The Centre for Cybersecurity, IoT and Cyber-physical systems (CIC) is the main research group associated with the Cybersecurity and Systems Engineering (CSE) subject group in the School of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment (SCEBE) at Edinburgh Napier University. The research, knowledge exchange, and innovation work covers a wide spectrum of areas including cybersecurity, networking, energy engineering, applied cryptography and blockchain, data science and cybersecurity, digital twins, intelligent control, robotics, wireless communications, sensors, RF system, digital forensics, electronics and IoT security. This applies is applied into many application areas, including FinTech, NetZero, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), Health Care, Critical Infrastructure Protection, Identity Systems, 5G/6G wireless networks and Law Enforcement.
Overall, the Centre is led by seven internationally-leading professors (Bill Buchanan, Hongnian Yu, Amir Hussain, Ahmed Al-Dubai, Leandros Maglaras, Berk Canberk and Xiadong Liu), 10 Associate Professors and 26 Academics, and has received a wide range of funding including from EPSRC, Horizon Europe, Innovate UK and industry. For engineering, the subject group is rated in the Top 250 in the world in the recent Times Higher World University rankings, and within the Top 300 for Computer Science. The Centre also has 20 leading academics who are rated in the Top 2% of scientific authors within 2022. A core strength of the Centre is the translation of research into high impact outputs and impacts to industry. This includes three highly successful spin-out companies (Zonefox, Symphonic and Cyacomb), along with two forthcoming spin-outs (True Deploy and LastingAsset). For its submission to REF 2021, 38% of its research outputs were rated as world-class (4*), and its impact case studies were all rated as world-leading.
Fully funded PhDs
A Novel Machine Learning-Driven Edge Computing
Supervisor – Professor Ahmed Al-Dubai
Context-Aware Wireless Power Transfer Scheduling for Vehicular Edge Computing
Supervisor – Professor Ahmed Al-Dubai
Realising Internet-scale Network Telemetry
Supervisor – Dr Matthew Broadbent
Multimodal Multilingual Sentiment Analysis
Supervisor – Dr Kia Dashtipour
Fast and Secure Multi-party Computation Techniques
Supervisor – Dr Baraq Ghaleb
Safeguarding the Internet of Things: A Machine Learning Driven Security Paradigm
Supervisor – Dr Baraq Ghaleb
Supervisor – Prof. Amir Hussain
Adversarial machine learning for intrusion detection system
Supervisor – Dr Sana Ullah Jan
Data-driven generative AI for sensor fault prediction in distributed networks
Supervisor – Dr Sana Ullah Jan
Multi-modal machine learning for cybersecurity
Supervisor – Dr Sana Ullah Jan
Compact MIMO antennas for 6G mobile devices
Supervisor – Dr Petros Karadimas
Hybrid OFDM transmission system for connected autonomous vehicles
Supervisor – Dr Petros Karadimas
Physical layer security for connected autonomous vehicles
Supervisor – Dr Petros Karadimas
Investigating Quantum Machine Learning for Cyber Security
Supervisor – Mouad Lemoudden
Towards an Evolving Approach to Evaluate Security Monitoring Tools
Supervisor – Mouad Lemoudden
Multi-Three-Phase Drives for Electric Transport
Supervisor – Dr Savvas Papadopoulos
Privacy-preserving Systems around Security, Trust and Identity
Supervisor – Dr Savvas Papadopoulos
Supervisor – Dr Chan Hwang See
Microwave Long Range Wireless Power Transfer System
Supervisor – Dr Chan Hwang See
Advanced Drone Technology for Precision Operations
Supervisor – Dr Luigi La Spada
AI-Driven Discovery of Genetic Markers in Developmental Disorders
Supervisor – Dr Luigi La Spada
Innovating IoT Security Through Quantum Metamaterials and Artificial Intelligence
Supervisor – Dr Luigi La Spada
Identification of Security Flaws in Software Defined Networks
Supervisor – Dr Craig Thomson
Utilisation of Machine Learning for Intrusion Detection in IoT Networks
Supervisor – Dr Craig Thomson
Advanced digital signal processing for condition monitoring for rotative electrical machines
Supervisor – Dr Francisco Vedreño Santos
Modelling and adaptive robust control of an unmanned electric underactuated bicycle
Supervisor – Dr Hongnian Yu
Self funded PhDs
Substitution Boxes for Image Encryption Applications using Choas
Supervisor – Dr Jawad Ahmad
Supervisor – Dr Jawad Ahmad
Large Language Models (LLMs) for Cryptographic and Cybersecurity Threat Model Building
Supervisor – Professor Bill Buchanan
Supervisor – Professor Bill Buchanan
Digital Twin-based IoT Framework for Offshore Wind Supply Chain Management
Supervisor – Professor Berk Canberk
Blockchain Technology and Decentralised Finance (DeFi) : The Bridge to the Future of Finance
Supervisor – Dr Zakwan Jaroucheh
Trusted Evidence Gathering and Timeline For Law Enforcement
Supervisor – Dr Petra Leimich
Autonomous Underwater Vehicle with multi-sensors prototype for underwater onsite monitoring
Supervisor – Dr Abdelfateh Kerrouche
Optical fiber sensors for overhead conductor line sag monitoring in smart grid
Supervisor – Dr Abdelfateh Kerrouche
Novel E2E mechanisms for mobile devices
Supervisor – Professor Leandros Maglaras
Supervisor – Professor Leandros Maglaras
Secure V2V Communication for self-driving NETworks
Supervisor – Professor Leandros Maglaras
Development of Stretchable Conductive Layers for Wearable Devices
Supervisor – Dr Libu Manjakkal
Flexible Electrochemical Multi sensors for online Water Quality Monitoring
Supervisor – Dr Libu Manjakkal
Soft Flexible and Stretchable Energy Storage Device Development
Supervisor – Dr Libu Manjakkal
Behavioural Analysis for Ransomware and Extortion-based Attack Detection
Supervisor – Rich McFarlane
Novel Model Aggregation Techniques for Federated Learning in Critical Infrastructure
Supervisor – Dr Naghmeh Moradpoor
Addressing Scalability Issues in Federated Learning for Critical Infrastructure
Supervisor – Naghmeh Moradpoor
Communication Efficiency for Federated Learning in Critical Infrastructure
Supervisor – Naghmeh Moradpoor
Intelligent Metamaterials/Metasurfaces for 5G/6G Wireless Networks
Supervisor – Dr Naser Ojaroudi Parchin
Phased Array Antenna Systems for MM-Wave/THz Communications
Supervisor – Dr Naser Ojaroudi Parchin
Reconfigurable Surfaces for High-Efficiency RF Energy Harvesting
Supervisor – Dr Naser Ojaroudi Parchin
Hardening the Computing Continuum against Adversarial Attacks
Supervisor – Dr Nikolaos Pitropakis
Forensic storage carving using AI
Supervisor – Dr Gordon Russell
Introspection of Virtual Machines using AI
Supervisor – Dr Gordon Russell
Security and Privacy in Quantum Cryptography
Supervisor – Dr Zeeshan Siddiqui
Machine unlearning for large language models
Supervisor – Dr Zhiyuan Tan
Security and Privacy in Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks
Supervisor – Dr Zhiyuan Tan
Security of Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure
Supervisor – Dr Zhiyuan Tan
Intelligent & Privacy-preserving security solutions for Vehicular Ad-hoc Networks (VANETs)
Supervisor – Dr Isam Wadhaj
Intelligent and Privacy-preserving security solutions for IoT networks
Supervisor – Dr Isam Wadhaj
Supervisor – Dr Hongnian Yu