Nelly Bencomo

Dr. Nelly Bencomo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Durham University. She leads the SE@Durham research team and is Principal Investigator (PI) for the EPSRC-funded Twenty20Insight project, which focuses on explainability in intelligent systems. Her interdisciplinary work bridges Software Engineering, Requirements Engineering, Design Thinking, and Machine Learning, with applications to Digital Twins and human-machine teaming under uncertainty.

• Education: PhD from Lancaster University (UK)

Research interests center on AI/ML decision-making under uncertainty, software engineering for autonomous and self-adaptive systems, and runtime modeling frameworks. Her work integrates Bayesian surprise theory, Markov processes, and non-functional requirements analysis to address challenges in system adaptability and human-AI collaboration.

Recent publications emphasize uncertainty quantification in adaptive systems, digital twin lifecycle management, and explainable AI. Articles span topics like automated traceability for LLM-generated code, uncertainty flow diagrams, and SPECTRA's Markovian framework for NFR tradeoffs.

Scientific Awards include:

• Best Paper & Software Artefact Awards (2024)
• Women for Innovation Recognition (2024)
• 10-Year Influential Paper Awards (2019)
• Best Paper REFSQ 2013
• Leverhulme & Marie Curie Fellowships

She supervises PhD students and has served as ACM Distinguished Speaker (2022), MODELS/SEAMS PC Co-Chair (2022), and IEEE TCSE Executive Committee member (2020-). Her labs focus on models@run.time, digital twins, and adaptive system governance.