PhD Scholarship: Resilient Reinforcement Learning for Cyber Security

Scholarship value

The scholarship includes home tuition fees plus a combined maintenance grant and salary equivalent to the Research Councils UK National Minimum Doctoral Stipend (£17,668 2022/23, 2023/24 to be announced) for the first three years followed by home fees and maintenance grant for a further six months. Scholars also receive fee-paid teacher in Higher Education training through the Associate Fellowship Scheme.
 
Additional funds from another source would be required to support the difference between home and overseas fee costs for international students.

Deadline

10 April 2023, 23:59 GMT.

Criteria

We are looking for an enthusiastic self-motivated candidate who can demonstrate academic excellence, outstanding research potential and ability to teach. Good programming skills will be essential for this position. Applicants with a wide range of STEM expertise are encouraged to apply, e.g., computer science, engineering, applied mathematics, statistics, physics or similar. Knowledge of any of the following would be a plus: reinforcement learning, deep learning, machine learning, computational statistics, probabilistic graphical models, or artificial intelligence for cyber security applications.

Applicants should have, or expect to obtain, a first or upper second-class honours degree in a relevant subject, and ideally a Master’s degree or equivalent.

The University of Kent requires all non-native speakers of English to hold a minimum standard of proficiency in written and spoken English before beginning a postgraduate degree. For more information on English language requirements, please visit https://www.kent.ac.uk/courses/postgraduate/apply/english-language-requirements.

Further details
We are recruiting for a fully funded PhD Studentship to work with Dr Marek Grzes and Dr Rogerio de Lemos in the School of Computing at the University of Kent. The project is on advancing reinforcement learning algorithms for cyber security applications to make them more resilient in real-life situations. We offer a conducive research environment, where you would be part of a dynamic community, engaged in collaborative research, peer-support, and social activities. You will have many opportunities to collaborate with our current PhD students and researchers.

Alongside completing your PhD programme of research and development, as a Graduate Teaching Assistant you will normally be expected to work for 200 hours per annum in years 1 to 3, including teaching (maximum 96 contact hours per year) or demonstrating (maximum 130 contact hours per year) and related duties such as marking, preparation and examination. Further details of GTA terms and conditions are here:

https://www.kent.ac.uk/scholarships/postgraduate/terms-and-conditions-gtas

The University of Kent is committed to equality, diversity, widening participation and inclusion and we endeavour to recruit students from all walks of life. We encourage enquiries and applications from all sections of the community regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation and transgender status.

Enquiries should be directed to Marek Grzes (m.grzes@kent.ac.uk), Rogério de Lemos (r.delemos@kent.ac.uk) or the Postgraduate Admissions team cemsadmissions@kent.ac.uk

Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs) hold a unique position in the University; they are both registered PhD students in receipt of a scholarship award and employees of the University of Kent.
 
This studentship will have a start date for the September 23/24 intake.

How to apply

Please apply for a Computer Science PhD.  As part of the process, students should include the following:

• explain reasons for study/outline research proposal
• provide details/evidence of qualifications
• provide details of any teaching experience
• provide two academic references
• provide other personal information and supporting documentation.

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