I am an AI safety and sustainability researcher with executive leadership responsibilities at Stanford University, serving as Executive Director of the Stanford Center for AI Safety and Research Engineer at both the Stanford Intelligent Systems Lab (SISL) and Mineral-X. I earned my Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University under Ding Zhao in the Safe AI lab, and also serve as Adjunct Professor at ULBI, Indonesia.
My research integrates machine learning, optimization, and simulation to create trustworthy AI systems for high-stakes applications in both safety and sustainability domains. I focus on ensuring equitable and just energy transitions through resilient critical mineral supply chains, safety-aware geothermal and subsurface applications, and robust AI system verification and validation methods that can manage catastrophic failure risks in critical infrastructure.
Beyond research, I enjoy teaching and mentoring students at all levels, having co-instructed courses on data-driven analytics and guided numerous research projects. I serve as Editor-in-Chief for OSCM Journal and as a reviewer for leading AI, transportation, and sustainability venues. I'm always interested in collaborating on AI safety research and welcome discussions about potential partnerships—you can find more details in my CV or explore my publications below.
Recent Publications
- Mansur Arief, Yasmine Alonso, CJ Oshiro, William Xu, Anthony Corso, David Zhen Yin, Jef Caers, and Mykel Kochenderfer. “Managing Geological Uncertainty in Critical Mineral Supply Chains: A POMDP Approach with Application to US Lithium Resources.” arXiv preprint. [Link]
- Liam Kruse, Alexandros Tikas, Harrison Delecki, Mansur Arief, Mykel Kochenderfer. "Enhanced Importance Sampling through Latent Space Exploration in Normalizing Flows." arXiv preprint. [Link]
- Arief, Mansur, Mike Timmerman, Jiachen Li, David Isele, Mykel Kochenderfer. "Optimized Guided Meta Training for Intelligent Agents under Highly Interactive Driving Scenarios." IEEE RA-L. [Link]
Recent Updates
2025
Jul 4
Excited to see that the agenda for Stanford Center for AI Safety annual meeting 2025 is out! Come join us in September 2025!
Jul 1
Abstract submission for our AGU 2025 session on Advancing Toward More Sustainable and Resilient Mineral Supplies-Bridging Earth, Data, and Social Sciences is open! Submit your work and see you in New Orleans in December!
Jul 1
I am excited to be a part of the AI Safety Indonesia community, which is a group of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers dedicated to bulding AI safety capacity in Indonesia.
Jun 17
Our group at Mineral-X hosted the Silicon Valley Minerals Forum (SVMF 2025) with 200+ participants from academia, industry, and government from all over the world!
Jun 10
Discussed an overview of “Intelligent Transportation Systems” in ULBI Global Lecture Series 2025.
May 19
Presented Meta RL Importance Sampling paper at ICRA 2025.
May 17
Discussed the “Paradox of Indonesia’s Top AI Optimism Globally - Is it a grounded enthusiasm or blindfolded ignorance?” with Indonesian Academic Faculty Association (ADI) in TeachTalk 47.
May 3
Moderated a panel on Digitalization and AI Safety in Indonesia with AI Safety Indonesia.
Apr 1
I am excited to start a new role as Executive Director of the Stanford Center for AI Safety, coordinating research initiatives on trustworthy AI systems and safety-critical applications across 18+ labs at Stanford.
Mar 1
I am excited to accept a new role as an Editor-in-Chief for the Operations and Supply Chain Management-An International Journal (OSCM), a fast-growing journal in supply chain management with unique model (open access with no/minimal publication fee).
Feb 13
Took on the Cluster Coordinator for AFS San Francisco Bay Area team. If you are interested in hosting an AFS student, please let me know!
Feb 13
Presented a review on Certifiable Failure Rate Validation (for Autonomous Systems) using Importance Sampling Deep Learning at UCSD MAE207 Safety for Autonomous Systems Seminar.
