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The High Frequency Electronics Research Cluster (HFEC) of ECIT co-received the Antenna Theory Award of the 2012 European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP 2012), which took place in Prague, Czech Republic, between 26-30 March 2012. The award was received for the paper:

M. García-Vigueras, P. DeLara-Guarch, J.L. Gómez-Tornero, R. Guzmán-Quirós, G. Goussetis, “Efficiently Illuminated Broadside-Directed 1D and 2D Tapered Fabry-Perot Leaky-Wave Antennas,” European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), 26-30 March 2012, Prague, Czech Republic which Dr. George Goussetis of HFEC co-authored in collaboration with the group of Dr. Jose-Luis  Gómez-Tornero in UPCT, Spain. Maria García-Vigueras has been a visiting researcher with the HFE cluster of ECIT during 2011 and again 2012.

EuCAP is the major Antenna and Propagation conference in Europe. The total number of papers received for EuCAP 2012 has been 1237 from 61 countries with the total participation of 3693 authors.

Further information on the work of the High Frequency Electronic Circuits Research Cluster of ECIT can be found online at www.ecit.qub.ac.uk/Research/HighFrequencyElectronicCircuits

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• Enhancing the UK’s cyber knowledge base through original research
• Providing top quality graduates in the field of cyber security
• Supporting GCHQ’s cyber defence mission
• Driving up the level of innovation

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The School is currently seeking a number of academics at all levels to help it achieve its ambitious growth targets. 

If you are at the start of a promising career or an established leader in innovation we want to hear from you. 

 

This is an exciting time to join the School of EEECS at Queen's University Belfast. Ranked among the top 100 in the world for Electrical and Electronic Engineering (QS World Rankings), the School is also consistently ranked in the top 10 in UK University League tables for its subjects. We are entering an exciting and challenging period of growth, due to significant investment over the past several years, and you can play a key part in that.

The School's £40m Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT) is a new world-class centre specializing in key areas of advanced digital and communications technology, with a unique focus on blue skies, strategic and industrial research projects. ECIT is also home to the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT), a £30m innovation and knowledge centre, which develops secure solutions to problems such as the protection of mobile phone networks and the creation of secure "corridors" for the seamless and rapid transit of people. EEECS is not only about electronics and computing - we are also a member of the UK Power Academy, made up of the top 7 UK Universities for Electric Power Engineering.

Interested? Why not consider joining us at this exciting time and help to shape your future and ours. So if you are at the start of a promising career or an established leader in innovation, we want to hear from you. We are interested in recruiting to all areas of the School but would encourage applications from academics in the fields of Cyber Security, Vision Systems, Energy and Intelligent Control.

See further details on opportunities in the School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at qub.ac.uk/jobs

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The Irish Academy of Engineering is currently involved in a campaign to promote its belief that the key to economic recovery and future employment opportunities lies in the contribution which engineering research can make to economic development and job creation. It further believes that much closer integration of our Universities’ research programmes with industry is a vital component in a national economic recovery strategy.

Lecture information

As part of their campaign the Academy, with the generous support of Intel Labs Europe, has arranged a series of public lectures by internationally renowned speakers on this subject.  The third lecture in the series will be delivered at the Great Hall, Lanyon Building, Queen’s University Belfast at 6.00 p.m. on Tuesday, 21st February 2012 and everyone interested in engineering research and its contribution to future job opportunities should attend.  The speaker will be Professor John V. McCanny, CBE FRS FREng FIAE.

About Professor John V. McCanny

Prof. McCanny is Director of the Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT) at Queen’s University Belfast and founder of several high technology companies.  His awards include the Institute of Engineering & Technology’s Faraday Medal, the Royal Irish Academy’s Cunningham Medal and the Royal Dublin Society/Irish Times Boyle Medal.  His lecture will be on “Research and Development:  Successful Models for Economic Impact”, a subject upon which he is internationally recognised.

Registration

Individuals wishing to attend the event are invited to register in advance here. Directions to the Lanyon Building at Queen's University Belfast can be found here.

