PERC_Lab

Link(s): https://www.sepidehghanavati.com/research, Publication

About

In the PERC_Lab, we focus on privacy engineering and regulatory compliance, key emerging areas in Software Engineering. We use techniques from requirements engineering, natural language processing (NLP), machine learning (ML), and privacy by design to address security and privacy challenges in software systems, mobile apps, and smart devices like IoT and wearable devices. We create frameworks, methods, and tools to help software professionals protect end-user privacy, comply with privacy regulations, and develop secure systems.

As a research assistant with the PERC_Lab I have particpated in key research activies such as: data annotation, literature review, and paper writing. My work in this lab has pushed me to be conscious of privacy topics like consent, personal data collection, and regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, and CCPA.

Through my participation with the lab, I have subreviewed papers for the RE'23 and RE'24 conferences. Subreviewing research papers forced me to analytically judge the papers on the criteria of: Rigor, Relevance, Novelty, Verifiability and Transparency, and finally Presentation.

Current Projects

(Spring 2024) I am currently working on a paper that studies how developers claim to understand privacy regulation, vs their actual understanding and ability to implement privacy patterns. Following the conclusion of this paper, we will study how we can bridge the understanding gap for developers who overclaim their privacy knowledge.