Doctoral student in Pointwise Maximal Leakage Privacy Mechanism Design - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

Project description

The overall goal of this project is to develop efficient data disclosure mechanisms with operationally meaningful and provable privacy guarantees. Privacy concerns often hinder data sharing, but having a provable privacy guarantee allows for a thorough privacy risk analysis, as required by GDPR, and thereby enables privacy-preserving data sharing. Pointwise maximal leakage (PML) is a statistical inference measure, whose foundation makes it explainable so that it can be easier incorporated in privacy risk analyses. The definition of PML is also more flexible than differential privacy to incorporate prior domain knowledge, which prevents privacy mechanisms to be overly conservative and thereby unnecessarily diminish utility. Thus, using PML for privacy-risk assessments and privacy-by-designs will simplify legal assessment due to its operational foundation and its flexibility will enhance utility by better adapted privacy mechanisms.

The Information Science and Engineering Division at KTH Electrical Engineering has 12 faculty members and presently about 35 PhD students, who contribute to a high professional standard of intensive work and quality results, as well as to a friendly and open environment. The staff has a multicultural background and the working language is English. The department is internationally well established, has multiple research collaborations with excellent partners worldwide, and is involved in several European and national projects. For more information

Third-cycle subject: Electrical Engineering

Supervision: Professor Tobias Oechtering and Professor Mikael Skoglund.

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.
• Work and study in Stockholm, close to nature and the water.
• Help to relocate and be settled in Sweden and at KTH.
• The PhD program in Electrical Engineering provides world class quality education, including a large list of graduate courses ensuring an in-depth development of relevant competences and skills. You have many opportunities to participate at conferences, projects and other relevant events which will extend your professional network and benefit your future career.

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), or
• 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

The successful applicant is expected to hold or to be about to receive an MSc degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Engineering Physics, Mathematics or similar with a strong mathematical background.  

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 successful applicant should have an outstanding academic track record. We are looking for a strongly motivated person. Good command of English orally and in writing is required to publish and present results at international conferences and in international journals.

Background in technical privacy is an asset. 

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. In the case of studies that are to be completed with a licentiate degree, the total period of employment may not be longer than what corresponds to full-time doctoral education for two years.

Union representatives

Contact information KTH's website.

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

Contact information section's website.

To apply for the position

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/Central European Summer Time).

Applications must include:

• 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.Copies of originals must be certified.
• Representative publications or technical reports. For longer documents, please provide a summary (abstract) and a web link to the full text.

• A brief essay discussing the key aspects of pointwise maximal leakage, see https://arxiv.org/abs/2205.04935 (Maximum 2 pages long)

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.