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The School of Science & Technology at City, University of London is offering a sponsored PhD opportunity co-supervised by BT plc.

Closing date: 15th April March 2022.

Applications are invited from exceptional candidates wishing to pursue cutting-edge research in the field of biometrics, authentication, and IoT.

What is offered

A doctoral studentship will provide:

  • An annual bursary (i.e. tax free) of £1750 / month for 4 years.
  • Full tuition fee for home students. Applications from international applicants are welcome but the annual bursary will be reduced to £1,000 / month to cover the fee overseas student difference.

Project

Continuous authentication (CA) utilises frequently collected biometrics from device sensors to verify users in real-time. Behavioural biometrics, commonly used in CA, are set to see a yearly market increase of ~25% until 2027 (Grand View Research, 2020).

However, CA has largely focused on user devices such as smartphones and PCs. Devices within the Internet of Things (IoT) have only recently become a focus for CA research. IoT is an area that is experiencing immense growth with the existing 10 billion devices predicted to triple by 2025 (Statista, 2021). Little CA research has been carried out within this field and significant research challenges remain.

This project aims to build a continuous authentication architecture to address the nuances of IoT devices such as their low power and limited sensing capabilities. The findings would identify how users of different IoT devices could be authenticated to enhance IoT security, privacy and usability.

The candidate will explore CA techniques for the IoT. Throughout the project the candidate will work with their industrial partner to produce academic publications with their academic and industrial supervisors (possibly also contributing to intellectual property). The candidate will be supported by both the academic and industrial supervisor to direct the research.

The successful candidate will be required to carry out an amount of their studentship with the industrial partner, BT plc, at their Adastral Park campus in Martlesham. This allows for close collaboration with their industrial partners. The project should ideally start by October 2022.

Desirable Traits

The candidate should have a good knowledge of the Internet of Things (IoT), biometrics, and machine learning. Evidence of capabilities in these areas will be looked on favorably. Strong programming skills are desirable, preferably with experience in Python and Java. Candidate should also ideally have experience in research and formulating research questions.

Eligibility

The studentships will be awarded on the basis of outstanding academic achievement and the potential to produce cutting edge-research. Prospective applicants must:

  • Hold a good honours degree (normally no less than a upper second-class honours degree or an equivalent qualification) in an appropriate subject. Exceptionally, if the first degree is in a different subject area, we can consider applications from those with a good Master’s Degree in a relevant subject or extensive professional experience in the area of their proposed research;
  • Be able to demonstrate proficiency in the use of oral and written English;
  • Applicants whose mother tongue is not English must meet any one or a combination of the following:
    • A minimum IELTS average score of 6.5; with a minimum of 6.0 in each of the four components
    • The award of a Masters’ degree, the teaching of which was in English from an English Speaking country.

How to Apply

Please contact R.Muttukrishnan@city.ac.uk and max.smith-creasey@bt.com to express your interest with a recent CV and a research proposal describing some areas of investigation you are interested in within the field of continuous biometric authentication for IoT.

Contacts

For any queries regarding the project please contact:

For general enquiries email pgr.sst.enquire@city.ac.uk.

Research Centre