Research lab · University of Udine
We design, verify, test and secure the autonomous systems the world is starting to rely on.
What we do
Modern systems are increasingly decentralised and autonomous, and more and more often rely on AI-based agents, such as those built on large language models. They must guarantee continuous service, tolerate faults, adapt to change and resist attacks. MADS develops methods and tools to build such systems correctly, test them thoroughly and keep them secure.
Finding failures before users do: automated test generation and quality assurance for complex software, AI-based and self-adaptive systems.
Breaking and fixing real systems: security of protocols, networks and industrial devices, from formal verification to hands-on vulnerability research.
Correct by construction: choreographic languages, types and formal models for coordinating fleets of autonomous, distributed agents.
News & events
The paper KLAIM, Certified: Mechanising Flow Logic for Tuple-Space Coordination, by Marino Miculan, has been published (open access) in the Journal of Logical and Algebraic Methods in Programming...
Read moreFrom September 7th to 9th Udine hosted ICTCS 2026, the Italian Conference on Theoretical Computer Science, where we presented our paper Policy Automata for Stateful Authorization, by Massimiliano...
Read moreToday Matteo Paier successfully defended his PhD thesis, Fine-grained symbolic verification of heterogeneous systems, at IMT Lucca, receiving an excellent evaluation. The Commission was composed of…
Read moreRecent publications
Our work appears in top venues in software engineering, security and theoretical computer science.
Browse all 111 publicationsInternational Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer · 2026
@Article{PM:sttt26,
groups = {choreographies},
author = {Pasqua, Michele and Miculan, Marino},
title = {Attribute-based memory updates with priorities for collective adaptive systems},
journal = {International Journal on Software Tools for Technology Transfer},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.1007/s10009-026-00856-y},
html = {https://doi.org/10.1007/s10009-026-00856-y},
pdf = "https://rdcu.be/fdYwk"
}Software Testing, Verification and Reliability 36(1-2) · 2026
@article{vr:zohdinasab2026automate,
groups = {testing},
title = {Automated Feature Extraction for Testing Deep Learning Systems through Illumination Search},
volume = {36},
doi = {10.1002/stvr.70019},
number = {1-2},
journal = {Software Testing, Verification and Reliability},
publisher = {Wiley},
author = {Zohdinasab, Tahereh and Riccio, Vincenzo and Tonella, Paolo},
year = {2026},
month = {January},
pdf = {https://p1ndsvin.github.io/assets/pdf/riccio_STVR26.pdf}
}Proceedings of the Joint National Conference on Cybersecurity (ITASEC & SERICS 2026), CEUR Workshop Proceedings 4198 · CEUR-WS.org · 2026
@inproceedings{clmpm:itasec26,
groups = {cybersecurity},
author = {Coppo, Cristian and Longo, Francesco and Merlino, Giovanni and Puliafito, Antonio and Marino Miculan},
editor = {Davide Maiorca and Pierangela Samarati},
title = {Automatic Verification of Security Properties in Containerized {IoT} Applications via Bigraphical Modeling},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the Joint National Conference on Cybersecurity (ITASEC & SERICS 2026)},
location = {Cagliari, Italy, February 09-13, 2026},
series = {{CEUR} Workshop Proceedings},
volume = 4198,
publisher = {CEUR-WS.org},
year = 2026,
pdf = {https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-4198/paper59.pdf},
html = {https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-4198}
}2026 IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation (ICST), pp. 76–87 · IEEE · 2026
@inproceedings{vr:maryam2026deepnaqq,
groups = {testing},
title = {DeepNaqqal: Human-Aligned Automated Validation of Test Inputs for Deep Learning},
doi = {10.1109/icst69053.2026.00022},
booktitle = {2026 IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation (ICST)},
publisher = {IEEE},
author = {Maryam, Maryam and Biagiola, Matteo and Tonella, Paolo and Riccio, Vincenzo},
year = {2026},
month = {May},
pages = {76–87},
pdf = {https://p1ndsvin.github.io/assets/pdf/DeepNaqqal_ICST2026.pdf}
}Roadmap for DevOps in Cyber-Physical Systems, pp. 45–81 · Springer Nature Singapore · 2026
@inbook{vr:fazzini2026devops,
groups = {testing},
title = {DevOps Testing for Cyber-physical Systems},
doi = {10.1007/978-981-95-1786-2_4},
booktitle = {Roadmap for DevOps in Cyber-Physical Systems},
publisher = {Springer Nature Singapore},
author = {Fazzini, Mattia and Gambi, Alessio and Riccio, Vincenzo and Panichella, Annibale and Klikovits, Stefan},
year = {2026},
pages = {45–81}
}Our research is funded by and carried out with