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PhD Students in Secure Machine Learning, Fall 2021

Position Title: PhD students in Cybersecurity & Privacy: Secure Machine Learning

Position Description: We are looking for several PhD students to work on researching the intersection of machine learning and secure execution environment. Many aspects are of interests, including privacy preserving computation, side channels, and fault tolerance. Recently, there has been a big increase in attacks directed towards cloud computing where application’s privacy is leaked not through breaching the cryptographic primitives, but through observing application behavior that indirectly reveals secrets. These “side channels” have become sophisticated, powerful, and widely applicable to almost all modern processor systems. A recent example includes the Spectre/Meltdown attacks (https://meltdownattack.com). Processor manufacturers are all searching for techniques to mitigate such attacks without introducing significant performance overheads. We expect each PhD student works in one of the following thrusts: (1) discovering new attacks on modern processors, (2) designing general mitigation strategies, and (3) analyzing security strengths of various mitigation strategies and quantifying their security-performance trade-offs. The students will be mentored by faculty in the Cybersecurity & Privacy Cluster (https://sites.google.com/view/ucfcybersp) and his postdoctoral researcher(s). Opportunities to mentor MS and undergraduate students are available.

Researcher will be mentored by Dr. Yan Solihin, Director of Cybersecurity & Privacy Cluster, Charles N. Millican Professor in Computer Science, IEEE Fellow.

Position Responsibilities: Technical research to influence the next generation secure execution features in future processors, writing top-rated publications, and having a blast!

Requirements: BS or MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent, good programming skills, intellectual curiosity, and grit.

How to Apply: Contact yan (dot) solihin (at) ucf (dot) edu

PhD Students in Social Aspect of Privacy, Fall 2021

Position Title: PhD students in Cybersecurity & Privacy: Social Aspect of Privacy

Position Description: Dr. Yao Li is looking for 1-2 Ph.D. student. Dr. Li’s research is about the social aspect of data privacy. She has several ongoing research projects on evaluating the social impact of existing privacy settings, modeling the cross-cultural differences in users’ privacy management in technologies, and investigating the privacy issues in gameplay. The recruited students will work on one of these projects.

Requirements: Students with backgrounds in data privacy, human-computer interaction, and statistical modeling (regression, ANOVA) are preferred.

How to Apply: Contact yao.li@ucf.edu

PhD Students in Safe and Secure Software Configuration, Fall 2021

Position Title: PhD students in Cybersecurity & Privacy: Safe and Secure Software Configuration

Position Description: Highly-configurable software forms the basis of much modern computing infrastructure, because configurability enables extensive reuse. However, software configurability opens the door to misconfiguration vulnerabilities, which are invalid settings that expose software weaknesses. The goal of this project is to automate the creation of valid configurations that are reliable and secure. Students will research novel techniques for analyzing software configuration mechanisms and apply these techniques to large, real-world software

Requirements: Strong GNU/Linux system skills (command-line, system configuration, etc), string programming ability, familiarity with Boolean logic and discrete math, an interest in free and open source software

How to Apply: https://paulgazzillo.com/hiring/

Undergraduate Researcher in Serverless Computing, starting Spring 2021

Position Title: Undergraduate Researcher in Serverless Computing

Position Description: We are looking for several undergraduate researchers to work on researching the security aspects of serverless computing. Serverless computing is a new computing paradigm in Cloud Computing where users can specify functions (e.g. AWS Lambdas) to run in the cloud, and the cloud providers manage the instantiation of the functions and resources that enable them to scale. Students will work with a team of mentors consisting of faculty in the Cybersecurity & Privacy Cluster and PhD students in the cluster. Students may be provided with desk space in a lab and a workstation (subject to availability).

Position Responsibilities: Work 10 hours a week, read papers, brainstorming with team, report and presentation at the end, release of source code.

Student Requirements: At least junior, excellent programming skills, good GPA, intellectual curiosity, resourceful, and self driven.

