Member
Miriam Fernandez
Professor in Responsible Artificial Intelligence
+44 (0)1908 659400
Miriam Fernandez is a Professor of Responsible Artificial Intelligence at the Knowledge Media Institute (KMi), Open University (OU), UK. Her research agenda revolves around advancing Responsible AI, ensuring that technological innovation aligns with ethical principles and societal values. Her pioneering work spans diverse domains, from algorithmic transparency and fairness to the societal implications of AI deployment. By integrating cutting-edge AI techniques with a human-centred approach, she fosters solutions that prioritise social responsibility, transparency, and inclusivity. With a portfolio of more than 100 scientific articles in some of the best conferences and journals in her field, and having won numerous external grants supporting her research with over £2.5M, Professor Fernandez has significantly influenced the discourse in the field of technology development and its impact on society. Her commitment to education is demonstrated through her leadership of OUAnalyse (https://analyse.kmi.open.ac.uk/), a strategic initiative leveraging machine-learning methods for the early identification of students at risk. This technology, currently supporting the Open University's 200K student body, has been highly awarded for its transformative impact on student outcomes. Additionally, she serves on the organising committee behind HESPA's (The Higher Education Strategic Planners Association) Learning Analytics Interest group, facilitating knowledge sharing and best practices among organisations across the UK. Professor Fernandez is also Equality and Diversity Champion for both KMi and the OU.
Keys: Semantic Web, Information Retrieval, Web Science, Data Analytics
Team: Harith Alani, Vaclav Bayer, Gregoire Burel, Jason Carvalho, Tracie Farrell, Olivia Hagen, John Lee, Alba Morales Tirado, Paul Mulholland, Zdenek Zdrahal
News
29 Jan 2026
09 Dec 2025
08 Dec 2025
04 Dec 2025
12 Nov 2025
Publications
Fernandez, M., Jurasz, O. and Pavón Pérez, Á. (2025). Submission to the Call for inputs by UN Working Group on discrimination against women and girls to the 2026 Thematic Report on Gender Equality, the Digital Space and the Age of Artificial Intelligence. United Nations Working Group on discrimination against women and girls. https://oro.open.ac.uk/107480/.
Herodotou, C., Gaved, M., Shrestha, S., Comfort, C., Maguire, C., Sides, T., Kwarteng, J., Bayer, V., Lee, J., Mulholland, P. and Fernandez, M. (2025). Student-Facing Dashboard - Scale up. Insights from the second year of implementation. The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK. https://oro.open.ac.uk/106146/.
Fernandez, M., Morales Tirado, A.C., Pavon-Perez, A., Duddin, K., Zhang, M., Bakina, K., Bandara, A., Capdevila, R., Lazard, L. and Jurasz, O. (2025). Co-creating an Ontology of Online Gender-Based Harms: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. In: ISWC 2025 - The 24th International Semantic Web Conference, 02-06 Nov 2025, Nara, Japan. https://oro.open.ac.uk/105569/.
Bandara, A.K. and Fernandez, M. (2025). Towards 'Safe by Design' Technologies for Protecting Women Online. In: Centre for Protecting Women Online STEMinar, 6 Mar 2025, The Open University, UK. https://oro.open.ac.uk/105082/.
Pavón Pérez, Á., Fernandez, M., Farrell, T., Nozza, D. and de Kock, C. (2025). Foreword: Towards a Safer Web for Women - First International Workshop on Protecting Women Online. In: WWW '25: The ACM Web Conference 2025, 28 Apr - 02 May 2025, Sydney, Australia. https://oro.open.ac.uk/105018/.
Herodotou, C., Shrestha, S., Comfort, C., Fernandez, M., Andrews, H., Mulholland, P., Bayer, V., Maguire, C. and Lee, J. (2025). A participatory approach to designing a student-facing dashboard for online and distance education. Journal of Learning Analytics, 12(2), pp. 158–174. https://oro.open.ac.uk/104055/.
Pavon Perez, A., Fernandez, M. and Jurasz, O. (2025). Response to the AI in financial services inquiry. Centre for Protecting Women Online. https://oro.open.ac.uk/103768/.
Herodotou, C., Carr, J., Shrestha, S., Comfort, C., Bayer, V., Maguire, C., Lee, J., Mulholland, P. and Fernandez, M. (2025). Prescriptive analytics motivating distance learning student action: A case study of a student-facing dashboard. In: LAK25: The 15th International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference (LAK 2025), 03-07 Mar 2025, Dublin, Ireland. https://oro.open.ac.uk/102277/.
Bayer, V., Mulholland, P., Hlosta, M., Farrell, T., Herodotou, C. and Fernandez, M. (2024). Co‐creating an equality diversity and inclusion learning analytics dashboard for addressing awarding gaps in higher education. British Journal of Educational Technology, 55(5), pp. 2058–2074. https://oro.open.ac.uk/98718/.
Reyero Lobo, P., Daga, E., Alani, H. and Fernandez, M. (2024). Enhancing Hate Speech Annotations with Background Semantics. In: 27th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI 2024) – Including 13th Conference on Prestigious Applications of Intelligent Systems (PAIS 2024), 19-24 Oct 2024, Santiago de Compostela, Spain. https://oro.open.ac.uk/98676/.
Herodotou, C., Shrestha, S., Comfort, C., Fernandez, M., Andrews, H., Mulholland, P., Bayer, V., Maguire, C. and Lee, J. (2023). PVC-Challenges Response: A student facing dashboard for online undergraduate students. Quality Enhancement and Innovation, The Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.. https://oro.open.ac.uk/97188/.
Fernandez, M., Bellogín, A. and Cantador, I. (2024). Analysing the Effect of Recommendation Algorithms on the Spread of Misinformation. In: Websci '24: 16th ACM Web Science Conference, 21-24 May 2024, Stuttgart, Germany. https://oro.open.ac.uk/96966/.
Reyero Lobo, P., Kwarteng, J., Russo, M., Fahimi, M., Scott, K., Ferrara, A., Sen, I. and Fernandez, M. (2023). A Multidisciplinary Lens of Bias in Hate Speech. In: The 2023 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining (ASONAM), 6-9 Nov 2023, Kusadasi, Turkey. https://oro.open.ac.uk/94708/.
Kwarteng, J., Farrell, T., Third, A. and Fernandez, M. (2023). Annotators’ Perspectives: Exploring the Influence of Identity on Interpreting Misogynoir. In: ASONAM 2023: The 2023 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, 6-9 Nov 2023, Kusadasi, Turkey. https://oro.open.ac.uk/93975/.
Reyero Lobo, P., Daga, E., Alani, H. and Fernandez, M. (2023). Knowledge-Grounded Target Group Language Recognition in Hate Speech. In: 19th International Conference on Semantic Systems, 20-22 Sep 2023, Leipzig, Germany. https://oro.open.ac.uk/92895/.
Bonnin, G., Bayer, V., Fernandez, M., Herodotou, C., Hlosta, M. and Mulholland, P. (2023). CERSEI: Cognitive Effort Based Recommender System for Enhancing Inclusiveness. In: 18th European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning, EC-TEL 2023, 4-8 Sep 2023, Aveiro, Portugal. https://oro.open.ac.uk/92414/.
Pavón Pérez, Á., Fernandez, M., Al-Madfai, H., Burel, G. and Alani, H. (2023). Tracking Machine Learning Bias Creep in Traditional and Online Lending Systems with Covariance Analysis. In: WebSci '23: 15th ACM Web Science Conference 2023, 30 Apr - 1 May 2023, Austin, TX, USA. https://oro.open.ac.uk/88769/.
Kwarteng, J., Farrell, T., Third, A., Burel, G. and Fernandez, M. (2023). Understanding Misogynoir: A Study of Annotators’ Perspectives. In: 15th ACM Web Science Conference 2023 (WebSci ’23), 30 Apr - 01 May 2023, Evanston, TX, USA. https://oro.open.ac.uk/88020/.
Kwarteng, J., Coppolino Perfumi, S., Farrell, T., Third, A. and Fernandez, M. (2022). Misogynoir: Challenges in Detecting Intersectional Hate. Social Network Analysis and Mining (SNAM), 12(1), https://oro.open.ac.uk/85874/.
Reyero Lobo, P., Daga, E., Alani, H. and Fernandez, M. (2023). Semantic Web technologies and bias in artificial intelligence: A systematic literature review. Semantic Web, 14(4), pp. 745–770. https://oro.open.ac.uk/85070/.
