The School of Computer Science and Communication (CSC) at KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, announces one Ph.D. student position in theoretical computer science within a project on security for mobile code.
KTH is the largest technical university in Sweden. Education and research cover a broad spectrum within natural sciences and engineering, as well as architecture, industrial engineering and management, urban planning, work science and environmental engineering. There are circa 12,000 full-year undergraduate students, 1,400 postgraduate students and 3,100 employees.
CSC is one of Sweden’s most advanced and successful research and education institutions in Information Technology at KTH and Stockholm University. The activities of the school focus on higher education and research within the traditional core areas of numerical analysis and computer science; from theory building and analysis of mathematical models to algorithm construction, implementation and simulation. Other core areas of growing importance are technology and methods for the support of human communication and computer mediated cooperation over distances in time and space. The applied research includes scientific computing, computer science, computer vision, robotics, neural networks, human-computer interaction, media technology and graphic arts, and communication through speech, language and music. For more information see:
go to"CSC International Website".
Within CSC, the Department of Theoretical Computer Science (TCS) offers a strong research environment spanning a wide range of research topics within theoretical computer science including complexity theory, cryptography, language technology, and program logics and analysis.
ProjectApplications are invited for one fully-funded Ph.D. student position at TCS, starting in August 2009. The successful candidate will join a new project funded by VR, the Swedish national research council, on security for mobile code.
Mobile code often originates from untrusted sources and presents a potential threat to the security of the platform on which it is downloaded and executed. One novel approach to mobile code security is to equip the code of the application with a contract consisting of an abstract model of its security-relevant behaviour, together with some form of evidence that the model is a safe approximation of the actual behaviour. The platform can then use the contract of the code it has downloaded to check that the code, once deployed and executed, will not violate the security policies of the platform.
The new project will develop the theoretical framework for contract-based security of mobile code, and develop algorithmic techniques and tool support for extracting contracts from code, code-contract compliance proof generation, and contract-policy matching.
The project will be lead by Dr. Dilian Gurov
and will develop in close cooperation with the new European FP7 FET project HATS
QualificationsThe successful applicant will have a strong background and interest in computer science, with emphasis on theoretical subjects such as mathematical logic, programming language semantics, program analysis, and program correctness. Software tool design and implementation skills are further assets.
To address its varied work, KTH aims to employ a diversity of talent and thus welcomes applicants who will add to the variety of the University, especially as concerns its gender structure.
EmploymentThe Ph.D. position is for a maximum of five years, normally including 20% departmental duties (typically course assistance).
The salary of this position follows the CSC/KTH standard salaries of graduate student positions. Starting date can be discussed; a tentative starting date is August 15, 2009.
Form of employment: Time limited
Start date: According to agreement
ApplicationThe application should contain a letter where the applicant describes herself/himself, her/his qualifications and interests. It should also contain a Curriculum Vitae, grade transcripts, copies of the applicant's Master thesis and/or publications, and names and addresses of three referees. Applicants about to finish their M.Sc. degrees may be considered for the position.
The application should be sent to:
KTH CSC
att. Susanne Bergman
Lindstedtsvägen 4, plan 3
100 44 Stockholm
Application deadline: 2009-04-17
Employer's reference number: D-2009-0020
Contact(s)Queries concerning PhD studies at KTH can be directed to:
Eva-Lena Åkerman, personnel office
Phone: +46 8 790 91 06
Email:
Queries concerning the project content can be directed to:
Dilian Gurov, docent
Phone: +46 8 790 81 98
Email:
Union representative
Rikard Lingström, SACO
Phone: +46 8 790 8292
Email:
