Apply for a funded PhD position

PhD in Computing / Communications

SCC has a limited number of PhD studentships for UK, EU, and overseas students.

We are looking for exceptional candidates for PhD scholarship who are keen on exploring research questions related to the different research groups within SCC. Applicants are expected to have a First Class or Distinction undergraduate level degree in computer science, communication science, or relevant disciplines such as mathematics. Masters degrees in relevant disciplines are recommended but not essential.

Applications for October 2020 entry is now open till the end of June. Interviews for shortlisted candidates will be scheduled during early-mid July 2020. Decisions will be made before the end of July.

Applications are only considered if they provide full paperwork, so candidates are reminded to carefully read and conform to the required application package.

More Details

• Qualification: PhD
• Hours: Full Time
• Application Deadline: 30 June 2020
• Starting date: October 2020
• Academic Requirement: First-class or 2.1 (Hons) degree, or Master degree (or equivalent) in an appropriate subject
• Studentship duration: 3.5 years
• Stipends:  Full studentships include tuition fees and stipend (15K/year circa 2020-2021) for the duration of the studentship.

Application Process

• Please follow the guidance on these pages and apply online via the Lancaster University Postgraduate Admissions Portal.

PhD Studentship – Fine Grained Security and Control of Data Objects

School of Computing and Communications

Closing Date: 31^st July 2020

Applications are invited for a fully funded PhD studentship supported by a partnership between Lancaster University and Amiosec. 

As cyber-attacks have become more sophisticated and insider threats become increasingly prevalent, there is an intensifying need to implement significantly better authenticity, integrity and confidentiality protections to the sensitive data objects (e.g. documents, emails, logs, etc.) found inside all organisational networks. An increased drive to utilise collaborative and shared working environments also contributes significantly to the need to apply these protections, alongside robust access controls to individual data objects within those systems. Preserving and understanding the provenance and integrity of individual objects is vital to supporting on-going operational and business requirements. This PhD will investigate these challenges around fine grained control, protection and access to data objects and files, and seek to develop new and novel technology solutions for the security and control of these data objects.

This research programme is shaped by both the research expertise of Lancaster University, who are a provider of world-class research relating to the security of UK society, and the commercial challenges and customer demands identified by Amiosec. Lancaster University is recognised by both NCSC and EPSRC as an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security research and is ranked as one of the top Universities in the UK. Amiosec are a rapidly growing technology partner for UK defence, government and civil organisations. The company specialises in research and development that incorporates new and emerging technologies focused on enhancing customer capability. The key areas of focus are in the fields of cyber security, secure communications and network defence.

Industrial Engagement

This PhD benefits from strong industrial engagement with Amiosec who have world-class experts in the research and development of high assurance cyber security solutions and in-depth engagements with UK defence and government customers. The partnership with Lancaster University provides the successful candidate with unique insights into the problems faced by industry, the opportunity to spend time in the Gloucestershire area, and the chance to interact and collaborate with UK defence industry partners.

Studentship and Eligibility 

We are seeking applications from UK nationals with a good degree in a relevant discipline such as Computer Science, Cyber Security or Electrical Engineering.

The studentship includes:

• Full time PhD tuition fees
• A tax free stipend of GBP £15,009 per year for 3.5 years.

Deadline for applications: 31^st July 2020

Preferred start date: 7^th September 2020 (date is flexible)

For further information or informal discussion about the opportunity, please contact Prof. Nick Race (n.race@lancaster.ac.uk).

Details

Position #1: Secure Software/Operating Systems

With software underpinning virtually all computing systems, the need is to ensure that the software is developed correctly (specification, implementation) and resilient to bugs invoked operationally (stress, overload) or deliberately (attacks). We explore the broad spectrum of design, analysis and assessment of robust & resilient software/OS. Our research encompasses the development of software testing schemes, methodologies for analytical and experimental stress injection of deployed software, approaches to detect and patch vulnerabilities along with measurement techniques to quantify the 'attackability' of software. 

Supervisors

Professors Neeraj Suri and Tracy Hall will co-supervise this research and welcome informal enquiries.

Position #2: Secure Autonomous Systems

The use of autonomous systems is encountering rapid growth as they complement and supplement human-operated systems across a variety of safety or service-critical applications covering civilian, industrial or defence needs.  Autonomous systems are dynamic, involve inter-dependent mission-data-control-networking surfaces, and entail socio-technical relationship with human end-users. These attributes also expose such autonomous systems to a variety of socio-technical attacks. Developing secure autonomous systems requires fundamentally new cross-disciplinary research (sociological, AI, distributed systems and software) in creating new mission-adaptive security frameworks, developing countermeasures across inter-dependent attack surfaces, as well as develop the social science theory for societal, legal and regulatory implications. We seek candidates with matching cross-disciplinary (Sociology, AI, DS/SW) backgrounds and interests to research secure autonomous systems.

Supervisors

Professors Neeraj Suri, Corinne May-Chahal and Plamen Angelov will co-supervise and welcome informal enquiries.

The Security Lancaster Institute

The appointed candidate will reside in the School of Computing and Communications Cyber Security Group, which forms part of the Security Lancaster Institute. The overarching aim of the institute is to derive additional capability for collaborative, multi-disciplinary research and education. The research in the Centre is driven by an ethos of undertaking theoretically rich, use-inspired research. The latter will be achieved through close collaboration between the scientists in Security Lancaster and our industry and practice partners.

