HELLO, MY NAME IS

Dr.ir. Mannat Kaur

PostDoc Researcher

mkaur[at]mpi-inf.mpg.de​
+49-681-9325-3514
Mkaur2025 1to1 1016x1024

Personal information

I am a Postdoc Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in the Internet Architechture (INET) group led by Prof. Anja Feldmann. I have a PhD in the human factors of system and network operations and security from TU Delft, supervised by Dr.-Ing. Tobias Fiebig and promoted by Prof.dr.ir. Marijn Janssen. I also hold a MSc in aerospace engineering from TU Delft, with a specialization in air transport operations and safety.

I am interested in the interaction between people and technology, and the coordination among expert technology workers – specially in operations-critical contexts. I study how ‘care work’ and invisible labor manifests in the context of running and maintaining digital systems, and implement feminist research principles in my work. I work towards building more equitable technology and inclusive workplaces for those who create and run this technology.

If you want to collaborate with me or talk about human aspects of technology, please don’t hesitate to reach out!

Publications

S. Athar, D. Gosain, A. Feldmann, M. Kaur, H. Dao, “Nobody should control the end user”: Exploring Privacy Perspectives of Indian Internet Users in Light of DPDPA. Proceedings of the 21st ACM Asia Conference on Computer and Communications Security (2026).

S. Munot, T. Fiebig, M. Kaur, Compliance by Design or by Disguise? GDPR’s Reshaping of High-Ranked Universities’ Privacy Policies. In 24th Workshop on Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society WPES (2025).

S. Munot, T. Fiebig, M. Kaur, “You just wanna sign on the dotted line and hope for the best”: Navigating the Cloudscapes of Higher Education, ACM HCI 9, Computer Supported Cooperative Work CSCW2, Article 267 (2025)

M. Kaur, A. Sharpanskykh, Common Ground in Coordination: The Case of the 1977 Tenerife Runway Collision, Pre-print (2024)

M. Kaur, H. Sri Ramulu, Y. Acar, T. Fiebig, “Oh yes! over-preparing for meetings is my jam :)”: The Gendered Experiences of System Administrators, ACM HCI 7, Computer Supported Cooperative Work CSCW1, Article 141 (2023)
trophy This paper was awarded recognition for contribution to Diversity and Inclusion

M. Kaur, S. Parkin, M. Janssen, T. Fiebig, “I needed to solve their overwhelmness”: How System Administration Work was Affected by COVID-19, ACM HCI 6, Computer Supported Cooperative Work CSCW2, Article 390 (2022)

M. Kaur, M. van Eeten, M. Janssen, K. Borgolte, T. Fiebig, Human Factors in Security Research: Lessons Learned from 2008-2018, Pre-print (2021)

M. Kaur, R. J. De Boer, A. Oates, J. Rafferty, S. Dekker, Restorative Just Culture: A Study of the Practical and Economic Effects of Implementing Restorative Justice in an NHS Trust, MATEC Web of Conferences 273, 01007 (2019)

S. Hussain, A. Puttabakula, M. Kaur, B. S. Raju, Optimization of a Quad Rotor Aircraft for a Stable Flight, Journal on Science Engineering & Technology JSET, Vol. 1, No. 2 (2014)

Teaching

The Humans of Computing: Past, Present & Future (Seminar Winter 2025/2026)

Organizaing and running a seminar that explores system and network operations through a sociotechnical lens. It deep-dives into the question:
“how did we get here and where are we going?” in the context of computing.

Human Aspects of Running Digital Systems (Saarland Informatics Campus Lecture, June 2025)

I gave a lecture on the human dimensions of system operations by drawing on historical
perspectives and emphasizing the sociotechnical factors essential to sustaining and securing
digital infrastructure.

On the practice of System and Network Engineering (Guest Lecture Winter 2024/2025)

As part of this seminar, I gave a guest lecture about the organizational and human aspects of system and network administration work.

Academic Community Service

  • PC member
    • SIG SIDAR Conference on Detection of Intrusions and Malware & Vulnerability Assessment (DIMVA) 2026
    • SIG SIDAR Conference on Detection of Intrusions and Malware & Vulnerability Assessment (DIMVA) 2025
    • Workshop on Socio-technical Cybersecurity and Resilience in the IoT (STaR-IoT) 2022
  • Reviewer
    • ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2026
    • ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2025
    • ACM SIGCHI Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (CSCW) 2025
    • ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2023
    • ACM SIGCHI Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (CSCW) 2023
    • Government Information Quarterly (GIQ) Journal 2023
    • ACM SIGCHI Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (CSCW) 2022
    • Ethics and Information Technology Journal 2020
  • Session Chair
    • ACM SIGCHI Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (CSCW) in Bergen, Norway (18-22 Oct) 2025

    Blog Articles

    October 2023

    Published on Medium

    “Oh yes! over-preparing for meetings is my jam 🙂”

    The Gendered Experiences of System Administrators

    January 2023

    Published on APNIC Blog

    The gendered experiences of non-cisadmen*

    In the system and network administration domain, gender diversity remains a distant goal. The experiences and perspectives of sysadmins who belong to marginalized genders are not well understood beyond the fact that sysadmin work environments are generally not equitable…

    November 2022

    Published on APNIC Blog

    System administration work during the COVID-19 lockdown: Insights and practical recommendations

    On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization officially declared the COVID-19 outbreak as a pandemic. Office workers worldwide began to adjust to a ‘new normal’ of working from home wherever possible and the IT infrastructure supporting their work had to keep up with these changes…

    In the news

    Why System Administration Is More Than Just Technology: Social Negotiation And Care Work Are Central Components

    Press release for “System Administrator Appreciation Day” on Friday, July 25, 2025.
    (read in German here)

    Scientists find COVID changed the way sysadmins work – probably for the worse

    News article in The Register in Nov 2022