Dr. Sara Bernardini

Biography

Sara Bernardini is a professor of Computer Science at the University of Oxford and a Tutorial Fellow in Computer Science at Mansfield College. Her academic journey includes significant roles at Royal Holloway, King's College, University College London in the UK, as well as stints at MIT and NASA Ames, where she served as a Principal Research Scientist in AI and Data Science. Additionally, she has been a Senior Fellow at the UK National Oceanography Centre and the Alan Turing Institute. Bernardini is an influential member of the Executive Council of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) and leads its Partnership Committee for the International Conference on Automated Planning and Scheduling (ICAPS). She is currently serving as the Program Chair for ICAPS 2024 and has held the position of Associate General Chair for AAAI-23, where she initiated the Bridge Program aimed at fostering collaboration across AI disciplines. She is also the associate editor of the Artificial Intelligence Journal and has managed special issues focused on AI safety. Her research focuses on Artificial Intelligence, particularly in decision-making for intelligent autonomous systems including ground robots and drones, with the goal of equipping artificial agents to support humans in complex tasks. Bernardini has led multiple research projects in extreme environments and has collaborated with industry stakeholders on applications in various domains such as space mission operations and nuclear decommissioning, with significant funding from Innovate UK, EPSRC, and others.

Research Interests