Leila Bahri

I am an independently volunteering researcher at the Software and Computer Systems (CSC) division, part of the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden, where I have also been a postdoc researcher from Apr. 2017 to Apr. 2019. My research interests are widely on issues related to security, privacy and trust in the social web. My current research focus is on the Blockchain technoloy and its application in building governance and security models for decentralized data analytics. During my postdoc at KTH, which was mainly funded by the SRA ICT TNG for the project on Accountable Data Governance using Blockchain Technology, we have performed research on a new Blockchain consensus model based on trust. Our proposed Proof-of-Trust Blockchain bases on using naturally evovling trust in a decentralized fashion for reaching consensus in the network. This removes reliance on the expensive Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism as well as unties the Blockchain system from the need for crypto-coins. 

I hold a Ph.D. from the University of Insubria, Italy, where I performed research mainly on User Privacy and Decentralized Privacy Services for Online Social Networks (you can access my thesis here). I worked under the direct supervision of Prof. Elena Ferrari. My Ph.D. was funded by the European Marie Curie Action ITN FP7, under the project iSocial. 

My overall research interests are around Privacy Preservation, Privacy-by-design, and Privacy Preserving Decentralized Computing. 

Short Bio

I was born in 1986 in Azrou, a small town in the Middle Atlast Mountains in Morocco. I had all my education, up to the Master level, in the same region, with a Bachelor (in 2008, Summa Cum Laude) in Computer Science (Minor in Business Administration), and a Master (in 2011, Summa Cum Laude) in Software Engineering from Al Akhawayn Univesity in Ifrane (AUI), Morocco. In 2009, I have been in Japan at Meijo University, Nagoya, for a one year research internship funded by the Japanese Students Service Organization (JASSO). From 2011 to May 2013 I worked as Service Desk Manager at the IT department at AUI, Ifrane, Morocco. I started my Ph.D. at the University of Insubria, Varese, Italy, in June 2013, with a research focus on privacy in social media. Upon my graduation in 2016, I had a short postdoc experience at Koc University, Istanbul, Turkey, after which I moved to Stockholm to continue my research journey :)