Birgitta Lindström

Birgitta Lindström is an Associate Professor of Informatics at the University of Skövde, Sweden, where she has been employed since 2000. She serves as Director of PhD education in Informatics since 2019 and leads the Distributed Real-Time Systems (DRTS) research group. Her academic home is within the School of Informatics, specifically the Department of Information Technology, where she teaches courses in software testing, concurrent programming, distributed systems, and software engineering experimentation.

Lindström's research focuses on software testing methodologies, particularly mutation testing, testability analysis, and testing approaches for distributed real-time systems. Her work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications in critical infrastructure protection, cybersecurity, and model-based testing. She has made significant contributions to understanding strong mutation theory, mutant subsumption, and efficient test set generation.

Her recent publications reveal a growing emphasis on applying software testing principles to critical infrastructure systems, particularly smart grids and cyber-physical systems. The DOMINO project (2017-2025) represents her current focus on reducing the number of mutants needed for effective testing, while her earlier work in the ELVIRA (2017-2020) and TOCSYC (2013-2018) projects addressed testing of critical system characteristics including performance efficiency, robustness, and testability in complex embedded systems.

• Guldäpplet (Best Teacher Award) 2012

Lindström has supervised numerous BSc and MSc final year projects and served as examiner for various courses. Her research has been supported by substantial funding from sources including EU/ISF, KKS (30 MSEK for TOCSYC), and Vinnova (multiple projects totaling over 6.5 MSEK with matching from Saab Aeronautics). She has been instrumental in developing curriculum for computer science programs and establishing software testing education initiatives, including founding the TestEd workshop series focused on software testing education.

As research leader of the DRTS group since 2015, she has fostered collaboration across institutions including Mälardalen University, Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Blekinge Institute of Technology, and Karlstad University. Her current DOMINO project continues this tradition of collaborative research addressing fundamental challenges in mutation testing efficiency.