About Me
I’m Ali Mehraj, a doctoral researcher at Tampere University working on automating regulatory compliance in AI and software systems. My research turns complex legal and regulatory requirements into machine-readable, auditable artifacts — using knowledge graphs, policy languages like ODRL, and structured metadata (AI model cards) to make compliance something software can check automatically, instead of a manual bottleneck.
Before starting my PhD, I spent 6+ years as a professional software engineer across telecommunications, software consultancy, and banking — three industries where “compliance” isn’t academic, it’s a daily engineering constraint. That background is why my research stays grounded in what’s actually deployable: I’ve built the production systems these ideas are meant to serve.
Research Pipeline
My work follows a pipeline: capture AI system metadata → structure it as a knowledge graph → query and convert it into enforceable policy → evaluate against real scenarios.
At a glance:
- PhD Candidate, Tampere University — Software Systems / Regulatory Compliance Automation
- 6+ years industry experience: telecom, software consultancy, banking
- 8 peer-reviewed publications (2024–2026) in different venues.
- Core toolkit: knowledge graphs, ODRL, requirements engineering for AI systems, cloud–edge deployment, AI engineering.
I’m open to research collaborations, industry partnerships, and roles where rigorous research and shippable software need to meet in the middle.
Research Interests
- AI Governance & Regulatory Compliance Automation — turning legal/regulatory requirements into enforceable, machine-checkable rules
- Knowledge Graphs & Semantic Web — modeling and querying system metadata (Cypher, graph databases)
- Policy Languages — ODRL and rights/usage policy expression for AI and software systems
- Requirements Engineering for AI/ML Systems
- AI-based solutions for daily reseach and development tasks
- Privacy- and Ethics-Aware Cloud–Edge Deployment
- Software Architecture for regulated, high-compliance environments
Related Publications
- Mehraj, A., Systä, K., Mikkonen, T., Mäkitalo, N., Hästbacka, D (2026), Metadata card-based analysis of software systems for regulatory compliance check. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Information Management (ICIM 2026). Springer (2026).
- Mehraj, A., Cao, A., Systä, K., Mikkonen, T., Kotilainen, P., Hästbacka, D. and Mäkitalo, N. (2025). AI Model Cards: State of the Art and Path to Automated Use. In Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies – WEBIST; ISBN 978-989-758-772-6; ISSN 2184-3252, SciTePress, pages 71-82. DOI: 10.5220/0013706600003985
- Kotilainen, P., Mäkitalo, N., Systä, K., Mehraj, A., Waseem, M., Mikkonen, T., & Murillo, J. M. (2025). Allocating distributed AI/ML applications to cloud–edge continuum based on privacy, regulatory, and ethical constraints. Journal of Systems and Software, 222, 112333.
- Kotilainen, P., Mehraj, A., Mikkonen, T., Mäkitalo, N.: The programmable world and its emerging privacy nightmare. In: International Conference on Web Engineering. pp. 255–262. Springer (2024)
- Mehraj, A., Zhang, Z., Systä, K.: A tertiary study on AI for requirements engineering. In: International Working Conference on Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality. pp. 159–177. Springer (2024)