SPGuness
  1. 2010 · M.Sc.
  2. 2011 · Kent
  3. [15] Gaze trajectory as a biometric modality (2011)
  4. [13] Evaluation of vision-based head-trackers for assistive devices (2012)
  5. [14] Poster 134: Developing a Vision Based Gesture Recognition System to Control Assistive Technology in Neuro-Disability (2012)
  6. [12] A novel depth-based head tracking and gesture recognition system (2013)
  7. [11] A novel depth-based head tracking system for proportional wheelchair control (2015)
  8. 2016 · Middlesex
  9. 2017 · Ph.D.
  10. [10] Critical patient eHealth monitoring system using wearable sensors (2017)
  11. 2018 · Polytechnics
  12. [8] Air quality monitoring in Mauritius (2018)
  13. [9] Augmented-reality computer-vision assisted disaggregated energy monitoring and IoT control platform (2018)
  14. 2019 · ALU
  15. [5] Threat Modeling and Security Issues for the Internet of Things (2019)
  16. [6] Augmented Reality Intelligent Lighting Smart Spaces (2019)
  17. [7] Challenges Ahead in Cyber Physical Systems: A Coding Survey (2019)
  18. 2020 · Accenture
  19. [4] Low cost air quality monitoring (2020)
  20. [3] Development and evaluation of a mouse emulator using multimodal real-time head tracking systems with facial gesture recognition as a switching mechanism (2021)
  21. [16] Contributor, Chapter 45: "Low-Cost Sensors and the Quality of Data" (2021)
  22. 2023 · FJTechlab
  23. [1] Grand Bassin Kanwar Dataset: Anonymised Imagery of the Maha Shivaratri Pilgrimage, Mauritius (v1.0) (2026)
  24. [2] Grand Bassin Traffic Dataset: Anonymised Aerial and Roadside Traffic Imagery from the Maha Shivaratri Pilgrimage, Mauritius (v1.0) (2026)

Research that ships.
Systems that cite their sources.

Shivanand Guness is a data scientist and AI engineer with a Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering, building privacy-preserving AI in production and publishing the computer-vision and assistive-technology research it grew out of — sixteen peer-reviewed works, one working engineer. Every claim on this page resolves to a real reference16.

CorrespondView publication list →

Abstract. Recognised with the Morpho UK Award for Excellence in Biometrics, Shivanand Guness holds a Ph.D. in Electronic Engineering (University of Kent) built on computer-vision and assistive-technology research — head-tracking systems for wheelchair and switch control, published across conferences and an M.Sc. in Information Security and Biometrics (Distinction). That research background now runs in production: he designs and ships privacy-preserving AI systems†, most recently a PII-anonymisation microservice deployed under European data-sovereignty constraints at a privacy-tech company in Mauritius. The two halves are not separate careers — the same rigor that gets a paper past peer review is what gets a system past an audit.

Experience

  1. 2023–Present

    Senior Full Stack Engineer

    FJTechlab International · Mauritius

    • Designed and launched a privacy-enhanced AI document-extraction and PII-anonymisation microservice — FastAPI, Microsoft Presidio, spaCy — with custom entity recognisers, packaged with Docker for production.
    • Evaluated and deployed self-hosted AI models on European cloud infrastructure (OVH) to meet data-sovereignty and privacy requirements.
    • Led development of a multi-platform application across web and desktop clients.
    • Built and maintained ETL/SSIS data pipelines with Power BI reporting, including cross-database reconciliation against production data-warehouse schemas.
  2. 2020–2023

    Application Development Specialist

    Accenture · Mauritius

    • Developed and deployed applications in C# and C++, enhancing system functionality and user experience.
    • Streamlined development processes with cross-functional teams, reducing deployment time.
    • Led cross-platform integration efforts.
  3. 2019–2020

    Academic Lead — AI & Innovation Programme

    The African Leadership University · Mauritius

    • Owned academic vision and strategy for the AI & Innovation Programme (AIIP), designed to convert traditionally trained engineers into digital engineers.
    • Revised curriculum to meet accreditation standards.
    • Created and ran hackathons every three months, both in-person at GE's offices in Johannesburg, South Africa, and remotely.
    • Drove student retention to 95% through programme metrics and reporting.
  4. 2018–2019

    Lecturer, Software Development & Engineering

    Polytechnics Mauritius Ltd · Réduit, Mauritius

    • Designed and delivered industry-aligned courses in software development and engineering.
    • Built project-based assessments bridging theory and real-world application.
  5. 2016–2018

    Research Assistant

    Middlesex University Mauritius · Vacoas, Mauritius

    • Developed research software tools that improved research efficiency by 20%.
    • Contributed data analysis to three peer-reviewed publications.
  6. 2011–2014

    Part-time Lecturer / Demonstrator, School of Engineering and Digital Arts

    University of Kent · Canterbury, United Kingdom

    • Conducted lessons on PHP, MATLAB, and C# to improve programming proficiency.
    • Guided students in XML applications and project management practice.

