Post-doctoral Fellowship Opportunities

We are seeking applicants for a post-doctoral position offering interdisciplinary research opportunities in advanced cybersecurity and communications networks for next-generation industrial control systems, e.g., power grids.

Interdisciplinary Research
This 2- or 3-year appointment will support innovative, domain-integrative projects that strengthen the resilience, reliability, and sustainability of cyber-physical infrastructures. You will combine cutting-edge cybersecurity and networking technologies (e.g., programmable intrusion detection and software-defined networking) with state-of-the-art reinforcement learning and generative AI to detect, prevent, and preemptively mitigate intelligent adversarial vectors.

Supportive Mentoring
You will be co-advised by two faculty mentors whose complementary expertise will guide your independent research and professional development:

Professor Yan (Lindsay) Sun is an IEEE Fellow and a faculty member at the University of Rhode Island (URI) since 2004. She earned her Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Maryland. Her research focuses on cybersecurity, including cyber-physical systems security, network security, and trustworthy social computing. She is the founding director of URI’s Center for Cyber-Physical Intelligence and Security (CYPHER). Dr. Sun has received many awards, such as the NSF CAREER Award (2007) and five Best Paper Awards from IEEE conferences and journals. She was recognized with the University of Maryland ECE Distinguished Alumni Award and the URI College of Engineering Outstanding Faculty Research Award in 2022. Active in community service, Dr. Sun has served on Congressman Langevin’s Cybersecurity Advisory Board and various local organizations, and she was named a 40 Under 40 honoree by Providence Business News in 2015.

Prof. Hui Lin is an Associate Professor at the Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering Department at the University of Rhode Island. He earned his Ph.D. degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2017 in electrical and computer engineering. His research interests include cybersecurity, intrusion detection systems, and software-defined networking (SDN) in the areas of cyber-physical systems, such as power systems. He has successfully adapted Zeek (originally known as Bro), a runtime network traffic analyzer, to support network protocols (e.g., DNP3) commonly used in power grid infrastructure. The DNP3 analyzer that he developed has been included in Bro and can be downloaded freely by utility companies. His current work focuses on applying SDN in cyber-physical systems; he intends to use SDN’s network programmability to design flexible cyber-physical systems that can quickly respond to cyber-attacks and accidents. He has received NSF CAREER and NSF CRII awards.

Required Qualifications

  • Ph.D. in computer engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, or closely related areas from English-speaking program.
  • Strong expertise in cybersecurity, computer networks, or artificial intelligence.
  • Strong research experiences demonstrated by good publication records.
  • Excellent organization and communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

  • Competence with Linux/Unix environment, Python, and Pytorch.
  • Experience of hardware programing, e.g., assembly or FPGA.
  • Have taken coursework in calculus, linear algebra, probability and statistics, and possess strong proficiency in mathematical thinking and abstract reasoning.
  • Curiosity that goes across disciplinary boundaries.
  • Independence and leadership in research projects.

Responsibilities

  • Conduct research in cybersecurity in cyber-physical systems or Internet-of-things.
  • Organize & help lab equipment and experiments.
  • Publish & present in competitive conferences and journals.
  • Contribute to guiding PhD/Master/undergraduate students.
  • Contribute to the development of research proposals.

Responsibilities

  • Innovative research environment and supportive working culture.
  • Excellent opportunities to enhance research experiences and collaboration with top academic/industry partners.
  • Good work-life balance.
  • Competitive salary.

Application
The start time can be flexible. The application will remain open until the positions are filled. If interested, please send your CV to huilin@uri.edu.