Valeria Pontillo

Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Valeria Pontillo is a post-doctoral researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. She is a member of the SOFT Lab, supervised by Prof. Coen De Roover. In 2024, she received the European Ph.D. Degree from the University of Salerno, advised by Prof. Filomena Ferrucci. She received (magna cum laude) the Master's Degree in Computer Science from the University of Salerno (Italy) in 2020 defending a thesis on Software Testing, advised by Prof. Filomena Ferrucci, Dr. Pasquale Salza and Dr. Valerio Terragni. She received the Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science from the University of Salerno (Italy) in 2017 defending a thesis on the creation of customized mobile applications.

Research Interests

My research focuses on Software Engineering, specifically on Software Testing, Software Quality, and Software Maintenance and Evolution. I aim to address key challenges in these areas through innovative approaches, particularly leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning. A significant part of my work investigates test flakiness, which refers to tests that intermittently pass or fail under the same conditions. To address this issue, I have developed machine learning models for static prediction, providing a cost-effective alternative to traditional re-run strategies.

Another central area of my research is test smells, which are suboptimal design choices in test code that negatively impact maintainability and effectiveness. My work introduces machine learning and anomaly detection techniques to overcome the limitations of traditional heuristic-based detection methods. In addition, I study test code refactoring, with an emphasis on addressing test smells and improving test code design to enhance its maintainability and effectiveness.

In the context of Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), my research focuses on defect prediction. I incorporate advanced metrics, such as those derived from program dependence graphs (PDGs), alongside product and process metrics to significantly improve prediction accuracy for IaC scripts like Ansible.

Overall, my work contributes to advancing artificial intelligence for software engineering, with practical applications in test automation, quality assurance, and infrastructure management, offering tools and methodologies to improve software dependability and development efficiency.

Job

Postdoctoral Researcher

Gran Sasso Science Institute
Postdoctoral Researcher at Gran Sasso Science Institute, with Prof. Patrizio Pelliccione.
May 2025 - Until now


Postdoctoral Researcher

Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Postdoctoral Researcher at Software Languages Lab (SOFT), with Prof. Coen De Roover.
November 2023 - April 2025

Education

PhD Student

University of Salerno
PhD Student at Software Engineering Research Group, under the supervision of Prof. Filomena Ferrucci.
November 2020 - February 2024

Master Degree cum laude

University of Salerno
September 2017 - March 2020

Bachelor Degree

University of Salerno
September 2011 - July 2017

Professional Services

Referee for International Journals

Elsevier Science of Computer Programming (SCICO)
Springer Journal of Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE)
Elsevier Information and Software Technology (IST)
Elsevier Journal of Systems and Software (JSS)
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering (TSE)
ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM)
IEEE Software

Guest Editor

Special issue of the Empirical Software Engineering - Security Testing for Complex Software Systems 2024
Special issue of the IEEE Software - AI for Code Improvement 2025

Program Committee Member

The 48th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2026), Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
The 18th IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation (ICST 2025), Tool and Data Showcase Track, Naples, Italy
The 22nd International Conference on Mining Software Repositories (MSR 2025), Data and Tool Showcase Track, Ottawa, Canada
The 18th International Conference on Cooperative and Human Aspects of Software Engineering (CHASE 2025), Ottawa, Canada
The 2nd International Workshop on Software Quality Assurance for Artificial Intelligence, Montreal, Canada (Co-located with SANER 2025)
The 32nd IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution, and Reengineering (SANER 2025), Montreal, Canada
The 39th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2024), New Ideas and Emerging Results Track, Sacramento, California
The 40th Internation Conference on Software Maintenance and Evolution (ICSME 2024), New Ideas and Emerging Results Track, Flagstaff, Arizona
The 21st International Conference on Mining Software Repositories (MSR 2024), Data and Tool Showcase Track, Lisbon, Portugal
The 46th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2024), Artifact Evaluation Track, Lisbon, Portugal
The 31st IEEE International Conference on Software Analysis, Evolution, and Reengineering (SANER 2024), Rovaniemi, Finland
The 23th IEEE International Working Conference on Source Code Analysis and Manipulation (SCAM 2023), New Ideas and Emerging Results Track, Bogotà, Colombia
The 2nd International Workshop on Quantum Programming for Software Engineering (QP4SE 2023), San Francisco (Co-located with ESEC/FSE 2023)
The 17th International Conference on Software Process and Product Measurement (Mensura 2023), Rome, Italy
The 15th Seminar on Advanced Techniques & Tools for Software Evolution (SATTOsE 2023), Salerno, Italy
The 20th International Conference on Mining Software Repositories (MSR 2023), Data and Tool Showcase Track and Junior PC Program, Melbourne, Australia
The 1st International Workshop on Quantum Programming for Software Engineering (QP4SE 2022), Singapore (Co-located with ESEC/FSE 2022)
The 16th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM 2022), Registered Reports Track, Helsinki, Finland
The 22nd IEEE International Working Conference on Source Code Analysis and Manipulation (SCAM 2022), NIER Track, Limassol, Cyprus

Organizing Committee Member

Co-Chair of Software management: Measurement, Peopleware, and Innovation Track at the 51st Euromicro Conference on Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA 2025)
Co-Organizer of the 1st Workshop on Evaluation of Qualitative Aspects of Intelligent Software Assistants, Istanbul, Turkey (Co-located with EASE 2025)
Co-Organizer of the 1st Workshop on Security Testing for Complex Software Systems, Salerno, Italy (Co-located with EASE 2024)
Proceedings co-Chair at the 28th International Conference on Evaluation and Assessment in Software Engineering (EASE 2024), Salerno, Italy
Web Chair at the 11th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Mobile Software Engineering and Systems (MobileSoft 2024), Lisbon, Portugal
Proceedings Chair at the 15th Seminar on Advanced Techniques & Tools for Software Evolution (SATTOsE 2023), Salerno, Italy
Web/Publicity Chair at the 1st Workshop on Software Quality Assurance for Artificial Intelligence, Honolulu (Co-located with SANER 2022)

Lecturer

Co-Lecturer in the course of Capita Selecta of Software Engineering
Vrije Universiteit Brussel

Teaching Assistant

During my PhD, I was teaching assistant at the Univerisity of Salerno for the following bachelor and master courses:

  • Software Engineering
  • Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence
  • Software Dependability
  • Software Project Management
  • Software Quality Metrics
  • Software Engineering for Artificial Intelligence
  • Computer Science Education

Student Volunteer

International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2022, 2021)

Publications

Journals








Conferences