PhD Scholarship Software Technology for Hardening Security Libraries

KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm has grown to become one of Europe's leading technical and engineering universities, as well as a key centre of intellectual talent and innovation. We are Sweden's largest technical research and learning institution and home to students, researchers and faculty from around the world. Our research and education covers a wide area including natural sciences and all branches of engineering, as well as architecture, industrial management, urban planning, history and philosophy.

The PhD student will join the group of Prof. Benoit Baudry who investigates techniques to constantly evolve software applications to prevent single points of failure. Experimental software engineering and case studies form the core scientific foundations for this work.

Open source libraries are increasingly used as part of large industrial software systems. Some of these systems are subject to strict safety and security constraints. In this context, it is essential to assess the quality of open source libraries. This assessment acitivity has to rely on state of the art program analysis techniques proposed in the scientific literature.

In this context, the PhD student will investigate software technology in the areas of code analysis, software testing, open source software development and continuous integration. The goal is to develop and assess new technology to harden open source libraries at the time they are integrated in the build of secure sensitive software applications.

This PhD thesis is funded by the ‘Internet of DevOps’ project, which is collaboration between KTH, SAAB, Ericsson, Syntel and European partners. Applicants must hold or be about to receive a Masters degree in Computer Science. The candidate should have a strong background from at least one of the following areas: dynamic and static program analysis, compilation, operating systems. Expertise in object-oriented programming and design is highly appreciated.

In order to succeed as an doctoral student at KTH you need to be goal oriented and persevering in your work.

Only those who are or have been admitted to third-cycle studies may be employed as a doctoral student. The term of the initial contract may not exceed one year and may thereafter be extended. Doctoral students may engage in teaching, research, and administration corresponding to a maximum of 20 % of a full-time position.

Apply for the position and admission through KTH’s recruitment system. It is the applicant's responsibility to ensure that the application is complete in accordance with the instructions in the advertisement.

Applications must be received at the last closing date at midnight, CET/CEST (Central European Time/entral European Summer Time).