Dr Kerstin Eder is a Reader in Design Automation and Verification at the University of Bristol. 
She holds a PhD in Computational Logic, an MSc in Artificial Intelligence and an MEng in Informatics. Her research activities are focused on specification, verification and analysis methods and techniques which allow engineers to design a system and to verify or explore its behaviour in terms of functional correctness, safety, performance and energy consumption. Kerstin has developed strong links with the local and international microelectronic design and EDA industry through consultancy, teaching and joint research projects since 1997. She is the academic advisor on Design Verification for the UK National Microelectronics Institute and has helped Bristol become the lead university on Advanced Verification Methodology in the Cadence Academic Network in Europe. At the Bristol Robotics Laboratory Kerstin leads the Verification & Validation for Safety in Robots research theme. Kerstin has recently initiated a new collaborative workshop series and research agenda on Safe and Trustworthy Autonomous Assistive Robots, STAARs (http://www.bris.ac.uk/ias/workshops/current-workshops/staars.html), and is the Principal Investigator on two newly funded research projects that focus on safety in robots. In 2007 she received a prize from the Royal Academy of Engineering for “Excellence in Engineering”.