For any further information contact the IAE at www.iae.ie or Prof. John Kelly at +353 86 8327462

 

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A group of four researchers from ECIT recently presented their new findings at the "33rd ESA Antenna Workshop on Challenges for Space Applications". This workshop brings together top experts in the design of antennas used for satellites and other space applications, and is held at the European Space Agency headquarters in Noordwijk, near Amsterdam.

Efstratios Doumanis, Research Associate in the High Frequency Electronics Cluster in ECIT, received the ESA young engineer award for the paper co-authored with George Goussetis, Robert Cahill, Vincent Fusco (ECIT) and Herve Legay (Thales Alenia Space, France), "C-Band Linear to Circular Polarization Conversion Surface on Honeycomb Substrate".  This work aims to greatly simplify the antennas on board satellites, allowing for more functionality to be packed into them. Other research presented, included the work by Neil Buchanan, Steven Christie, Robert Cahill and Vincent Fusco on self-steered antennas, which remove the need to accurately point bulky satellite dishes.

This is the second year running that ECIT researchers received the young engineer award at the European Space Agency Workshop on Antennas for Space Applications.

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Xiaolin Cao, a 3rd year PhD student from the Data Security Systems Group at CSIT, was awarded Best Student Paper at the 22nd IET Irish Signals and Systems Conference (ISSC), held in Trinity College Dublin in June 2011.

His paper on a ‘Compact SHA-256 Architecture for RFID Tags’ describes an optimised SHA-256 design that can be employed to provide data integrity and authentication in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags and is the smallest hash function design reported to date.

ISSC is the premier conference in Ireland addressing all aspects of signals and systems. The conference focuses on Digital Signal Processing, Control and Communications, and encompasses algorithm and system modeling, design, and implementation for a broad range of applications.

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Flish, a team from Queen's University Belfast who have developed a low cost, low power antenna capable of picking up satellite signals automatically, which could make satellite dishes a thing of the past, are 'flying high' after being announced as the 'the next big thing' to come out of Northern Ireland's research community at the NISP CONNECT £25K Awards last night.

They have walked away with a total prize fund of £13,000 as overall winners of the technology entrepreneur awards which are sponsored by the Bank of Ireland UK, QUB, University of Ulster and AFBI (Agri Food and Biosciences Institute) and supported by NI's Health and Social Care Trusts. Designed as a commercial experience the Awards aim to encourage researchers to act on their talents, ideas and energy to produce tomorrow's leading commercial opportunities.

The innovative equipment developed by Flish is a high gain antenna which has the ability to 'point' to distant signals such as a satellite. It does not need to be aligned, like a satellite dish, and has no moving parts.. It enables satellite dishes to be replaced with flat panels on walls or roof tiles that need no set-up or calibration and will have particular relevance to the commercial satellite broadband market with the long-term aim of replacing the cumbersome domestic satellite dishes. It also has potential application in transportation as it can fit around the curves of vehicles or aircraft.  The more compact antenna which has the ability to point to a signal in milliseconds has further application in the military and disaster relief market when a team may only have minutes to setup a lifesaving video link.

Neil Buchanan from Flish said: "It is a great honour to be crowned the overall winner of the £25K Awards. We have worked in conjunction with the European Space Agency to fine tune our unique analogue circuit design and have been able to produce an end product that is more power efficient, lighter and less costly than anything else currently available. The global market value of antennas was estimated to be $10.1billion in 2009 and expected to increase to $13.3billion in 2014 and we believe our innovation has the potential to be a real game changer for the industry. We plan to capitalise on our learning experiences from the £25Ks to seek funding to see the business through to profitability."

The £25k Awards category winners were as follows, each picking up a cheque for £2,500:

• Hitech: Flish (QUB) , both category and overall winners
  
  
• BioTech: OncoTech (QUB), Ran Biomarker is a diagnostic assay suitable for both tissue and blood that can identify cancer patients at high risk of metastasis.
  
  
• CleanTech: BMT (QUB), a device for measuring the temperature of a polymer preform profile during the injection stretch blow moulding process largely used in the multi-billion pound packaging industry.
  