Education

  • Ph.D., Electronic EngineeringUniversity of Kent, School of Engineering and Digital Arts, Canterbury, Kent UKGraduated 2017
  • M.Sc., Information Security and Biometrics (Distinction)University of Kent, School of Engineering and Digital Arts, Canterbury, Kent UKGraduated 2010
  • Diploma in Technology, Software Analysis and Design (Very Good)Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Certifications

  • Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Scientist Associate (2019–2024)
  • Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate: Machine Learning (2019)
  • Microsoft Certified Professional
  • Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: SQL Server 2005 (2008)
  • Microsoft Certified Solution Developer: .NET (2008)
  • Microsoft Certified Application Developer: .NET (2006)
  • Certified ScrumMaster
  • Linux Professional Certification

Awards

  • Morpho UK Ltd Award for Excellence in Biometrics

Selected work

Drawn from the roles and research above — not the sparse public-repo history below, which is coursework, not flagship work.

Grand Bassin Pilgrimage Datasets (Kanwar & Traffic Imagery)2026

Two anonymised imagery datasets from the Maha Shivaratri pilgrimage at Grand Bassin, Mauritius — pilgrim kanwar imagery and aerial/roadside traffic imagery — released publicly for research use.

Published as open datasets on Zenodo (see Publication List 1–2).

  • Computer Vision
  • Dataset Anonymisation
Mauritius Budget & Pensions — Research Archive and Chat2026

An evidence-based research archive cataloguing every Mauritian National Budget since 2010, cross-referenced against the pension legislation each one cites, and extended to the full National Assembly and Cabinet record.

Every claim traces to a primary source — budget speeches, Acts, Hansard, Cabinet decisions — and every figure carries the sitting and printed page it came from, so any result can be checked or reproduced. A public Hugging Face Space answers from three deliberately separate layers: the cross-verified pension research, 1,206 verbatim parliamentary questions with ministers’ replies, and 15 Bills traced from first reading to the vote with the committee amendments that changed them. Answers state which layer they rest on, because a minister’s answer is evidence of what was said, not proof that it is true.

  • Python
  • TF-IDF Retrieval
  • Gradio
  • Evidence-Based Research
  • Reproducible Extraction
Privacy-Enhanced AI Document Extraction2023 — Present · FJTechlab International

A production PII-anonymisation microservice built on FastAPI, Microsoft Presidio, and spaCy, with custom entity recognisers and multiple anonymisation strategies, packaged with Docker.

Deployed for sensitive document handling under GDPR / European data-sovereignty constraints, with self-hosted models on OVH cloud infrastructure rather than third-party APIs.

  • FastAPI
  • Microsoft Presidio
  • spaCy
  • Docker
  • OVH
Depth-Based Head Tracking for Assistive Control2011 — 2021 · PhD research, University of Kent

A multimodal real-time head-tracking and facial-gesture system evaluated as a mouse emulator and proportional wheelchair controller for users with neuro-disability.

Core PhD research thread, published across six peer-reviewed venues (see Publication List 3, 11–13); evaluated vision-based head-trackers as assistive-technology input devices.

  • Computer Vision
  • Depth Sensing
  • Gesture Recognition
Low-Cost Air Quality & IoT Monitoring2018 — 2020 · Middlesex University Mauritius

Low-cost sensor networks for air-quality monitoring in Mauritius, plus AR-assisted disaggregated energy monitoring and IoT control platforms.

Contributed to threat-modeling for IoT security and a coding survey of cyber-physical systems challenges (Publication List 4–9).

  • IoT
  • Low-cost Sensors
  • Threat Modeling
AI & Innovation Programme (AIIP)2019 — 2020 · The African Leadership University

An academic programme designed to convert traditionally trained engineers into digital engineers, combining a revised, accreditation-aligned curriculum with recurring hands-on hackathons.

Owned academic vision and strategy as Academic Lead; ran hackathons every three months, both in-person at GE's offices in Johannesburg, South Africa, and remotely, driving student retention to 95%.

