CeTI-Workshop: What role does causality play in explaining robot behavior?

Dresden, November 21, 2025, BAR I-15

Organization:
JProf. Dr. Enno Fischer (Philosophy of Science),
JProf. Dr. Katharina Kaesling (Legal Issues of
Robotics & AI, CeTI) and
Prof. Dr. Verena Klös (Explainability Engineering)

Please register via e-mail to team.kaesling@tu-dresden.de !

Program

Friday, November 21, 2025
08:30-13:00

08:30 Coffee and Welcome in BAR I-15

08:45 A Perspective from Philosophy
Enno Fischer (JProf. for Philosophy of Science, TU Dresden): Causal
Models and Extant Approaches to Causal Selection
Discussion, then Small Break

09:40 Perspectives from Data Protection and AI Law
Katharina Kaesling (JProf. for Legal Questions of AI/CeTI, TU Dresden
and Konstantin Hofmann (DESIGNATE/ CeTI2, TU Dresden): Theories of
Causality and Legal Requirements for Explanations

10:00 Perspectives from Explainability Engineering
Verena Klös (Prof. for Embedded Hardware-Software Systems,
University of Oldenburg): Explanations of Observable System Behavior
Cong Wang (CeTI, TU Dresden): Explaining Confusing Robot Behavior
Coffee and Transdisciplinary Discussions

10:45 Perspectives from Neuroscience
Shu-Chen Li (Prof. for Lifespan Developmental Neuroscience; CeTI
Speaker): Psychological and Neurocognitive Foundations for Inclusive
Technologies of Tactile Internet
Irene Valori (PostDoc, Chair of Acoustics and Haptics, CeTI): Children's
Sense of Agency-Control

Discussion
Connecting Points Discussion & Lunch (ordered from frood.de)
Goals:
1. awareness of other perspectives,
2. identifying concrete points of connection,
3. generating ideas for explainability research in CeTI(²) use cases

"To explain the phnomena in the world of our experience, to answer the question "why?" rather than only the question "what?", is one of the foremost objectives of all rational inquiry; [...] (Carl G. Hempel and Paul Oppenheim, 1948).

The question "why" can relate to human behavior just as much as to robot behavior. Explanations are a vital part of human-machine interaction. But how do we select the
information provided to humans? Selection mechanisms are influenced by the underlying theories of causality, which identify different relevance criteria for causation.
How do we select what is a relevant cause? How do we take into account user expectations and deviations from these expectations?

The Workshop aims to bring multidisciplinary perspectives on causality and explanations together, thus building bridges for further interdisciplinary research in CeTI.
All CeTI researchers are welcome to join and contribute!
Contact/ Registration: team.kaesling@tu-dresden.de