  
• Digital Media & Software: Future Healthcare NI Ltd (HSC/ C-TRIC &Altnagelvin), clinical Communicator is a hosted clinical dashboard on the cloud platform which works as an accident reporting tool, task management tool and a change management tool.
  
  

NISP CONNECT Director, Steve Orr, said: "The £25K Awards offers a showcase for regional research talent to display their world-class innovations while providing a valuable training and development process towards commercialisation of their innovations. I would like to congratulate all the category winners for their innovative entries however special acknowledgement must go to the overall winners, Flish, who wowed the judges with their pioneering antenna device, which offers great commercial potential.

"This is an extremely exciting time for the team and moving on from the initial stages of business development I have no doubt that Flish will be able to benefit from other NISP CONNECT programmes which are designed to inspire, encourage and nurture local technology entrepreneurs during  idea conception, growth and improvement stages."

Clare Guinness, Regional Business Manager, Bank of Ireland UK added: "Once again the £25K Awards have been a resounding success with the spotlight shining on Northern Ireland's research community who have worked hard to produce truly innovative projects with real commercial potential. At Bank of Ireland UK we are delighted support the Awards and look forward to developing our relationships with the teams and other local entrepreneurs who are committed to the commercialisation of knowledge for the benefit of our local economy."

The awards were presented at a gala ceremony in the Titanic's Dock & Pump-House at the Northern Ireland Science Park.

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Queen’s University Belfast’s Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) today announced that it has become a member of the Network Intelligence Alliance (NI Alliance), a new industry organization created for collaboration among the Network Economy’s technology providers. Participation in the NI Alliance will help CSIT to engage more closely with industry specialists in the area of network intelligence and further enhance its leadership position in secure information technology research.

In today’s Network Economy—a world that now depends and runs on networks—accurate visibility and precise tracking of data crossing networks have become crucial to the availability, performance and security of applications and services. The growing complexity of IP transactions, the explosion of mobile applications, and the mainstream adoption of cloud computing surpass the capabilities of conventional tools to improve how networks operate, expand services and police illicit or criminal activity.  Just like Business Intelligence solutions emerged to unlock information hidden in the enterprise, Network Intelligence technology is an emerging category of technology to reveal the critical details of the data locked inside network traffic and transactions.

The NI Alliance serves two purposes: first, as a forum for collaboration among technology providers whose solutions secure data in transit, ensure efficient data delivery, monetize data transactions or track real-time information.  Through the NI Alliance, members can better serve their customers.

The NI Alliance also seeks to educate the market and the public on the role and value of Network Intelligence in protecting sensitive information; delivering value-added services, applications and information; and ensuring better performance of network-dependent solutions.

CSIT runs a world leading network security research cluster focused on real-time identification of malicious activity and malware attacks, and defensive measures for the protection of networks from such attacks.

”The NI Alliance brings together leading vendors in traffic capture, processing and network intelligence, all of which are key components of CSIT’s innovation strategy” says Stephen Wray, Commercial Director at CSIT. “The combination of CSIT’s world class research capability and the market focus of the NI Alliance will help us ensure technologies advance in line with real-world needs.”

The overarching guiding principle of the CSIT Network Security research cluster is to make the Internet a safer place for society. The research mission is to derive innovations in areas like content processing, real-time traffic mining, monitoring, content policing and early threat identification methods and algorithms; threat/attack mitigation and defensive countermeasure technologies for mobile, wireless and wire-line networks; detection & prevention of Internet misuse or abuse, and network/domain/host vulnerability analysis and assessment. The research also investigates threats such as malicious software, intrusion, cyber-warfare tactics targeting government and e-business, and Denial of Service (DoS) attack strategies, tools and technologies.

 “CSIT is a valuable addition to the NI Alliance and we welcome their participation,” said Erik Larsson, Chairman of the NI Alliance. “The NI Alliance is about collaborative innovation with organisations like CSIT, which plays a leadership role in network security research. Working with other NI Alliance members, CSIT will be able to more effectively leverage Network Intelligence to enhance their cyber security research strategy.”

