PhD position at Chalmers on Smart Grid Security

05 December 2011

About the position

Chalmers offers a PhD student position for collaborative methods for information security in the smart grid. The work will focus on investigating security issues in the smartgrid, from the hardening of smart meters to using distributed algorithms to detect and mitigate system-wide attacks. This position is financed within the Crisalis EU project, an upcoming EU collaborative project on security for the smart grid.

In the course of the project, techniques for system and vulnerability discovery and distributed detection and mitigation of undesired behavior will be investigated, balancing the effectiveness of the algorithm with the constraints from running it within a critical infrastructure. Algorithms that can be deployed in a test bed need to be developed.

The employment is expected to start early winter 2012. The majority of the working time is devoted to the student's research studies. A PhD student is also expected to develop own ideas and communicate scientific results orally as well as in written form. In addition, the position will normally include 20% departmental work, mostly teaching duties. The employment is limited to a maximum of five years.

About Chalmers

The department of Computer Science and Engineering provides a strong, international, and dynamic research environment with about 70 faculty and 70 PhD students from about 30 countries. The Computer Security and Distributed Computing and Systems research groups within the Networks and Systems division conduct research in the fields of information security, distributed and parallel computing, programming and cooperative systems, with applications in the ICT, Transportation and the Energy areas. The groups are running a set of national and international projects in the areas and among other related activities, participate in an SysSec (an EU Network of Excellence on systems security) and Crisalis (an upcoming EU collaborative project on security for the smart grid). Other partners in the latter project include Symantec, Siemens, Alliander, University of Twente, and Eurecom.

Chalmers University of Technology conducts research and education in engineering sciences, architecture, technology-related mathematical sciences, natural and nautical sciences, working in close collaboration with industry and society.The strategy for scientific excellence focuses on our eight Areas ofAdvance; Built Environment, Energy, Information & Communication Technology, Life Science, Materials Science, Nanoscience & Nanotechnology, Production and Transport. The aim is to make an active contribution to a sustainable future using the basic sciences as a foundation and innovation and entrepreneurship as the central driving forces. Chalmers has around 11,000 students and 2,500 employees. New knowledge and improved technology have characterised Chalmers sinceits foundation in 1829, completely in accordance with the will of William Chalmers and his motto: Avancez!

Qualifications

Applicants shall have (or expect soon) a Master's Degree in Computer Science and Engineering, or related discipline. A successful candidate should have a profound interest in security and distributed computing, excellent analytical and communication skills in oral and written form, good programming skills, willingness to work with object code as well as to develop and study related algorithms. Knowledge of electrical engineering is an advantage, given the interdisciplinary nature of the project. Relevant work, such theses and articles that you have written, should be included.

Knowledge of Swedish is not a prerequisite - English is our working language for research, and we publish internationally. The undergraduates are normally taught in Swedish, although the graduate level teaching is in English. Thus good language skills are required. Applicants who do not have Swedish as native language should be able to teach in Swedish after two years of employment.

Further information

The deadline for applications is January 2, 2012. For questions, please contact:

• Research level:
  • Magnus Almgren (magnus.almgren _at_ chalmers.se)
  • Marina Papatriantafilou (ptrianta _at_ chalmers.se)
• Doctoral education level:
  • Jan Jonsson (janjo _at_ chalmers.se)
• Division level:
  • Peter Lundin (peter.lundin _at_ @chalmers.se)

Applications should be sent via this link:
https://site1.reachmee.com/I003/chalmers/se/vacdetail.aspx?commadseqno=237&postback=vacancies.aspx

Post tagged as: chalmers, phd, sweden.