research

Overview

I am an Assistant Professor at the School of Computing in Dublin City University. My research interests include application of semantics towards solving real-world challenges associated with privacy, data protection, legal and regulatory compliance, and consent. My PhD (Computer Science, Trinity College Dublin) explored the application of linked data and semantic web technologies towards GDPR compliance, with a particular focus on consent and provenance. I chair the W3C Data Privacy Vocabularies and Controls Community Group (DPVCG) – which develops interoperable vocabularies for privacy and data protection activities based on legal and practical requirements. I am also involved in international standardisation activities through the National Standards Authority of Ireland and the ISO/IEC JTC1/SC27 subcommittee on cybersecurity and privacy protection.

You can see more information about my:

Research Interests

  • Privacy
    I'm interested in the exploration of issues regarding privacy, especially those related to use of technology and data protection. My primary motivation in this area is to facilitate discovery and consolidation of existing work in identification and mitigation of risks, and applying existing knowledge to future technologies and innovations.
  • Consent
    Consent is a broad mechanism for agreement in the society, and is also an essential aspect of freedom based on choice. My primary interest regarding consent relates to its connection with privacy and data protection issues, where it is used as the legal justification for collecting and using personal data. My research revolves around quantification and representation of information regarding consent towards identifying and mitigating issues regarding transparency, accountability, and comprehension.
  • General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
    The GDPR and other recent data protection/privacy laws such as the CCPA provide legal regulation of collecting, using, sharing personal data based upon the principles of privacy and data protection. My research interest revolves around quantification of the requirements and concepts of such laws and its representation for evaluating compliance of processes and activities involving personal data.
  • Semantic Web and Data Modeling
    The Semantic Web standards, particularly RDF, provide a way for modeling and querying information based on the web infrastructure, permits creation of schemas and ontologies to represent concepts and relationships. My interest lies in using these for the representation, documentation, and modeling of information from other research interests.

Employment

2022-ongoing: I currently am an Assistant Professor in the School of Computing at Dublin City University, and part of the ADAPT Research Centre.

2020-2022: I was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin, and part of the ADAPT Research Centre where I primarily worked on exploring privacy risks of technologies using knowledge graphs through the RISKY project.

2020-2020: I was a Research Assistant in the School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin, and part of the ADAPT Research Centre where I primarily worked on the PROTECT ITN project.

Projects

Past Projects

see complete list of projects
  • Risky
    Exploring Privacy Risks of Technologies using Knowledge Graphs
    ( - ) Principal Investigator (PI)
  • Privacy-as-Expected: Consent Gateway
    An end-to-end solution for managing consent online
    ( - ) Project Lead
  • PROTECT
    Protecting Personal Data Amidst Big Data Innovation
    ( - ) Research Assistant (RA)
  • PhD Research
    Representing Activities associated with Processing of Personal Data and Consent using Semantic Web for GDPR Compliance
    ( - ) researcher

Publications

See full list of publications with links to copies and resources here. Lists also available at Google Scholar and dblp.

Selected publications

  1. To Be High-Risk, or Not To Be—Semantic Specifications and Implications of the AI Act’s High-Risk AI Applications and Harmonised Standards
    Conference
    Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency
    Delaram Golpayegani* , Harshvardhan J. Pandit , Dave Lewis
  2. Making Sense of Solid for Data Governance and GDPR
    Journal
    MDPI Information
    Harshvardhan J. Pandit*
  3. Creating A Vocabulary for Data Privacy
    Conference
    International Conference on Ontologies, DataBases, and Applications of Semantics
    Harshvardhan J. Pandit* , Axel Polleres* , Bert Bos , Rob Brennan , Bud Bruegger , Fajar Ekaputra , Javier Fernandez , Ramisa Hamed , Elmar Kiesling , Mark Lizar , Eva Schlehahn , Simon Steyskal , Rigo Wenning