Feb 10
Our Lithium supply chain POMDP paper is submitted for publication.
Feb 3
Presented a work on Geothermal Well Placement Optimization to a sponsor. Stay tune for the paper!
Jan 31
A short review on morphing design in aviation by a high-school student mentee is out.
Jan 3
A short review on hydrogen fuel in aviation by a high-school student mentee is out.
2024
Dec 16
Our iterative importance sampling paper is accepted and available as an Early Access at IEEE RA-L.
Dec 14
One paper submitted at RA-L.
Dec 14
One paper accepted at AAAI 2025.
Dec 13
AGU 2024 was a blast! See you next year!
Dec 10
Chaired poster and oral sessions on “Toward Sustainable Energy Transition Resources-Integrating Earth Science, AI, and Responsible Policymaking”. Fascinating talks and ideas!
Dec 9
Attended the Science and Society Luncheon at AGU 2024 and get connected with the AGU SY community.
Nov 14
Finished IBM AI Developer Specialization and Imperial College Mathematics for Machine Learning Specialization in Coursera.
Oct 31
Gave another lecture on Green Jobs and Intelligent Systems for the Net-Zero Heroes program by Gawirea and AmatiIndonesia.
Sep 24
Led two guest lectures on critical inventory systems for graduate students at the Industrial and Systems Engineering Department, ITS Surabaya.
Sep 5
A mentor team won the best presentation award at IMMAN 2024 for their work on LLMs for Efficient Electronic Health Record (EHR) data in Indonesia.
Aug 17
I received the award for an Outstanding Indonesian Academic Diaspora 2024 from the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia in San Francisco.
Aug 8
I will be speaking at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore on “Developing Safe Cyber-Physical Systems for Safety-Critical Applications” on August 20th, 2024. Please join us!
Aug 7
Two abstracts submitted to AAAI 2025.
Aug 2
We also make public our ongoing work on Geosteerings.jl, an MDP and POMDP package for a simple geosteering problem. This is a joint work between SISL and Mineral-X, with William Xu, Jihui Ding, Jef Caers, and Mykel Kochenderfer.
Aug 1
We make public our ongoing work on Lithium Supply Chain POMDP for critical mineral supply chain design. This is a joint work between SISL and Mineral-X, with Yasmine Alonso, CJ Oshiro, William Xu, Anthony Corso, Jef Caers, and Mykel Kochenderfer.
Jul 30
I will be speaking at the Indonesia Sustainability Forum’s Virtual Academic Dialogue in September 2024. Please join us!
Jul 20
I am serving as a Guest Editor for the Special Issue on AI, CPS, and Decision Making in OSCM Context for the OSCM Journal. Please consider submitting your work!
Jul 15
One paper submitted to RA-L.
Jul 6
I presented “AI for Safer and More Efficient Long-Haul Goods Transportation” at the 2024 Supply Chain Innovation Summit by ISCEA Indonesia
May 29
I attended the CPS Rising Stars 2024 Workshop at the University of Virginia by the LinkLab and will be presenting my research on Trustworthy AI for Safe CPS.
May 22
Sofia and I presented our GeothermalPOMDP ongoing work at 2024 SCERF annual meeting.
May 15
Two papers submitted to RA-L.
May 10
One paper accepted to CBMS 2024.
May 6
I was invited to give a lecture on Green Jobs and Intelligent Systems to the Net-Zero Heroes participants by Gawirea and AmatiIndonesia.
May 2
I gave a talk on Intelligent Systems for Energy Transition at the International Public Guest Lecture by ISE ITS.
May 1
I am a Technical PC for IAVVC 2024, which is now accepting submissions. Feel free to submit your verification and validation of automated vehicles research.
Apr 17
I presented a summary of my research on Developing Safe AI for High-Stakes Applications (with geothermal exploration and energy transition examples) at the Mineral-X meeting.
Apr 8
I was selected as a 2024 CPS Rising Stars Workshop participant at the University of Virginia.
