Maria Dolors Costal Costa is an Associate Professor in the Department of Service and Information Systems Engineering at the Facultat d'Informàtica de Barcelona, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC). She is a key member of the GESSI and inSSIDE research groups, focusing on software and service engineering. Her research interests include: Requirements Engineering Conceptual Modeling Model-Driven Development Non-Functional Requirements Open Source Software Ecosystems Goal-Oriented Requirements Engineering Her recent publications (2019–2024) reflect a strong focus on conceptual modeling, requirements engineering, and software quality, particularly in agile and ML-based systems. She frequently contributes to top-tier conferences like ER and CAiSE, and her work integrates empirical methods with modeling frameworks. She has received recognition for her research, including the Best Paper Award at CIbSE 2021. Her involvement in numerous competitive R&D+i projects demonstrates sustained research funding and leadership. She actively mentors and collaborates with researchers such as Javier Franch and Cristina Gómez. Her work is supported by participation in EU and national research initiatives like HORIZON 2020 and Plan Estatal de Investigación. She is involved in several research labs and teams, including: GESSI - Group of Software and Service Engineering inSSIDE - integrated Software, Services, Information and Data Engineering inLab FIB





