Dr Patelli holds a PhD in computer science awarded by Aston University in 2017, and one in systems engineering awarded by her Romanian alma mater in 2011. She specialises in evolutionary computation, a type of biologically-inspired Artificial Intelligence.
Her focus is on genetic programming with transfer learning and its applications in smart cities, specifically traffic modelling and prediction. Dr Patelli is also interested in autonomic, knowledge-based systems, and self-adaptation and self-organisation in computing.