Ornela Dardha

About me

I am a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the School of Computing Science at the University of Glasgow. My research interests are in programming languages foundations and formal verification, especially leveraging session types. Within the School, I am the Theme Lead of Programming Languages and a member of Formal Analysis, Theory and Algorithms (FATA).

I am the PI of the EPSRC New Investigator Award Uni-pi: safety, adaptability and resilience in distributed ecosystems, by construction. I am Glasgow Site Leader of the European RISE Action Behavioural Application Program Interfaces (BehAPI) and previously I was a Co-I and a Postdoctoral Researcher of the UK EPSRC programme grant From Data Types to Session Types: A Basis for Concurrency and Distribution (ABCD).

I obtained my PhD (May 2014) in computing science from the University of Bologna, Italy, under the supervision of Davide Sangiorgi. My PhD thesis Type Systems for Distributed Programs: Components and Sessions won the prize for the Best Italian PhD Thesis in Theoretical Computer Science 2015, awarded by the Italian Chapter of EATCS. I obtained my BSc (2008) and MSc (2010) in computing science both summa cum laude (110/110 e lode), from Sapienza University of Rome, Italy.

PhD within CoLab

If you are interested in persuing high-quality PhD research in the areas of programming languages, concurrency, logic, and verification, you are welcome to contact me and check our Concurrency Lab (CoLab).

Also, if you are in Glasgow you can come and visit CoLab in rooms F142/F143 in the School of Computing Science.

You can find information about the application process here.

Awards

Science, She Says! Award: Awarded by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. Winner for Europe. (March 2023)

PPDP 10 Year Most Influential Paper Award: Awarded by the ACM and PPDP Steering Committee. Only one winner. (July 2022)

Best Italian PhD Thesis in Theoretical Computer Science: Awarded by the Italian Chapter of EATCS. Only one winner. (July 2015)

Projects and Grants

Uni-pi • October 2023 – September 2026: Principal Investigator of the EPSRC New Investigator Award Uni-pi: safety, adaptability and resilience in distributed ecosystems, by construction (EP/X027309/1)

EuroProofNet • October 2021 – December 2023: Science Communication Coordinator of the European COST Action CA20111 on European Research Network on Formal Proofs

BehAPI • March 2019 – December 2023: Site Leader of the European RISE Action on Behavioural Application Program Interfaces (EU HORIZON 2020, MSCA RISE, ID 778233)

ABCD • May 2018 – November 2020: Co-Investigator of the UK EPSRC programme grant From Data Types to Session Types: A Basis for Concurrency and Distribution (EP/K034413/1)

BETTY • October 2012 – October 2016: Member of the European COST Action IC1201 on Behavioural Types for Reliable Large-Scale Software Systems

FOCUS • January 2011 – May 2014: Member of FOundations of Components-based Ubiquitous Systems, a joint research team between INRIA, France and University of Bologna, Italy

Programming Languages Theme

If you are interested to know more about research within the Programming Languages theme, from the FATA perspective, check the video below!

Invited Talks and Participations

ST30 Invited panel member at the 30 Years of Session Types Workshop, Lisbon, Portugal (Oct 2023)

WBIS Invited speaker at the first Western Balkans Innovation Summit, Tirana, Albania (June 2023)

University of Groningen Invited speaker at the Fundamental Computing group at the University of Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands (Nov 2022)

PPDP'22 Invited speaker at the 24th International Symposium on Principles and Practice of Declarative Programming, Tbilisi, Georgia (Sep 2022)

NWPT'21 Invited speaker at the 32nd Nordic Workshop on Programming Theory, Reykjavik, Iceland (Nov 2021)

IMADA Invited speaker at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark (Jan 2020)

FOCUS Invited speaker at the FOCUS Team, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy (Sep 2019)

Concurrency Workshop/S-REPLS'19 Invited speaker at Surrey Concurrency Workshop and the 12th South of England Regional Programming Language Seminar, University of Surrey, Guildford, UK (Jul 2019)

SPLV Summer School'19 Invited lecturer at the 1st Scottish Programming Languages and Verification Summer School, Glasgow, UK (Aug 2019)

BehAPI Summer School'19 Invited lecturer at the 1st BehAPI Summer School, Leicester, UK (Jul 2019)

University of Leicester Invited speaker at the Department of Informatics, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK (Nov 2018)

The Glasgow Crucible'18 Invited participant at the University of Glasgow Crucible 2018, Scotland, UK (Aug/Sep/Oct 2018)

WiL'18 Talk at Women in Logic Workshop, co-located with FLoC'18, Oxford, UK (Jul 2018)

INRIA/University of Nice Invited speaker at INRIA Sophia-Antipolis Méditerranée and University of Nice, Sophia-Antipolis, France (Nov 2017)

University of St. Andrews Invited speaker at University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, UK (Jul 2017)

OPCT'17 Invited speaker at IFIP WG1.8 Workshop on Open Problems in Concurrency Theory, Vien, Austria (Jun 2017)

LFCS Invited speaker at the Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK (Apr 2017)

