opportunities

I am always looking for motivated Ph.D. students to join my team at UCL. If you are a prospective candidate, I invite you to read this page before contacting me for Ph.D./research opportunities.

Vacancies: Ph.D. Opportunities

In this section I planning to keep up-to-date information (as much as possible) about possible Ph.D. opportunities under my supervision. This list may not be exhaustive, and—depending on when you read this page—may contain expired opportunities.

Please note that these opportunities are highly competitive and funding is not guaranteed.

  • CDT in Cyber-Physical Risk: “Risk assessment and mitigation of threats to AI-enabled devices in cyber-physical-social systems” Deadline: April 15, 2025 Home Studentship Only
  • “Explainable, Knowledge-driven AI and ML for Systems Security” Deadline: Rolling Home Studentship Only
  • “Drift Forensics of Machine Learning for Malware Classification” Deadline: June 2025 (TBC)
    • Project Description
    • Programme and How to Apply
      • Note from the UELA website Please note that that Round 1 of the UELA application deadline has now passed. Round 2 will open in February and close in early June. We will not know whether there are places available for round 2 until after it closes, and Round 2 will be for Home candidates only. We strongly recommend you apply by the initial deadline for round 1 of 13:00 UK time on 28 January 2025.
    • Second Supervisor: Prof. Lorenzo Cavallaro (UCL CS)
    • Expected Start Date: October 2025

This list was last updated on March 4th, 2025.

Vacancies: PostDoc Opportunities

I currently have no PostDoc openings.

Research Vision

My research aims to develop adaptive cybersecurity solutions that leverage behavioral modeling to detect emerging threats and novel attack patterns. A key aspect of my work is ensuring that these models produce interpretable decisions, enabling security analysts to effectively assess and respond to potential risks.

I am particularly interested in adversarially dynamic environments, where traditional detection mechanisms struggle due to distribution shift and adversarsaries. A core aspect is on seeking techniques on how to embed knowledge into data-driven system (e.g., with symbolic AI), to improve the trustworthiness (primarily, robustness and explainability) of AI-driven security systems.

To get a better idea of the type of my research, and to see if you would like working in this space, I recommend you to read/skim some of my latest papers.

I am looking to solve problems in many domains with incoming students, including (but not limited to):

  • Embedding Expert Knowledge in ML Systems for Security
  • Explainable Security
  • AI-Driven Threat Detection
  • Automated Security Testing

Prospective Ph.D. Candidates

I am looking for candidates with a BSc/MSc in Computer Science (or analogous), and a strong mathematical and systems security background. Passion and commitment may partially compensate for background deficiencies in either of these two (but hardly for both). You need to be comfortable with scripting and coding, preferably in one or more of Python/Java/C/C++. You must hold a genuine interest with my research agenda, and in improving the state-of-the-art through top-quality publications.

Getting a Ph.D. is extremely challenging and, often times, frustrating. Experiments take long hours and often do not work out as expected. Top conferences have an acceptance rate of 10-15%, which means you will face a lot of rejections. Creating new knowledge is extremely rewarding, but requires creativity, persistence and motivation. This is part of the reason for which I am considering only full-time applications at this point in time.

If you are interested in doing a Ph.D. in Computer Science under my supervision at UCL, and if you are still keen to after reading the premise above, you should definitely write me an e-mail with your CV and interests (be sure to read all of this page before sending).

Make sure that you really motivate why you are interested in joining my team, as I receive many applications and I am looking for candidates that stand out in terms of passion and experience.

Please note that you will always be evaluated by one or more committees, and your admission does not arbitrarily depend on me.

If you insert “Bahamut 4.0” in your e-mail subject, it will increase your chances of receiving a response from me, since I will know you have read this page. I receive many applications, and some of them are very de-contextualized.

Research Visitors

I am generally happy to host Ph.D. students and PostDocs as visitors (who can visit with their own funding), but I have been slowing down the intake because of my workload. If you have a specific project that you would like to do, please make sure to mention that in your e-mail, as it may affect which visitors to prioritize.

Please take into account that the formal process for approval of research visitors can take about 2-3 months.