Welcome!
My name is Sophie Fortz and I am a postdoctoral researcher with expertise in software engineering. Currently, I’m deeply involved in quantum programming as part of the VSL-Q project at King’s College London. In this exciting project, we are dedicated to providing verified simulation of large-scale quantum systems. Our focus extends beyond the theoretical to the practical, addressing platform specificities, noise and scalability issues. This endeavour represents a collaborative synergy, bringing together experts from diverse fields such as physics, programming languages, and software engineering. Working alongside Prof. Mohammad Reza Mousavi, I’ll be channeling my previous expertise towards pioneering testing techniques specifically tailored for quantum programs.
Before embarking on this quantum journey, I did a Ph.D. at the University of Namur. Under the guidance of Dr. Gilles Perrouin and Prof. Patrick Heymans, I delved into the intricacies of software engineering. After being funded by the FNRS EoS (Excellence of Science) VeriLearn project for a year, I secured a competitive FRIA (FNRS) Grant. In September 2023, I successfully defended my thesis, entitled “LIFTS: Learning Featured Transition Systems”.
On my spare hours, I like to read, draw and paint. I was also an active member of the Belgian Guide Federation for years, where I have been successively girl guide, group leader and trainer.
- Quantum software engineering
- Software variability
- Behavioural modelling
- Automata learning
- Software testing
- AI4SE & SE4AI
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PhD in Software Engineering, 2023
University of Namur
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MSc in Computer Science, specialised in Software Engineering, 2019
University of Namur
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BSc in Computer Science, 2017
University of Namur
Experience
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Postdoctoral Researcher
King's College London
Working on the VSL-Q project. -
Postdoctoral Researcher
University of Namur
Working on the EoS VeriLearn project. -
PhD Student
University of Namur
My thesis is entitled Learning Featured Transition Systems. I studied how to model the behaviour of Software Product Lines and how to automatically generate those kind of models. -
ALMIN president
University of Namur
The ALMIN is the alumni association of the computer science faculty in the university of Namur. This group organise activities for all the master and bachelor students who got their degree in the faculty. I am a board member of the association since 2019 and in 2021, I took the presidence. -
Research internship
Polytechnic University of Valencia
During my master thesis, I’ve done three months of research at the polytechnic university of Valencia (Spain), under the supervision of Pr. German Vidal. My work was nominated for the Jean Fichefet award (best master thesis award). -
Secretary and board member
Computer Science Labs (CSLabs)
CSLabs is a non-profit organisation founded by students from Unamur’s Faculty of Computer Science, in order to promote computer science externally and provide trainings in different fields by and for students.
Education
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PhD in Software Engineering
University of Namur -
MSc in Computer Science, specialised in Software Engineering
University of Namur -
BSc in Computer Science
University of Namur
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INFOM115 - Software Testing:
Organisation: Session labs and lectures for a total of 15h
Public: 1st year Masters students, specialised in Software Engineering, from the computer science faculty of the University of Namur, Belgium
Content: Supervised by Dr. Gilles Perrouin, we teach the fundamentals of software testing and more advanced techniques (mutation testing, metamorphic testing, fuzzy testing, test smells, etc.)
Academic years: 2019-2020, 2020-2021, 2021-2022, 2022-2023
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INFOB221 - Mathematics Fundamentals for Computer Science (part 2):
Organisation: 15h of tutoring
Public: 2nd year of Bachelor students from the Economics and Computer Science faculties of the University of Namur, Belgium
Content: Basic concepts of Mathematics for Cryptography mainly (modular arithmetic, discrete log, symmetric encryption and asymmetric encryption, elliptic curves)
Academic years: 2019-2020, 2020-2021, 2021-2022
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IHDCB339 - Introduction to the Scientific Approach:
Organisation: One group project supervision
Public: 3d year of Bachelor students from the Computer Science faculty of the University of Namur, Belgium
Content: In this project, I supervised a group of two students, guiding them in developing essential skills such as bibliographic research, critical source appraisal, scientific state-of-the-art writing, and effective scientific result presentation, while also ensuring a deep understanding of research problem definition, context, motivation, and related work within the field of information systems.
Academic years: 2020-2021
Distinguished Reviewer Award
I’m taking part in several committees and helping the community in various ways:
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Organising workshops and conferences :
- Q-SE 2025 and 2026 (web & publicity chair) ;
- SPLC 2024 (publicity co-chair) and 2025 (doctoral symposium co-chair) ;
- QSANER 2025 (co-chair) ;
- ICTSS 2024 (challenge track co-chair) ;
- LearnAut 2024 (co-chair) ;
- Q-SE 2025 and 2026 (web & publicity chair) ;
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Reviewing :
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for specialised conferences: ICSR (research track, as a subreviewer), SPLC (research track, demo & tools), ESEC-FSE (artefacts), ECOOP (artefacts, extended review committee), SSBSE (challenge track), ICTAC (research track), BENEVOL, VaMoS, ICST (poster track), GI @ ICSE, ISSTA (artefacts), Re:Volution, ASE (student research competition) ;
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for journals: EMSE (as a subreviewer), Software Quality Journal, SoSyM, JSS, TSE, SCICO ;
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Contributing to the Strategic Reflection Group on Software Variability Conferences, uniting SPLC, ICSR, and VaMoS to shape the future of the field and foster synergies ;
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Acting as a Student Volunteer for OR 2018 and SPLC 2023 ;
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Representing scientifics at the UNamur Computer Science Faculty Council ;
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Representing and promoting the UNamur Computer Science Faculty at several Students Fairs ;
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Representing scientifics at the Section Groups, the place where students can express themselves to improve the UNamur Computer Science faculty.
Check out my activities and interests, extending beyond research!
