[agents] PhD Studentship in reasoning about trust and obfuscation

[Oren, N.]

(Apologies for cross postings)

The Department of Computing Science at the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, is looking for an ambitious and highly motivated PhD candidate with an interest in research on trust and obfuscation of information.

* Details *

A PhD studentship is available to develop novel methods for reasoning about the trustworthiness and information content of obfuscated data. Entities operating within a coalition may be wary of providing other coalition members with high fidelity data at all times for various possible reasons. Therefore, before providing others with this data, they may obfuscate it in order to reduce its accuracy. In such a situation, two questions need to be answered: (i) as an information provider, what type of obfuscation is required in order to ensure that an information consumer (gathering data from multiple sources) cannot discover information that you are trying to prevent them from discovering? and (ii) as an information consumer, how can you work out the quality of an information provider given that you are receiving obfuscated data? As a PhD student working at the University of Aberdeen as part of the International Technology Alliance (ITA), you will be investigating these questions.

The project partners include UCLA and IBM in both the US (T J Watson Research Center) and UK (Hursley).

* Requirements *

You should have at least an upper second-class honours degree (ideally a first class degree), or a combination of qualifications and/or experience equivalent to that level, with a strong mathematical background. Additionally, the successful candidate should have: (i) excellent programming skills; (ii) excellent communication and technical writing skills because you will be expected to work with other technologists and collaborate with external partners on a regular basis, as well as present your work in scientific conferences; and (iii) a willingness to travel.

* Funding Notes *

Tuition fees will be paid at UK/EU rate which is currently £3,400. A standard EPSRC maintenance award will also be paid, this is currently £13,590 per annum, paid monthly in arrears. The studentship is funded by the International Technology Alliance project (www.usukita.org). The studentship is funded at this level for 3yrs.

Applications from international applicants can be accepted provided they can confirm that they can meet the difference between UK/EU and overseas tuition fees from their own resources. For academic year 2011/2012 this will be approximately £9,800.

* Application Procedure *

Formal applications can be completed online: www.abdn.ac.uk/postgraduate/apply/. You should apply for MSc with a view to transfer to PhD in Computing Science, to ensure that your application is passed to the correct College for processing. Please  note, you should apply at least 4 days before the deadline to allow us to contact you for further information, if required. All applications received up to, and including the closing date, will be processed.

Please include a covering letter and an up-to-date C.V. (no longer than 2 sides of A4) and a Detailed Research Proposal.

* Contact *

Informal academic enquiries should be directed to Dr Nir Oren (n.oren at abdn.ac.uk). All general enquiries should be directed to the Graduate School Admissions Unit (cpsgrad at abdn.ac.uk).

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Dr. Nir Oren                                                     n.oren at abdn.ac.uk
Department of Computing Science            Tel: +44 (0) 1224 274162
University of Aberdeen                                 Fax: +44 (0) 1224 273422
AB24 3UE                                                       http://www.csd.abdn.ac.uk/~niroren/







The University of Aberdeen is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013683.