Marta Kwiatkowska

Marta Zofia Kwiatkowska is a Polish computer scientist based in the United Kingdom. She is professor of Computing Systems at the Oxford University Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford, England,^[1] and is a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford.^[2]

The main focus of her research over the past several years has been on modelling and verification of probabilistic systems, specifically probabilistic model checking techniques. She led the development of the first and internationally leading probabilistic symbolic model checker PRISM,^[3] considered a landmark for research in the area.

She is the 2018 Milner Award Medallist, a distinction awarded by the Royal Society for outstanding achievement in Computer Science by a European researcher,^[4] and is the first female to win the award.^[5] In 2016, she was named an ACM Fellows Recognized for Advances that Are Transforming Science and Society "for contributions to the theory and practice of probabilistic verification".^[6] In 2017 she was named an EATCS Fellow "for pioneering work in the development of model checking for quantitative systems and in its application to a wide range of areas; also for outstanding mentorship, and serving as a role model for female researchers in Computer Science."^[7]

Education

Kwiatkowska received her BSc/MSc in Computer Science with distinction summa cum laude from Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. She attained her PhD in Computer Science from the University of Leicester in 1989.^[8]

Career

Between obtaining her BSc/MSc and her appointment as professor of Computing Systems at the University of Oxford in 2007, Kwiatkowska served in the following posts.^[8]

• assistant professor, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland (1980–1988)
• Research Scholar, University of Leicester (1984–1986)
• Lecturer in Computer Science, University of Leicester (1986–1994)
• Lecturer in Computer Science, University of Birmingham (1994–1998)
• Reader in Semantics for Concurrency, University of Birmingham (1998–2001)
• professor of Computer Science, University of Birmingham (2001–2007)

Visiting positions:

• Visiting Professor, Centrum voor Wiskunde & Informatica, Amsterdam (1991)
• Visiting Professor, Laboratory for Specification and Verification (LSV), École Normale Supérieure de Cachan, Paris, France (2002)
• Visiting Researcher on the programme Logical Structures in Computation, Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, UC Berkeley, United States (2016)

Kwiatkowska serves on editorial boards of several journals, including Information and Computation, Formal Methods in System Design, Logical Methods in Computer Science, Science of Computer Programming and the Royal Society's Open science. Her research has been supported by grant funding from EPSRC, ERC, EU, DARPA, and Microsoft Research Cambridge, including the prestigious ERC Advanced Grant VERIWARE and the EPSRC Programme Grant on Mobile Autonomy.^[9]

Kwiatkowska currently serves as Deputy Head of Department (with responsibility for research) at the Department of Computer Science at Oxford, and was the department's first female professor (joined 2007). She is the head of the Automated Verification research theme.^[10]

Current research projects

• Mobile Autonomy (2015–2020), an ERC-funded programme grant.^[11]
• AFFECTech (2017–2020), funded by the EU's Horizon2020 research and innovation programme.^[12]

Selected previous research projects

• VERIWARE: From Software Verification to ‘Everyware’ Verification.
• VERIPACE: Design, Analysis and Synthesis Tools for Cardiac Pacemaker Software.
• Predictable Software Systems.
• CONNECT-IP: Emergent Connectors for Eternal Software Intensive Networked Systems.
• Automated Quantitative Software Verification with PRISM.
• UbiVal: Fundamental Approaches to Validation of Ubiquitous Computing Applications and Infrastructures.
• Shaping an International Grand Challenge Community for Ubiquitous Computing.
• Predictive modelling of signalling pathways via probabilistic model checking with PRISM.
• Automated Verification of Probabilistic Protocols with PRISM.
• Probabilistic Model Checking of Mobile Ad Hoc Network Protocols.
• Verification of Quality of Service Properties in Timed Systems.
• Automatic Verification of Randomized Distributed Algorithms.^[13]

