Research Highlights & News

Selected highlights from my research activities, including scientific achievements, competitive research funding, international recognition, leadership roles, publications, and contributions to the advancement of Artificial Intelligence, intelligent software systems, and trustworthy cyber-physical systems.

  • Paper accepted at ESEM 2026. The paper "Characterising Meeting Practices in Software Engineering Teams: A Mixed-Methods Study of Perceptions, Objective Patterns, and Impacts" has been accepted at the International Conference on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM 2026), Technical Track.
  • Paper accepted in Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence (EAAI Journal 2026). The paper "Physics-Informed Machine Learning for Precision Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Control: Adaptive Transformers with Safety Guarantees" has been accepted for publication in the Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence journal.
  • Paper accepted in Information and Software Technology (IST Journal 2026). The paper "The Role of Road Features and Vehicle Dynamics in Cost-Effective Autonomous Vehicles Safety Testing: Insights from Instance Space Analysis" has been accepted for publication in Information and Software Technology.
  • Innosuisse Innovation Cheque project awarded. The project "mina App Gesundheitsreport / mina App Health Report", led by startup founder Michèle André, was awarded Innosuisse Innovation Cheque funding. The project explores AI-driven cycle data analytics to support women's health and well-being.
  • National Scientific Habilitation in Computer Science (2026). I obtained the Italian National Scientific Habilitation (Abilitazione Scientifica Nazionale – ASN) for 01/B1 – Informatica, I Fascia. The qualification represents national recognition of my scientific maturity and research contributions across Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering, intelligent software systems, Data Science, and autonomous cyber-physical systems. The official result is available through the Italian Ministry of University and Research ASN portal: https://asn23.cineca.it/pubblico/miur/esito/01%252FB1/1/6
  • Appointed Head of the IDeaLS Lab at the Italian Institute of Artificial Intelligence for Industry (AI4I). Starting from February 2026, I will lead the Intelligent Development and Large-Scale Systems (IDeaLS) Lab at AI4I. The laboratory focuses on the foundations and applications of intelligent, adaptive, and trustworthy software systems for AI-enabled and cyber-physical systems.
  • Paper accepted at ICPC 2026. The paper "Understanding CI/CD Workflow Runs Through Interactive and Animated Visualizations" has been accepted at the International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC 2026).
  • Research contributions recognized among the Most Cited Papers in Software Engineering (2013–2023). Several research works co-authored by Sebastiano Panichella were included in the compilation "Most Cited Papers in Software Engineering 2013–2023" by Martin Monperrus (KTH Royal Institute of Technology).
  • Published book. I edited the book: "Roadmap for DevOps in Cyber-physical Systems: Challenges and Future Directions" (2025), presenting research challenges and future directions for the development and operation of complex cyber-physical systems.
  • New teaching activities in 2025/2026. Two new courses are planned for Spring 2026: "DevOps for Cyber-Physical Systems" and "Autonomous Systems in Practice: Technology, Law, and Society".
  • Paper accepted at ASE 2025. The paper "Bridging Research and Practice in Simulation-based Testing of Industrial Robot Navigation Systems" has been accepted at the ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2025).
  • Most Influential Paper Award at ICSME 2025. I received the Most Influential Paper (MIP) Award at the International Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME 2025) for the paper "How Can I Improve My App? Classifying User Reviews for Software Maintenance and Evolution" , originally published at ICSME 2015. The award recognizes the long-term scientific impact of this research contribution.
  • Best Reviewer Award at FSE 2025. I received the Best Reviewer Award at the ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE 2025) for contributions to the scientific reviewing process.
  • Paper accepted at EMSE 2025. The paper "When Uncertainty Leads to Unsafety: Empirical Insights into the Role of Uncertainty in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Safety" has been accepted for publication in the Empirical Software Engineering journal.
  • New interdisciplinary Innosuisse project awarded. An interdisciplinary project combining expertise in biopharmaceutical R&D, Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning technologies, and intelligent software systems has been funded by Innosuisse (starting October 2025). More information.
  • Elected Steering Committee Chair of ICST 2025. I have been elected Steering Committee Chair of the International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation (ICST).
  • Innosuisse Business Concept Certificate obtained. Completed the Business Creation ICT training programme by STARTUP CAMPUS Switzerland (May 2025).
  • Innosuisse Training Certificate obtained. Completed the Business Creation ICT programme (April 2025).
  • Hasler Foundation project awarded. The project "Advancing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Reliability and Societal Trust Through Integrated Testing and Formal Verification" was funded by the Hasler Foundation.
  • Most Influential 5-Year Journal Paper Award on Software Testing. I received the Most Influential 5-Years Journal Paper on Software Testing Award for the paper "How developers engage with static analysis tools in different contexts" published in the Empirical Software Engineering journal. The award was presented by the Best Journal First Committee at ICST 2025.
  • Selected as Management Committee Member of COST Action CA22137 (ROAR-NET). I participated as a Management Committee Member representing Switzerland in the COST Action ROAR-NET (European Cooperation in Science and Technology).
  • Paper accepted at TOSEM 2025. The paper "A Roadmap for Simulation-Based Testing of Autonomous Cyber-Physical Systems: Challenges and Future Directions" has been accepted for the special issue "A 2030 Roadmap for Software Engineering" in ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM 2025).
  • Paper accepted at ICPC 2025. The paper "Explaining GitHub Actions Failures with Large Language Models: Challenges, Insights, and Limitations" has been accepted at the International Conference on Program Comprehension (ICPC 2025).