  • Curriculum Design
  • AI Education
  • Hackathon Delivery

Code & demos

Publication List

Sixteen peer-reviewed works, 2011–2026. One conference entry carries no DOI on record and is listed without a link — nothing here is a placeholder. Entries marked read the paper open a full annotated microsite.

  1. [1]Guness, S. P. (2026). Grand Bassin Kanwar Dataset: Anonymised Imagery of the Maha Shivaratri Pilgrimage, Mauritius (v1.0). Zenodo. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21321319
  2. [2]Guness, S. P. (2026). Grand Bassin Traffic Dataset: Anonymised Aerial and Roadside Traffic Imagery from the Maha Shivaratri Pilgrimage, Mauritius (v1.0). Zenodo. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21321448
  3. [3]Guness, S. P., Deravi, F., Sirlantzis, K., Pepper, M. G., & Sakel, M. (2021). Development and evaluation of a mouse emulator using multimodal real-time head tracking systems with facial gesture recognition as a switching mechanism. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68790-8_18
  4. [4]Okigbo, C. A., Seeam, A., Guness, S. P., Bellekens, X., Bekaroo, G., & Ramsurrun, V. (2020). Low cost air quality monitoring. Proc. 2nd International Conference on Intelligent and Innovative Computing Applications. doi.org/10.1145/3415088.3415124
  5. [5]Seeam, A., Ogbeh, O. S., Guness, S., & Bellekens, X. (2019). Threat Modeling and Security Issues for the Internet of Things. 2nd International Conference on Next Generation Computing Applications (NextComp 2019). doi.org/10.1109/NEXTCOMP.2019.8883642
  6. [6]Purmaissur, J., Seeam, A., Guness, S., & Bellekens, X. (2019). Augmented Reality Intelligent Lighting Smart Spaces. 2019 Conference on Next Generation Computing Applications (NextComp). doi.org/10.1109/nextcomp.2019.8883577
  7. [7]Igbokwe, K., Seeam, A., Guness, S., & Towakel, P. (2019). Challenges Ahead in Cyber Physical Systems: A Coding Survey. 2019 Conference on Next Generation Computing Applications (NextComp). doi.org/10.1109/nextcomp.2019.8883644
  8. [8]Towakel, P., Guness, S. P., Seeam, A., Bekaroo, G., & Bellekens, X. A. (2018). Air quality monitoring in Mauritius. 2018 International Conference on Intelligent and Innovative Computing Applications (ICONIC 2018). doi.org/10.1109/ICONIC.2018.8601245
  9. [9]Purmaissur, J. A., Towakel, P., Guness, S. P., Seeam, A., & Bellekens, X. A. (2018). Augmented-reality computer-vision assisted disaggregated energy monitoring and IoT control platform. ICONIC 2018. doi.org/10.1109/ICONIC.2018.8601199
  10. [10]Omoogun, M., Ramsurrun, V., Guness, S., Seeam, P., Bellekens, X., & Seeam, A. (2017). Critical patient eHealth monitoring system using wearable sensors. 1st International Conference on Next Generation Computing Applications (NextComp 2017). doi.org/10.1109/nextcomp.2017.8016194
  11. [11]Guness, S. P. (2015). A novel depth-based head tracking system for proportional wheelchair control. TechAAL 2015 (conference proceedings). no DOI on record
  12. [12]Guness, S. P., Deravi, F., Sirlantzis, K., Pepper, M. G., & Sakel, M. (2013). A novel depth-based head tracking and gesture recognition system. Assistive Technology Research Series. doi.org/10.3233/978-1-61499-304-9-1021
  13. [13]Guness, S. P., Deravi, F., Sirlantzis, K., Pepper, M. G., & Sakel, M. (2012). Evaluation of vision-based head-trackers for assistive devices. Proc. Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBS). doi.org/10.1109/EMBC.2012.6347068
  14. [14]Guness, S. P. (2012). Poster 134: Developing a Vision Based Gesture Recognition System to Control Assistive Technology in Neuro-Disability. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2012.08.172
  15. [15]Deravi, F., & Guness, S. P. (2011). Gaze trajectory as a biometric modality. BIOSIGNALS 2011 — Proceedings of the International Conference on Bio-Inspired Systems and Signal Processing. doi.org/10.5220/0003275803350341Read the paper
  16. [16]Guness, S. P. (2021). Contributor, Chapter 45: "Low-Cost Sensors and the Quality of Data". In Macey, T. (Ed.), 97 Things Every Data Engineer Should Know, O'Reilly Media. www.oreilly.com/library/view/97-things-every/9781492062400/ch45.html

Correspondence

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