Notable contributions

• Introduced probabilistic/quantitative model checking on the international scene, and spearheaded its transition from theory to practice.
• Led the development of PRISM, the world-leading probabilistic model checker considered a landmark for research in the area, which has been downloaded over 60,000^[14] times and won the HVC 2016 Award.^[15]
• Formulated and implemented novel frameworks for: semantic models for probabilistic systems; verification for probabilistic timed automata and probabilistic software; multi-objective model checking for probabilistic systems; software verification for sensor networks; quantitative multi-objective verification and controller synthesis for stochastic games; quantitative runtime and incremental verification; and parameter synthesis for probabilistic models.
• Developed extensive compositional assume-guarantee reasoning frameworks for component based systems modelled as interface automata, as well quantitative verification and strategy synthesis for probabilistic systems.
• Applied probabilistic verification and synthesis to a broad range of real-world systems, detecting flaws in some of them, including the Bluetooth protocol, reliability of nanotechnology designs and smartgrid demand management protocol.
• Developed an extensive model-based framework for closed-loop verification of cardiac pacemaker models against personalised heart models. The framework supports quantitative verification, personalisation and optimal timing delay synthesis for pacemaker software.
• For the first time, applied probabilistic model checking in systems biology to predict quantitative properties of the FGF signalling pathway that were later confirmed experimentally.
• Extended and applied probabilistic verification to automatically find and diagnose errors in DNA computing designs, to study computational potential and analyse reliability of DNA walker circuits, and to develop a predictive model of DNA origami folding that serves as a 'molecular breadboard' for DNA circuits in an article published in Nature.^[16]

Selected talks and lectures

• 'When to trust a robot' – Hay Festival talk on 30 May 2017.
• 'Safety Verification of Deep Neural Networks' – invited talk at CAV 2017.
• 'Model Checking and Strategy Synthesis for Stochastic Games: From Theory to Practice' – invited lecture at Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing, UC Berkeley, October 2016.
• 'Mobile Autonomous Robots' – invited lecture at IntelliSys, September 2016.
• Interview at SAI Computing Conference 2016.
• 'Estimation and verification of hybrid heart models for personalised medical and wearable devices' – keynote lecture at CMSB 2015.
• 'On Quantitative Modelling and Verification of DNA Walker Circuits Using Stochastic Petri Nets' – keynote lecture at Petri nets 2015/ACSD 2015.
• 'Sensing everywhere: on quantitative verification for ubiquitous computing' – ACCESS Distinguished Lecture given at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, November 2014, based on 2012 Milner Lecture, University of Edinburgh.
• 'Sensing everywhere: on quantitative verification for ubiquitous computing' – 2012 Milner Lecture, University of Edinburgh, September 2012.
• 'Automated Verification and Strategy Synthesis for Probabilistic Systems' – keynote lecture at ATVA 2013, Hanoi, Vietnam.
• 'Simulation and verification for computational modelling of signalling pathways' – a talk given at Algorithmic Bioprocesses 2007.
• 'Model Checking for Probability and Time: From Theory to Practice' – invited talk at LICS 2003, Ottawa.
• Tutorial on Probabilistic Model Checking at POPL 2015.
• Invited tutorial, 4th Summer School on Formal Techniques in Atherton, California, 2014.

Awards and honours

• Royal Society Milner Award 2018.
• Fellow of EATCS, elected 2017.
• Fellow of the ACM, elected 2016 for "fundamental contributions to the theory and practice of probabilistic verification and its applications.”
• Haifa Verification Conference Award 2016, joint with Dave Parker and Gethin Norman, "for the invention, development and maintenance of the PRISM probabilistic model checker."
• honorary Doctorate, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, 2014, awarded for being "the driving force for the development of probabilistic and quantitative methods within computer science.”
• Elected to give the 2012 Milner Lecture at the University of Edinburgh, awarded for "excellent and original theoretical work which has a perceived significance for practical computing.”
• Member of Academia Europaea, elected 2011.
• Fellow of British Computer Society, elected 2008.^[8]

Committee memberships

• Member, Presburger Award, since 2016.
• Member, CAV Award Panel, 2010 – 2014.
• Chair, ERC Starting Grants Panel (PE6), 2012 – 2016.
• Member, REF 2014 Subpanel 11 (Computer Science and Informatics).
• Member, Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships Panel, since 2012.
• Member, Vienna Science Technology Fund Panel, 2012 and 2015.
• Member, Dutch Informatics Review Panel, 2009.^[8]

Personal life

Kwiatkowska lives in Oxford with her husband, with whom she has a daughter.

References

External links

• Kwiatkowska's University of Oxford homepage
• Kwiatkowska's Trinity College homepage
• List of publications on computer science bibliography site DBLP
• Page on researcher registry ORCID