PhD Studentship in Computer Science: Incentivizing Participation in Privacy-Enhancing Technologies

Award summary

100% Home fees covered, and a minimum tax-free annual living allowance of £19,237 (2024/25 UKRI rate)

Overview

Interested in devising private-enhancing technologies and cryptographic protocols?

Privacy-Enhancing Technologies (PETs), such as Secure Multi-party Computation (MPC) and Federated Learning (FL) allow parties to collaboratively analyze a collection of data partitions where each data partition is contributed by a different party (such as banks, or law enforcement agencies). Two facts about most PETs exist: (i) the output of PETs reveals some information about the parties’ private input sets (i.e., the computation result in FL or MPC), and (ii) various variants of PETs do not output the result to all parties, even in those PETs that do, not all of the parties are necessarily interested in it. Given these facts, a natural question arises: How can we incentivize parties that do not receive the result or do not express interest in it to participate in PETs?

This project aims to develop new PETs that incentivize participants to share their sensitive data by fairly rewarding them. Additionally, the project aims to ensure these PETs remain secure even when adversaries compromise some parties. The Secure and Resilient Systems research group will host the successful candidate at the Urban Science Building, Newcastle University.

Number of awards: 1

Start date: January 2025

Award duration: 3.5 Years

Sponsor: School of Computing, Newcastle University

Supervisors: Dr Aydin Abadi

Eligibility criteria

You must have, or expect to gain, a minimum 2:1 Honours degree or international equivalent in a subject relevant to the proposed PhD project (i.e., computer science, cybersecurity, mathematics, or software engineering). A Masters qualification in a relevant subject area will be highly advantageous.

The studentship covers fees at the Home rate (UK and EU applicants with pre-settled/settled status and meet the residency criteria). International applicants are welcome to apply but will be required to cover the difference between Home and International fees. 

Applicants whose first language is not English require an IELTS score of 6.5 overall with a minimum of 5.5 in all sub-skills. 

International applicants may require an ATAS (Academic Technology Approval Scheme) clearance certificate prior to obtaining their visa and to study on this programme. 

How to apply

Use Apply to Newcastle Portal

Once registered select ‘Create a Postgraduate Application’.

Use ‘Course Search’ to identify your programme of study:

• Search for the ‘Course Title’ using programme code: 8050F
• Research Area: Computing Science
• Select PhD Computer Science as programme of study

You will then need to provide the following information in the ‘Further Questions’ section:

• A ‘Personal Statement’
• The studentship code COMP2169 in the ‘Studentship/Partnership Reference’ field
• You do not need to upload a research proposal. Type the title of the research project from this advert in the research proposal field.

Before you submit your application you will need to upload the following supporting documentation:

• Covering letter and CV
• Degree transcripts and certificates

 You must submit one application per studentship, you cannot apply for multiple studentships on one application.

Contact details: Dr Aydin Abadi

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