2026-11-05 –, Lightning Stage
Proportionality analysis needs a precise language for describing what digital systems do, what information they expose and who bears the resulting risks. This talk explores ideal functionality as a framework for modelling an application’s actors, message exchanges, computation and outputs, alongside the minimum leakage and residual risks its use entails under explicit assumptions.
Using UPI and electronic voting as case studies, it examines how such models support risk articulation and verifiable claims. What exactly does a guarantee establish, who can check it, and with what evidence? The aim is to make proportionality claims testable and contestable while distinguishing cryptographic guarantees from judgments about acceptable risk.
Proportionality analysis needs a precise language for describing what digital systems do, what information they expose and who bears the resulting risks. This talk explores ideal functionality as a framework for modelling an application’s actors, message exchanges, computation and outputs, alongside the minimum leakage and residual risks its use entails under explicit assumptions.
Using UPI and electronic voting as case studies, it examines how such models support risk articulation and verifiable claims. What exactly does a guarantee establish, who can check it, and with what evidence? The aim is to make proportionality claims testable and contestable while distinguishing cryptographic guarantees from judgments about acceptable risk.
Subhashis Banerjee is a professor of computer science at Ashoka University, Sonipat, India.
He was with the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Delhi from 1990 till August 2023 — on leave at Ashoka University from June 2021 to May 2023 before moving there permanently. At IIT Delhi he held the Ministry of Urban Development, Microsoft, and Naren Gupta chair professorships; headed the Department of Computer Science between 2004–2007 and the Computer Services Centre between 2009–2014; and was associated with the School of Public Policy and the Centre for Transportation Research and Injury Prevention.
His primary research areas are computer vision and machine learning, with a particular emphasis on geometric algorithms. He has served on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Computer Vision and Computers & Graphics, and has been an academic visitor to universities and research laboratories around the world. He has also worked extensively on computing and networking infrastructure, building one of the country's largest supercomputing facilities at IIT Delhi.
More recently, his interests have turned to policy questions in digitalisation and society — digital identity, electronic voting, data and privacy protection, and the fairness and reliability of machine learning systems.