pCloud Overview
We note that in a decentralized environment with numerous autonomous data owners, privacy preserving sharing and data analytics techniques are essential to provide an environment where data owners feel confident to participate and contribute, and that a peer-to-peer "social" network like configuration among data owners is natural and possibly inevitable.We aim to apply our basic research in the above mentioned individual topics, and combine them to build pCloud middleware prototype, and use it as a vehicle to both validate the algorithms and mechanisms as well as demonstrate the usability of data value chains by carrying out case studies which are significant in the Singapore context (e.g., using Dengue and environment monitoring data).In pCloud project we investigate mathematical and algorithmic foundations of scalable techniques for Privacy Preserving Data Sharing & Analytics (PPDS/PPDA), as well as trust management in decentralized environments. These topics are interesting independently in their own right, and are applicable in diverse applications. Composed together they facilitate natural establishment of data value chains of numerous autonomous data owners, by allowing private clouds of data owners to share and carry out data analytics without violating individual ownership or data privacy constraints.
pCloud is funded for three years under A*Star Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC)'s Thematic Strategic Research Programme (TSRP) on "Data Value Chain as a Service". The TSRP has three priority thrusts: i. Service Framework and Architecture for Data Value Chain ii. Cloud-based Data Architecture and Programming Models iii. Data Security and Privacy Protection in Shared Service Ecosystem. pCloud aims to address the third thrust. The starting date of the project is August 2010.
People
The project is led by Anwitaman Datta, along with Prof. Ng Wee Keong from School of Computer Engineering and Dr. Lim Hock Beng from Intellisys as Co-PIs. Prof. Karl Aberer (EPFL Switzerland), Prof. Philip Yu (UIC USA) and Asst. Prof. Xiao Xiaokui (NTU Singapore) are collaborators.
We are currently hiring (several) post-doctoral candidates (research fellows) and research assistants.
Three post-doctoral candidates
[Eligibility: Must have Phd degree before joining. Candidates from all nationalities are eligible.]
Applications from candidates with background in at least (any) one or more of the following topics is being solicited:
- Background in both role & rule based access control mechanisms (acquaintance with Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) standard is desirable).
- Privacy preserving data-mining with knowledge of both randomization as well as multi-party computation based approaches.
- Data management in cloud computing environment (experience with Microsoft Azure is desirable).
Two research assistants/project officers
[Eligibility: Singapore or ASEAN citizens with Singapore PR. Other nationalities can not be hired according to funding agency's rules. Completion of bachelors or masters degree in suitable (computer science) topic before joining.]
- Background in any of the above mentioned topics is desirable.
How to apply?
Send your CV to Anwitaman @ ntu.edu.sg with "pCloud job application" in the subject line (also provide a Research Statement for post-doctoral positions).