Short Bio

Hélène Waeselynck is a CNRS senior Research Scientist (Directrice de Recherche) and Head of the TRUST team (Trustworthy systems: foundations and practices) at LAAS-CNRS. From 2021 to 2025, she served on the board of the Computer Science section of the National Committee for Scientific Research (CoNRS) in France.

She received an Engineering degree from the National Institute of Applied Sciences of Toulouse, in 1989, and a PhD in computer science from the National Polytechnic Institute of Toulouse, in 1993. Her doctoral thesis was focused on the statistical testing of safety-critical software. She then spent six months as a guest researcher at Siemens Corporate Research and Development in Munich, Germany, working on the simulation of software development processes. From 1994 to 1995, Dr. Waeselynck was with the French National Institute for Transport and Safety Research (INRETS), contributing to the validation and certification of railway systems. In 1996, she joined the Dependable Computing and Fault-Tolerance research group at LAAS-CNRS.

Her research interests lie in software validation, with a particular emphasis on dependable computing systems. She has explored a broad range of topics, from fundamental test design issues (test selection criteria, test generation procedures, oracle problem, coupling of testing and formal verification) to practical questions such as test implementation languages. A strong proponent of experimentation as a scientific approach, she has developed close collaborations with industry, gaining access to safety-critical software from aeronautics, space, railway, and nuclear systems. Her recent research focuses on the testing and safety monitoring of autonomous systems, including intelligent cars and advanced robots.