Postdoc Research Fellow: REMINDER Project

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About this role

We are seeking to appoint a Postdoc Research Fellow to join the EPSRC/CHIST-ERA funded REMINDER Project at the School of Computing and Creative Technology, UWE Bristol.  REMINDER will deal with the privacy-preserving machine learning through secure management of data’s lifecycle in distributed systems, with focus on federated learning (FL) and IoT (Internet of Things) systems. The tasks of the RF include: 

• Security Analysis of FL attacks: This is by examining different approaches such as Differential Privacy, Secure Multi-party Computation and Trusted Execution Environments against as array of attacks including data/model poisoning, Model Inversion Attacks, Property Inference Attacks, Data Reconstruction Attacks, Generative Adversarial Network re- construction attacks. Pros and cons of each approach will be identified, recommendation will be concluded.
• Proposing lightweight security solution for FL: Based on the outcome of the analysis, a lightweight for detecting and/or overcome the abovementioned attacks will be proposed.
• Integrating the proposed solution into a general security framework for privacy-preserving data processing in collaboration with the partners. Data privacy will be considered in rest, transit, and while processing.
• Participate in use cases analysis, prototypical implementation, evaluation and validation in collaboration with the partners.

About you

• Hold A PhD in computer science, computer/electrical engineering, or a very close domain. Or other post graduate degree (e.g., Research-based Masters’, Masters) plus a strong research experience.
• Evidence of good experience in advanced machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL), preferably also in ML security, and IoT. The expertise should be both in theory and practice. Evidence of this may be publications in good venues of scientific contributions related to these topics.
• Programming skills and good experience working with of DL platforms, e.g., PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• Communication and team working skills.

About REMINDER

REMINDER is an EPSRC funded project within the EU program, CHIST-ERA, in collaboration with academic and industrial EU partners within the CHIST-ERA program. REMINDER will design a decentralized and secure approach for the access and processing of data produced by distributed systems.  In particular, REMINDER will design and implement an edge-based architecture for applications using Federated Learning (FL) that will be accessible to resource-constrained end nodes, e.g., IoT devices. Additionally, REMINDER will address some of the major security and privacy challenges associated with the use of decentralized Machine Learning (ML) approaches, such as FL. Data privacy will be considered in rest, transit, and while processing. REMINDER will demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed research through two main use cases around eHealth and smart buildings.

The UWE PI of this project is Dr Djamel Djenouri, who will be your manager. You will also work in collaboration with the European partner to achieve the REMINDER’s goals. You may be required to travel to the project partners sites for meetings, as well as for participation in international conferences to present the project results. You will be expected to publish about two papers per annum during the course of the project.

Where is this role based?

This post is based at our lively Frenchay campus where we have invested in the latest facilities and resources to give both our staff and students access to everything they need to succeed.

Why UWE Bristol?

We are one of the largest providers of Higher Education in the South West with 36,000 students and 4,200 staff from right across the globe. Based in Bristol , one of the UK’s most exciting and forward-thinking cities, we are regionally embedded and globally connected, with an established network of employer and academic partners. We offer a wide range of employee benefits including progressive pay rates, generous annual leave and career average pension schemes as well as retail savings, onsite nursery and opportunities for training and personal development.

Add your individuality to ours

UWE Bristol recognises the power of a truly diverse university community .  We are proud to be part of a vibrant, multicultural city that celebrates diversity, we’re always looking for talented people from all backgrounds to join us. Our people are our strength, and diversity enhances our creativity and leads to better decision-making and problem-solving. Bring your talent and ambition to our growing community and find yourself in a stimulating and supportive environment where you’ll thrive. We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian, Multiple Heritage or Other Minority Ethnic and female candidates as we are currently under-represented in these areas within UWE Bristol, however all appointments are made strictly on individual merit.

As a Disability Confident employer, we welcome applications from those who identify as having a disability.

Further information

If you would like to speak to us to find out more about this role please contact Dr Djamel Djenouri: [email protected]

This is a fixed-term post for 30 months, starting from 1st May 2024 or as soon as possible after that, and is full-time.  This post is not available on a job share basis.

UWE Bristol is a campus-based University and it is vital to our success and the delivery of an outstanding experience for our students that our campuses are dynamic and vibrant places to learn and spend time. This role is therefore campus based with some opportunity for home working.

Advice to applicants

We’d love to hear from you - if you are excited about joining us at UWE please complete our application form as soon as possible. Tell us about how your skills and experience relate to the requirements of this role by describing how you meet each of the essential and desirable criteria listed in the Person Specification section of the Job Description, and include specific examples wherever possible. Once we have completed shortlisting we will let you know the outcome of your application by email, so please check your inbox for updates.

We may be able to sponsor qualifying candidates for this role under the Home Office Skilled Worker visa route. Please read our Skilled Worker Guidance to assess if you will be eligible to be sponsored under the criteria.

If you already hold Right to Work in the UK, please refer to the Home Office Right to Work Checklist  which provides details of which documents are acceptable to prove your right to work in the UK. Should you be shortlisted you will be asked to produce your right to work documents at your interview.

Please note that UWE does not cover any visa or health surcharge costs.