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Dr Mohan Baruwal Chhetri

Principal Research Scientist

https://people.csiro.au/B/M/mohan-baruwalchhetri

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Biography

Dr Mohan Baruwal Chhetri is a Principal Research Scientist at CSIRO, serving as the Research Theme Lead for Human-AI Collaboration for Cybersecurity. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Bharathiar University, India), a Master of Information Technology (Monash University, Australia), and a PhD (Swinburne University of Technology, Australia).

With over 20 years of R&D experience, his work focuses on designing intelligent, human-centred solutions for complex cyber-physical-social ecosystems. His research spans autonomous AI, AI-augmented decision-making, and collaborative human-AI systems aimed at strengthening cybersecurity resilience at individual, organisational, and societal levels. He is also interested in examining the ethical, social, and security implications of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, extended reality (XR), and quantum technologies.

Since joining CSIRO in 2019, he has conceptualised, developed, and led a range of impactful projects in areas such as human-AI collaboration in Security Operations Centres, antifragile cyber defence, critical infrastructure resilience, cybersecurity capability benchmarking, secure and ethical XR, quantum readiness, and cybersecurity behaviour change. His work is supported by major CSIRO initiatives including the Collaborative Intelligence (CINTEL) Future Science Platform, the Responsible Innovation (RI) Future Science Platform, the Quantum Technology (QT) Future Science Platform, and Tech4HSE program, as well as external partners such as the UK AI Security Institute (Challenge Fund), the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (AICCTP Grant), the Department of Defence (NGTF), the Cyber Security CRC, and Office of National Intelligence (NIPG Grant).

Dr Baruwal Chhetri is a Senior IEEE Member and has co-authored over 100 publications in leading international journals and conferences, including IEEE S&P, ICSE, WWW, ASIACCS, Euro USEC, IEEE Transactions on Services Computing, ACM Transactions on Internet Technology, and ACM Computing Survey.

Key Publications:

Selected Conference Papers (2023 onwards)

[ENASE 2026] Haggag, O., Grundy, J., & Baruwal Chhetri, M. (2026). Fractured Awareness: Why Platform Privacy Systems Are Accepted More Than They Are Understood. 22nd International Conference on Evaluation of Novel Approaches to Software Engineering.

[ASIACCS 2026] Wang, S., Chamikara, M. A. P., Baruwal Chhetri, M., Zing, Z., & Ko, K. (2026). SoK: Navigating the Privacy–UX Trade-offs in Extended Reality (XR) - A Socio-Technical Taxonomy and Research Roadmap. 21st ACM ASIA Conference on Computer and Communications Security.

[ICSE 2026] Haggag, O., Grundy, J., & Baruwal Chhetri, M. (2026). Click, Scroll, Consent: Uncovering Australia’s Privacy Knowledge Crisis. 48th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Software Engineering.

[S&P 2026] Singh, R., Tariq, S., Jalalvand, F., Baruwal Chhetri, M., Nepal, S., & Paris, C. (2026). LLMs in the SOC: An Empirical Study of Human-AI Collaboration in Security Operations Centres. 47th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy.

[TRUSTCOM 2025] Nanda, A., Doss, R., Heikamp, F., Kumar, A., Reda, H., Anwar, A., ... & Baruwal Chhetri, M. (2025). Enhancing Physical Security in Smart Environments with Ambient Intelligence. In 2025 IEEE 24th International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications.

[EuroUSEC 2025] Karunsinghe, N., Baruwal Chhetri, M., Kanhere, S., Nepal, S., & Paris, C. (2025). SoK: AI Support for Analyst Situation Awareness in Security Operation Centres. 2025 European Symposium on Usable Security.

[WWW 2025] Nguyen, H. C., Tariq, S., Baruwal Chhetri, M., & Vo, B. V. (2025). Towards effective identification of attack techniques in cyber threat intelligence reports using large language models. 2025 ACM Web Conference.

[WWW 2025] Chen, B., Lyu, J., Wu, T., Baruwal Chhetri, M., & Bai, G. (2025). Semantics-Aware Cookie Purpose Compliance. 2025 ACM Web Conference.

