Cyber Security & Systems Engineering 2024 PhDs

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.

Self 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

Multiple PhD project topics available around Trustworthy AI-enabled multimodal assistive hearing and conversational technologies

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 Pavlos Papadopoulos

Design and Development of Green miniaturized wearable Balanced Antenna Arrays for Internet of Things Applications

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

Substitution Boxes for Image Encryption Applications using Choas

Supervisor – Dr Jawad Ahmad

Developing a coordinated control for hybrid ac/dc microgrids with renewable sources-battery storage under dynamic generation and load conditions

Supervisor – Dr Jawad Ahmad

Large Language Models (LLMs) for Cryptographic and Cybersecurity Threat Model Building

Supervisor – Professor Bill Buchanan

zk-Cloud Forensics: Privacy-Aware and Tamper-proof Cloud Forensics using a Public Key Trust Infrastructure

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

On-the-go EV charging method

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

Smart Multi-Sensor Instrument for Personalized Assessment of Gait and Stability in Elderly and Frail Individuals

Supervisor – Dr Hongnian Yu