BETTY Summer School'16 Invited lecturer at the 2nd BETTY Summer School, Limassol, Cyprus (Jun-Jul 2016)

ICTCS'15 Invited speaker at the Award Ceremony for the Best Italian PhD Thesis in TCS 2015, Florence, Italy (Sep 201)

Practical Types Summer School'15 Invited lecturer at the SICSA Practical Types Summer School, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, UK (Aug 2015)

3rd Heidelberg Laureate Forum Invited participant at the 3rd prestegious Laureate Forum, Heidelberg, Germany (Aug 2015)

PCs and Organisations

ESOP'24 33rd European Symposium on Programming (PC Member)

ST30 30 Years of Session Types Workshop (PC Member)

RADICAL'23 3rd Workshop on Recent Advances in Concurrency and Logic (PC Member)

POPL'23 50th ACM SIGPLAN Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages (PC Member)

ICFP'22 27th ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming (PC Member)

COORDINATION'22 24th International Conference on Coordination Models and Languages (PC Member)

TyDe'21 6th International Workshop on Type-Driven Development @ICFP'21 (PC Member)

ICALP'21 48th International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (Workshops Co-Chair)

COORDINATION'21 23nd International Conference on Coordination Models and Languages (PC Co-Chair)

EXPRESS/SOS'21 28th International Workshop on Expressiveness in Concurrency / 18th Workshop on Structural Operational Semantics (PC Co-Chair)

VEST'21 2nd Workshop on Verification of Session Types (PC Co-Chair)

PLMW@SPLASH'20 SPLASH 2020 Programming Languages Mentoring Workshop (Mentor)

VEST'20 1st Workshop on Verification of Session Types (Co-organiser and Host)

EXPRESS/SOS'20 27th International Workshop on Expressiveness in Concurrency / 17th Workshop on Structural Operational Semantics (PC Co-Chair)

DisCoTec'20 15th International Federated Conference on Distributed Computing Techniques (Workshops Co-Chair)

COORDINATION'20 22nd International Conference on Coordination Models and Languages (PC Member)

RADICAL'19 2nd Workshop on Recent Advances in Concurrency and Logic (PC Co-Chair)

iFM'19 15th International Conference on integrated Formal Methods (PC Member)

PPDP'19 21st International Symposium on Principles and Practice of Declarative Programming (PC Member)

ICE'19 12th Workshop on Interaction and Concurrency Experience (PC Member)

PLACES'19 11th Workshop on Programming Language Approaches to Concurrency and Communication-cEntric Software (PC Member)

PADL'19 21st International Symposium on Practical Aspects of Declarative Languages (PC Member)

PPDP'18 20th International Symposium on Principles and Practice of Declarative Programming (PC Member)

ICE'18 11th Workshop Interaction and Concurrency Experience (PC Member)

SPLS'18 Scottish Programming Languages Seminar – Spring Edition (Co-organiser)

SICSA PhD Conference'17 Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance PhD Conference – Poster and Demonstration Sessions (PC Member)

ICE'17 10th Workshop on Interaction and Concurrency Experience (PC Member)

EXPRESS/SOS'16 23rd International Workshop on Expressiveness in Concurrency / 13th Workshop on Structural Operational Semantics (PC Member)

ICE'16 9th Workshop on Interaction and Concurrency Experience (PC Member)

MSFP'16 6th Workshop on Mathematically Structured Functional Programming (PC Member)

SICSA PhD Conference'16 Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance PhD Conference – Poster Sessions (PC Member)

ICE'15 8th Workshop on Interaction and Concurrency Experience (PC Member)

PLACES'15 8th Workshop on Programming Language Approaches to Concurrency- and Communication-cEntric Software (PC Member)

CoCo'14 1st Workshop on Communication-based Computation (Co-organiser)

SPLS'14 Scottish Programming Languages Seminar – Summer Edition (Co-organiser)

ICE'13 6th Workshop on Interaction and Concurrency Experience (PC Member)

Collegiality and Community Service

COORDINATION Steering Committee • June 2021 – Present: Member of the Steering Committee of the IFIP WG6.1 International Conference on Coordination Models and Languages.

LMS Computer Science Committee • November 2019 – Present: Member of the London Mathematical Society Computer Science Committee, which advises Council on all matters relating to the development of links between mathematics and computer science.

Compumatch • March 2018 – Present: Co-Leader of Compumatch developed for researchers across UoG to find collaborators in computing science.

Mentoring Scheme • June 2017 – Present: Founder and Leader of the SoCS-wide mentoring scheme to support PhD students in matters such as their working environment, progression, and work-life balance.

SPLI Steering Committee • September 2022 – January 2024: Member of the Steering Committee of the Scottish Programming Languages Institute, which co-ordinates community events to enhance programming languages research in Scotland.

GWiCS • November 2018 – January 2020: Co-Leader of the Glasgow Women in Computing Science (GWiCS) group, delivering a wide range of events and talks with women support at the heart.

Athena SWAN • January 2017 – January 2020: Member of Athena SWAN Self-Assessment Team responsible for Career Development and Progression of staff.