[COMPSAC 2024] Colman, A., Vo, Q. B., Uzunov, A., Hashmi, S.S., Dam, H. K., & Baruwal Chhetri, M. (2024). Microcompositions for Goal-Driven Self-Adaptation.

[CIKM 2024] Ma, M., Liu, S., Chamikara, M. A. P., Baruwal Chhetri, M., & Bai, G. (2024). Unveiling intellectual property vulnerabilities of gan-based distributed machine learning through model extraction attacks. In Proceedings of the 33rd ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management.

[ASE 2023] Aamir, T., Baruwal Chhetri, M., Chamikara, M.A.P., & Grobler, M. (2023). Government Mobile Apps: Analysing Citizen Feedback via App Reviews. In 2023 38th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering.

[ASIACCS 2023] Ma, M., Zhang, Y., Arachchige, P. C. M., Zhang, L. Y., Baruwal Chhetri, M., & Bai, G. (2023). Loden: Making every client in federated learning a defender against the poisoning membership inference attacks. In Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Asia Conference on Computer and Communications Security.

[ASIACCS 2023] Chen, B., Wu, T., Zhang, Y., Baruwal Chhetri, M., & Bai, G. (2023). Investigating users’ understanding of privacy policies of virtual personal assistant applications. In Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Asia Conference on Computer and Communications Security.

[ASIACCS 2023] Sharma, G., Chamikara, M. A. P., Baruwal Chhetri, M., & Chen, Y. P. P. (2023). SoK: Systematizing attack studies in federated learning–from sparseness to completeness. In Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Asia Conference on Computer and Communications Security.

Selected Journal Papers (2023 onwards)

[IEEE TSC 2026] Sharma, G., Chamikara, M. A. P., Baruwal Chhetri, M., & Chen, Y. P. P. (2026). Shielding Federated Learning Services From a Novel Stealthy Label-Flipping Attack Exposing Membership. IEEE Transactions on Services Computing.

[ESA 2025] Tariq, S., Baruwal Chhetri, M., Nepal, S., & Paris. C. (2025). A2C: A Modular Multi-stage Collaborative Decision Framework for Human-AI Teams. Expert Systems and Applications, 282, 127318.

[ACM CS 2025] Tariq, S., Baruwal Chhetri, M., Nepal, S., & Paris. C. (2025). Alert Fatigue in Security Operations Centres: Research Challenges and Opportunities. ACM Computing Surveys 57 (9), 1-38.

[ESA 2025] Hashmi, S., Dam, H. K., Colman, A., Uzunov, A. V., Vo, Q. B., & Baruwal Chhetri, M. (2024). Proactive Self-Exploration: Leveraging Information Sharing and Predictive Modelling for Anticipating and Countering Adversaries. Expert Systems and Applications, 267, 126118.

[ACM CS 2024] Jalalvand, F., Baruwal Chhetri, M., Nepal, S., & Paris. C. (2024). Alert Prioritisation in Security Operations Centres: A Systematic Survey on Criteria and Methods. ACM Computing Surveys 57(2), 1-36.

[ACM TOIT 2024] Baruwal Chhetri, M., Tariq, S., Singh, R., Jalalvand, F., Paris, C., & Nepal, S. (2024). Towards Human-AI Teaming to Mitigate Alert Fatigue in Security Operations Centres. ACM Transactions of Internet Technology 24(3), 1-22.

[FGCS 2024[ Aslanpour, M. S., Toosi, A. N,. Cheema, M. A., Baruwal Chhetri, M., & Salehi, M. A. (2024) Load balancing for heterogeneous serverless edge computing: A performance-driven and empirical approach. Future Generation Computer Systems 154, 266-280

[IEEE TSC 2024] Aslanpour, M. S., Toosi, A. N,. Cheema, M. A., & Baruwal Chhetri, M. (2024) FaasHouse: sustainable serverless edge computing through energy-aware resource scheduling. IEEE Transactions on Services Computing 17(4), 1533-1547

[ACM CS 2023] Amanullah, M. A., Loke, S. W., Baruwal Chhetri, M., & Doss, R. (2023). A taxonomy and analysis of misbehaviour detection in cooperative intelligent transport systems: A systematic review. ACM Computing Surveys, 56(1), 1-38.