Establishment of the NI Alliance was initiated by Qosmos, whose Network Intelligence technology components provide the crucial first step in understanding what’s passing through networks. Qosmos’ hardware and software components extract and interpret real-time traffic—translating a data stream’s 1s and 0s into their respective communications protocols, metadata and content for use by third-party applications.

Through the NI Alliance, Qosmos expands its collaborative approach to help vendors design and deliver advanced solutions with embedded Network Intelligence technology in less time and at lower cost.  The NI Alliance provides a channel for dialogue and partnerships that Alliance Members otherwise may not have considered or pursued when addressing the needs of joint customers. Visibility within the vendor community through the NI Alliance affords companies opportunities to market more comprehensive solutions with greater ROI and faster time to value for customers.

 

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Researchers at the Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT) and the Northern Ireland Semiconductor Research Centre (NISRC) at Queen's University Belfast have devised a way to eliminate the need for motors in space borne radiometers by incorporating liquid crystals in their Frequency Selective Surface (FSS) antenna arrays.

The project has attracted funding of £0.5 million from the European Space Agency (ESA) and £100,000 from economic development agency, Invest Northern Ireland. It is expected to result in significant weight savings in satellite payloads and greatly reduced power consumption in weather monitoring instruments.

The technology has other important potential applications as well. These include eradicating the attenuation of mobile phone signals passing through energy efficient glass and creating buildings that can be locked down to block radio signals at the flick of a switch.

The innovative ECIT project addresses frequencies ranging from millimeter wave up to 1 THz. Measuring radiation in this waveband is a key technique used to study the earth’s atmosphere to improve global weather forecasting and understanding of climate change.

Current generation remote sensing radiometers that collect this data incorporate a turntable-mounted mirror operated by an electric motor to calibrate the instrument before each scan by directing their field of view between cold and ambient targets.

The ECIT/NISRC research team however has devised a technique for making such motors redundant. This involves sandwiching layers of liquid crystals between the FSS’s metalized quartz layers to act as an electronically controlled shutter. Applying a small voltage to the structure then enables the radiometer to be switched from calibration mode to signal detection mode without mechanical components.

The team believes that using this technique to replace the motor and turntable could produce potential weight savings of 10 per cent per radiometer. It would also greatly reduce power consumption requirements as a motor represents a radiometer’s single biggest power requirement.

Prototypes are being built at Queen’s University’s Northern Ireland Semiconductor Research Centre with ESA support and the devices are expected to be used in space missions from 2025 onwards.

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Outcome of CSIT’s Belfast 2011 Cyber Summit represents a global collective strategy for world’s leading research institutes

Developing self-learning, self aware cyber security technologies, protecting smart utility grids and enhancing the security of mobile networks are among the top research priorities needed to safeguard the internet of tomorrow, according to a report released today.

Published by the UK’s National Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT), the report represents the outcome of discussions held during the inaugural World Cyber Security Technology Research Summit hosted by CSIT earlier this year.

The Belfast 2011 event attracted international cyber security experts from leading research institutes, government bodies and industry who gathered to discuss current cyber security threats, predict future threats and the necessary mitigation techniques, and to develop a collective strategy for next generation research. 

The collective research strategy contained in the report identifies four research themes critical to the ongoing creation of cyber security defences:

1. Adaptive cyber security technologies - research objectives in this area will include the development of self-learning cyber security technologies; self-awareness in cyber systems; the establishment of feedback in cyber systems to learn from cyber attacks.
2. Protection of smart utility grids - research aims in this field will comprise: smart grid requirements gathering methodology; protection technologies for smart grid components; secure technologies for smart grid communications; smart grid and home area network integration that provides privacy and security of collected information; development of smart grid standards.
3. Security of the mobile platform and applications - research in this space will target not only malicious applications but also mobile cyber security problems introduced by the configuration and use of mobile networks, including network availability, mobile web browsers and caller authentication.
4. Multi-faceted approach to cyber security research - research will take into account social behavioural norms and societal desires in cyber space, cyber space policies, the impact of cyber and other legislation and the economics of cyber space and cyber security.

