Paola Di Maio, PhD | Research and Consulting

About

I am an independent researcher and consultant, working on contract as analyst, subject matter expert, faculty and technical author. My research covers complexity management and sociotechnical systems. Current work focuses on AI knowledge representation, neurosymbolic AI and agent interoperability standards, backed by peer-reviewed publications and standards contributions.

Organisations hire me for systems analysis and specification, algorithmic audits, technical curricula and business intelligence advisories. I chair the W3C AI Knowledge Representation Community Group and lead research at the Epistemic Systems Lab of the Ronin Institute.

Consulting

Consulting & Advisory

Available for contract and advisory engagements. I work remotely with companies, research institutes and standards bodies, from a single audit to a long-running advisory role.

Systems analysis, design and specification

Requirements, architecture and process automation for information systems.

Algorithmic audit and AI evaluation

Bias analysis, model documentation and knowledge audits of AI systems.

Knowledge modelling and ontology development

Executive training and hands-on ontology engineering for teams adopting AI.

Business intelligence advisories

Research-led briefings on AI and technology for decision makers.

Technical curricula and training

Full-cycle course design for postgraduate, corporate and technical audiences.

Technical authoring

Documentation, specifications and standards-compliant content.

I have worked for EU, UK, international and global companies worldwide in management and technical roles, including IT, operations and logistics. Read the full CV.

Systems Engineering Knowledge Representation AI Evaluation & Audit Ontology Engineering Curriculum Design Standards & Policy Science Communication Editorial Direction

Experience

Research, Consulting & Publishing

Independent Researcher, Analyst & Subject Matter Expert 2001 to present
Digital publishing, learning and information architecture
- Lead scientific and technical enquiry across systems engineering, AI and interdisciplinary topics; publish proceedings and technical notes.
- Author and publish business intelligence advisories.
- Design and deliver technical training programmes for postgraduate and professional audiences.
Principal Analyst, Business Intelligence Current
Daily intelligence feeds and executive briefings
Daily intelligence on AI, finance and regulation, licensed to Dow Jones Factiva, now with generative AI rights; in-depth briefings for senior executives.
Expert and Independent Advisor
Cutter Consortium (now part of Arthur D. Little)
High-profile advisory assignments; creator of the Joint Optimization Metamodel and the Knowledge Audit Framework.
Science and Technology Correspondent
London
Science and technology reporting for major publications then owned by Pearson.
Business Intelligence & Operations Manager 2001 to 2014

Management and technical roles for EU, UK, international and global companies worldwide, covering IT, operations and logistics. Systems analysis, algorithmic audits and process automation consulting.
Newsletter Editor & Digital Publisher

New technologies and publishing.
Library Systems Analyst

Library services and technologies; indexing automation.

Research

Current Roles

Chair W3C AI Knowledge Representation Community Group

Research Lead Epistemic Systems Lab, Ronin Institute for Independent Scholarship

Active projects

COPP Pipeline Citizen Observatory for Photometric Phenomena. AI-powered analysis of anomalous luminous phenomena. Paper under journal review. COEVO Research Visualiser Interactive visualiser for the neural co-evolution hypothesis. MCP Model Card Specification v1.0 Standardised documentation framework for Model Context Protocol servers, with an open-source interactive generator. WebMCP Model Card Generator Documentation tooling for the W3C WebMCP browser-side specification. AICELS on Hugging Face AI Code Evaluation and Learning System. Evaluates code against standard criteria and gives learning guidance. Research Ops Research operations resources.

Schools & Tools

Schools and Tools Built with AI Agents

Solo Founder Startup School Starting and running a company with AI agents. First lesson free. School of Open Scholarship Twelve courses on open research practice, with certificates. CCAR-F Exam Prep Preparation for an AI architect certification, with verified certificates. Data Coding for Researchers Qualitative and quantitative coding, with replication. AI Governance Crosswalk Maps requirements across AI governance frameworks. AI Regulation Decision Tool Decision support companion to the Global AI Regulatory Environment briefing. LLM Risk Replication Desk Replicating published findings on LLM risks. Slop Check Checks reports for formulaic AI-generated phrasing before publication. Scholar Self-Assessment Self-evaluation for independent researchers.

Standards

Standards & Open Source

Chair, W3C AI Knowledge Representation Community Group 2018 to present

Standards work on knowledge representation for AI on the web, including vocabulary alignment and agent interoperability.
Contributor, IEEE P7000 series

Listed in the Ethically Aligned Design First Edition committees, IEEE Global Initiative on Ethics of Autonomous and Intelligent Systems.

W3C AI-KR Community Group Group home page, reports and mailing list. GitHub: Starborn Open-source tools including COPP, MCP Model Card Generator, WebMCP tooling, Code Safety Checker and bias detection research.

Publications

Selected Publications

System Level Knowledge Representation for Metacognition in Neuroscience Book chapter Brain Informatics (BI 2021), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer
System Level Knowledge Analysis and Keyword Extraction in Neuroscience Book chapter Brain Informatics (BI 2021), Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer
Knowledge Representation for Algorithmic Auditing to Detangle Systemic Bias ISIC, 2021
System Level Knowledge Representation for Complexity IEEE SysCon, 2021
Towards a Web Standard for Neuro-Symbolic Integration and Knowledge Representation Using Model Cards Book chapter ResearchGate preprint, 2023
Knowledge Representation for Neuroscience: Neuromorphism and Neurosymbolic Integration Monograph Brain Informatics and Knowledge Representation series. System-level integration, hybrid data model.
Introduction to the Special Issue "Artificial Intelligence Knowledge Representation" Systems, 7(3), 2019, with Mari Carmen Suárez-Figueroa
Knowledge Representation for Deepfake Detection arXiv:1905.00582, 2019
Towards Universal Systems Awareness iCAST, 2018
Just Enough Ontology: Systems Engineering Approach to Ontology Development WIMS'11, ACM, 2011
Mindful Technology Column, 32 articles Buddhistdoor Global, 2016–2023. Technology ethics through a systems engineering lens.