Recent Publications

  1. Using Patterns to Manage Governance of Solid Apps
    Workshop
    Workshop on Ontology Design and Patterns - co-located with International Semantic Web Conference
    Beatriz Esteves* , Harshvardhan J. Pandit
  2. Semantics for Implementing Data Reuse and Altruism under EU's Data Governance Act
    Conference
    International Conference on Semantic Systems
    Beatriz Esteves* , Victor Rodriguez Doncel , Harshvardhan J. Pandit , Dave Lewis
  3. To Be High-Risk, or Not To Be—Semantic Specifications and Implications of the AI Act’s High-Risk AI Applications and Harmonised Standards
    Conference
    Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency
    Delaram Golpayegani* , Harshvardhan J. Pandit , Dave Lewis
  4. Relevant Research Questions For Decentralised (Personal) Data Governance
    Ext. Abstract
    Trusting Decentralised Knowledge Graphs and Web Data Workshop - co-located with Extended Semantic Web Conference
    Anelia Kurteva* , Harshvardhan J. Pandit*
  5. Comparison and Analysis of 3 Key AI Documents: EU's Proposed AI Act, Assessment List for Trustworthy AI (ALTAI), and ISO/IEC 42001 AI Management System
    Conference
    Irish Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science
    Delaram Golpayegani* , Harshvardhan J. Pandit , Dave Lewis

Groups and Memberships

Ongoing

Past

Organisation

  • COnSeNT (Workshop on Consent Management in Online Services, Networks and Things) 2022 2021
  • SEMANTiCS (International Conference on Semantic Systems) 2021 2020

Peer-Review

Reviewer for Journals

Reviewer for Conferences/Workshop

  • AICS (Irish Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science) 2022 2018
  • CIKM (29th ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management) 2020
  • CKG (Workshop on Contextualized Knowledge Graphs) 2019
  • DataValue (Workshop on Governing Value: The Practice of Exploiting Data Value) 2019 2018
  • ESWC (Extended Semantic Web Conference) 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018
  • FAccT (Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency) 2023
  • ISWC (International Semantic Web Conference) 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 2018
  • IWPE (International Workshop on Privacy Engineering) 2022
  • JURIX (International Conference on Legal Knowledge and Information Systems​) 2021 2020
  • KGSWC (Iberoamerican Knowledge Graphs and Semantic Web Conference) 2021 2020
  • LASCAR (Workshop on Large Scale RDF Analytics) 2020
  • MEPDaW (Managing the Evolution and Preservation of the Data Web) 2022 2021 2020 2018
  • ODBASE (International Conference on Ontologies, DataBases, and Applications of Semantics) 2019
  • RELATED (International Workshop on Relations in the Legal Domain) 2021
  • SEMANTiCS (International Conference on Semantic Systems) 2022 2019
  • TERECOM (Workshop on Technologies for Regulatory Compliance) 2018

Competitions

Supervision / Mentoring

Current/Ongoing

Past

Teaching, Knowledge Dissemination

Teaching

  • CA691 Data Governance: (2023) - Masters: MA in Data Protection and Privacy (MDPP), EM in Law, Data & Artificial Intelligence (EMILDAI). Dublin City University
  • CA292 Project Management: (2023) - Undergraduate: Computing for Business Year 2. Dublin City University
  • CA269 Programming 3: Object-Oriented Programming: (2023, 2022) - Undergraduate: Computer Science (CASE) Year 2, Data Science (DS) Year 2. Dublin City University
  • CS3014 Concurrent System I: (2018) - Undergraduate:: Integrated Computer Science (ICS) Year 3. Trinity College Dublin

Recent Talks, Seminars, Lectures

See full list of presentations with links to slides and resources here.

Teaching Assistant

  • CS7CS2 Research and Innovation Methods - 2018 Term I, MSc Computer Science, Trinity College Dublin

Demonstrator / Lab Assistant

  • CS1010 Introduction to Programming I/II - 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 Term I/II, Trinity College Dublin
  • CS1013 Programming Project I - 2017 Term II, Trinity College Dublin
  • CS1021 Introduction to Computing I/II - 2016, 2017, 2018 Term I/II, Trinity College Dublin
  • CS1E03 Computer Engineering I - 2019, Term II, Trinity College Dublin
  • CS2010 Algorithms and Data Structures - 2017, 2018 Term II, Trinity College Dublin
  • CS2014 Systems Programming I - 2016 Term I, Trinity College Dublin
  • CS3012 Software Engineering - 2016 Term I, Trinity College Dublin
  • CS3021 Computer Architecture II - 2016, 2018 Term I, Trinity College Dublin
  • CS7IS1 Knowledge and Data Engineering - 2018 Term I, MSc Computer Science, Trinity College Dublin
  • CS1061 C Programming - 2014 Term I, University College Cork
  • CS5008, CS6509, CS1069 Internet Computing - HiDip ACT, MSc and PGDip DSA, BSc Math Sci 2014 Term II, University College Cork
  • CS5015, CS6120 Object-Oriented Software Development - 2014 Term II, University College Cork