"Belfast 2011 brought together a diverse range of talent and knowledge in the cyber security field from which we have developed this strategy for next generation research,” says Prof John McCanny CSIT’s Principal Investigator.

"Our ambition is that this strategy will help to inform global cyber security research and act as a driver for cyber security roadmap definition over the coming year.  We will hold future summits at which changes in cyber security will be discussed and the proposed collective research strategies will be reviewed and developed."

Read the report here...

 

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Leading Security Intelligence provider joins BAE Systems, Thales and Altera on Industrial Board

Waltham, Mass. and Belfast, NI – Aug 11, 2011 – Q1 Labs, the global provider of total security intelligence solutions, today announced that it has become a member and official partner of the Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) in Belfast, Northern Ireland. This builds on the company's existing European efforts out of its distribution, R&D, sales and support centre, also located in Belfast.

"Over the past 12-18 months, we have added 25 jobs in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with many more across the rest of Europe, to increase our European presence while also trying to educate customers on security best practices," said Brendan Hannigan, CEO of Q1 Labs. "We took a keen interest in CSIT as the national centre for cyber research, because its efforts greatly align with our own – to provide IT users with the security intelligence necessary to safeguard their infrastructures."

The Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) is a new innovation and knowledge centre and is based at Queen's University of Belfast's, Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT) in the Northern Ireland Science Park, Belfast. CSIT's purpose is to create the security infrastructure needed to safeguard the trustworthiness of information stored electronically.

"As well as informing our pioneering research, CSIT membership provides access to that research. We look holistically at cyber security to develop ground-breaking security technologies and we act as an honest broker in the industry, bringing together industry leaders, government policy makers and the best of academia." said Stephen Wray, Commercial Director for The Centre for Secure Information Technologies, Queen's University Belfast.
"We are eager to work with Q1 Labs because of their dedication to providing security intelligence and thereby providing the most visibility available from the network security marketplace."

Q1 Labs, as a sponsor and board member, will contribute extensively to CSIT's research projects taking place at Queen's University Belfast, including the implementation of the QRadar Security Intelligence platform in CSIT's research lab.

For more information on CSIT, please click here.
 


About Q1 Labs
Q1 Labs is a global provider of high-value, cost-effective next-generation security intelligence products. The company's flagship product, the QRadar Security Intelligence Platform, integrates previously disparate functions - including SIEM, risk management, log management, network behaviour analytics, and security event management - into a total security intelligence solution, making it the most intelligent, integrated and automated security intelligence solution available. QRadar provides users with crucial visibility into what is occurring with their networks, data centers, and applications to better protect IT assets and meet regulatory requirements. Q1 Labs is headquartered in Waltham, Mass., U.S.A., and the company's global customer base includes managed service providers, healthcare providers, energy firms, retail organizations, utility companies, financial institutions, government agencies, and universities, among others. For more information, visit Q1Labs.com, e-mail info@Q1Labs.com , or call 781-250-5800.

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A Belfast engineer, who is working to pioneer networks which will carry mobile phone signals between human bodies, has won the UK's premier award for early-career engineering.

Dr Simon Cotton, a Research Fellow at The Queen's University of Belfast, has won the Royal Academy of Engineering's Sir George Macfarlane Award for outstanding technical and scientific attainment in his work.

The 34-year-old from Greenisland in Co. Antrim, has made a significant impression on engineering in Northern Ireland and across the UK since starting an HND in electrical and electronic engineering in 2000. He graduated from the University of Ulster in 2004 before taking a PhD in Wireless Communications at Queen's, where he went on to become a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. He is currently a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow.

Dr Cotton's work is focused on wireless communications, particularly on how wireless signals transmit around the human body; from person to manmade infrastructure and also from person to person. His research has allowed him to develop innovative short-range applications designed to advance society. The goal is to create "body-to-body" networks in densely populated areas, where wireless devices positioned on people could replace mobile base stations to facilitate voice, video and data traffic.

