Current Projects & Research Interests

My Research Interests broadly include:

• Multidisciplinary research at the intersection of Computer Science, Technology Law and Computer Ethics.
• Examining Legal, Design & Ethics led approaches to regulating emerging technologies, particularly the Internet of Things at different scales (from smart homes to cities).
• Data Protection, Information Security & Cybercrime.
• Science & Technology Studies and Surveillance Studies.

Projects (for full lists of recent activities see here, here and here):

Funded Work:

• 2019– ‘Emotional AI in Commerce, Civic Life and Security In Japan and the UK’, Jan 2019-Jan 2020 (Co-I,£50,000– ESRC-AHRC UK-Japan SSH Connections) – exploring governance of affective computing in different contexts of everyday life. See project site here.

• 2019 – Stakeholder Consultation as part of Internet of Things Ethics and Governance Group, University of Edinburgh. Jan-May 2019. 

• 2018 ‘Defence Against the Dark Artefacts’ (DADA) on technical, sociological & legal requirements for effective smart home cybersecurity with U. Cambridge, Imperial College London, U. Nottingham & industry partners ARM, BT, Cisco, Digital Catapult, Internet Society, GCHQ, Crossword Cybersecurity, Petras IoT hub – July 2018 – Jun 2020, (Researcher Co-I, £1,010,000 – EPSRC TIPS 2.0) # EP/R03351X/1;

 

• 2018 – ‘The Memory Machine’ on designing memory preserving IoT for dementia sufferers, Feb ’18 – Feb ‘19, (Co-I £90,000 – Horizon/EPSRC). This project involves artists, interaction designers, developers, psychologists, dementia specialists co-designing.

 

• 2018 – ‘Towards Moral-IT and Legal-IT by Design’ on developing card-based tools for building ethical IT systems (July 2017 – Present, (PI, £16,000 – Horizon/EPSRC).

 

• 2018 – ‘Ethics of Internet of Things in Research’ on managing risks of using IoT used in research with card based tools, Jan ‘18 – Aug ’18, (Co-I, £8,000 – UoN Digital Research Grant);

 

• 2017 – ‘About Algorithms & Beyond’ for a range of mini projects exploring aspects of algorithms and IoT Aug ‘17- March ’18, (Co-I, £30,000 – UoN Research Priority Area Grant);

 

• 2015 – ‘Information Privacy by Design Cards’ on developing data protection by design cards, Oct ‘15- Dec 16, (Co-I Horizon AGILE Project with Partner Microsoft Research) & led to separate partner US National Science Foundation project ‘EAGER: Privacy Compliance by Design’, Oct ’15 – Dec ’16, ($175,000 USD)

 

• 2015 – ‘Games & Human Values’ on using games as a medium of critique for wider societal concerns, Aug – Oct ‘15 ( £1500 – EPSRC Grant EP/L011891/1)

 

• Regulating the Domestic Internet of Things/ Smart Home esp. data protection by design perspectives:
  • Many invited talks (see here), but main outputs include:
  • Journal Paper – Building Accountability into the Internet of Things: The Databox Model.
  • Journal Paper – Demonstrably Doing accountability by Design.
  • Journal Paper – New Directions in Information Technology Law: Learning from Human Computer Interaction
  • Book Chapter – White Noise from the White Goods? Conceptual & Empirical Perspectives on Ambient Domestic Computing
  • Journal – Realising the Right to Data Portability for the Domestic Internet of Things
  • Journal Paper – Towards User-Centric Regulation
  • Working Paper – A Legal Turn in Human-Computer Interaction? Towards ‘Regulation by Design’ for the Internet of Things
  • Conference Paper –  Playing the Legal Card

• Robotics and Law:
  • Regulating Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (Domestic Drones): presented internationally at conferences in Ljubljana, Braga, London (x2), Edinburgh; interviewed for New Scientist and Wired; published early discussion on the topic in Computers and Law.
  • ETHICOMP 2018 paper with D Reedman Flint and N Leesakul on Responsible Robotics in the Home.
  • Supervising 3 month PhD Student project ‘ Responsible Robotics’.

• Cybercrime & Cybersecurity for Industrial Systems & Supply Chains:
  • DADA EPSRC project on smart homes and cybersecurity.
  • Journal Paper with D McAuley, Avoiding the Internet of Industrial Things,  published in Computer Law and Security Review, 2018.
  • Presenting a paper at TILTing Perspectives 2017 with D McAuley on Security and Cyber-Physical Systems. 
  • 2017 Working Paper with D McAuley on Cybersecurity-Implications of the Industrial Internet of Things
  • Chapter in L Edwards forthcoming book Internet Law and Policy called Cybercrime and Information Security Threats and Regulatory Responses.
  • Visiting researcher at the Centre for Business Information Ethics at Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan with Prof A Adams working on privacy and security aspects of smart metering
    • Presented work on smart meters at Scottish Privacy Forum 2014
• Smart Cities:
  • Wrote two articles (one focused on designing interactions, another on regulation) on Adaptive Architecture with N Jäger and H Schnädelbach. The regulation focused paper won the Taylor and Francis Prize at BILETA 2018.
  • Participated in ICT and the City Stream at ETHICOMP 2017 with paper, Ethical Dimensions of User Centric Regulation
  • Helped run the international conference, Smart Cities: Regulatory Challenges and Opportunities at the University of Strathclyde in March 2015, Glasgow.
  • Guest edited a special collection on Smart Cities for Computers and Law
  • Published an article in it with E Luger  “Smart Cities: Creative Compliance and Rise of Designers as Regulators”
• Surveillance Studies
  • Attended Inaugural CRISP Doctoral School, Stirling University, 2013.
  • Presented papers at Surveillance Studies Network Conferences in 2014, 2016 & 2018.
    • 2018 on Governing Affective Computing (with A McStay) and Smart Homes, Smart Policing (with D Miranda).
    • 2016 on Regulating Ambient Domestic Computing: Lesson from HCI.
    • 2014 with Prof Lilian Edwards at on Privacy in Public Spaces. 
  • Participated in Data PSST! ESRC Seminar Series on Veillance in 2015-16.
• Intellectual Property
  • IP Law and Artcodes – as part of CREATe funded work for Nottingham
• Freedom of Speech
  • Chapter “Regulation of Privacy and Freedom of the Press from 2004-2017: From Campbell to Fake News” in L Edwards book, based on research conducted whilst a Research Assistant at University of Strathclyde
• Games and Human Values: Ran a workshop on Interdisciplinary Reflections on Games and Human Values Workshop at ACM CHI Play in October 2015.
• Art and Data:
  • Work with Rachel Jacobs as part of her fantastic Performing the Future project resulted in a paper
    • 2019 – ‘Performing the Future: Risk, Uncertainty & Artistic Process’ with R Jacobs (Artist), Frank Abbott (Artist) & D Price (CompSci – Software Engineering), Journal of Risk Research. DOI 10.1080/13669877.2019.1569104