Job Description

Project description

The recent progress in Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL), has made it possible to develop autonomous agents that can perform a variety of tasks that were not possible to achieve in the past. In this project, you will develop AI algorithms to automate the penetration testing process for mission-critical Cyber Physical Systems. These systems include, but are not limited to, railway systems, aircrafts, autonomous vehicles, power systems, and process control systems. Such systems are characterised by the fact that their failure may result in human, environmental, as well as financial losses. Research activities will include building models to represent partial attacker knowledge about the system, developing AI planning and decision-making algorithms to achieve given attack goals, and analytical as well as experimental validation of the developed algorithms. Experimental validation will be performed in collaboration with Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), USA. This is cross-disciplinary research, spanning the domains of Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Physical Systems, and Cyber Security. The candidate is required to have a strong background in AI, particularly Reinforcement Learning. In addition, the candidate is required to possess skills in at least one of the following domains:

• Cyber physical systems: design, modelling, and simulation.
• Cyber security: vulnerabilities, attack modelling, and penetration testing.

Funding

DMU is offering a fully-funded 3-year PhD scholarship for this work, commencing on 1st January 2024. Tuition fees at Home level will be waived (international students will need to pay the difference between Home and International fees which is around \xc2\xa310k per year). The studentship comes with a stipend pegged at the UKRI rate, currently at \xc2\xa318,622 per annum. The supervisory team consists of Dr Ashraf Tantavy ( ) and Dr Richard Smith ( ).

Applicants must:

• Possess a UK Honours degree with at least an upper second class (or overseas equivalent), a Masters Degree or an academic or professional qualification plus experience in their sector or industry.
• Demonstrate competence in the use of the English language. Please see section 5b

for further details on meeting our English language entry criteria.

How to apply

This is a two-stage application process.

STAGE 1: Please send the following documents to :

• A completed DMU Scholarship
• A 2 page CV
• 2

Deadline: Thursday, 5 October 2023

STAGE 2: Shortlisted candidates will be contacted to undergo an interview, and successful candidates will be contacted by Thursday, 19 October 2023 with a request to submit a full application through the DMU PGR Application Portal.

Deadline for full application: Thursday, 26 October 2023

Scholarship letters will be issued by Wednesday, 1 November 2023.

The studentship comes with a stipend pegged at the UKRI rate, currently at \xc2\xa318,622 per annum.

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