  • European Commission Innovation Radar recognition of COSMOS H2020 project. The innovations developed within the COSMOS H2020 project were evaluated by the European Commission Innovation Radar and classified as "Market Maturity" and "Market Ready", highlighting the industrial potential and technology transfer impact of the developed solutions (2024).
  • Horizon Europe project awarded. The project "InnoGuard: Hybrid and Generative Intelligence for Trustworthy Autonomous Cyber-Physical Systems" was funded through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Networks programme of the European Commission (2024). The project investigates novel AI approaches for building trustworthy autonomous systems.
  • Swiss National Science Foundation project awarded. The project "SwarmOps: Human-sensing based MLOps for Collaborative Cyber-physical Systems" was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) to advance trustworthy AI operations for collaborative autonomous systems.
  • Hasler Foundation project awarded. The project "Bridging the Reality Gap in Testing Unmanned Aerial Vehicles" was funded by the Hasler Foundation to investigate advanced testing approaches for autonomous aerial systems.
  • Research contribution to the book on Large Language Models and Cybersecurity. I contributed two chapters to the book "Large Language Models in Cybersecurity and Cyberdefense: Novel Threats and Mitigations Perspectives" (2024): "Vulnerabilities Introduced by LLMs through Code Suggestions" and "Enhancing Security Awareness and Education for Large Language Models".
  • IEEE Senior Member elevation. I was elevated to the grade of IEEE Senior Member (2024), a distinction achieved by a limited percentage of IEEE members recognizing professional experience and significant contributions.
  • COST Action CA22137 representative for Switzerland. I was nominated as Management Committee Member representing Switzerland for the COST Action CA22137 ROAR-NET , contributing to Working Group 4 on optimisation under uncertainty.
  • Paper accepted at FSE 2024. The paper "How does Simulation-based Testing for Self-driving Cars match Human Perception?" was accepted at the ACM International Conference on the Foundations of Software Engineering (FSE 2024).
  • Paper accepted at SoftwareX 2024. The paper "Identifying Safety-Critical Concerns in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Software Platforms with SALIENT" was accepted for publication in SoftwareX.
  • Paper accepted at ICSE 2024. The paper "Simulation-based Testing of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles with Aerialist" was accepted at the International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2024).
  • Paper accepted at MSR 2024. The paper "SensoDat: Simulation-based Sensor Dataset of Self-driving Cars" was accepted at the Mining Software Repositories Conference (MSR 2024).
  • Paper accepted at SBFT 2024. The paper "Diversity-guided Search Exploration for Self-driving Cars Test Generation through Frenet Space Encoding" was accepted at the International Workshop on Search-Based and Fuzz Testing (SBFT 2024).
  • Scientific leadership: Shonan Meeting on DevOps for Cyber-Physical Systems. I led the international Shonan Meeting on "DevOps for Cyber-physical Systems" organized with the National Institute of Informatics (NII), Japan. The visual summary is available here.
  • Paper accepted at ASE 2023. The paper "TEASER: Simulation-based CAN Bus Regression Testing for Self-driving Cars Software" was accepted at the ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2023).
  • Journal-first presentation at ICSE 2023. Presented the journal paper "Single and Multi-objective Test Cases Prioritization for Self-driving Cars in Virtual Environments" at ICSE 2023. Slides .
  • Google Open Source Security Team recognition of SBFT. The Google Open Source Security Team (GOSST) highlighted the importance of the SBFT workshop and its contribution to advancing research in software testing and fuzzing.
  • Workshop leadership at major international venues. I served as General Chair of the International Workshop on Search-Based and Fuzz Testing (SBFT) and the International Workshop on Natural Language-Based Software Engineering (NLBSE), collocated with ICSE.
  • Keynote presentation at ICST. Delivered the keynote "Testing and Development Challenges for Complex Cyber-Physical Systems: Insights from the COSMOS H2020 Project" at the ICST AIST Workshop. Slides .
  • Journal-first presentation at ICST 2023. Presented "An Empirical Characterization of Software Bugs in Open-Source Cyber-Physical Systems" at ICST 2023.
  • COSMOS H2020 project dissemination. Presented the COSMOS project at the WASOS workshop hosted with HiPEAC. Slides .
  • Paper accepted at ICST 2023. The paper "Simulation-based Test Case Generation for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in the Neighborhood of Real Flights" was accepted at the International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation (ICST 2023).
  • International scientific recognition. According to the Stanford University standardized citation database, I was ranked among the top 2% of researchers worldwide in my scientific field, based on citation impact indicators.
  • Research impact and international recognition. My research contributions have received multiple best paper awards, best paper nominations, and international recognition across leading computer science venues, including ICSE, FSE, ASE, ICST, ICSME, MSR, TOSEM, EMSE, and IST.
  • Research supervision and mentoring. I currently supervise and have supervised/co-supervised 17 PhD students, 27 MSc students, 19 undergraduate students, 2 postdoctoral researchers, and 11 research assistants, supporting the development of the next generation of computer scientists and AI researchers.
  • Scientific service. I serve and have served as Program Committee Member for major international computer science conferences, including ICSE, FSE, ASE, ISSTA, ICST, ICSME, MSR, SANER, ICPC, and related venues.
  • Editorial activities. I serve as Editorial Board Member for the Journal of Software: Evolution and Process and for ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), and I contribute as a distinguished reviewer for TOSEM.