Further Details & Application Process

Each PhD positions is for a three and a half years duration. Tuition fees are covered (only for EU/UK citizens) along with a tax-free stipend (~£17,000/year circa 2017-2018) for the duration of the PhD. Non-UK/EU students will need to cover their tuition. Candidates should apply using the instructions provided.

Details

• Closing Date: 30th June 2020
• Start Date: October 2020
• Interview Date: TBC
• Academic Requirements: First-class or 2.1 (Hons) degree, or Masters degree (or equivalent) in an appropriate subject.

Description

Three PhD Studentships are available to work on Next Generation Converged Digital Infrastructure (NG-CDI), an exciting, cross-disciplinary research project led by Lancaster University. NG-CDI is a five year, £5M programme of research funded by EPSRC and BT. It will forge the next generation converged digital infrastructure for the UK, delivering a radically new data-driven architecture for the autonomous operation of future telecommunications infrastructure. The consortium brings together leading research groups from the Universities of Lancaster, Cambridge, Bristol and Surrey working alongside BT, one of the world's leading communications service providers

What's in it for you?

Become part of a challenging team that’s working to revolutionise the infrastructure of the internet in the UK. Create an agile, resilient network capable of meeting the future needs of our rapidly changing society.

Develop links with external organisations

This project benefits from linkages with BT, one of the world's leading communications service providers.

Join an exciting research environment

The School of Computing and Communications offers a highly inclusive and stimulating environment for career development, and you will be exposed to a range of further opportunities throughout this post. We are committed to family-friendly and flexible working policies on an individual basis. We are committed to the Athena SWAN Charter, which recognises and celebrates suitable employment practise undertaken to address gender equality in higher education and research.

Who should apply?

We are seeking applications from graduates with a good degree in a relevant discipline such as Computer Science or Electrical Engineering. You must have the demonstrable potential for creative, high-quality PhD research.

Studentship funding

Full studentships (UK/EU tuition fees and stipend (£17,000 2017/18 [tax-free])) for UK/EU students for 3.5 years. Unfortunately, funding is not available for International (non-EU) students.

For further information

For an informal discussion about the position, please contact Professor Nick Race.

Application process

Please apply online via Lancaster University Postgraduate Admissions Portal.

As technology becomes more ubiquitous in society children, from an early age, are immersed in digital artefacts and media and are becoming part of their everyday life. Children-Computer Interaction (CCI) field fall within Human-computer Interaction (HCI) area of research with a specific focus on investigating the role of digital technology on young people lives. CCI has a multidisciplinary nature and includes, for instance, computer science, developmental psychology, learning sciences, and design.

We are looking for exceptional candidates for PhD scholarship who are keen on exploring research questions about the design, development and evaluation of interactive systems for children and, in particular but not only, on topics as:

1. Education and Robotics. 
2. AI, unconscious bias and identity, 
3. Motion-sensing technology and physiological tracking systems suitable for children.
   
   

The research will done in the context of the Pervasive System Group at Lancaster University, leader in HCI and Ubicomp research (https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/scc/research/pervasive-systems/).
 
The PhD application process at LU is quite competitive so we are looking for high motivated and capable students from the UK, the EU, and overseas. if you have any interest in applying please contact Dr Rubegni e.rubegni@lancaster.ac.uk 

More Details

• Qualification: PhD
• Hours: Full Time
• Application Deadline: ASAP
• Starting date: ASAP
• Academic Requirement: First-class or 2.1 (Hons) degree, or Master degree (or equivalent) in an appropriate subject (e.g. HCI, Cognitive science, Computer Science, Design etc.)
• Studentship duration: 3.5 years for UK/EU students or three years for overseas students
• Stipends:  Full studentships include tuition fees and stipend (15K/year circa 2020-2021) for the duration of the PhD.

Application Process

Please contact Dr Rubegni e.rubegni@lancaster.ac.uk to discuss the subject before-hand.

Please apply online via Lancaster University Postgraduate Admissions Portal.

Details

Cloud Security

The pervasiveness of Cloud computing [1] also implies our increasing dependence on it to provide for the reliable and trustworthy delivery of services. As the Cloud infrastructure and its services are exposed to attacks, the need is to (a) analyse the Cloud’s vulnerability to varied classes of attacks, (b) to develop mechanisms (access control, authorization, attestation…) to provide for resilience to attacks, (c) to develop techniques to assess and measure the degree of potential disruptions, and (d) conduct testing and validation across the entire technology stack of architectures, middleware and services.

We seek candidates for exploratory research in all areas of design, analysis and assessment of Cloud security.

Reference

1. Distributed Systems Security, CyBOK

Supervisors

Professor Neeraj Suri and Dr Antonios Gouglidis will co-supervise and welcome informal enquiries.

Security Lancaster

The appointed candidate will reside in the School of Computing and Communications Cyber Security Group, which forms part of the Security Lancaster Institute. The overarching aim of the institute is to derive additional capability for collaborative, multi-disciplinary research and education. The research in the Centre will be driven by an ethos of undertaking theoretically rich, use-inspired research. The latter will be achieved through close collaboration between the scientists in Security Lancaster and our industry and practice partners.

Further Details & Application Process

• Each PhD positions is for a three and a half years duration. Tuition fees are covered (for EU/UK citizens) along with a tax-free stipend (15K/year circa 2020-2021) for the duration of the PhD.
• Candidates should submit an application following the application instructions.