Biographical Sketch

Sebastiano Panichella was born in Isernia (Italy). To know more about Italy, see the following slides.

He received the Laurea degree in Computer Science (cum laude) from the University of Salerno (Italy) in 2010, with a thesis on Information Retrieval-based Traceability Recovery. He received the PhD in Computer Science from the University of Sannio (Department of Engineering) in 2014, defending the dissertation "Supporting Newcomers in Open Source Software Development Projects" (PDF).

During his academic career, Sebastiano Panichella has investigated several research areas across Computer Science, including Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering, Data Science, Empirical Computing, and Intelligent Software Systems. His early research focused on Information Retrieval, Natural Language Processing, Mining Software Repositories, and the analysis of software evolution in large-scale open-source ecosystems. During his postdoctoral experience in the Software Evolution and Architecture Lab (SEAL), he expanded his research towards AI-driven software development, mobile computing, continuous integration and delivery, automated testing, and data-driven approaches for supporting software engineers.

Currently, his research focuses on designing and engineering the next generation of AI-enabled and trustworthy intelligent systems. His work lies at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence, Software Systems, Cyber-Physical Systems, Autonomous Systems, Cloud Computing, and Data Science. A central research theme is how AI can support the development, testing, operation, and evolution of complex software-intensive systems, including autonomous vehicles, drones, robotics platforms, smart infrastructures, and AI-based applications. In this context, he investigates AI-driven methodologies for software engineering, MLOps and DevOps pipelines, simulation-based testing, safety assurance, and trustworthy AI.

Sebastiano Panichella is also strongly committed to interdisciplinary research, where Computer Science meets other scientific domains. His research bridges AI, software technologies, and application domains such as life sciences, biopharmaceutical research, robotics, and engineering, enabling collaborations that address complex real-world challenges. He has authored or co-authored more than 100 scientific publications in international conferences and journals. His research contributions include highly cited works on user-driven software evolution, AI-supported software development, autonomous cyber-physical systems, and intelligent testing approaches. Several of his publications received Best Paper Awards, Best Paper Nominations, and international recognition, including two Most Influential Paper Awards in 2025.

His research has attracted competitive funding from national and international organizations, where he has contributed as Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator. His projects span AI, autonomous systems, software technologies, robotics, MLOps, and interdisciplinary AI applications. Past and current funding includes:
- European Commission Horizon 2020: COSMOS: DevOps for Complex Cyber-physical Systems, where he acted as main PI.
- Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF): projects on data-driven software engineering and, more recently, SwarmOps: Human-sensing based MLOps for Collaborative Cyber-physical Systems.
- Innosuisse: projects including ARIES: Exploiting User Journeys and Testing Automation for Supporting Efficient Energy Service Platforms and interdisciplinary AI projects combining biopharmaceutical R&D, AI/ML, and software engineering.
- Hasler Foundation: projects on trustworthy autonomous systems, including testing and verification of unmanned aerial vehicles.
- Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions: InnoGuard: Hybrid and Generative Intelligence for Trustworthy Autonomous Cyber-Physical Systems.

Currently, Sebastiano Panichella leads a multidisciplinary research team at the Italian Institute of Artificial Intelligence for Industry (AI4I), working on AI-driven software systems, trustworthy AI, and intelligent cyber-physical systems. Together with other AI4I laboratory directors, he recently contributed to securing funding through the European IPCEI initiative, a multi-million-euro strategic European programme supporting industrial AI innovation.

For more information, see his short CV or long CV. He is a member of IEEE and has supervised or co-supervised 17 PhD students, 27 MSc students, 19 undergraduate students, 2 postdoctoral researchers, and 11 research assistants. He serves on the program committees of major international conferences, including ICSE, FSE, ASE, ISSTA, ICST, and ICSME.

His research impact has been internationally recognized. He was selected among the Top-20 Most Impactful Software Engineering Researchers Worldwide, appears among the Stanford University Top 2% Scientists Worldwide rankings, and has been recognized by ScholarGPS among the top 0.5% of scholars worldwide. He is Editorial Board Member of the Journal of Software: Evolution and Process (JSEP) and ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), and has received Distinguished Reviewer Awards from major software engineering venues.