Tuesday, February 19, 2013

PhD Positions in Formal Methods and Language-based Security at Chalmers

4 *PhD* Positions in Formal Methods and Language-based Security at the
Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, Chalmers University of
Technology, Sweden

Application deadline: March 30, 2013

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*Job description ...*

*... of the 2 PhD positions in Formal Methods*
The Formal Methods group is an internationally recognized research group
with a high-profile research track record and an excellent network of
collaborators. The group's research focus is in the theoretical and
practical aspects of formal software verification, including automated
reasoning, interactive theorem proving, runtime verification, and test
generation. Together with international collaborators, the group members
co-developed widely recognized verification tools like KeY
(www.key-project.org), Vampire (http://vprover.org), ALIGATOR
(http://mtc.epfl.ch/software-tools/Aligator), and LARVA. The research of
the two advertised PhD positions will be in the area of Software
Verification, where
- one position has a stronger focus on the creative use and development
of automated reasoning techniques for software verification,
- the other has a stronger focus on combining static and runtime
verification of software.
The selection of the specific research topic will take into account both
the interests of the new PhD student and the research agenda of the group.

*... of the (up to) 2 PhD positions in Language-based Security*
The PhD students will join a world-leading team of researchers on
programming language-based security. Language-based security facilitates
specifying and enforcing security policies at the level of programming
languages early in the software design and construction phase. The focus
of the advertised positions is on the following directions of work:
- To design rich security policies for confidentiality and integrity, as
demanded by practical applications (such as web applications).
- To develop practical enforcement mechanisms for these policies in
expressive programming languages (such as web languages). These
enforcement mechanisms may combine static (for example, type
system-based) and dynamic (for example, execution monitoring-based)
techniques.
- To support the above with case studies in web-application security.
In pursuing these goals, there are possibilities for collaboration with
our high-profile academic and industrial partners. We run a number of
ambitious projects with top international partners in academia and
industry, including the European project WebSand on web application
security: https://www.websand.eu/

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*Details about Employment*

PhD student positions are limited to five years and normally include 20
per cent departmental work, mostly teaching duties. Salary for the
position is as specified in Chalmers' general agreement for PhD student
positions. Currently the starting salary is 26,250SEK a month before
tax. The positions are intended to start in spring or fall 2013.

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*Suitable Background*

Applicants for a PhD position must have a degree in Computing Science or
in a related subject with a strong Computing Science component. They
must also have a strong, documented interest in doing research. The
ideal candidate for a position in Formal Methods will have strong
background in one or more of the following areas: logic, theorem
proving, software verification. The ideal candidate for a position in
Language-based Security will have strong background in both programming
languages and security. You may even apply if you have not yet completed
your degree, but expect to do so before the position starts.

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*The Department*

The Department has about 70 faculty members and enrolls about 70 PhD
students from more than 30 countries. The research spans the whole
spectrum, from theoretical foundations to applied systems development.
There is extensive national and international collaboration with
academia and industry all around the world. For more information, see
http://www.chalmers.se/cse/EN/

Knowledge of Swedish is not a prerequisite for application. English is
our working language for research. Both Swedish and English are used in
undergraduate courses. Half of our researchers and PhD students come
from more than 30 different countries.

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*Gothenburg, Sweden*

Gothenburg is often referred to as the "heart of Scandinavia". The
videos below give an impression what it's like to live and study in
Gothenburg.

Live in Gothenburg: http://youtu.be/sbwVIQeGcdY

Study in Gothenburg: http://youtu.be/0WrlGlSyS1c

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*How to Apply*

Electronic application can be submitted following these guidelines:

For the PhD positions in Formal Methods:
http://www.chalmers.se/en/about-chalmers/vacancies/Pages/default.aspx?RMURL=VacDetail.aspx%3FCommAdSeqNo%3D1174

For the PhD positions in Language-based Security:
http://www.chalmers.se/en/about-chalmers/vacancies/Pages/default.aspx?RMURL=VacDetail%2Easpx%3FCommAdSeqNo%3D1173