2023 RTP round - Managing Trust and Integrity in Machine Learning as a Services (MLaaS)

Status: Closed

Applications open: 8/07/2022
Applications close: 18/08/2022

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About this scholarship
Description/Applicant information

Machine Learning as a Services (MLaaS) is a software licensing model in which the providers, e.g., Google and Amazon host and deliver the machine learning tools. It enables end-users to build and tune ML models without investing in any specialised infrastructure. The platform also provides pre-trained and semi-trained models on the web to do different ML-based tasks. The cloud-based MLaaS provides the economy of scale. However, the wider adoption is limited due to the following key issues:
 

• Transparency, trust, and fairness: The existing MLaaS services are a black box to the end-user (i.e., lack of clarity). They may claim various QoS, e.g., higher accuracy and inaccurate biases, which are challenging to the end-user to evaluate. 
  
• Integrity: The service description of MLaaS could be misleading. Various attack techniques, i.e., data and model poisoning, have also been discovered to compromise the model's integrity. 

This project aims to develop a novel trust framework that allows trusted interactions among MLaaS providers and consumers. The proposed framework will also verify the integrity of MLaaS, i.e., the deployed model has not been tampered with while having only black-box access (e.g., via service endpoints) to the deployed model.

Student type

• Future Students

Faculty

• Faculty of Science & Engineering
  • Science courses
  • Engineering courses
  • Western Australian School of Mines (WASM)

Course type

• Higher Degree by Research

Citizenship

• Australian Citizen
• Australian Permanent Resident
• New Zealand Citizen
• Permanent Humanitarian Visa

Scholarship base

• Merit Based

Value

The annual scholarship package (stipend and tuition fees) is approx. $60,000 - $70,000 p.a.

 

Successful HDR applicants for admission will receive a 100% fee offset for up to 4 years, stipend scholarships, valued at approx. $28,800 p.a. for up to a maximum of 3.5 years, are determined via a competitive selection process. Applicants will be notified of the scholarship outcome in November 2022. 

 

For detailed information, visit: Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarships | Curtin University, Perth, Australia.

Scholarship Details
Maximum number awarded

1

Eligible courses

All applicable HDR courses

Eligibility criteria

We are looking for a suitable candidate who meets the criteria for admission to a PhD at Curtin University and has a background in the relevant fields, e.g., Computer Science, Software Engineering, and Electrical Engineering.

Application process

If this project excites you, and your research skills and experience are a good fit for this specific project, you should contact the Project Lead (listed below in the enquires section) via the Expression of Interest (EOI) form.

Enrolment Requirements

Eligible to enrol in a Higher Degree by Research Course at Curtin University by March 2023

Enquiries

To enquire about this project opportunity that includes a scholarship application, contact the Project lead, Sajib Mistry via the EOI form above.

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