Recognised as an international expert in his field, Dr Cotton has published papers in several leading engineering journals and has featured in the national press. As well as his academic work, Dr Cotton has recently co-founded ACT Wireless Ltd, a company to take his products into the marketplace. He also regularly gives practical engineering demonstrations in schools.

Commenting on the award, Professor John McCanny CBE FREng FRS, Director of the Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology, based at Belfast's Northern Ireland Science Park, said: "The growth of communications continues apace and pervasive body-area networks are an intriguing future possibility.

"Here we have a top-rate engineer who is establishing a worldwide reputation. He is also an inspirational advocate of engineering and is able to translate cutting edge research into easily-accessible messages to help capture the imagination of the next generation of engineers."

Professor Stephen McLaughlin FREng, Dean for Research at the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, added: "Dr Cotton clearly has a first rate intellect and this is coupled with a desire to see his ideas converted into something practical and useful; key attributes for an engineer."

Story reproduced by permission from www.raeng.org.uk

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Queen's University Belfast's Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT) is becoming a major force in European research. A team from the Institute led by Dr. Charles Gillan and Dr. David Linton, became the first from Northern Ireland to co-ordinate and win an FP7 security proposal.

Dr. Charles Gillan said, "The ECIT Institute is delighted to be coordinating HANDHOLD, a project that will deliver a mobile device to provide enhanced detection facilities at border crossings and airports. While the dog will remain a central part of the detection process the time is right to develop substantially improved mobile detection devices that can complement the role played by dogs".

The HANDHOLD consortium consists of nine partners who bring complementary expertise in all the fields needed to develop a mobile network based, low power CBRNE sensor system. Irish involvement in the consortium includes the Irish Customs Authority, Scorpion Networks, Tyndall National Institute Cork and NUI Galway. The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Germany and representatives from law enforcement from around Europe give the team a strong multi-national flavour.

The addition of ECIT based firm Capna DSP in the consortium further highlights the strengths in Northern Ireland and indeed the ECIT Institute environment for international security research and development.

Partnerships involving businesses and academic groups from the Island of Ireland featured in five of the 11 successful projects in the EU Seventh Framework security research programme for 2010-2011.

According to figures from Enterprise Ireland, the indicative total European Community expenditure for security research in the period is €242,822,043. The aim of the research is to develop technologies and knowledge needed to ensure the security of EU citizens from threats such as terrorism and crime, natural disasters and industrial accidents.

Northern Ireland, is estimated to have won 0.98pc or €2,240,367 of the EC's total expenditure. (The final figure may even be higher, since the calculations were done manually and some of the allocations may have been misattributed to mainland UK).

If Northern Ireland were a country then on a cash-per-capita basis it would be third among the EC-27, behind Luxembourg and Belgium.

Appropriately in a year where cyber attacks have become centre stage, Queen's University Belfast's ECIT Institute also landed part of the PRECYSE project (Prevention, protection and REaction to CYber attackS to critical infrastructures).

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The Queen’s team, consisting of Dr. Fatih KURUGOLLU and Mr. Gokhan GUL, has reached the top second position in a world-wide Steganalysis contest which is the first challenge in this field - Steganalysis is the art of detecting hidden messages in digital media and countermeasure against steganography which aims to use innocuous looking digital media as a subliminal communication channel.

The aim of the BOSS (Break Our Steganographic System) contest is to break a state-of-art steganograhy method, Highly Undetectable steGO (HUGO) which was developed for this contest. HUGO is a steganalysis-aware method which takes into account the current best steganalysis technique, SPAM, developed by Prof. Fridrich’s team, who is the world leader and the pioneer in research on steganalysis, in SUNNY Bingham University, NY.

The contest started on 28th July 2010 with a warming phase. A training image set containing 10.000 images was provided by the organisers and the participants were asked to upload their prediction over the class of each image of a test set in the ranking phase started on 9th September 2010. The deadline for the contest was set up on 15th December 2010. Only those participants who attained more than 65% detection rate were allowed to enter the Hall of Fame since the detection rate of SPAM method on HUGO is 65%.

