Current PhD students
Primary supervision
PhD students for whom I am the main supervisor.
Pablo Valle Entrena
Research topic: Automated Testing and Debugging of Vision-Language-Action models.
Ayesha Irshad
Research topic: Automated Debugging and Repair of Simulink Models.
Amna Khan
Research topic: Uncertainty Handling and Human Aspects of Autonomous Robots.
Khizra Sohail
Research topic: Automated Repair of AI-Enabled Cyber-Physical Systems.
Asier Martinez
Research topic: Safety and Security Testing of Vision-Language-Action models.
Arusa Kanwal
Research topic: Automated Testing of Generalist Robotic Policies with a Legal Perspective.
Pablo Valle Entrena
Recent work spanning robotic-system testing, test oracles, automated repair, mutation analysis, and cyber-physical systems.
- 2026
- 2026
- 2026
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2026
Metamorphic Testing of Vision-Language Action-Enabled Robots
P. Valle, S. Segura, S. Ali, and A. Arrieta · ICST, Research Track.
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2026
FlowRepair: Search-based Automated Program Repair of CPS Controllers Modeled in Simulink-Stateflow
A. Arrieta, P. Valle, and S. Ali · Information and Software Technology, 108010.
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2025
An Industrial Experience Report on Applying Search-based Boundary Input Generation to Cyber-Physical Systems
P. Valle, V. Riccio, A. Arrieta, P. Tonella, and M. Arratibel · Empirical Software Engineering, 30(4), Article 112.
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2025
Enhancing Multi-objective Test Case Selection through the Mutation Operator
M. Ugarte, P. Valle, M. Illarramendi, and A. Arrieta · Automated Software Engineering, 32(1), Article 18.
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2025
Defining and Generating Multi-level and Uncertainty-wise Test Oracles for Cyber-Physical Systems
P. Valle, A. Arrieta, L. Han, S. Ali, and T. Yue · Software and Systems Modeling.
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2025
Astral: Automated Safety Testing of Large Language Models
M. Ugarte, P. Valle, J. A. Parejo, S. Segura, and A. Arrieta · ACM/IEEE International Conference on Automation of Software Test.
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2024
MarMot: Metamorphic Runtime Monitoring of Autonomous Driving Systems
J. Ayerdi, A. Iriarte, P. Valle, I. Roman, M. Illarramendi, and A. Arrieta · ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology.
Ayesha Irshad
Work on automated debugging and repair for Simulink-Stateflow models.
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2026
Hype Meets Reality: Large Language Models as Mutators in Search-based Automated Program Repair of Simulink-Stateflow Models
A. Irshad, P. Valle, J. Ayerdi, and A. Arrieta · 37th IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE), Replication and Negative Results (RENE) Track (accepted).
Amna Khan
A literature survey characterising the types, sources, lifecycle phases, and mitigation strategies of uncertainty in cyber-physical systems.
- 2026
Khizra Sohail
Work on automated repair and robustness testing of AI-enabled cyber-physical systems.
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2026
Generalizable Robustness Testing of DNN-based Robotic Navigation Systems via XAI-guided Search
K. Sohail, M. Illarramendi, and A. Arrieta · Preprint under review.
External co-supervision
PhD students at Simula Research Laboratory, co-supervised with Professor Shaukat Ali.
Jiahui Wu
PhD student at Simula Research Laboratory.
Karoline Nylænder
PhD student at Simula Research Laboratory.
Research master’s students
Paola Roggero
Research master’s student preparing to continue into doctoral research.
Visiting researchers
Masoud Jamshidiyan Tehrani
Six-month SNSF-supported research stay focused on vulnerabilities in robotic perception and navigation systems.
- PeriodSeptember 2026 · six months
- ContextSimulation-based validation and real-world deployment of autonomous intelligent systems
Muhammad Yousaf
Visiting researcher joining the lab from September 2026.
Former PhD students, postdocs, and visitors
Dr. Jon Ayerdi
Completed his PhD with an Excellent Cum Laude distinction. He is now an Associate Professor at Mondragon University.
Dr. Ernest Bota Pobee
Former postdoctoral fellow with the research group.
Dr. Sehrish Malik
External postdoctoral researcher from Simula Research Laboratory who visited the lab.
Beena
Former visiting researcher during a two-month research stay.
Dr. Jon Ayerdi
Publications arising from his doctoral research on metamorphic testing, test-oracle generation, deployment validation, and cyber-physical systems, through and including MarMot.
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2024
GenMorph: Automatically Generating Metamorphic Relations via Genetic Programming
J. Ayerdi, V. Terragni, G. Jahangirova, A. Arrieta, and P. Tonella · IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.
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2024
MarMot: Metamorphic Runtime Monitoring of Autonomous Driving Systems
J. Ayerdi, A. Iriarte, P. Valle, I. Roman, M. Illarramendi, and A. Arrieta · ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology.
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2023
Performance-Driven Metamorphic Testing of Cyber-Physical Systems
J. Ayerdi, P. Valle, S. Segura, A. Arrieta, G. Sagardui, and M. Arratibel · IEEE Transactions on Reliability, 72(2), 827–845.
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2022
Machine Learning-based Test Oracles for Performance Testing of Cyber-Physical Systems: An Industrial Case Study on Elevator Dispatching Algorithms
A. Garciandia, A. Arrieta, J. Ayerdi, M. Illarramendi, A. Agirre, G. Sagardui, and M. Arratibel · Journal of Software: Evolution and Process.
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2022
Multi-Objective Metamorphic Test Case Selection: An Industrial Case Study
J. Ayerdi, A. Arrieta, E. B. Pobee, and M. Arratibel · IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE), pp. 541–552.
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2021
Generating Metamorphic Relations for Cyber-Physical Systems with Genetic Programming: An Industrial Case Study
J. Ayerdi, V. Terragni, A. Arrieta, P. Tonella, G. Sagardui, and M. Arratibel · ACM Joint European Software Engineering Conference and Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, pp. 1264–1274.
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2021
Using Machine Learning to Build Test Oracles: An Industrial Case Study of Elevator Dispatching Algorithms
A. Arrieta, J. Ayerdi, I. Illarramendi, A. Agirre, G. Sagardui, and M. Arratibel · ACM/IEEE International Conference on Automation of Software Test (AST).
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2021
Microservices for Continuous Deployment, Monitoring and Validation in Cyber-Physical Systems: An Industrial Case Study for Elevator Systems
A. Gartziandia, J. Ayerdi, A. Arrieta, S. Ali, T. Yue, A. Agirre, G. Sagardui, and M. Arratibel · IEEE International Conference on Software Architecture Companion (ICSA-C), pp. 46–53.
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2020
QoS-aware Metamorphic Testing: An Elevation Case Study
J. Ayerdi, S. Segura, A. Arrieta, G. Sagardui, and M. Arratibel · IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE), pp. 104–114.
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2020
Towards a Taxonomy for Eliciting Design-Operation Continuum Requirements of Cyber-Physical Systems
J. Ayerdi, A. Garciandia, A. Arrieta, W. Afzal, E. Enoiu, A. Agirre, G. Sagardui, M. Arratibel, and O. Sellin · IEEE International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE), pp. 280–290.
Research visits and collaboration
I welcome conversations about doctoral research, research visits, and collaboration in software testing, cyber-physical systems, Physical AI, dependable AI, and autonomous systems.
Start a conversation