Feb 3
I delivered a keynote speech on “Engineering, Technology, and Society - Collaborative Innovation for Human-centered Designs” at the 8th International Conference on Management of Technology, Innovation, and Project (MOTIP 08).
Jan 31
Grist published an article that mentioned my story transitioning into critical mineral and sustainability research, excellently written by Maddie Stone.
Jan 31
The INTERSECT 2024 conference is coming up. Feel free to submit your work related to the conference theme “Indonesia at the crossroad of technology, sustainabilty, and society”.
Jan 27
I was invited by MINDSTEM.id to give a talk on research collaboration and publication for Indonesian scholars. The talk was attended by 50+ scholars from various disciplines in Indonesia.
Jan 10
One paper from a group of research mentees on integrated medical decision making for stroke diagnosis and treatment is submitted and accepted for Intelligent Medicine and Image Processing (IMIP 2024) conference in Bali.
Jan 4
I won a (mini) research grant from the Institute for International Indonesian Scholars (I-4) on AI-driven support systems for healthcare applications.
2023
Dec 21
I discussed Intelligent Systems for High-Stakes Business Applications to SIMT ITS students and faculty and public.
Nov 8
I presented ISE Methods in Building Reliable AI Systems to graduate students and faculty at ISE ITS.
Oct 12
I joined NPA International Taskforce as a volunteer to help international postdocs in the US.
Oct 1
Our initial study on POMDP for studying the design of critical mineral supply chains was accepted at AGU 2023.
Sep 30
I presented my PhD research on Safety Evaluation of Self-Driving Cars at TeachTalk organized by the Indonesian Lecturer Association to 180+ faculty members from various universities across Indonesia.
Sep 16
I founded IndoSTEELERS (Indonesian Scholars Thriving in Excellence in Education, Learning, and Research) with a bunch of great Indonesian scholars in Pittsburgh encompassing various disciplines.
Jul 31
We submitted an abstract to AGU 2023
Jul 1
I presented Artificial Intelligence for Smart Logistics in the International Webinar of Business and Industrial Application Division, hosted by BRAIN, IPB University.
Jun 1
I joined SISL as a postdoc.
May 12
I graduated from CMU.
Apr 19
I successfully defended my dissertation “Certifiable Evaluation for Safe Intelligent Autonomy”.
2022
Sep 27
I presented Deep IS work at ITSC 2022.
Sep 25
I started volunteering at AFS USA.
Aug 1
I submitted the journal version of our Deep IS work.
Jun 15
Two other papers I co-authored were accepted at ITSC 2022.
Jun 15
Deep IS paper accepted at ITSC 2022.
Mar 15
I helped colleagues from KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden), ITS (Indonesia), and CMU ESTP (USA) and submitted two more papers to ITSC 2022.
Mar 2
We submitted a survey paper on safety-critical driving scenario generation for journal publication.
Mar 1
I submitted one paper to ITSC 2022.
Jan 31
I presented a summary of our past work on “Certifiable Deep Importance Sampling for Rare-Event Simulation of Black-Box Systems” to SISL lab meeting (Stanford).
2021
Nov 7
I presented at SkolaTalk with Aditya (Digital Skola CEO) about the comparison in tech education between Indonesia & US.
Nov 2
We submitted the journal version of our Deep-PrAE work.
Aug 29
Together with Sabrina, I shared some insights regarding How to be a Global Student and Student Life as an Exchange Student to ITS ISE Undergraduate Students.
May 27
I presented Research Opportunities for ISE Graduate Students to ITS ISE Graduate Students.
May 21
I started an internship at Bosch as a Machine Learning/Computer Vision Research Intern.
Mar 3
I presented Deep-PrAE work at SIAM CSE 2021.
Jan 22
One paper accepted to AISTATS 2021.
2020
Nov 9
I presented a work on certifiable efficiency for rare-event probability estimation and its relaxation at INFORMS Annual Meeting 2020.