Doctoral students in Secure Reconfigurable Hardware - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

Project description

Third-cycle subject: Information and Communication Technology 

With the growth of popularity of FPGAs for implementing cryptographic algorithms and accelerating AI-related workloads it becomes necessary to protect FPGA implementations from secret key compromise and IP theft. However currently available countermeasures don't provide adequate protection against the recently emerged class of physical attacks based on advanced AI techniques.

This project aims to develop new hardware security assessment methods that use machine learning to analyze information leakage from FPGA implementations and design countermeasures against secret key recovery and neural network model extraction. The overreaching challenge is to create defense mechanisms which resist attacks even as the attackers’ capabilities grow. This is only possible if the security is incorporated into a product at the design stage rather than patched into its implementation later, when a vulnerability is discovered.   

Supervision: Prof. Elena Dubrova

What we offer

• The possibility to study in a dynamic and international research environment in collaboration with industries and prominent universities from all over the world.Read more
• A workplace with many employee benefits and monthly salary according to KTH’s Doctoral student salary agreement.
• A postgraduate education at an institution that is active and supportive in matters pertaining to working conditions, gender equality and diversity as well as study environment.
• Help to relocate and be settled in Sweden and at KTH.
• The possibility to carry out research in a world-leading group in hardware security.

Admission requirements

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 second cycle degree (for example a master's degree),
• completed course requirements of at least 240 higher education credits, of which at least 60 second-cycle higher education credits, or
• acquired, in some other way within or outside the country, substantially equivalent knowledge

In addition to the above, there is also a mandatory requirement 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:

• independently pursue his or her work
• collaborate with others,
• have a professional approach and
• analyse and work with complex issues.

The applicant should have expert skills in side-channel attacks, in particularly power and EM analysis, and practical skills in machine learning including knowledge of essentials tools and platforms such as TensorFlow, etc. Candidates with published papers in top high-ranked hardware security journals, conferences, or workshops will be given a priority.  Candidates whose master thesis work was performed in the area of hardware security will be given a priority.

After the qualification requirements, great emphasis will be placed on personal competency. 

Target degree: Doctoral 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.

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.