Can you provide our students with a real-world cyber security challenge?

“As we move towards a hyperconnected future, cyber-attacks form one of the major threats to national and international security. We need future leaders in academia and industry who are able to anticipate the myriad trust, identity, privacy and security challenges in complex infrastructures and develop solutions to overcome them. ”

— PROFESSOR AWAIS RASHID (UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL), DIRECTOR

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Every organisation will face cyber security challenges. The aim of the Centre of Doctoral Training (CDT) in trust, identity, privacy and security (TIPS) is to equip the next generation of experts to tackle those challenges with knowledge, with imagination and with commitment to doing so ethically. This cannot just be learned in a lab, or a classroom, and the opportunity for students to take their skills into a real scenario is invaluable.

The CDT Responsible Innovation Challenge will run annually for at least the next five years. The programme kicks off this September and the first challenge days will take place between Tuesday 23rd and Thursday 25th September 2021. We’re looking for partner organisations to work with us, helping to improve our students’ experience and innovative thinking when faced with real-world cyber threats.

Our ask

· Provide our students with a real-world cyber security challenge to work on – we can help you to refine an idea into a clearly defined problem

· Spend some time with the students briefing them, offer scheduled time (approx. two hours) over two days for them to come back with questions (blend of in person or remote depending on location)

· Attend a presentation at the end to hear their response to your challenge (remote or in person)

Benefits to you

· You could walk away with an actionable solution to a real problem

· At the very least, you will have progress made on solving a real problem

· The opportunity to form links with people who will shortly be out there doing this every day

Interested?

If your organisation can provide University of Bath students with a real-world cyber security challenge we want to hear from you! Get in touch with SETsquared Bath here or contact your dedicated Entrepreneur in Residence (Pete, Garry or Sean) if you are a SETsquared Bath member. We will discuss your challenge proposal and tell you more about what is involved.

‘Responsible Innovation’ is a thread that runs through thee students’ whole time within the CDT. A must-pass taught module in the first year, taught by one of the UK’s leading experts in the field, it is also a necessary and assessed component of their research. This reflects that RI is vital in the world of business, and is inextricably linked to long-term success. The CDT is funded by EPSRC, a UK-government body, with additional funding from the Universities of Bristol and Bath, and from industry. Students within the CDT undertake a non-traditional PhD course in which the first year is taught, after which they move to research for the remaining three years.

The key differentiating factor in this CDT is that it is inter-disciplinary. Students come from many different academic and professional backgrounds, both technical and socio-technical. While the first year of the course gives them all a baseline of shared knowledge, their differences are what really makes it all work. Students work together, bringing in knowledge from subjects as diverse as computer science, psychology, and international relations. Some have worked for years before beginning their PhD and some have come straight from an undergraduate degree.