Stilling:

PhD Research Fellow in Computer Science: Secure Data-Driven Architecture for Smart Systems of Systems

Deadline: March 25, 2019

Western Norway University of Applied Sciences

On January 1st, 2017, Bergen University College, Sogn og Fjordane University College and Stord/Haugesund University College merged to form Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.


With about 16,000 students, is one of the largest higher education institutions in Norway. A broad range of academic programmes are offered at Bachelor, Master and PhD levels.


Our ambition is to build stronger and more solid academic and research environments that will interact nationally and internationally. The aim is to become a recognized actor on the international higher education arena. Increased international cooperation and engagement in externally funded projects will work towards this goal.

The Department of Computing, Mathematics and Physics at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, has a vacancy for a research fellow (PhD position) in Secure Data-Driven Architecture for Smart Systems of Systems for a period of 4 years.

The PhD research fellow will be part of the PhD programme in Computer Science: Software Engineering, Sensor Networks and Engineering Computing (http://ict.hvl.no). The research programme in Computer Science currently includes 20 professors and associate professors, 25 PhD and post-doctoral research fellows, and a large number of master’s students.

About the PhD project

Smart devices have become widespread and used in critical situations. It is predicted that 20 billion smart devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020, creating the Internet of Things (IoT) and providing higher-level services in e.g. smart homes, smart buildings, smart energy, smart cars, smart transportation, and smart cities. Furthermore, critical infrastructures are dependent on Information Communication and Technology due to digitalization.

The boundary between critical infrastructures and ordinary smart consumer devices has faded and their interconnection has created systems-of-systems (SoS) that synergistically interact to form new and intelligent services. There are many risks and challenges to critical societal infrastructures faced by SoS such as:

(1) Potential for change in the system(s) from multiple directions: stakeholders, constituent systems as well as evolving business requirements.

(2) Less predictability regarding stakeholders’ needs, technology advances, and component behavior typical in an environment with no central control.

(3) Failures with cause or impact (cascade) beyond the individual system boundary.

(4) Constraints in terms of new development and evolution because of existing collection of design choices.

(5) Limited knowledge of individual system state and behavior.

The goal of this PhD project is to explore data-driven approaches to reduce security risks during architectural decision making for SoS-like smart systems. Eliciting security risks of architectural and design elements during architectural decision making is challenging and complex process that requires input from many heterogeneous sources. The PhD candidate will investigate and design a distributed data-driven middleware framework to support security risks elicitation and mitigation when joining or designing a new SoS-like system.

Aspects of the investigation will involve empirical studies of types of SoS (directed, acknowledged, virtual, or collaborative) and security defect prediction for each type using heterogenous data sources and based on the SoS characteristics (autonomy, belonging, connectivity, diversity, and emergence). The work is also expected to build on existing security modelling frameworks such as SecureUML or UMLsec and existing SoS modelling frameworks such as SysML, COMPASS, DANSE, or AMADEOS.

Research environment

The computer science research environment at HVL has a strong focus on use-inspired and applied research, and on ICT as an enabling technology. The research environment has cooperation with many national and international research groups, and with national and regional industry partners. The research programme includes the research themes of software engineering, engineering computing, communication systems and sensor networks, grid computing and physics data analysis, machine learning, and interactive and collaborative systems. The present PhD research fellow position is associated with the software engineering research group https://ict.hvl.no/research/softwareengineering/ which has a strong track record in model-based software development and undertakes research on applications in areas such as health-care, cloud technology and internet-of-things, industrial automation, and robotics. PhD research fellows receive an annual work expense funding which can be used for conference participation, research visits, and equipment.

Qualifications

The PhD research fellow must hold a master's degree in software engineering/computer science or in a closely related field, or have submitted the master's thesis before the application deadline. In the latter case, it is required that the master's degree must be awarded within 4 weeks after the applications deadline. A solid background in software engineering, distributed systems, and security will be considered an advantage when applicants are ranked.

In addition to the required educational background, the following criteria will be evaluated: competence and grades on completed course work, quality of the master's thesis (excellent grade, equivalent of grade B or better in the ECTS grading system), publications (if any), research and teaching experience, practical software engineering skills and experience. A possible outline of a research plan for a potential PhD project will also be considered.

The candidate must be diligent and display the ability to work independently, supplemented with regular guidance, and is expected to carry out high-quality research and to publish the results in international workshops, onferences, and journals.

The PhD research fellow must enroll in the PhD programme in Computer Science: Software Engineering, Sensor Networks and Engineering Computing at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, and must meet the formal admission requirements for admission into the PhD programme.

25% of the 4-year period will be designated to duties such as teaching, development and administrative tasks. The employment period may be reduced if the successful applicant has held previous employment as a research fellow.

The PhD candidate will be assigned two academic supervisor(s) at Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.

An application for enrolment should first be submitted after an appointment is made and the supervisor(s) will help with this procedure. The candidate must be enrolled as a PhD student within 3 months from the start of the employment.

Application procedure

Applications will be evaluated by an expert panel of three members. Applicants are asked to submit their application and CV online. Please use the link “Apply for this job” (“Søk stillingen”).

The following documentation should be uploaded as an attachment to the online application:

• Master thesis

• Copies of selected academic publications (no more than 15)

• A CV with a complete list of academic publications

• Diplomas and certificates

Applicants should indicate which publications or parts of publications should be given special consideration in the evaluation. If the documents submitted are not in a Scandinavian language or in English, the applicants must submit certified translations of these. The transcripts must specify the topics, the course works, and the grades at the bachelor`s and master`s degree levels.

Applicants should note that the evaluation will be based on the documentation submitted electronically via Jobbnorge within the submission deadline. The applicants are responsible for ensuring that all the documentation is submitted before the closing date. It is of utmost importance that all publications to be considered in the evaluation are uploaded as an attachment with the application, since these are sent electronically to the expert panel. Applications cannot be sent by e-mail or to individuals at the college.

Salary

Initial salaries will be offered at grade 51 (code 1017) in the Civil Service pay grade table scale. There is a compulsory 2 % deduction to the pension fund (see http://www.spk.no/en for more information). The successful applicant must comply with the guidelines that apply to the position at any time.

General information

The appointment will be made in accordance with the regulations for State employees Law in Norway ("Lov om statens ansatte)". Organizational changes and changes in the duties and responsibilities associated with the position must be expected.

State employment shall reflect the multiplicity of the population at large to the highest possible degree. Western Norway University of Applied Sciences Bergen has therefore adopted a personnel policyobjective to ensure that we achieve a balanced age and gender composition and the recruitment of persons of various ethnic backgrounds.

Information about the applicant may be made public even though the applicant has requested not to be named in the list of applicants. The applicant will be notified if his/her request is not respected. Applicants may be called in for an interview.

Homepage

http://www.hvl.no/

http://ict.hvl.no/

Contacts:

Associate Professor Tosin Daniel Oyetoyan phone: +47 55 58 71 67

e-mail: Tosin.Daniel.Oyetoyan@hvl.no

Professor Lars Michael Kristensen phone: +47 55 58 71 64

e-mail: Lars.Michael.Kristensen@hvl.no

Professor Håvard Helstrup, Coordinator of PhD Program on Computer Science,

phone: +47 55 58 75 61, e-mail: Havard.Helstrup@hvl.no

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