PhD position in privacy technologies for the Internet of Things

Protecting sensitive information and personal data is fundamentally important for our society. A PhD position in the area of privacy-enhancing technologies is available in the research group of Professor Isabel Wagner at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science in Basel, Switzerland. The successful candidate will work on technologies that improve privacy and transparency for Internet of Things devices, such as wearables, smart home devices, or smart city devices.

Position available to start as soon as possible, ideally October/November 2022.

Depending on the interests and strengths of the successful candidate, the research can focus on:

• Transparency for Internet of Things devices, including experimental measurement and characterization of privacy-relevant data flows
• Privacy protections for IoT devices, including development of new protection technologies and experimental evaluation of their privacy and utility
• Privacy measurement, including development of new metrics to evaluate privacy and utility in the web and IoT context, such as metrics to quantify the functionality loss caused by privacy protections

Your tasks include:

• Conduct research in the area of privacy-enhancing technologies
• Write research papers, articles, and present results at leading international conferences
• Interact with national and international teams of computer scientists

We are looking for a highly motivated and talented PhD student to join our research group. Candidates must have a master degree in computer science, computer engineering, cyber security, or a related discipline at the time of the PhD start. Strong programming skills are required (preferably Python), experience with Linux is a plus. Candidates should have experience in one or several of the following fields: computer networks, privacy-enhancing technologies, machine learning, or data science.

• You will join a new research group at the University of Basel with access to state-of-the-art facilities
• The possibility to travel to international conferences to meet with distinguished scientists
• Competitive salary based on University of Basel rules
• Contract initially for one year, after positive evaluation extension by further three years
• Working language is English, German is not necessary

Application / Contact

Please send the following documents in a single pdf file to Prof. Isabel Wagner (isabel.wagner@unibas.ch ):

• Cover letter describing your education, scientific work, and strengths. Please also describe explicitly how you meet the requirements (or could do so at the beginning of the position) and what interests you about the position
• CV including list of publications (if available)
• Scanned transcripts of bachelor's and master's degree
• Contact details of two academic referees
• Your latest thesis (and/or one of your publications if applicable)

You are encouraged to send your application before September 26, 2022. However, the deadline is open and applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis until the position is filled. Please send informal inquiries to Prof. Isabel Wagner (isabel.wagner@unibas.ch ).