Luca Piras is a Lecturer of Software Engineering, Privacy and Gamification Engineering at Middlesex University (MDX), London (UK), member of the MDX Software Engineering Group, and Module Coordinator of “Web-Based Mobile App Development” Module. Previously, he was a Lecturer of Privacy, Security, Acceptance and Gamification Engineering at Robert Gordon University (RGU), Aberdeen (UK), member of the RGU Cybersecurity Group, and Module Coordinator of the Modules: “Computer Security and Cryptography”, “Managing a Network Group Project” and “Routing and Switching”.
He is an official program committee member of different International Conferences and official reviewer of International Journals such as the Elsevier Journal of Systems and Software (JSS), the IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering Journal (TSE), the Springer Empirical Software Engineering Journal (EMSE), and the Springer International Journal on Software and Systems Modeling (SoSyM).
His main research interest concerns Privacy and Security Engineering by using Requirements Engineering and Goal Modeling techniques. His research is focused on conceptual modeling, analysis and design of concepts related to privacy and security by design, with particular interest to supporting organisations in achieving GDPR compliance, through semi-automated software tools able to guide and support requirements analysts in visual/modeling ways.
He has also another important research interest related to Acceptance Requirements Analysis based on Gamification for making Software Systems more engaging. This research focuses on characterising software users (by analysing also behavioural and human-science related aspects), for supporting requirements analysts to identify the most suitable game elements and mechanisms (able to motivate the intended users) for designing software systems functionalities enriched with gamification solutions (more details in the related scientific papers, PhD Thesis available at http://eprints-phd.biblio.unitn.it/3424/1/Luca_Piras_PhD_Thesis_FINAL_VERSION.pdf and at the website https://pirasluca.wordpress.com/home/acceptance/).
He is also interested in the intersections of the two research directions indicated above.
He worked in the the Data govErnance For supportiNg gDpr (DEFeND) European Project (https://www.defendproject.eu/). He contributed to the research activities of such project, being first author of the most important publications of such project. He also played the role of Task Leader for core aspects of the project, and was also in charge of the technical project management concerning all the contributions delivered by the University of Brighton to the DEFeND Project, and supported directly the Technical Manager of DEFeND. In that period, he worked as Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Privacy and Security Engineering, Acceptance Requirements Analysis and Gamification Engineering at the University of Brighton (UK) for 2 years.
Previously, he worked as researcher at the University of Trento (Italy) for 5 years, by pro-actively participating and contributing to different EU Projects (e.g., the PACAS Project, VisiOn Project, ERC Lucretius Project, SUPERSEDE Project, STREETLIFE Project), related to Privacy, Security, Acceptance and Gamification Engineering applied within context such as Privacy and Security for organisations, Air Traffic Management (ATM), Participatory and Architectural Change Management for ATM, Smart Cities and Sustainable Transports.
He also holds Cisco Certifications (Cisco CCNA and CCNA Security). He also has experience from the industry by working for 5 years as Software Engineer and Team Leader concerning the analysis, design and development of complex information systems related to projects of the Sardinia Autonomous Region (RAS), a Region of Italy.
English, Italian, French
Learning and Teaching interests are related to (but not limited to) Software Engineering, Privacy, Security and Gamification Engineering. He is module coordinator of “Web-Based Mobile App Development” Module. Previously, he was a Lecturer of Privacy, Security, Acceptance and Gamification Engineering at Robert Gordon University (RGU), Aberdeen (UK), member of the RGU Cybersecurity Group, and Module Coordinator of the Modules: “Computer Security and Cryptography”, “Managing a Network Group Project” and “Routing and Switching”.
His main research interest concerns Privacy and Security Engineering by using Requirements Engineering and Goal Modeling techniques. His research is focused on conceptual modeling, analysis and design of concepts related to privacy and security by design, with particular interest to supporting organisations in achieving GDPR compliance, through semi-automated software tools able to guide and support requirements analysts in visual/modeling ways.
He has also another important research interest related to Acceptance Requirements Analysis based on Gamification for making Software Systems more engaging. This research focuses on characterising software users (by analysing also behavioural and human-science related aspects), for supporting requirements analysts to identify the most suitable game elements and mechanisms (able to motivate the intended users) for designing software systems functionalities enriched with gamification solutions (more details in the related scientific papers, PhD Thesis available at http://eprints-phd.biblio.unitn.it/3424/1/Luca_Piras_PhD_Thesis_FINAL_VERSION.pdf and at the website https://pirasluca.wordpress.com/home/acceptance/).
He is also interested in the intersections of the two research directions indicated above.
He worked in the the Data govErnance For supportiNg gDpr (DEFeND) European Project (https://www.defendproject.eu/). He contributed to the research activities of such project, being first author of the most important publications of such project. He also played the role of Task Leader for core aspects of the project, and was also in charge of the technical project management concerning all the contributions delivered by the University of Brighton to the DEFeND Project, and supported directly the Technical Manager of DEFeND. In that period, he worked as Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Privacy and Security Engineering, Acceptance Requirements Analysis and Gamification Engineering at the University of Brighton (UK) for 2 years.
Previously, he worked as researcher at the University of Trento (Italy) for 5 years, by pro-actively participating and contributing to different EU Projects (e.g., the PACAS Project, VisiOn Project, ERC Lucretius Project, SUPERSEDE Project, STREETLIFE Project), related to Privacy, Security, Acceptance and Gamification Engineering applied within context such as Privacy and Security for organisations, Air Traffic Management (ATM), Participatory and Architectural Change Management for ATM, Smart Cities and Sustainable Transports.
He has pro-actively participated and contributed to different EU Projects (e.g., the DEFeND EU Project, PACAS Project, VisiOn Project, ERC Lucretius Project, SUPERSEDE Project, STREETLIFE Project), related to Privacy, Security, Acceptance and Gamification Engineering applied within context such as GDPR, Privacy and Security for organisations, Air Traffic Management (ATM), Participatory and Architectural Change Management for ATM, Smart Cities and Sustainable Transports.
He is an official program committee member of different International Conferences and official reviewer of International Journals such as the Elsevier Journal of Systems and Software (JSS), the IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering Journal (TSE), the Springer Empirical Software Engineering Journal (EMSE), and the Springer International Journal on Software and Systems Modeling (SoSyM).
