KTH , School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Project description

Third-cycle subject:Computer science

Supervision: The doctoral student will be supervised by Pontus Johnson, KTH, Rolf Stadler, KTH, and Teodor Sommestad, FOI.

Society's critical infrastructure – the electric power system, telecommunications, water distribution, etc. – are to a large extent controlled by industrial IT systems. It is important to protect these systems from attacks from malicious actors. A Security Operations Centers (SOC), which collects large amounts of data generated by the industrial IT systems in order to detect, respond to, or to alert human operators of the presence of cyber attacks, may act as an important defense.

In order to achieve this, it is necessary to in real-time detect cyber intrusions, to respond to security incidents, to hunt for threats in the environment and to gather threat intelligence. This presents a number of exciting research challenges for machine learning and more in general for artificial intelligence. The present doctoral project is part of a new research project between KTH and the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) aiming to develop a semi-autonomous SOC with the capability to plan for and respond to cyber attacks against industrial IT systems.

We are looking for motivated students who are eager to push the frontiers of machine learning and artificial intelligence for their application to SOC.

What we offer

Eligibility

To be admitted to postgraduate education (Chapter 7, 39 § Swedish Higher Education Ordinance), the applicant must have basic eligibility in accordance with either of the following:

  • passed a degree at advanced level,
  • completed course requirements of at least 240 higher education credits, of which at least 60 higher education credits at advanced level, or
  • in any other way acquired within or outside the country acquired essentially equivalent knowledge.
  • Requirements for English equivalent to English B/6, read more here.

Selection

In order to succeed as a doctoral student at KTH you need to be goal oriented and persevering in your work. During the selection process, candidates will be assessed upon their ability to:

  • communicate verbally and orally,
  • develop and manage software,
  • develop machine learning/AI solutions,
  • understand cyber security,
  • ability to work independently,
  • collaborate with others,
  • have a professional approach and
  • analyse and work with complex issues.

As the position may include security-sensitive tasks, the results of a protective security analysis of the applicant may constitute a selection criteria. A check of criminal records may be performed during the recruitment process.

After the qualification requirements, great emphasis will be placed on personal qualities and personal suitability.

After the qualification requirements, great emphasis will be placed on personal qualities and personal suitability.

Target degree: PhD degree

Information regarding admission and employment

Only those admitted to postgraduate education may be employed as a doctoral student. The total length of employment may not be longer than what corresponds to full-time doctoral education in four years ' time. An employed doctoral student can, to a limited extent (maximum 20%), perform certain tasks within their role, e.g. training and administration. A new position as a doctoral student is for a maximum of one year, and then the employment may be renewed for a maximum of two years at a time.

Union representatives

You will find contact information for union representatives on KTH's website.

Doctoral section (Students’ union on KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

You will find contact information for doctoral section on the section's website.

Application

Apply for the position and admission through KTH's recruitment system. It is the applicant’s responsibility to ensure that the application is complete in accordance with the instructions in the advertisement.

Applications must be received at the last closing date at midnight, CET/CEST (Central European Time/entral European Summer Time).

Applications must include the following elements:

  • CV including your relevant professional experience and knowledge.
  • Application letter with a brief description of why you want to pursue research studies, about what your academic interests are and how they relate to your previous studies and future goals. (Maximum 2 pages long)
  • Copies of diplomas and grades from previous university studies and certificates of fulfilled language requirements (see above). Translations into English or Swedish if the original document is not issued in one of these languages.
  • Representative publications or technical reports. For longer documents, please provide a summary (abstract) and a web link to the full text.

Other information

Striving towards gender equality, diversity and equal conditions is both a question of quality for KTH and a given part of our values.

For information about processing of personal data in the recruitment process please read here.

We firmly decline all contact with staffing and recruitment agencies and job ad salespersons.

Disclaimer: In case of discrepancy between the Swedish original and the English translation of the job announcement, the Swedish version takes precedence.

 

 

Type of employment Temporary position
Contract type Full time
First day of employment According agreement
Salary Monthly salary according to KTH's doctoral student salary agreement
Number of positions 1
Full-time equivalent 100%
City Stockholm
County Stockholms län
Country Sweden
Reference number J-2021-0313
Contact
  • Pontus Johnson, pontusj@kth.se
  • Natasha Kapama, kapama@gmail.com
Published 11.Feb.2021
Last application date 03.Mar.2021 11:59 PM CET

Return to job vacancies