Applications are invited for a PhD studentship funded by the Engineering andPhysical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) as part of the Cityware project.This is a major collaborative project investigating mobile and pervasivesystems and urban design. Project partners include the University of Bath,Imperial College London, The Bartlett Faculty of the Built Environment atUCL, HP Labs, Vodafone, Nokia, IBM, Node and Bath & North-East SomersetCouncil.

The PhD student will be based at the University of Bath and at HP LabsBristol. The PhD research will focus on trust as a major concern of theusers of mobile and pervasive systems in urban environments. The work willfirst deepen our understanding of trust- and risk-related issues in urbansocial and public spaces, and investigate user requirements, perceptions andreasoning about trust involving both peer-to-peer interactions andinteractions with networked services. This study will draw on and add towhat is known in psychology, sociology, and urban design and architecture.The analysis will consider how trust relates, for different types of user,to factors such as social acceptability and convenience.

This trust analysis, combined with a threat analysis developed by acollaborating researcher, will lead into the development of techniques forsecuring users of mobile and pervasive systems against attacks on securityand privacy. This will lead to design implications for spaces,architectural features, devices, and services and to new security protocolsfor mobile and pervasive systems. These developments will be tested in arange of applications developed with the project partners.

The student will be jointly supervised by Dr Eamonn O’Neill (ComputerScience) and Dr Danae Stanton Fraser (Psychology) from the University ofBath and by Dr Tim Kindberg from HP Labs. The student will divide his/hertime between the University and HP Labs. The student will work closely witha post-doctoral Research Associate who will also spend time at both sites.In addition, there will be significant interaction and collaboration withthe other project partners, both academic and industrial. The idealcandidate will have a good first degree or MSc in a relevant subject (e.g.Psychology, Computer Science, Economics, Sociology or a Design discipline)and a strong interest in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) with mobile andpervasive systems.

Applications should be made by 20 March 2006. The PhD will start as soon aspossible, ideally immediately. Potential applicants are welcome to contactEamonn O’Neill for informal discussions or enquiries, either by phone (01225383216) or email (eamonn@cs.bath.ac.uk). The Cityware website is athttp://www.cityware.org.uk/. General information about studying for a PhDat Bath, including an application form, is available at:http://www.bath.ac.uk/grad-office/