[FGCS 2023] Pathmabandu, C., Grundy, J., Baruwal Chhetri, M., & Baig, Z. (2023). Privacy for IoT: informed consent management in smart buildings. Future Generation Computer Systems, 145, 367-383.

[IEEE TSC 2023] Baruwal Chhetri, M., Forkan, A. R. M., Vo, Q. B., Nepal, S., & Kowalczyk, R. (2023). Towards proactive risk-aware cloud cost optimization leveraging transient resources. IEEE Transactions on Services Computing, 16(4), 3014-3026.

Academic Qualifications

  • 2019

    Graduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching (Higher Education)
    Swinburne University of Technology

  • 2016

    Doctor of Philosophy (Computer Science)
    Swinburne University of Technology

  • 2003

    Master of Information Technology
    Monash University

  • 2001

    Graduate Diploma in Computing
    University of Ballarat

  • 2000

    Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical & Electronics)
    Bharathiar University

Achievements and Awards

  • 2026-2026

    Distinguised Paper Award
    IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy

  • 2025-2025

    Non-cash Reward (For exceptional commitment to POR preparation)
    Cybersecurity and Quantum Systems Group

  • 2024-2024

    Non-cash Reward (For showcasing CSIRO research at Something Digital 2024)
    Responsible Innovation Future Science Platform

  • 2024-2024

    IEEE Senior Member
    IEEE

  • 2024-2024

    Collaboration (Further Together)
    Software and Computational Systems Program, CSIRO's Data61

  • 2024-2024

    Collaboration (Further Together)
    Next Generation Graduates Program, CSIRO's Data61

  • 2023-2023

    Science Excellence
    Software and Computational Systems Program, CSIRO's Data61

  • 2023-2023

    Collaboration (Further Together)
    Software and Computational Systems Program, CSIRO's Data61

  • 2023-2023

    Non-cash Reward (for collaboration - Further Together)
    Cybersecurity and Quantum Systems Research Group, CSIRO's Data61

  • 2022-2022

    Non-cash Reward (for delivering on commitments - Trusted)
    Collaborative Intelligence Future Science Platform, CSIRO's Data61

  • 2021-2021

    Collaboration (Further Together)
    Software and Computational Systems Program, CSIRO's Data61

  • 2019-2019

    Service Award
    Fifth IEEE International Conference on Collaboration and Internet Computing

Current Roles

  • Principal Research Scientist
    Cybersecurity and Quantum Systems Group

  • Team Leader
    Human Machine Collaboration for Cybersecurity

  • Biannual Awards Coordinator
    Software & Computational Systems Program

Grants

  • 2025-2026

    Frontier AI in Critical Infrastructure: Empirical Insights for Building Societal Resilience (UK AISI Challenge Grant)

  • 2025-2026

    Foundational Principles for Responsible Development and Use of Quantum Technologies in the Indo-Pacific Region (DFAT AICCTP Grant)

  • 2025-2026

    Balancing Act: Navigating Privacy, Trust, and Security in the Adoption of Emerging Technologies by Australian National Security and Law Enforcement (NIPG Grant led by Monash University)

  • 2025-2029

    SOC of the Future: Shaping human and AI collaboration in Security Operations Centre (Industry PhD Scholarship with Optus and UniSA)

  • 2026-2030

    Collaborative Cyber Defence: Reconciling Mixed-Mode Decisions in Human-AI Teams (Industry PhD with DSTG and UNSW)

Professional Experiences

  • 2022-2023

    Research Manager
    Software & Computational Systems Program

  • 2019-2022

    Adjunct Research Fellow
    Swinburne University of Technology

  • 2005-2019

    Research Engineer/Associate/Fellow/Lecturer
    Swinburne University of Technology

  • 2003-2004

    Research Associate
    Monash University

Professional Areas

Publications

We have publications by Dr Mohan Baruwal Chhetri