Christopher Timperley

Christopher Timperley is a Senior Systems Scientist in the Software and Societal Systems Department at Carnegie Mellon University, with additional appointments in the Robotics Institute and National Robotics Engineering Center within the School of Computer Science. His work is primarily conducted in the context of squaresLab.

Timperley's research focuses on the intersection of software engineering, robotics, and program analysis, with particular emphasis on developing techniques for automatically detecting, locating, and repairing faults in large-scale software systems. His recent work has applied these techniques specifically to robotics systems, particularly autonomous vehicles. His research interests span search-based software engineering and testing, with applications in security and privacy, embedded systems security, formal methods for security, intrusion and anomaly detection, and security of AI and ML systems.

His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on robotics software systems, particularly those built using ROS (Robot Operating System). His work addresses critical challenges in robotics software development including architecture misconfigurations, behavioral modeling, test automation through simulation, and empirical studies of the robotics ecosystem. The publications reveal a consistent theme of applying software engineering principles to improve the reliability and security of robotics systems.

Timperley received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of York, UK, with a dissertation on search-based program repair under the supervision of Professor Susan Stepney. His work bridges theoretical advances in software engineering with practical applications in robotics, contributing significantly to the development of more robust and reliable robotics software systems.