Viola Schiaffonati is associate professor of Logic and Philosophy of Science at the Dipartimento di Elettronica, Informazione e Bioingegneria of Politecnico di Milano, where she teaches Computer Ethics and Philosophy of Computer Science. Her main research interests include: the philosophical issues of artificial intelligence and robotics,  the epistemology and methodology of experiments in computer engineering and autonomous robotics, the analysis of the ethical issues of intelligent and autonomous systems.
She holds a PhD in Philosophy of Science from Università di Genova. She has been visiting scholar at the Department of Philosophy of the University of California at Berkeley and visiting researcher at the Suppes Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Science and Technology of the Stanford University.