ENCYRCLE Research Assistant

Swansea University - Faculty of Science and Engineering

About The Role

The ENCYRCLE project is looking for an enthusiastic research assistant to join the Swansea University project team. You will be part of a £2 million research initiative with the Wales-based National Data Exploitation Centre (NDEC), part of global technology leader Thales, to strengthen the cyber resilience of interconnected systems, including those in transport.

Backed by £1 million in funding from the EPSRC Prosperity Partnership part of UK Research and Innovation, ENCYCRLE - Engineering for Cyber Resilience: Through-Life Modelling and Analysis —will focus on strengthening cybersecurity in transport, manufacturing, and energy infrastructure.

Your role is to develop innovative solutions to enhance the security of connected and automated technologies throughout their lifecycle. This involves developing a simulation-based solution for analysing and evaluating resilience properties of the designs of cyber-physical systems. Your tasks include the evaluation and setup of simulation tools, focusing on several case studies involving automotive systems and post-quantum cryptography. The simulation of these case studies will enable the validation of their cyber resilience properties by employing appropriate AI approaches such as reinforcement learning.

To this end, you will be applying reinforcement learning to explore potential simulation runs that falsify the relevant cyber resilience properties.

ENCYCRLE is led by Professor Siraj Shaikh, who leads the Systems Security Group (SSG) at Swansea. This research project is aligned with the UK Government’s strategy and its results will directly inform industry best practice, guidance, and will contribute to resilient engineering systems and infrastructure. The impact of this work will directly inform guidance and principles underpinning the design of critical national infrastructures and complex engineering systems in a range of sectors.

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

The University is committed to supporting and promoting equality and diversity in all its practices and activities. We aim to establish an inclusive environment and welcome diverse applications from the following protected characteristics: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race (including colour, nationality, ethnic and national origin), religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation.

As an inclusive and welcoming workplace, we value people for their skills regardless of their background. Applications are welcome in Welsh and will not be treated less favourably than those submitted in English.

Welsh Language Skills

The Welsh language level required for this role is Level 1 - A little. The role holder will be able to pronounce Welsh words, answer the phone in Welsh (good morning/afternoon) and use very basic everyday words and phrases (thank you, please etc.). Level 1 can be reached by completing a 1 hour course.

The University is a proud bilingual institution, our Welsh Language Strategy outlines our aspiration to promote the language and enable our staff to engage with the language as an additional workplace skill and as a gateway to new cultural and social opportunities. Applications are welcome in Welsh and will not be treated less favourably than those submitted in English. Welsh speakers have the right to an interview in Welsh. Applicants for a role where Welsh skills are essential are expected to present their application in Welsh and will be interviewed in Welsh, if shortlisted.

Additional Information

Applications for this role will take the format of a CV submission and cover letter.