Sara Vaccino works to improve software bug-finding reliability

Sara Vaccino, a Laidlaw Scholar at EPFL, is working to improve the reliability of automated software bug-finding tools through the Magma benchmark.

As software becomes increasingly integrated into critical infrastructure such as banking and airport security, the need for effective bug detection is vital. Magma serves as a benchmark to evaluate these tools by using real, previously fixed bugs rather than artificial ones. Vaccino’s research focused on verifying that these bugs could still be triggered, providing concrete proof for seven bugs to ensure the Magma evaluation process remains trustworthy and consistent.