Sebastian Pokutta

Artificial Intelligence, Optimization, and Machine Learning. Professor @TUBerlin, Vice President @ZuseInstitute, Chair @MATH+, Chair @MODAL

Research Lab

My group works on Artificial Intelligence, Optimization, and Machine Learning; from foundational algorithms to real-world systems. We develop new optimization and learning methods with a focus on efficiency and sustainability, combine learning with decision-making, and build agentic AI systems for complex tasks. A particular focus is on AI4Science and AI4Math, where we use AI to drive mathematical discovery and scientific insight. Recent examples include global forest monitoring from satellite data, entanglement certification via optimization, new constructions in extremal combinatorics, AI-assisted mathematical proofs, and AI for creativity and education. group homepage more about research and projects

TL;DR. We use computers to learn from data and make better decisions.

ETC. Hashed Commitments AI News

Prospective Students. If you are interested in working in our group or writing your MS/BS thesis please check our openings.

Select Recent Papers

(see publications for a complete list)

  1. Schiekiera, L., Zimmer, M., Roux, C., Pokutta, S., and Günther, F. (2026). From Associations to Activations: Comparing Behavioral and Hidden-State Semantic Geometry in LLMs. Proceedings of the 43rd International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML). [arXiv] [summary] cognitivellmmlxai
  2. Haase, J., and Pokutta, S. (2026). Structured Creativity Methods for Multi-Agent LLMs: Brainwriting Outperforms Disney and Double Diamond. Proceedings of ICML 2026 Workshop on Human-AI Co-Creativity (GenAICreativity). creativityllmmlmulti-agent
  3. Pelleriti, N., Nelaturu, S. H., Zhou, Z., Li, Z., Zimmer, M., Han, B., and Pokutta, S. (2026). What Do Evolutionary Coding Agents Evolve? Preprint. [arXiv] agenticllmmlneuro-compute
  4. Halbey, J., Deza, D., Zimmer, M., Roux, C., Stellato, B., and Pokutta, S. (2026). Lower Bounds for Frank-Wolfe on Strongly Convex Sets. Proceedings of the 43rd International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML). [arXiv] [summary] complexityfwlowerboundsopt
  5. Turan, B., Asadulla, S., Steinmann, D., Kersting, K., Stammer, W., and Pokutta, S. (2026). Neural Concept Verifier: Scaling Prover-Verifier Games via Concept Encodings. Proceedings of the 43rd International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML). [arXiv] mlxai (Spotlight + Conference Proceedings)
  6. Muhtar, D., Song, X., Pokutta, S., Zimmer, M., Pelleriti, N., Hofmann, T., and Liu, S. (2026). When Does Sparsity Mitigate the Curse of Depth in LLMs. Proceedings of the 43rd International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML). [arXiv] [code] llmmlsparsity
  7. Haase, J., and Pokutta, S. (2026). The Missing Drive: Functional Analogs of Intrinsic Motivation in Large Language Models for Creative Tasks. Proceedings of ICML 2026 Workshop on Human-AI Co-Creativity (GenAICreativity). creativityllmml
  8. Pokutta, S. (2026). Frank-Wolfe Beyond 1/t Convergence. Preprint. [arXiv] complexityfwopt
  9. Khoruzhii, K., Gelß, P., and Pokutta, S. (2026). Faster Algorithms for Structured Matrix Multiplication via Flip Graph Search. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Symbolic and Algebraic Computation (ISSAC). [arXiv] compalgcomputational
  10. Zimmer, M., Pelleriti, N., Roux, C., and Pokutta, S. (2026). The Agentic Researcher: A Practical Guide to AI-Assisted Research in Mathematics and Machine Learning. Preprint. [arXiv] [summary] [code] agenticai4mathml
  11. Berthold, T., Kamp, D., Mexi, G., Pokutta, S., and Pólik, I. (2026). Global Optimization for Combinatorial Geometry Problems Revisited in the Era of LLMs. To Appear in Proceedings of ISCO, Lecture Notes in Computer Science. [arXiv] computationalllmnlpopt
  12. Pauls, J., Schrödter, K., Ligensa, S., Schwartz, M., Turan, B., Zimmer, M., Saatchi, S., Pokutta, S., Ciais, P., and Gieseke, F. (2026). ECHOSAT: Estimating Canopy Height Over Space And Time. Preprint. [arXiv] [code] [visuals] ai4sciencemlsustainability
  13. Geiselmann, Z., Joswig, M., Kastner, L., Mundinger, K., Pokutta, S., Spiegel, C., Wack, M., and Zimmer, M. (2026). Patchworked Curves of Degree Seven. Preprint. [arXiv] ai4mathalggeomcombinatoricscompalg
  14. Xiao, W., Besançon, M., Gelß, P., Hendrych, D., Klus, S., and Pokutta, S. (2026). Graph Isomorphism: Mixed-Integer Convex Optimization from First-Order Methods. To Appear in Proceedings of CPAIOR. [arXiv] computationalgraphsmipopt
  15. Pelleriti, N., Spiegel, C., Liu, S., Martínez-Rubio, D., Zimmer, M., and Pokutta, S. (2026). Neural Sum-of-Squares: Certifying the Nonnegativity of Polynomials with Transformers. To Appear in Proceedings of the International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR). [arXiv] ai4mathcompalgml
  16. Haase, J., and Pokutta, S. (2026). The Hidden Cost of Tokenization: Why (most) Non-English Speakers Pay More for Less. Preprint. [arXiv] [summary] fairnessllmmlmultilingual
  17. Roux, C., Zimmer, M., d’Aspremont, A., and Pokutta, S. (2025). Don’t Be Greedy, Just Relax! Pruning LLMs via Frank-Wolfe. Preprint. [arXiv] fwllmmloptpruningsparsity
  18. Gonnermann-Müller, J., Haase, J., Fackeldey, K., and Pokutta, S. (2025). FACET: Teacher-Centred LLM-Based Multi-Agent Systems – Towards Personalized Educational Worksheets. Preprint. [arXiv] educationhaiillmmlmultiagent
  19. Haase, J., and Pokutta, S. (2025). Beyond Static Responses: Multi-Agent LLM Systems as a New Paradigm for Social Science Research. Preprint. [arXiv] haiimlsocial
  20. Braun, G., Carderera, A., Combettes, C. W., Hassani, H., Karbasi, A., Mokthari, A., and Pokutta, S. (2025). Conditional Gradient Methods. MOS-SIAM Series on Optimization. [PDF] [arXiv] mloptsurvey
  21. Abbas, A., Ambainis, A., Augustino, B., Bärtschi, A., Buhrman, H., Coffrin, C., Cortiana, G., Dunjko, V., Egger, D. J., Elmegreen, B. G., Franco, N., Fratini, F., Fuller, B., Gacon, J., Gonciulea, C., Gribling, S., Gupta, S., Hadfield, S., Heese, R., … Zoufal, C. (2024). Quantum Optimization: Potential, Challenges, and the Path Forward. Nature Reviews Physics. [PDF] [arXiv] optphysicsquantumsurvey
  22. Pokutta, S. (2024). The Frank-Wolfe algorithm: a short introduction. Jahresbericht Der Deutschen Mathematiker-Vereinigung, 126, 3–35. [PDF] [arXiv] mlopt

