Zara Hassan

I am a researcher in Software Engineering, specialising in reproducibility in scientific software and research systems. I hold a Master’s degree in Information Technology from the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (SEECS). With over 10 years of teaching experience, I have served as a Lecturer at multiple universities and as a casual academic at the Australian National University, demonstrating strong academic leadership in course coordination, curriculum development, and student mentoring. I have submitted my PhD for examination at ANU-School of Computing (2022–Present), where I developed and now lead research on Reproducibility Debt (RpD), establishing it as a foundational framework for understanding and managing reproducibility challenges in scientific software and research systems.

My work on Reproducibility Debt introduces a structured research program that identifies, models, and mitigates the factors that hinder reproducibility across the research lifecycle. I have developed a novel taxonomy of RpD (code, data, documentation, human & organisational, tools & infrastructure, legal & policy) and applied empirical, probabilistic, and causal approaches to uncover underlying contributors and their interactions. This work is designed to move beyond conceptual understanding toward practical application, supporting research teams and large-scale infrastructures in improving the reliability, transparency, and sustainability of scientific software.