Olek Osikowicz

Computer Science PhD Student

Hi, I am a final year PhD student at the University of Sheffield, supervised by Dr Donghwan Shin and Prof Phil McMinn.

Since September 2023, I have been a member of the AI x Software Engineering and Testing (ASET) group, where I do my research on reliable and efficient testing for Autonomous Driving Systems (ADS). My work explores:

Applying Multi-Fidelity Bayesian Optimization (MFBO) for efficient simulation-based testing
Using latent-space representations to accelerate critical scenario discovery
Nondeterminism in simulation-based ADS testing

Ultimately, my goal is to make ADS testing more robust, scalable, and trustworthy.

Alongside my research, I work as a Graduate Teaching Assistant for the COM3523 Software Re-engineering module, supporting both undergraduate and postgraduate students.

For more details, you can find my full CV here.

news

Jun 23, 2026	🇺🇸: I attended IV26 where I presented my poster on Multi-Fidelity Bayesian Optimization for Simulation Based Autonomous Driving Systems.
Jun 19, 2026	📒: Our tool paper DT-Drive: A Tool for Deterministic Replay-Based Testing and Debugging of Autonomous Driving Systems got accepted to ASE 2026 Tools and Datasets track
May 25, 2026	🇰🇷: I attended my first ICST26 in Daejon, South Korea!
Mar 27, 2026	💰: NVIDIA backed our project on Fidelity Optimisation for Autonomous Driving Testing. We receive NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Thor, RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell as well as A100 GPU-hours on Brev, allowing for state-of-the-art hardware-in-the-loop testing.
Feb 27, 2026	🪧: I facilitated the PhD Student Presentations & Networking Day at The Alan Turing Institute. It was really fun!

publications

Multi-Fidelity Bayesian Optimization for Simulation Based Autonomous Driving Systems Testing

Olek Osikowicz, Phil McMinn, Wei Xing, and 1 more author

In 2026 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV), Jun 2026

Bib PDF Poster

@inproceedings{osikowicz2026multi,
  title = {Multi-Fidelity Bayesian Optimization for Simulation Based Autonomous Driving Systems Testing},
  author = {Osikowicz, Olek and McMinn, Phil and Xing, Wei and Shin, Donghwan},
  booktitle = {2026 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium (IV)},
  year = {2026},
  month = jun,
  organization = {IEEE},
}

Simulation Nondeterminism and Its Impact on Flaky Tests for Autonomous Driving Systems

Olek Osikowicz, Phil McMinn, and Donghwan Shin

Jul 2026

Under review at Automated Software Engineering (ASE) Journal

PDF

DT-Drive: A Tool for Deterministic Replay-Based Testing and Debugging of Autonomous Driving Systems

Sanjeetha Pennada, Matthew Leach, Olek Osikowicz, and 1 more author

In International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE) 2026, Oct 2026

Bib PDF Code

@inproceedings{pennada2026dtdrive,
  title = {DT-Drive: A Tool for Deterministic Replay-Based Testing and
                   Debugging of Autonomous Driving Systems},
  author = {Pennada, Sanjeetha and Leach, Matthew and Osikowicz, Olek and Shin, Donghwan},
  booktitle = {International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE) 2026},
  month = oct,
  year = {2026},
}

CAWSR: Carla-AutoWare Scenario Runner

David Gasinski, Olek Osikowicz, Gwilym Rutherford, and 1 more author

Jan 2026

Under review at Journal of Open Source Software (JOSS)

PDF

Empirically Evaluating Flaky Tests for Autonomous Driving Systems in Simulated Environments

Olek Osikowicz, Phil McMinn, and Donghwan Shin

In 2025 IEEE/ACM International Flaky Tests Workshop (FTW), Jan 2025

DOI Bib PDF

@inproceedings{osikowicz2024empirically,
  title = {Empirically Evaluating Flaky Tests for Autonomous Driving Systems in Simulated Environments},
  author = {Osikowicz, Olek and McMinn, Phil and Shin, Donghwan},
  booktitle = {2025 IEEE/ACM International Flaky Tests Workshop (FTW)},
  year = {2025},
  pages = {13--20},
  organization = {IEEE},
  citekey = {osikowicz2024empirically},
  doi = {10.1109/FTW66604.2025.00009},
}