Select Recent Talks and Teaching

(see archive for a complete list)

  • 05/2026: (technical) “When Algorithms Learn: Discrete Optimization Meets Machine Learning”. Talk at TRR 154 Abschlusstagung — Mathematical Modelling, Simulation and Optimization (Gas Networks) (Nürnberg, Germany). [slides]
  • 05/2026: (technical) “When Algorithms Learn: Discrete Optimization Meets Machine Learning”. Plenary at ISCO 2026 - 9th International Symposium on Combinatorial Optimization (Kuşadası, Turkey). [slides]
  • 05/2026: (technical) “How Machines Explore, Conjecture, and Discover Mathematics: Agentic AI in Mathematics”. Talk at 5. Rundgespräch Angewandte Mathematik (Online (Zoom)). [slides]
  • 03/2026: (technical) “Efficient Quadratic Corrections for Frank-Wolfe Algorithms”. Talk at MLaftermath Workshop (Berlin, Germany). [slides]
  • 02/2026: (technical) “How Machines Explore, Conjecture, and Discover Mathematics”. Talk at Munich AI Lecture (Munich, Germany). [slides]
  • WS/2025: Discrete Optimization and Machine Learning (seminar)

Recent Blog Posts

Select Outreach

(see archive for a complete list)

News

(see archive for a complete list)

  • 05/2026: Together with G. K. Tjusila, A. Hoen, N.-C. Kempke, G. Mexi, T. Berthold, A. Gleixner, and T. Koch, we won the Land-Doing MIP Computational Competition 2026.
  • 04/2026: Six papers papers accepted this month at ICML (including one spotlight!), ISSAC, and IJCAI. Congratulations everyone!
  • 01/2026: Kartikey Sharma accepted an Assistant Professor position in the Mechanical Engineering Department at IIT Delhi. Congratulations!
  • 10/2025: Our book on Conditional Gradients and Frank-Wolfe methods has been published in the MOS-SIAM Series on Optimization.
  • Fall 2025: Sai Ganesh Nagarajan started a Tenure Track Assistant Professor Position at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science (IMADA), Southern Denmark University, Odense, Denmark. Congratulations!