A PhD studentship is available to develop novel methods for reasoning about the trustworthiness and
information content of obfuscated data. Entities operating within a coalition may be wary of 
providing other coalition members with high fidelity data at all times for various possible reasons.
Therefore, before providing others with this data, they may obfuscate it in order to reduce its 
accuracy. In such a situation, two questions need to be answered: (i) as an information provider,
what type of obfuscation is required in order to ensure that an information consumer (gathering 
data from multiple sources) cannot discover information that you are trying to prevent them from 
discovering? and (ii) as an information consumer, how can you work out the quality of an information
provider given that you are receiving obfuscated data? As a PhD student working at the University 
of Aberdeen as part of the International Technology Alliance (ITA), you will be investigating these
questions.You should have at least an upper second-class honours degree (ideally a first class 
degree), or a combination of qualifications and/or experience equivalent to that level, with a 
strong mathematical background. Additionally, the successful candidate should have: (i) excellent programming skills; (ii) excellent communication and technical writing skills because you will be expected to work with other technologists and collaborate with external partners on a regular basis, as well as present your work in scientific conferences; and (iii) a willingness to travel.
The project partners include UCLA and IBM in both the US (T J Watson Research Center) and UK 
(Hursley).

Application Procedure

Formal applications can be completed online: www.abdn.ac.uk/postgraduate/apply/.   You should apply
for MSc with a view to transfer to PhD in Computing Science, to ensure that your application is 
passed to the correct College for processing.  Please note, you should apply at least 4 days before
the deadline to allow us to contact you for further information, if required.  All applications 
received up to, and including the closing date, will be processed. Please include a covering letter
and an up-to-date C.V. (no longer than 2 sides of A4) and a Detailed Research Proposal. Informal 
academic enquiries should be directed to Dr Nir Oren (n.oren@abdn.ac.uk). All general enquiries 
should be directed to the Graduate School Admissions Unit.

Application Deadline

01 June 2011

Start Date

1st October 2011

Funding Eligibility

Tuition fees will be paid at UK/EU rate which is currently £3,400.  A standard EPSRC maintenance 
award will also be paid, this is currently £13,590 per annum, paid monthly in arrears. The 
studentship is funded by the International Technology Alliance project (www.usukita.org). The 
studentship is funded at this level for 3yrs.

Funding Notes

Applications from international applicants can be accepted provided they can confirm that they can
meet the difference between UK/EU and overseas tuition fees from their own resources. For academic
year 2011/2012 this will be approximately £9,800.