Sepideh Ghanavati

Sepideh Ghanavati is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Maine’s School of Computing and Information Science (SCIS), directing the Privacy Engineering - Regulatory Compliance Lab (PERC_Lab). She holds affiliations with the Canadian-American Center and the UMaine Artificial Intelligence Initiative. Her research focuses on privacy and security in software engineering, IoT privacy, regulatory compliance, and machine learning applications for privacy policy analysis. Ghanavati earned her PhD (2013) and MSc (2007) from the University of Ottawa and BSc from Amirkabir University of Technology (2003).

Her work integrates interdisciplinary methods including requirements engineering, NLP, and empirical studies. Notable awards include the 2023 NSF CAREER Award and Google Faculty Awards (2018, 2021). Recent contributions include studies on developer privacy behaviors, automated privacy policy analysis, and IoT compliance. She advises on privacy engineering for data-driven applications and collaborates internationally, including postdoctoral research in Luxembourg and visiting roles at Radboud University and Carnegie Mellon University.

Graduate and undergraduate students advised include Kenzie Young, Sean Radel, and Adam Green. Her lab emphasizes privacy-preserving technologies and developer-centric approaches. Current projects explore regulatory compliance via few-shot learning and privacy behaviors in software code. She actively engages in policy discussions and has presented at RE’24, SOUPS’24, and other venues.

Publications span privacy in Android, IoT, and NLP applications, with over 50 peer-reviewed articles. Grants include NSF funding for developer-centered privacy solutions. Professional service includes organizing workshops like ESPRE and NLP4RE. Industry experience includes roles as a Senior Project Manager at eHealth Ontario.