News
Position Filled - PhD Studentship Position (SFI CONNECT P2 – Adaptive Privacy-preservation in IoT)
This position has been filled.
We are currently seeking to recruit 1 PhD student to work on the project “Adaptive Privacy-preservation in the Internet of Things”.
By interconnecting everyday devices and objects that were previously offline, the Internet of Things (IoT) enables data to flow from and to them, making them “smart”. However, remote connectivity also introduces significant risks for the security of the devices, and the privacy of the data being exchanged. As devices collect and share increasing amounts of personal information, consumers are losing the ability to monitor and control what is collected about them, and they often have little awareness of what is done with their data downstream. The protection of this sensitive information requires the adoption of complex security and privacy mechanisms, including advanced encryption and anonymisation techniques, such as homomorphic encryption and differential privacy. These mechanisms, however, often impose a significant overhead in terms of computational costs on constrained IoT devices. The goal of the project is to develop a framework for adaptive privacy preservation in IoT devices, providing the tools to select and calibrate privacy-enhancing technologies to suit the constraints of IoT platforms and devices, while maximising privacy protection. The research work will focus on two existing techniques: local differential privacy (LDP), which is more suitable for highly constrained devices; and homomorphic encryption-based secure multi-party computation (HESMC), which enables private computation in more capable IoT platforms.
The PhD student will work under the supervision of the Principal Investigator, Dr. Paolo Palmieri, University College Cork (UCC), and co-Investigator Dr. Hazel Murray, Munster Technological University (MTU). The student will join the thriving Security Group at UCC, where several other PhD students and Post-Doctoral researchers are carrying out related research. The project is a collaboration between UCC (host organization) and MTU, and part of CONNECT - Centre for Future Networks & Communications, a major Science Foundation Ireland research initiative.
Candidates should have a background/strong interest in security and privacy, as well as a good grasp of mathematics. Previous experience in cryptography is an asset, but is not required. Applicants should hold a good honours undergraduate or Masters degree in computer science, computer engineering, mathematics, or other relevant subject.
The successful applicant will receive a stipend of €19,000 per annum for up to four years (subject to successful annual progress reviews) and an annual contribution towards tuition fees. As part of the project, a travel budget is available to present at international conferences. The successful candidate will also have the opportunity to work with the Principal Investigator and co-Investigator extensive network of international research collaborations.
If the successful applicant’s first language is not English, they will have to provide evidence of English language proficiency: https://www.ucc.ie/en/study/comparison/english/postgraduate/
General informal enquires about the PhD positions can be made to Dr. Paolo Palmieri.
Email: p.palmieri@cs.ucc.ie
Start date: We anticipate a start date for PhD students to be Autumn 2023 or shortly thereafter.
To Apply:
Applications can be submitted at the following link:
https://ucc.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_brw0JC79mZz2lmu
Applications must include, in PDF format only:
- Cover Letter (1 page) explaining their interest in the project topic, and mentioning any previous experience in security/privacy/cryptography;
- Full CV;
- Transcript of results for all university level modules and courses.
Closing Date for Applications: September 4, 2023