We are looking for a PhD student, starting at end of January 2023 or as soon as possible thereafter, to work on the Horizon EUROPE projects RAISE and UPCAST led by Dr George Konstantinidis. These aim at designing and deploying algorithms for data marketplaces and data sharing platforms, to collaboratively negotiate and enforce data sharing contracts automatically providing dynamic fair pricing while ensuring privacy.
You will do research, design and implement algorithms for one, or combination, of the following: data integration, exchange and sharing (option A), data privacy, automating data agreements, and privacy-based data sharing (option B), dataset search (option C). You will write and submit academic papers, technical reports, and project deliverables, and travel to conferences or meetings to present your work and represent the team.
For option A: You will do research on data integration/exchange, on topics ranging from query answering in the face of constraints/ontologies to reasoning algorithms for knowledge graphs, depending on your interests and expertise. You will investigate, develop, and maintain (i) mapping languages to associate different resources and algorithms in a data marketplace to each other or to a global vocabulary, (ii) a data-warehousing/data-exchange approach, that moves data within the data ecosystem while respecting all negotiated privacy and pricing conditions (iii) a virtual integration approach where queries are posed over a central vocabulary and the system needs to resolve them over the source schemas/endpoints/APIs, (iv) data validation techniques. All these tasks will build upon and extend existing implementations.
For option B: you will do research on data privacy for data sharing mechanisms (incl. potentially via the use of Blockchains) with a particular focus on expressing privacy preferences in a machine-processable way using knowledge graphs, and the algorithmic mechanisms to enforce them. You will work on a middleware which streamlines and automates the negotiation, and convergence of large parts of data sharing agreements, currently written in human language. For example, the system will manage the negotiation of privacy preferences against different pricing schemes (in contrast to more traditional accept/reject approaches), model data processing purposes and support also privacy updates (e.g., withdrawal of consent).
For option C: You will do research on dataset search and on the: (i) design of vocabularies/languages to express dataset properties and reason over data processing workflows, (ii) exploration of decentralised data catalogues and data processing resources repositories, (iii) answering queries expressed as data processing workflows, (iv) recommendation of datasets and resources for (i) and (ii) above.
Entry Requirements
A very good undergraduate degree (at least a UK 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent).
Closing date 20 December 2022 for admission in January 2023, but later applications may be considered depending on the funds remaining in place.
Funding: Tuition Fees and a stipend of £17,668 tax-free per annum for up to 3.5 years.
How To Apply
Apply online: Search for a Postgraduate Programme of Study (soton.ac.uk). Select programme type (Research), 2022/23, Faculty of Physical Sciences and Engineering, next page select “PhD Computer Science (Full time)”. In Section 2 of the application form you should insert the name of the supervisor George Konstantinidis
Applications should include:
Research Proposal
Curriculum Vitae
Two reference letters
Degree Transcripts/Certificates to date
For further information please contact: [Email Address Removed]
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