Teaching |
Presentations |
Coffee |
Cribbage |
Room 511,
Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (MPI-SWS),
Paul-Ehrlich Strasse G 26,
Kaiserslautern 67663,
Germany
Email: hsb (at) mpi (dash) sws (dot) org
I am a postdoctoral researcher at Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (MPI-SWS) in Kaiserslautern, Germany. I work in Dr. Georg Zetzsche's group that focusses on Models of Computation. You can find my MPI-SWS employee page here.
Prior to this, from November 2024 to April 2026, I was a postdoctoral researcher (PL: Adiunkt) at the University of Warsaw, Poland working under Dr. Wojciech Czerwiński's ERC grant “INFSYS”. During the 2025-2026 academic year, I was the main applicant of the (IDUB) funded research program: “Weighted Automata meets Matrix Reachability meets Noncommutative Power Series” (see Wyniki konkursu). I also ran a master's course about infinite automata.
I obtained a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Warwick, UK in 2024. I was supervised by Dr. Dmitry Chistikov and Dr. Marcin Jurdzinski. My thesis, titled “On the Complexity of Reachability Problems in Counter Systems”, was examined by Prof. Ranko Lazić (University of Warwick, UK) and Dr. Richard Mayr (University of Edinburgh, UK). Before that, I obtained a BSc in Discrete Mathematics from the University of Warwick, UK in 2020.
My research interests, widely speaking, stem from the foundations of computer science; they are related to automata, complexity, and logic. In particular, I have mainly focussed on reachability problems in infinite-state systems (including vector addition systems, Petri and workflow nets, weighted automata, and counter nets).
Awarded ICALP'23 Track B Best Paper for the contribution: Coverability in VASS Revisited: Improving Rackoff's Bound to Obtain Conditional Optimality.
My presentations are lised below my papers. Most notably, see my ICALP'23 best paper presentation, my FOCS'24 prerecorded conference talk, and my YouTube page.
News: My Delta (Polish popular science magazine) article has been published!"Matematyka nie jest jeszcze gotowa na takie problemy" ("Mathematics may not yet be ready for such problems") is an article about the Collatz conjecture. The Collatz function takes a number n and returns 3n+1 if n is odd, otherwise it returns n/2 if n is even. The Collatz conjecture states: for every starting number n, by repeatedly applying the Collatz function, the cycle 4, 2, 1 is always reached. In 1976, Terras proved that almost all starting numbers have finite glide. The glide is the number of steps required to reach a smaller number than the given starting number. This article explains the key ideas behond Terras' theorem and its relationship to the Collatz conjecture itself. 🇵🇱 Link to the Polish version of the article. 🇬🇧 PDF of the English version of the article. |
See my dblp, Google Scholar, and ORCiD.
Representing One Letter Weighted Automata Over the Tropical Semiring
Shaull Almagor,
Ismaël Jecker,
Filip Mazowiecki,
Łukasz Orlikowski,
David Purser, and
Henry Sinclair-Banks.
Accepted to CONCUR'26.
Reachability in VASS Extended with Integer Counters
Clotilde Bizière,
Wojciech Czerwiński,
Roland Guttenberg,
Jérôme Leroux,
Vincent Michielini,
Łukasz Orlikowski,
Antoni Puch, and
Henry Sinclair-Banks.
Accepted to LICS'26.
Full Version.
Abstract.
Exploring VASS Parameterised by Geometric Dimension
Wojciech Czerwiński,
Roland Guttenberg,
Łukasz Orlikowski,
Henry Sinclair-Banks, and
Yangluo Zheng.
Accepted to ICALP'26.
Full Version.
Abstract.
History-Constrained Systems
Louwe B. Kuijer,
David Purser,
Henry Sinclair-Banks, and
Patrick Totzke.
In
FM'26,
DOI.
Full Version.
Abstract.
A Note on the Parameterised Complexity of Coverability in Vector Addition Systems
Michał Pilipczuk,
Sylvain Schmitz, and
Henry Sinclair-Banks.
In
IPEC'25,
DOI.
Full Version,
Abstract.
A Complexity Dichotomy for Semilinear Target Sets in Automata with One Counter
Yousef Shakiba,
Henry Sinclair-Banks, and
Georg Zetzsche.
In
LICS'25,
DOI.
Conference presentation video.
Full Version,
Abstract.