Dr. Kurugollu and Mr. Gul, who is doctoral scholar in Darmstadt Technical University, Germany and was a visitor researcher in Queen’s during the competition, participated in this contest based on their past successful research outcomes on steganalysis. During the competition the test set for ranking were downloaded from 114 different locations over the world but only three teams, including the Queen’s team, could achieve sufficiently high detection rates to enter the Hall of Fame.

The Queen’s team achieved 73% detection rate in their first attempt and raised it up to 77% until the deadline of the contest. The winner was Prof. Fridrich’s team with 82% detection rate. Although the Queen’s team discovered some powerful features, which yielded 85% detection rate, in the last week of the competition they could not finish the training before the deadline. The results were presented at the Information Hiding Conference in Prague on 18th May 2011 and the second price (a HUGO BOSS T-shirt) was presented to the team as a courtesy of the organisers.

Dr. Kurugollu said: “BOSS was a very challenging contest in which we put great effort but we enjoyed this challenge immensely as we have learnt so many valuable facts for steganalysis. One particular success is to discover a weakness in HUGO in terms of disturbing 1D features which are expected to be preserved by the method to evade the steganalysis systems. It is privilege for us to be praised by Prof. Fridrich based on this discovery as she emphasized this success with a quotation from Sherlock Homes -`There is nothing more deceiving than an obvious fact` – which should be kept in mind by researchers in any research activity.”

The details about the BOSS contest can be found at: Boss Contest

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Weiqiang Liu, a PhD student from the Data Security Systems Group at CSIT, was a best paper finalist at the 2011 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 2011.

He presented his paper on 'Design Rules for Quantum-Dot Cellular Automata (QCA)', as part of a Special Session on QCA Circuit Design. He also presented a poster of his research as part of the best paper competition. His research work is carried out in collaboration with the University of Texas at Austin.

The ISCAS conference, sponsored by the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, is the world's premier networking forum for research in the theory, design and implementation of circuits and systems. Over 700 papers were presented at the conference and Weiqiang was one of only 8 finalists in the student best paper competition.

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The Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT), recently hosted a delegation from Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), a leading South Korean centre of international expertise in telecoms and IT security. The senior delegation unveiled a plaque in CSIT reception and discussed current collaboration activities and outlined immediate plans for even greater collaboration.

Co-operation will include collaborative research and development projects to be undertaken by staff at Queen’s University’s CSIT and at ETRI in South Korea. Other planned activities include joint seminars and the exchange of information, publications and personnel. The research will investigate the protection of individuals and businesses from viruses and malware and will focus on commercial opportunities leading from the research.

CSIT director, Godfrey Gaston, says “the decision by ETRI to choose CSIT and Queen’s University reflects the quality of our work here at CSIT. ETRI are an internationally renowned institute and this strengthens the already vibrant collaboration with them.

 

 

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Fees and annual maintenance grant of £18,590

With Invest NI, the University of Ulster and Queen’s University Belfast, five of the world’s leading capital markets firms - CITIBANK, FIDESSA, FIRST DERIVATIVES, NYSE Technologies and SINGULARITY have come together to establish a research collaboration in Capital Markets Engineering. Funded by the Department of Employment and Learning (DEL) and the collaborative companies these 3 year PhD studentships commence in October 2011 and provide fees and a maintenance grant of £18,590 for 2011/12. The studentships are open to eligible UK and EU citizens

The School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer now invite applications for 5 of these PhD Studentships to be based at the Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology (ECIT), Queen’s University Belfast. It is envisaged that the students will also spend a considerable amount of time at the company locations.

Academic Requirements:

Candidate should hold, or expect to hold by 15 August 2011, a first class or 2.1 honours degree in a relevant branch of engineering, mathematics, physics or computer science. An appropriate degree at Master’s level will be an advantage.

How to Apply:

Applicants should apply electronically through the Queen's online application portal at https://dap.qub.ac.uk/portal/

The deadline for submission of applications is 13 June 2011

Click here for further information on these projects.