How to Apply: Contact yan (dot) solihin (at) ucf (dot) edu

Undergraduate Researcher in Secure AI/Machine Learning, starting Spring 2021

Position Title: Undergraduate Researcher in the security of AI/machine learning

Position Description: We are looking for one undergraduate researcher to work on researching the security aspects of AI or machine learning system. ML system is subject to attacks that compromise its accuracy or leak its data. Student working in this topic will explore in system techniques to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of ML systems. Students will work with a team of mentors consisting of faculty in the Cybersecurity & Privacy Cluster and PhD students in the cluster. Students may be provided with desk space in a lab and a workstation (subject to availability).

Position Responsibilities: Work 10 hours a week, read papers, brainstorming with team, report and presentation at the end, release of source code.

Student Requirements: At least junior, excellent programming skills, good GPA, intellectual curiosity, resourceful, and self driven.

How to Apply: Contact yan (dot) solihin (at) ucf (dot) edu

Undergraduate Researcher in Persistent Memory Programming, starting Spring 2021

Position Title: Undergraduate Researcher in persistent memory programming

Position Description: We are looking for several undergraduate researchers to work on researching the programming aspects of persistent memory. Persistent memory (e.g. Intel Optane DC Persistent Memory) is a new type of memory that is being integrated into the main memory of computer systems. After decades of relying on DRAM as main memory, many computers will transition to PM, due to its superior density, cost per byte, and potential for future scaling. Interestingly, PM provides non-volatility, so it provides a faster substrate to store persistent data (as opposed to SSD or disks). PM requires different type of programming that includes crash consistency. Students in this project will work on researching the performance and persistency implications of writing PM software. Students will work with a team of mentors consisting of faculty in the Cybersecurity & Privacy Cluster and PhD students in the cluster. Students may be provided with desk space in a lab and a workstation (subject to availability).

Position Responsibilities: Work 10 hours a week, read papers, brainstorming with team, report and presentation at the end, release of source code.

Student Requirements: At least junior, excellent programming skills, good GPA, intellectual curiosity, resourceful, and self driven.

How to Apply: Contact yan (dot) solihin (at) ucf (dot) edu

(Expired) Opening for Two (2) Faculty Positions, Fall 2020

We are hiring! Two tenure-track Assistant Professor positions are open in the Cyber Cluster.

    1. Position 1 (498145): ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, CYBER SECURITY AND PRIVACY

      • Excerpt: "The ideal candidate will have a strong background in cyber security and privacy and be on an upward leadership trajectory in these areas. In particular, candidates that have a track record in security and privacy issues affecting software and systems in various platforms (cloud, IoT, cyber-physical) are strongly encouraged to apply."

    2. Position 2 (498186): ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, COMPUTER SCIENCE

      • Excerpt: "The ideal candidate will have a strong background in Cyber Security & Privacy ... In particular, we are looking for someone who will work at the intersection of Cyber Security & Privacy and some of the following: Computer Architecture, Compiler/Code Generation, and System (Operating System, File System, Storage System, or Networked System).

Advise: we encourage applicants to apply for both positions, to maximize flexibility.

(Expired) Postdoctoral Researcher, Immediately

Position Title: Postdoctoral Researcher in Cybersecurity & Privacy: Secure Execution Environment

Position Description: We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher to work on researching secure execution environment design. Recently, there has been a big increase in attacks directed towards cloud computing where application’s privacy is leaked not through breaching the cryptographic primitives, but through observing application behavior that indirectly reveals secrets. These “side channels” have become sophisticated, powerful, and widely applicable to almost all modern processor systems. A recent example includes the Spectre/Meltdown attacks (https://meltdownattack.com). Processor manufacturers are all searching for techniques to mitigate such attacks without introducing significant performance overheads. We expect the postdoctoral researcher to work in all of the following thrusts: (1) discovering new attacks on modern processors, (2) defining principles of general mitigation strategies, and (3) analyzing security strengths of various mitigation strategies and quantifying their security-performance trade-offs. The postdoctoral researcher will help supervise a team of (PhD, MS, and undergraduate) students, perform project management, and will be mentored by faculty in the Cybersecurity & Privacy Cluster (https://sites.google.com/view/ucfcybersp). It is expected that by the end of the term, the postdoctoral researcher is ready for academic career as an independent and productive tenure-track faculty member.

