean solving, computational experiments, fuzz testing.

Education

  • PhD Computer Science, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia (2021--2024) "Solving Discrete Optimisation Problems with Satisfiability Solvers"
  • MSc Computer Science, Uppsala University, Sweden (2018--2020) Dual-degree with National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei. Thesis: "The MiniZinc-SAT Compiler" at Monash University.
  • BSc Computer Science, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands (2012--2016) Minor in Literature, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Experience

  • Postdoctoral researcher, DTAI, KU Leuven (2025--present) Constraint solving, explainability. Open-source maintainer (SAT encoding library, CPMpy). Lectures for the KU Leuven Constraint Solving course.
  • Teaching Associate, Monash University (2021--2024) Modelling Discrete Optimisation Problems, Solving Discrete Optimisation Problems.
  • Developer / Tech lead, immidi, Amsterdam (2016--2017) B2B marketing applications for Unilever, L'Oréal, and others.

Service

Program Committee: AAAI, CPAIOR

Technical skills

Rust, Python, C++, MiniZinc, JavaScript, Linux, Nix, Git, CP-SAT/OR-Tools, Gurobi, CaDiCaL.

Contact