Sebastiano Panichella is a Computer Science Researcher at the University of Bern, advancing cutting-edge DevOps practices and AI-driven software engineering to develop robust cyber-physical systems—from autonomous drones to smart vehicles—that address critical infrastructure challenges. His pioneering interdisciplinary vision bridges software engineering with life sciences, biopharma R&D, and urban planning to enable next-generation IoT ecosystems for sustainable smart cities. Through flagship initiatives such as COSMOS (DevOps for CPS), InnoGuard (generative AI), and Safe2Fly/AERIALIST (UAV reliability), he embodies deep industry-academia collaboration. This synergy extends to SwarmOps and transformative biopharma projects (e.g., the BioAI4LCMS focusing on software engineering, AI, and life sciences), reflecting his commitment to tangible innovation. Author of ≈100 influential publications, his seminal EMSE journal paper in 2017 on DevOps technologies earned the prestigious 2025 ICST Most Influential Journal Paper Award. He further shapes the field through editorial leadership at ACM TOSEM and Journal of Software: Evolution and Process, conference stewardship (ICSE, ASE, FSE, ICSME, etc.), and cybersecurity contributions in Large Language Models in Cybersecurity and Cyberdefense. Paolo Arcaini is an associate professor at the National Institute of Informatics, Japan. He received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Milan in 2013. Before joining NII, he held an assistant professor position at Charles University, Czech Republic. His current main research interests are related to testing of autonomous driving systems, testing of quantum programs, automatic repair of neural networks, and falsification of hybrid systems. Myra Cohen is a Professor and the Lanh and Oanh Nguyen Chair in Software Engineering in the Department of Computer Science at Iowa State University. She received her PhD from the University of Auckland, New Zealand in 2004. Her research focus is on software testing and self-adaptation of complex systems such as those which are highly-configurable, embedded or cyber-physical. She also designs testing techniques for scientific and emerging disciplines such as bioinformatics software, molecular programs and quantum computing. Her research has received 4 ACM Distinguished Paper awards. She is an ACM distinguished scientist, an IEEE Senior Member, a Better Scientific Software Fellow and a Fellow of Automated Software Engineering. She received the IEEE Technical Council on Software Engineering 2025 Barbora Bühnová Leadership Award for Women in Science and Engineering. She has served on many software engineering conference program committees and was the general chair of the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE), 2015, as well as the program co-chair of ICST 2019, ESEC/FSE 2020 and ISSTA 2025. Aitor Arrieta is a Professor at Mondragon University. He got his PhD in software engineering at Mondragon University in 2017. His research interests lie in the field of software testing (e.g., search-based software testing, test oracle problem, regression testing, debugging, and repair), especially on testing untestable systems, such as cyberphysical systems, highly configurable systems, and machine learning-based systems. He co-leads two EU projects: InnoGuard (generative AI for trustworthy autonomous CPS) and TRUST4AI (trustable internet search). As a program committee member for ISSTA and ICST (2025), he bridges academic and industrial practices.