Researcher will be mentored by Dr. Yan Solihin, Director of Cybersecurity & Privacy Cluster, Charles N. Millican Professor in Computer Science, IEEE Fellow.

Position Responsibilities: Technical research, supervise a team of students, performs some project management, writing top-rated publications, and having a blast!

Requirements: PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or equivalent. Experience with major simulation infrastructure and execution environment development, Intellectual curiosity, resourcefulness, self motivation.

Remuneration: Competitive.

How to Apply: Contact yan (dot) solihin (at) ucf (dot) edu

Why Join Us?

UCF Cyber Cluster Facts

  • The Cluster is an inter-disciplinary group of 9 faculty members spanning over two colleges (College of Engineering and Computer Science, and College of Business) and an institute (Institute of Simulation and Training).

  • Broad spectrum of research, The Cluster works on various areas including Trustworthy Cloud, Blockchain, Secure Machine Learning, Organizational and Behavioral Aspects, Privacy, Malware, Digital Forensics, Software Security, and IoT Security

  • There are close to 40 PhD students in the Cluster, and several Postdoctoral Researchers

  • The Cluster focuses on excellence, publishing in top venues including: CCS/Usenix Security, ISCA/HPCA/MICRO, ASPLOS, PLDI/OOPSLA, FSE/ICSE, NDSS, INFOCOM, CHI/CSCW, ICDCS, etc.

  • The Cluster research is well funded by various government agencies (NSF, ONR, AFRL, DARPA, NSA, Army PEO STRI, Cyber Florida), FFRDC (Sandia National Lab), Industry (Intel, Samsung, NVIDIA, Toshiba, HP, Medi-IoT), and non-profit organizations (William T. Grant Foundation, Mozilla Foundation). In 2018-2019, the Cluster worked on projects that led to nearly $7 million external funding.

  • Well published. There are 300+ publications and 50+ patents by Cluster faculty members, receiving 27,000+ citations, with a total h-index of 176 (Dec 2018).

  • Honors/awards. The Cluster faculty members have received various prestigious honors/awards, including: IEEE Fellow (Solihin), IEEE Senior Member (Mohaisen, Zou), ISCA Hall of Fame (Solihin), HPCA Hall of Fame (Solihin), NSF CAREER Award (Solihin, Wisniewski, Gazzillo), Best Paper Awards (CHI (3x) – Wisniewski, MICRO runner up - Solihin), Distinguished TPC Member (INFOCOM – Mohaisen), IEEE MICRO Top Picks (Solihin), SIGPLAN Research Highlight (Gazzillo), UCF Reach for the Stars (Wisniewski), ACM Future of Computing Academy (Wisniewski).

  • Real world impact. The Cluster faculty members have invented technologies that can be found in current products. For example, Solihin's research in cache partitioning (2003-2007) has influenced Intel Cache Allocation Technology (CAT), Solihin's research in memory encryption and integrity verification (2006-2008), including counter rollback, Bonsai Merkle Tree, have influenced the design of Intel SGX Memory Encryption Engine, Solihin's research in DRAM Cache architecture (2009-2010) has influenced Intel Haswell external DRAM cache design.

UCF Computer Science Facts

  • 5 Cluster faculty members have chosen Computer Science as their home department.

  • Large department. There are 32 tenure-earning/tenured faculty members (as of 2018).

  • Large student body. There are ~400 graduate students in CS (as of 2018). There are ~3500 undergraduate students in Computer Science Department, majoring in CS or IT, in 2019. This has roughly tripled in 10 years (1035 in 2009).

