PhD Studentship: Towards Productive Cyber Resilience and Safety Analysis in Model-Based System Engineering

Project Title: 

Towards Productive Cyber Resilience and Safety Analysis in Model-Based System Engineering 

Funding amount: £17,668 maintenance grant per annum

Lead Supervisor name: Dr Huseyin Dogan

Project description

Cyber resilience is an important system-level feature. It is affected by design trades made during the systems engineering process (e.g. the use of architectural dissimilarity in parallel control channels). These trades are likely to affect other system properties such as system security and safety, as well as programme schedule and cost.

Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) is being increasingly used in critical systems to help manage system complexity. MBSE aims to transform Systems Engineering to a model-based practice and is a formalised application of modelling to support system requirements, design, analysis, verification and validation activities beginning in the conceptual design phase and continuing throughout development and later lifecycle phases (INCOSE, 2023). MBSE’s use of models formalise descriptions of a system, allowing for automated analysis, in contrast to the historical approach of document-based engineering. MBSE is also seen as key to lowering the cost of defence platforms. For example, the Ministry of Defence’s PYRAMID programme envisages simplifying upgrades, and reducing software development costs though a reusable and open mission system architecture, by using a suite of reusable software components for legacy and future air platforms (UK MoD PYRAMID, 2021).

What does the funded studentship include?

A fully-funded Studentship includes a maintenance grant of £17,668 per year to contribute towards living expenses during the course of your research, as well as a fee waiver for 36 months. Associated costs, such as for fieldwork and conference attendance, will also be met under the Studentship.

Eligibility criteria

The BU PhD Studentships are open to UK, EU and International students.

Candidates for a PhD Studentship should demonstrate outstanding qualities and be motivated to complete a PhD in 4 years and must demonstrate:

• outstanding academic potential as measured normally by either a 1st class honours degree (or equivalent Grade Point Average (GPA) or a Master’s degree with distinction or equivalent
• an IELTS (Academic) score of 6.5 minimum (with a minimum 6.0 in each component, or equivalent) for candidates for whom English is not their first language and this must be evidenced at point of application.

Additional Eligibility:

In addition to satisfying minimum entry criteria, BU will look closely at the qualities, skills and background of each candidate and what they can bring to their chosen research project in order to ensure successful completion.

Applicants will be asked to submit an online application form and a proposal (approximately 1500 words) outlining their understanding of the project for which they are applying, the approach they would envisage taking and what qualities they will bring to the research community.

Closing date: The closing date for applications is 31 October 2023.

For further information on how to apply click the ‘Apply’ button above or email pgradmissions@bournemouth.ac.uk

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