The Tractability Border of Reachability in Simple Vector Addition Systems with States
Dmitry Chistikov,
Wojciech Czerwiński,
Filip Mazowiecki,
Łukasz Orlikowski,
Henry Sinclair-Banks, and
Karol Węgrzycki.
In
FOCS'24,
DOI.
Conference presentation video.
Full Version.
Abstract.
Invariants for One-Counter Automata with Disequality Tests
Dmitry Chistikov,
Jérôme Leroux,
Henry Sinclair-Banks, and
Nicolas Waldburger.
In
CONCUR'24,
DOI.
Conference presentation slides.
Full Version.
Abstract.
Dimension-Minimality and Primality of Counter Nets
Shaull Almagor,
Guy Avni,
Henry Sinclair-Banks, and
Asaf Yeshurun.
In
FoSSaCS'24,
DOI.
Full Version.
Abstract.
Acyclic Petri and Workflow Nets with Resets
Dmitry Chistikov,
Wojciech Czerwiński,
Piotr Hofman,
Filip Mazowiecki, and
Henry Sinclair-Banks.
In
FSTTCS'23,
DOI.
Conference presentation video.
Full Version.
Abstract.
Coverability in VASS Revisited: Improving Rackoff's Bound to Obtain Conditional Optimality
Marvin Künnemann,
Filip Mazowiecki,
Lia Schütze,
Henry Sinclair-Banks, and
Karol Węgrzycki.
In
Journal of the ACM (August 2025),
DOI.
Kudos advertisement article.
In
ICALP'23,
DOI.
Conference presentation video.
Awarded ICALP'23 Track B Best Paper.
Full Version.
Abstract.
Coverability in 2-VASS with One Unary Counter is in NP
Filip Mazowiecki,
Henry Sinclair-Banks, and
Karol Węgrzycki.
In
FoSSaCS'23,
DOI.
Conference presentation video.
Full Version.
Abstract.
In the first term of the Polish academic year 2025-2026, I designed, organised, and lectured the Infinite Automata (1000-2M22AN) course in the University of Warsaw, Poland. Details including lectured topics, exercise questions, and the final examination can be found on this subpage.
On this subpage, you can also see my previous teaching duties at the University of Warwick, UK.
I am proud to be supervising Jakub Kaszycki's master's thesis (at the institute of Mathematics, Informatics and Mechanics at the University of Warsaw, Poland).
Here a list of my (fantastic) coauthors that has been sorted lexicographically by the number of coauthored papers then alphabetically by surname.
On this subpage, you can find a list of all of my presentations including links to video recordings, slide decks, and abstracts.
All videos of my presentations are on my YouTube page (except my FOCS'24 prerecorded conference talk).
Upcoming:
SJTU BASICS Group Seminar (S), Akita University Discrete Mathematics Guest Lecture (S), FM'26 (P), including AIPV'26 (A), Highlights'25 (T), Young Researchers Forum 2025 (I), Weighted Automata Rock Workshop (O), LICS'25 (P) including LMW'25 (I), SJTU BASICS Group Seminar (S), SAMSA Workshop (O), Automata in the Wild 2025 (T), Liverpool Verification Seminar (S), ISTA Group Seminar (S), FOCS'24 (P), Oxford Verification Seminar (S), Highlights'24 (T), CONFEST'24 (A) including CONCUR'24 (P), KIT Algorithms & Complexity Seminar (S), Infinite Automata 2024 (A), ETAPS'24 (A) including FoSSaCS'24 (P), IRIF Verification Seminar (S), FSTTCS'23 (P), LaBRI Formal Methods Seminar (S), Summer School Marktoberdorf 2023 (A), Highlights'23 (T), Autobóz'23 (A), ICALP'23 (P) including WORReLL'23 (A), ETAPS'23 (A) including FoSSaCS'23 (P) and EMW'23 (A), OFCOUSE Student Talk Series (S), Autobóz'22 (A), ICALP'22 (A) including Trends in Arithmetic Theories (A), Highlights'22 (T), MOVEP'22 (T), HALG'22 (A), BCTCS'22 (A), ICALP'21 (V), Automata in the Wild 2021 (A), CAV'20 (A) including VMW'20 (A), ICALP'20 (A) and LICS'20 (A) including INFINITY'20 (A) and LMW'20 (A), MOVEP'20 (A).
Key: (A)ttendee, (I)nvited talk, (O)rganiser, (P)aper, (S)eminar, (T)alk, (V)olunteer.
On
this subpage,
I maintain a list of the best my favourite coffee shops.