  • Strong reputation. As of August 2019, UCF ranked 26th in Computer Architecture, 40th in High-Performance Computing, 8th in Computer Vision, 25th in Human-Computer Interaction, 13th in visualization, and 47th overall [source: csrankings.org]


UCF Facts:

  • Largest university. UCF is one of the nation’s largest universities in the nation with a diverse student body of more than 68,000 students and has grown substantially in size, quality, diversity, and reputation in its first 50 years. It has more than 13,000 employees and an operating budget of $1.7 billion.

  • Wide array of degree programs. UCF offers more than 200 degree programs, including: 101 BS, 88 MS, and 29 PhD programs.

  • Research Park. UCF is adjacent to 1,000+ acre Research Park that conducts over $2 billion in funded research, hosting 100 high-tech companies.

  • Research Institute. UCF has Institute for Simulation and Training.

  • Neighbors. UCF is neighbor to many well known companies such as Disney, Harris Corporation, Lockheed Martin, Siemens, Oracle, Apple, AMD, and is within half an hour from Boeing, SpaceX, Blue Origin, etc. UCF is also neighbor to NSA, and close to NASA.

  • Diversity. UCF is a designated Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), with the student body consisting of nearly 18,000 Hispanic/Latino students (26%). Others include blacks (11%), Asian (6.3%), multi-racial (3.7%), and international (4%).

Orlando Facts:

  • Large city. Orlando Metro Statistical Area (MSA) has over 2.5 million people.

  • Very fast growing. Orlando is one of the fastest growing major metro areas. In 2018, it grew by 60,000 residents, ranked fifth among all major metro areas nationally. Orlando rate of growth is twice the rate of the USA. One in nine Orlando residents moved to the region since 2010.

  • The most visited city in USA. Orlando was visited by 75 million people in 2018, making it the most visited destination in the US. Of those, 6.5 million people were international visitors.

  • Orlando international airport (MCO). MCO served 48 million passengers in 2018 (compared to 6 million in 1981). MCO also had 6.6 million international arrivals in 2018. This makes MCO the busiest airport in Florida. It has direct flights to 61 countries, including most major cities in North America, Central America, South America, Europe (Netherland, Ireland, Denmark, Germany, Scotland, Iceland, England, Norway, France, and Switzerland), and Middle East.

  • Theme park capital. Orlando is the theme park capital of the world, home to Disney, Universal, and SeaWorld.

  • High-Tech Center. While Orlando is well known as theme park capital of the world, it is also a center for industrial and high tech industries. Orlando metro has a $13.4 billion tech industry employing 53,000 people [source: Wikipedia]. "Lockheed Martin has a large manufacturing facility for missile systems, aeronautical craft and related high tech research. Other notable engineering firms have offices or labs in Metro Orlando: KDF, General Dynamics, Harris, Mitsubishi Power Systems, Siemens, Veritas/Symantec, multiple USAF facilities, Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD), Delta Connection Academy, Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University, GE, Air Force Agency for Modeling and Simulation (AFAMS), U.S. Army Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, and Instrumentation (PEO STRI), United States Army Research, Development and Engineering Command United States Army Simulation and Training Technology Center (STTC), AT&T, Boeing, CAE Systems Flight and Simulation Training, Hewlett-Packard, Institute for Simulation and Training, National Center for Simulation, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon Systems. The Naval Training Center until a few years ago was one of the two places where nuclear engineers were trained for the US Navy. Now the land has been converted into the Baldwin Park development. Numerous office complexes for large corporations have popped up along the Interstate 4 corridor north of Orlando, especially in Maitland, Lake Mary and Heathrow."

  • Orlando is young. While popular destination for retirees, there are a lot of young people in Orlando. The median age in Orlando is 33 in 2014.

  • Orlando is close to Patrick Air Force Base, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and Kennedy Space Center. It is also close to Port Canaveral, a cruise ship terminal.