Nelly Bencomo

Nelly Bencomo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Durham University in the UK, where she joined in September 2021. Previously, she was a Senior Lecturer at Aston University and has held research positions at Lancaster University and INRIA Paris. She is a leading researcher in software engineering for autonomous and self-adaptive systems, with a focus on uncertainty quantification and decision-making under uncertainty.

Her research interests span Decision-making under Uncertainty, Software Engineering for Autonomous and Self-adaptive Systems, Bayesian Inference and Machine Learning, Requirements Engineering, Model-Driven Engineering, and runtime models. She has pioneered concepts like models@run.time and requirements@run.time, exploring how systems can maintain awareness of their requirements and models during operation. Her work increasingly addresses AI ethics, human values in software, and responsible AI.

Her recent publications (2021-2025) reveal a strong focus on uncertainty representation and management in adaptive systems, with growing attention to explainability, digital twins, and LLM applications in software engineering. Her work bridges theoretical foundations with practical applications in healthcare, education, and sustainable systems.

• Best Paper Award at International Conference on Engineering Digital Twins 2024 (EDTconf'24)
• Best Software Artefact at Symposium on Software Engineering for Adaptive and Self-Managing Systems (SEAMS'24)
• Listed in Women for Innovation in Health Science in the North of England
• 10-year Most Influential Paper Awards 2019 for seminal work in self-adaptive systems
• Best Paper Award REFSQ 2013

Nelly has successfully supervised multiple PhD students to completion and currently mentors several postgraduate researchers. She leads the EPSRC-funded Twenty20Insight project and the Leverhulme Fellowship QuantUn, focusing on uncertainty quantification using Bayesian surprises. Her research portfolio includes significant contributions to European projects and UK research councils in the area of self-adaptive and autonomous systems. She is also involved in the Leverhulme Centre for Algorithmic Life as Project Lead in the Department of Computer Science and leads the Durham Strategic Research Fund project JusTN0W.