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Find out about the current PhD students at the Centre for Doctoral Training in Cybersecurity.
Cohort 4
Kyle Beadle
I am a PhD candidate in the Cybersecurity CDT at University College London supervised by Dr Marie Vasek. My research concerns the ethics and governance of information technology, with a particular interest in surveillance studies.
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My academic background includes education in both Computer Science and International Relations. In 2022, I completed my MA in Intelligence and International Security at King's College London where my dissertation explored the security and privacy landscape of central bank digital currencies.
Currently, my research focuses on including citizen participation in national cybersecurity. Through my investigation, I hope to uncover the social and technical requirements, conditions, and ethical challenges of citizen participation in the protection of critical national infrastructure.
John Solaas
In my studies with the CDT, I will investigate the topic of adversarial attacks against autonomous vehicles. Acknowledging the technological growth and popularity of self-driving vehicles, I wanted to examine how this system can both be attacked and protected.
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I have previously completed a bachelor's degree in Criminology with Psychology. Subsequently, I continued my academic career and studied a MSc in Crime Science at UCL. In this programme, I developed an interest in technology. A surprising change for me as I had initially pursued a social science-oriented direction. In my master's, I had interests in data science, cybercrime, cybersecurity, and simulation technology. I proceeded to write my dissertation developing an agent-based model of hot spots policing (a policing strategy) using python. Alongside my studies I have had an interest in ethical hacking, programming, and data science.
Maria Vau
Having a background in both science and social sciences meant that applying to the CDT was not only the ideal but also the right fit. Prior, I completed my BA in War Studies and MA in Science and International Security, at King’s College London.
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During both courses, I found myself gravitating towards cybersecurity, more specifically AI, and its intersection with security and conflict. I am particularly interested in AI, and its potential role in influence operations. More specifically, AI and misinformation, disinformation, propaganda and hate speech; as well as its on bias and its perpetuation, its overlap with emerging technologies such as biometrics; and AI’s effects on the erosion of trust and subsequent epistemic consequences.
Robert Bose
I am a PhD graduate researcher in the CDT Cyber security inter-disciplinary division working under the supervision of Dr Tristan Caulfield and Prof Madeline Carr. I have found my calling in academia after a rewarding first innings in financial services industry.
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I have found my calling in academia after a rewarding first innings in financial services industry. I have mainly worked for US and European investment banks heading up Cyber security functions as CISO holding ultimate accountability for Cyber security risk posture of the bank reporting to Board of Directors and Regulators. Therefore, my research topic naturally deals with Cyber risk profiling concept at its core to explore real time production challenges involving key risk indicators, its attributes, and the underlying aggregation logic. On the other side of the equation is the due diligence and research into Cyber risk profile consumption patterns in the context of data flow, information exchange and operating model between Regulators and banks.
Regulators, traditionally have solely relied on bank's self-attestation on the efficacy of their internal controls to address compliance to Cyber regulations to showcase solvency inorder to maintain a banking licence. Now, with the ever-increasing threat landscape involving emerging technologies and horizon threats, there is a strong case to review the current status quo as relying solely on passive regulatory exams as the only way to test the robustness of a bank's Cyber risk posture may prove inadequate as it is more likely to render Regulator and regulations ineffective. The specific nature of my research exploration will delve into Cyber regulations governing banks assigned as Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) belonging to G5 countries and to enable a paradigm shift for Regulators of CNI banks to actively engage to monitor real/near time risk profiles for the CNI banks to activate near time regulatory response if needed depending on risk threshold breaches such as customer data breach impacts. This shift to a real /near time risk profile and threshold breach monitoring by Regulators of CNI banks will probably mean conceptualising a regulatory infrastructure capable of handling synchronous secure information exchange and an overhaul of the banks and Regulators existing relationship to a next level operating model built on increased transparency, trust, and partnership."
Elodie Garceau
I am currently pursuing a PhD in Cybersecurity at the Centre for Doctoral Training at UCL. Supervised by Professor Madeline Carr and Dr Melanie Garson, my research will seek to examine the concept of cyberdiplomacy, which can be defined as the conduct of diplomatic actions designed for issues arising in the cyberspace, and a tool used by states in an attempt to shape the governance of this international cyber territory.
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I hold an MA in International Relations and European Studies from Aix-Marseille University (France). My Master's dissertation focused on the impact of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) on the cultural policies implemented across each Member State of the European Union. It also examined the role of the European Union and its incentives to implement the use of ICT in diverse sectors through its priorities and programmes. This study ignited my interest in conducting research that sits at the intersection of politics and digital technologies.
Since cybersecurity is by essence interdisciplinary, I look forward to collaborating with the academic team and our cohorts of students coming from such diverse fields, and to evolve in this doctoral centre designed to apprehend the multifaceted nature of cybersecurity.
Chimdi Igwe
I am a PhD candidate within the CDT for Cybersecurity, under the supervision of Professor Madeline Carr. After graduating with an MEng in Materials Science and Engineering from Imperial College London, I worked in the IT industry as a network consulting engineer, designing and implementing security solutions for customer enterprise and industrial networks.
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My interests lie in the socio-political implications of cybersecurity in international society. Currently, the focus of my research revolves around challenges in diplomatic information sharing, specifically regarding cyber attribution. To this end, I am exploring zero knowledge proof schemes and their potential use in this context.
Ema Mauko
I am a Doctoral Student in the Center for Doctoral Training in Cybersecurity at University College London, supervised by Dr Enrico Mariconti. My research focuses on the investigation of Crime as a Service. During my undergraduate studies in Security and Crime Science at UCL I realised how much I really enjoyed being a part of such an exciting and vibrant, multidisciplinary department and research community.
