Research Team

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A part of my research team at Royal Holloway University of London, UK, May 2023. 

A part of my research team at Newcastle University, UK, March 2022. 

I work with a number of passionate post-doctoral researchers, PhD students, and MSc students, as well as colleagues from multiple academic and industrial institutions.  

Research Fellows, Associates/Assistants (RA)

Dr Adriano Bermudez Villalva (RHUL), Research Fellow, 2022- now. Adrian is working on the on the complex risks and harms associated with women and girls, funded by the UKRI EPSRC AGENCY project. He was previously a Research Associate on the PETRAS CyFer project, working on the intersection of the misinformation and crime associated with women's health across platforms such as social media, communication tools, and dark net. Output:

Previous RAs

Stephen Cook (RHUL), Research Assistant, 2022- 2023, Stephen worked on the cybersecurity and privacy of FemTech, funded by PETRAS CyFer. He is performing experiments on the communication layers of FemTech IoT devices including NFC, BT and WiFi. Output:

Dr Laura Shipp (Newcastle), Research Associate, 2022, Laura worked on the cybersecurity and privacy of FemTech, funded by PETRAS CyFer. Laura looked at FemTech IoT devices and their data collection practices, privacy policies and the potential risks concerning several user groups of such systems including women, partners, children and beyond. Output: 

Zeynep Aki (Newcastle), Research Assistant, 2021, Zey worked on a privacy-preserving ML-based face mask recognition system. She used ML algorithms to develop a system which can identify if people have their face masks on properly without revealing the identity of the person. 

PhD Students

Sophie Hawkes (RHUL, CDT'22), 2023-now (second supervisor, with Christian Weinert), Sophie is working on the investigation of real world privacy vulnerabilities and developing privacy-preserving solutions.

Taylor Robinson (RHUL, CDT'21), 2023-now (supervisory team, with Rikke Bjerg Jensen) research uses ethnographic methods to examine how marginalised communities in the UK, Thailand, and Uganda perceive information security.  

James Clarke (University of Surrey), 2022-now (external advisor, with Ehsan Toreini), James is working on the security and privacy of people with visual impairment. James has been conducting system studies as well as user studies. James was my MSc student at Newcastle and continued his research topic to his PhD work. Output: 

Scott Harper (Newcastle), 2020-now (main supervisor, with Matt Leach), Scott works on cybersecurity issues in animal technologies. Scott has performed several experiments to assess mobile apps concerning companion and farm animals and has found several security and privacy issues. He has also studied users in three countries (UK, Germany, USA) for their concerns regarding pet tech. Output: 

Naoom Abu Abah (Newcastle), 2020-now (supervisory team, with Charles Morisset), Naoom works on user perspectives about cybersecurity and privacy incident reporting systems. Naoom has conducted several user studies including questionnaires and interviews to understand user mental models in interactive incident reporting systems. Collaborative output: 


Previous PhD Students

Dr Dante Gray (RHUL, previously at Newcastle, main supervisor, with Rishad Shafik), 2019-2024, Dante works on sensor security on IoT platforms. Dante has been designing a system based on IoT sensor calibration data for fingerprinting and identifying MEMS sensors and devices. Output: 

Dr Rawan Taher (Newcastle), 2019-2023 (supervisory team, with Charles Morisset), Rawan worked on the security and privacy of smart buildings from the user's point of view. Rawan has conducted several user studies including interviews to measure user understanding and concerns in sensor-enabled smart buildings. Collaborative output: 

Selected MSc Projects 

For the complete list, see here. 


James Clarke (Newcastle), 2021, Title: Visual Impairments and Privacy-enhancing Technologies, Output: 

Scott Harper (Newcastle), 2020, Title: User Privacy in Smart Buildings. Scott conducted several user studies including an online survey to measure user understanding and concerns in sensor-enabled smart buildings. Output: 

Chris Makarouna (Newcastle), 2019, Title: Information Leakage via Mobile Ambient Sensors. Chris conducted user studies via online questionnaires to measure user preferences for permission control of mobile sensors across two platforms including apps and browsers. Output: 

Current Collaborators

Dr Ehsan Toreini, System Security, University of Surrey, UK

Dr Teresa Almeida, HCI, Umea University, Sweden

Prof Mike Catt, Digital Health, Newcastle University, UK

Dr Matt Leach, School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University, UK

Prof Aad van Moorsel, School of Computing Science, Birmingham University, UK


Previous Collaborators

Joe Bourne, The Alan Turing Institute, Lancaster (formerly PETRAS, UCL, UK)

Dr Thyla van der Merwe, Cryptography, Google, Zurich, Switzerland (formerly ETH Zurich)

Dr Kovial Coopamootoo, Usable Security and Privacy, KCL, UK

Dr Rishad Shafik, Engineering, Newcastle University, UK