Research Fellow - BLOCK-IT (1047018FP)

The School of Electronics and Computer Science (http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/) and the Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (http://www.soton.ac.uk/csa) at the University of Southampton seeks a Research Fellow to join the BLOCK-IT team led by Professor Vladimiro Sassone and Professor Dame Wendy Hall.

BLOCK-IT –part of PETRAS, the UK National Internet-of-Things Research Hub– is a project to investigate how blockchain technology can be exploited to provide a resilient infrastructure for IoT, such to address a variety of security and privacy threats, and create economic values. Blockchain technology has an immense potential to transform the IoT landscape. The project will advance the IoT infrastructure state-of-the-art by proposing a stakeholder-driven blockchain prototype to connect and coordinate IoT devices, and to share their data with privacy preserving guarantees. Touching upon the PETRAS themes of resilience and economies of IoT systems, the project will have the focal point on user partners and their market needs in the smart-energy sector. On the basis of security and risks analysis, this research will pick on existing smart-contract blockchain systems to devise an interoperable, scalable infrastructure for IoT. This will be prototyped for smart-energy, thus to support autonomous and resilient energy controllers and privacy-preserving energy bidding and reporting.

The post is full time fixed-term until 28/02/2019. 

Applicants should have a Ph.D.* in computer science in a relevant field with preference for internet-of-things related areas or cloud computing. Previous experience in one or more of these areas is considered essential: distributed ledger (blockchain) technologies, internet-of-things, smart-energy, cyber security. Previous experience in the area software engineering and development, or system security and its analysis with emphasis on privacy/confidentiality would be advantageous.

Host Institution: The University of Southampton (UoS) is one of the leading universities in the United Kingdom, was founded in 1952 and is a member of prestigious Russell Group of UK Universities. UoS has more than 19,000 undergraduate students and 4,000 postgraduates and is an excellent venue for conducting cutting-edge research and for providing high quality education. The university is truly international, drawing students from over 130 different countries and benefiting from a wide and varied culture. It is ranked in the top 1% of universities worldwide (QS world university rankings 2014-15) and in the top 15 research led universities in the UK (REF 2014), and is participating in a high number of collaborative research projects and related initiatives.

Further enquiries about the position should be directed to Professor Vladimiro Sassone at vsassone@soton.ac.uk or Dr Andrea Margheri at A.Margheri@soton.ac.uk.

*Applications for Research Fellow positions will be considered from candidates who are working towards or nearing completion of a relevant PhD qualification. The title of Research Fellow will be applied upon successful completion of the PhD. Prior to the qualification being awarded the title of Senior Research Assistant will be given.

Application procedure:

You should submit your completed online application form at www.jobs.soton.ac.uk. The application deadline will be midnight on the closing date stated above. If you need any assistance, please call Rosie McPhail (Recruitment Team) on +44 (0) 23 8059 4043. Please quote reference 1047018FP on all correspondence. 

Closing Date: 11 Sep 2018
Post Type: Education, Research & Enterprise