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Before joining the CDT, I had completed my master’s degree in Security and Resilience: Science and Technology at Imperial College London where I was exposed to a more technical perspective of cybersecurity. I am really excited to be a part of the CDT and to be exposed to a wide variety of people and disciplines to discuss the various aspects of cybersecurity. My research interests are very diverse, but I’m most interested in emerging (technology) threats and their impact from a socio-technical perspective as well as the evolution of the more traditional crimes to today’s world.
Sara Rubini
I am a PhD candidate at the Cybersecurity Centre for Doctoral Training at UCL, supervised by Professor Paul Gill. Before joining the CDT I was a student at the University of Groningen, where I completed a master in International Security and an Honors master in Leadership.
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In 2019, I had the opportunity to do an exchange at UCL. I found the international research environment at UCL so stimulating that I felt it would have been the optimal context to nurture my passion for international and cyber security. What attracted me the most to the CDT was its multidisciplinary approach, which brings together students from diverse backgrounds.
Maria Sandoval Bravo
I stand out as a multidisciplinary professional. I hold a Master's in Public Administration in Digital Technologies and Policy from the University College London at the department of Science Technology Engineering and Public Policy (STEaPP).
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After I graduated with a bachelor's degree in Socioeconomics, I worked for 15 years, mainly in public institutions and private and third sectors in Chile. Lately, I have worked as a digital director in political campaigns, digital technology and policies technologies advisor and a consultant in the private sector. My interest in digital technologies and cybersecurity is transversal to my career.
At a global level, the malicious use of technology to manipulate public opinion is one of the greatest threats we suffer as a society. Although this is not a phenomenon that appears solely with artificial intelligence, this has been one of the tools to record harmful content, causing polarisation and extremism massively. I am interested in exploring the ethical, economic, social, and political dimensions of the malicious use of technology and, consequently, being able to identify the challenges for cybersecurity and propose solutions that prevent, control, or mitigate the damage to democracy.
Therefore, the UCL Cybersecurity CDT fits my multidisciplinary career approach. It is not easy to find programs that combine different knowledge and backgrounds. I understand that science and knowledge are an integral and complex match and even more so in public policies and wicked problems.
Luano Silva
I am a PhD student at the CDT at UCL under the supervision of Professor Madeline Carr. My research interests have focused mainly cyberattacks in cyberspace. My current research concentrates on attribution and Zero-Knowledge Proofs in International Cybersecurity.
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I hold a five-year bachelor's in International Relations from the Rio de Janeiro State University (Brazil), spending the third year at Sciences Po Rennes. In 2021, I completed my master's degree at Sciences Po Strasbourg, whose dissertation project focused on cyberattacks in the EU and how policies have been implemented to tackle the spike of cyberattacks during the pandemic.(97 words)
As I encountered the attribution problem concerning cyberattacks during my master's thesis, I applied for the Cybersecurity CDT to address such an important topic in international politics. I feel fortunate to find the cybersecurity CDT programme, and I am genuinely thrilled to be part of it due to the interdisciplinary approach, the opportunities, and the environment that UCL provides.
As a result, I am eager to initiate my research on attribution and Zero-Knowledge Proofs in International Cybersecurity. The aim is to combine International Relations and cryptography to investigate the mechanisms through which cyber incidents can be attributed among state nations without revealing strategic or sensitive information using zero-knowledge proofs.
Alexander Brennan
I am a PhD student in the CDT in Cybersecurity at UCL, under the supervision of Professor Shi Zhou and Dr Sanaz Zolghadriha. My research focuses on online disinformation and the impacts associated with generative AI. Prior to academia, my background was in engineering, predominately working within research and development. In 2022, I completed a master’s in Computer Science at the University of York. My dissertation project explored the problem of bots on social media, for which I developed a technique to improve bot detection accuracy by leveraging contextual information acquired through OSINT.
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My research interests lie in the impacts of misinformation on online social networks, particularly the influence on political polarisation and information distrust. My PhD research aims to counter misinformation by developing applicable detection techniques using open-source intelligence.
Meenatchi Sundaram Muthu Selva Annamalai
I am a PhD student at UCL’s CDT in Cybersecurity under the supervision of Prof. Emiliano De Cristofaro. I completed my undergraduate studies at Imperial College London in 2021 where I had the opportunity to do multiple projects under the supervision of Assoc. Prof. Yves-Alexandres de Montjoye, Luc Rocher and Andrea Gadotti.
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I have also completed a 1 year Research Attachment at the Institute for Infocomm Research in Singapore under the supervision of Dr. Khin Mi Mi Aung. My work thus far has mainly focused on investigating the information leakage in deployed differentially private mechanisms and building privacy enhancing systems (using MHE and SMPC) for collaborative analytics.
My current research interests lie in the intersection of privacy and digital tech policy with a focus on federated learning and distributed systems and I strongly believe that the multidisciplinary training provided by the CDT is perfectly fitted to my interests.
Pinaki Chakraborty
Pinaki is a cybersecurity CDT student in the Department of Computer Science who works with Professor David Pym. His research focuses on computational logic and its applications to systems modelling, using proof theory and model checking.
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He applies formal verification techniques to ensure that systems meet specific security properties, with applications in industries such as banking and healthcare. He has a master's degree in Statistics and Computer Science from the Indian Statistical Institute and is also interested in the intersection of computational logic with program verification and AI.