PhD on Runtime Trust Assessment and Attestation in Medical IoT Systems

This vacancy is in the context of ENTRUST, a recently granted European project that aims at developing secure and trustworthy heterogenous environments for interconnected medical devices.

Irène Curie Fellowship

No

Department(s)

Mathematics and Computer Science

Reference number

V32.6024

Job description

The PhD project will focus on the runtime phase of the lifecycle of medical devices after deployment when their behavior is subject to monitoring and continuous assessment. The goal is to create a framework for distributed hierarchical monitoring that allows various deployment scenarios for on- and off-device monitoring. The framework will rely on creation of Digital Twin of the IoT system and will apply novel runtime verification/monitoring techniques based on domain-specific languages for properties to be verified at runtime.  

General Info 
The digital transformation is reshaping the medical industry by introducing high-end products that allow real-time collection and processing of information from numerous interconnected medical devices. Despite the benefits of this transformation, it also brings risks related to the security and privacy of patients. It is challenging to ensure a trustworthy environment among the devices as they consist of hardware parts and modules produced by several vendors thus creating a complex, heterogenous, and insecure environment.
To address the mentioned challenges, the ENTRUST project envisions a Trust Management Framework intended to dynamically manage the lifecycle of connected medical devices, strengthening trust and privacy in the entire ecosystem. The framework will introduce an attestation mechanism to ensure device’s correct operation at runtime regardless of its computational power. This will be accompanied by a dynamic trust assessment model capable of identifying the required level of trustworthiness per device and service. 

Research Scope of the PhD Project 
In the scope of ENTRUST, the PhD project will focus on the runtime phase of the lifecycle of the devices when their behavior is subject to monitoring and continuous assessment. Runtime verification/monitoring techniques will be developed based on domain-specific languages for specifying properties to be verified at runtime. The concepts in these languages will be identified after analyzing the needs for building trust profiles and performing device attestation. In this approach, a number of language engineering challenges arise as well: are there reusable fundamental syntactical and semantical building blocks for such languages (for example, logical frameworks like LTL and subjective logic) that can be tailored and reused in different usage scenarios.
We aim at developing a framework for distributed hierarchical monitoring that allows various deployment scenarios for on- and off-device monitoring depending on the available computational resources. Special attention will be paid on identifying and executing actions when suspicious behavior is detected that compromises the device trust profile. 

Hosting Research Group 
You will join the Software Engineering and Technology (SET) group in the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, TU/e. SET performs research in software engineering with a strong focus on methods and tools for time- and cost-efficient development and evolution of high-quality software systems. More information about the group is available at https://www.tue.nl/en/research/research-groups/computer-science/software-engineering-and-technology-w/   

Job requirements

• A masters’ degree in computer science/software engineering
• Experience and interest in areas such as model-driven engineering, domain-specific language engineering, and runtime verification
• Knowledge and experience in the area of medical IoT systems and security is an advantage
• Solid software development, and language engineering or modeling skills
• Independent, motivated, and eager to learn personality, with enthusiasm for research
• Creative and persistent
• Excellent communication skills in English, both in speaking and writing
• A scientific publication record is considered as an advantage

Conditions of employment

A challenging job in a dynamic and ambitious university, in an interdisciplinary setting and within an international network. You will work on a beautiful, green campus within walking distance of the central train station. In addition, we offer you:

• Full-time employment for four years, with an intermediate evaluation (go/no-go) after nine months. You will spend 10% of your employment on teaching tasks.
• Salary and benefits (such as a pension scheme, paid pregnancy and maternity leave, partially paid parental leave) in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities.
• A year-end bonus of 8.3% and annual vacation pay of 8%.
• Collaboration with industrial partners
• High-quality training programs and other support to grow into a self-aware, autonomous scientific researcher. At TU/e we challenge you to take charge of your own learning process .
• An excellent technical infrastructure, on-campus children’s day care and sports facilities.
• An allowance for commuting, working from home and internet costs.
• A Staff Immigration Team and a tax compensation scheme (the 30% facility) for international candidates.

Information and application

About us

Eindhoven University of Technology is an internationally top-ranking university in the Netherlands that combines scientific curiosity with a hands-on attitude. Our spirit of collaboration translates into an open culture and a top-five position in collaborating with advanced industries. Fundamental knowledge enables us to design solutions for the highly complex problems of today and tomorrow. 

Curious to hear more about what it’s like as a PhD candidate at TU/e? Please view the video.

Information

Do you recognize yourself in this profile and would you like to know more?
Please contact dr. Ivan Kurtev (i.kurtev[at]tue.nl) or prof.dr. Mark van den Brand (m.g.j.v.d.Brand[at]tue.nl) 

Visit our website for more information about the application process or the conditions of employment. You can also contact HRServices.MCS[at]tue.nl.

Are you inspired and would like to know more about working at TU/e? Please visit our career page .

Application

We invite you to submit a complete application by using the apply button. The application should include a:

• Application letter with a statement of research interests that demonstrates understanding of the project topic
• A detailed CV, including a publication record if available
• An academic transcript with courses and earned grades
• A copy or a link to the master thesis
• Contacts of 2-3 references

We look forward to receiving your application and will screen it as soon as possible. The vacancy will remain open until the position is filled.

You can upload a maximum of 5 documents of up to 2MB each. Only applications that are submitted in this way are taken into account.