Other peer-reviewed work appears in IEEE venues, MIT Press and Santa Fe Institute publications on sociotechnical complexity. Full list on ORCID, Scopus and Academia.edu.

Talks

Selected Talks & Keynotes

Standard Vocabularies for E-commerce: an Overview, and the Interoperability Gap for AI Agents W3C/GS1 Workshop on E-commerce for Humans and AI Agents, hosted by Google, Zurich, 2026. Compares schema.org, GoodRelations and the GS1 Web Vocabulary with agent-commerce protocol formats and proposes a vocabulary-neutral interoperability layer. Slides, recording, agenda.
Towards Web Standards for Configurable Naturally Responsive Voice Interaction for AI Agents W3C Workshop on Smart Voice Agents, online, 2026. Empirical findings from documented real-time voice sessions with current conversational AI, and a case for a usability standard for voice agents. Video, minutes.
Towards Open Standards for Systemic Complexity in Digital Forensics Recorded talk for the W3C Web Forensics Community Group, 2025. Narrates the paper of the same name and introduces digital forensics model cards. Video, paper.
Introduction to Non Invasive Neuromodulation The Neuromodulation Podcast, 2024. Asks how to define non-invasive neuromodulation now that EU medical device rules place non-invasive devices in category III, and surveys natural and non-invasive techniques. Slides (Zenodo).
Against Method Ronin Institute Seminar, 2021. Part 1, Part 2.
Neurocorrelates of Free Will Revisited Short talk, Bioneuromodulation Lab, 2020. Video.
Open and Shared Representations for Neuroscience Keynote OHBM Open Science Room 2020. Open data integration and a knowledge representation roadmap for neuroscience.
Open Workflows: GUIs and Cloud-Based Docker for Neuroscience OHBM Open Science Room 2020, emergent session on containerisation
Knowledge Engineering for Library and Information Systems Keynote IFLA Satellite Workshop, Singapore, 2014. Associated book chapter published by De Gruyter.
Socio-Technical Approaches and Ontology EUON Workshop at EUDAT, Amsterdam, 2014
Toward a Shared Vocabulary for Systems Engineering WIMS'11, Sogndal, Norway, 2011. Tutorial and paper presentation.

Also presented at Brain Informatics (2019, 2021), Academia Sinica with the Neuroscience Society (2021), Brain Initiative (2024), IEEE SysCon, ISIC, iCAST, W3C workshops and Ontolog Forum. Full list on the Google Sites portfolio.

Teaching

Academic Appointments

Postdoctoral Researcher 2018 to 2019
National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan
Guest Lecturer 2014 to 2018
College of Pharmacy, Mandi, India
Visiting Faculty 2012 to 2014
Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, India
Senior Lecturer, College of IT 2004 to 2009
Mae Fah Luang University and Prince of Songkla University, Thailand
Lecturer 1995 to 2004
South Bank University and South Thames College, London

Additional faculty and guest lecturing appointments at multiple institutions, 2009 to 2019, including a course at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. Examiner and thesis advisor.

Course materials

Foundations of Science: Curriculum Demo 12-week introductory science curriculum for international undergraduates covering systems thinking, neuroscience, AI literacy and ethics. MOGx Interactive Tutorial Platform Tutorials on emerging web technologies and AI research, with Vinext and Python fundamentals modules for undergraduates. WebMCP Complete Guide Technical teaching document on the W3C WebMCP browser-side specification. WebMCP Self-Assessment Quiz Interactive quiz on the WebMCP specification. Just Enough Ontology Engineering: Lecture Notes Introductory lecture notes used at WIMS'11, Norway, and cited in peer-reviewed ontology research. Knowledge Representation for Machine Learning Teaching paper bridging classical KR with contemporary machine learning.

Available for contract teaching, curriculum design and workshop facilitation, with multilingual delivery.

Qualifications

Qualifications & Languages

PhD, Systems Engineering 2009 to 2012
University of Strathclyde, UK
MSc, Information Systems 1999 to 2001
University of Kent at Canterbury, UK
Knowledge-based and expert systems engineering.
BA, International Business and Modern Languages
South Bank University, London

LanguagesEnglish and Italian (bilingual); German and Spanish (fluent); Mandarin (beginner).

InitiativesRan the Sustainable Entrepreneurship initiative, Edinburgh and San Francisco; participant in the Stanford Asia Forum, Mumbai, with Larry Diamond and Vivek Srinivasan; research on right livelihood and mindful technology; mentor with Women in Neurotech.

AlsoYoga Alliance registered teacher; Taiwan Tai Chi Union instructor, London; mixed media sculpture exhibited with Visual Arts Scotland as PVB.

Profiles

Academic Presence

ORCID Persistent researcher identifier linking all academic outputs. Google Scholar 340+ citations across knowledge representation, systems engineering and neuroscience. Scopus Author ID 8524511000. DBLP Computer science index covering AI, knowledge representation and neuroscience work. Semantic Scholar 40 research papers, 9 highly influential citations. ResearchGate Publications on sociotechnical systems, knowledge engineering and AI transparency. Academia.edu 103 papers, 4 books, 4 teaching documents. Frontiers Loop Frontiers researcher profile. Figshare Shared research outputs. Personal Research Site Extended portfolio of publications, talks and projects.