 

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Cyber security experts and government policy makers from around the world are gathering at Queen's University Belfast to develop the first ever global technology research strategy to counter cyber terrorism.

The inaugural World Cyber Security Technology Research Summit is being held at Queen's Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT) - the UK's lead centre for cyber security research in this area. The summit will address the current risk to global cyber security as well as outline potential future threats to information systems. The select group of world experts will share current trends in cyber security, look at security threats likely to emerge over the next five to ten years and agree on an international strategy for developing research that will safeguard the 'Internet of tomorrow'. The summit comes just weeks after the UK government announced that cyber crime was costing the UK economy £27 billion a year. The cost is made up of £21 billion of costs to businesses, £2.2 billion to government and £3.1 billion to citizens.

Danny Kennedy, Minister for Employment and Learning, opened the summit. During his welcoming address, the Minister said: "The significance and benefit of the cutting edge work being carried out by Queen's has been demonstrated with their status as the UK Integrated Knowledge Centre for Secure Information Technology, a development which will create significant opportunities in the local economy, as well as enhancing the skills base within Northern Ireland.

"It is a great honour for the University and, of course, the city of Belfast, to host the inaugural World Cyber Security Technology Research Summit, and thus play a part in helping to develop an international strategy on cyber security."

He continued by saying: "With the goodwill, knowledge and expertise that the summit has now brought together, I have absolutely no doubt that the outcome from today's event will ultimately bring huge benefits to wider society."

The Minister concluded by commending Queen's for the excellence of the research being carried out within this field at the Centre for Secure Information Technologies, and highlighted that it will play a pivotal role in enabling that success to be attained.

Professor John McCanny, CSIT principal investigator, said: "CSIT recognises there is a lot being done on current cyber threats, but there is not a lot of collective thinking about what is coming next. "It is hard to say exactly what the Internet will become, but we can see a world where it will be core to the very fabric of society. It will be part of our critical infrastructure; providing essential services and becoming an even bigger part of our lives – being used in assisted living; allowing computers to drive our cars, deliver our groceries and monitor and manage our health. It is therefore very important that we develop a strategy to protect ourselves against cyber technology attacks. With such a range of experts attending we expect to come up with the first ever global strategy to protect against cyber crime.

"This summit is the first of its kind and will really mark out the future of cyber technology around the world. The risks associated with the Internet extend from individuals to nations. Internet security is a major issue at a national and international level and there are a number of programs and initiatives around the world where both governments and industry are looking to solve some of the problems we face in this area. We at CSIT believe that 'Belfast 2011' will be the first of many summits over coming years, and may even be the beginning of an international movement of collaboration and co-operation to safeguard against cyber terrorists of the future."

The summit at Queen's puts the University and Belfast on the map as leading the research into global cyber security. Guests from UK Home Office, U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, BAE Systems, Thales and IBM among others, illustrate the scale of the expertise at the summit.

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The School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science invites applications for a number of fully funded 3 year research studentships, commencing in October 2011.  The studentships provide fees and a maintenance grant of £13,590 for 2011/12 and are open to UK and EU citizens, subject to eligibility.

Further information on studentships and individual projects available can be viewed at  http://www.ecit.qub.ac.uk/Jobs/Studentships/

Please note that NOT all available projects are funded.

Academic Requirements

The required minimum academic qualification for the above studentships is a 2:1 honours degree or a qualification considered equivalent by the University.   The qualifications must be obtained in Computer Science, Electronics, Electrical Engineering or a related discipline.  Candidates must have official, final results of all qualifications to be used to meet the academic requirements before the start of the studentship.

Applications

Applications should be made electronically through the Queen's online application portal at https://dap.qub.ac.uk/portal/

A separate application for funding must also be completed for each project applied to.  Application for admission to study that does not also have an application for funding may not be considered for an award.

The deadline for applications is Monday 28 February 2011.

For further information please contact Yvonne McKnight (y.mcknight@qub.ac.uk)

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