[TYPES/announce] Postdoc opening at the University of Pennsylvania

[Benjamin C. Pierce]

The University of Pennsylvania's Accountable Protocol Customization (APC) project is a new multi-disciplinary effort funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) as part of its Total Platform Cyber Protection (TPCP) program. The goal is to develop tools and reasoning principles for protocol customization aimed at software de-bloating, by identifying lean protocol subsets that are sufficient to meet the functional and security needs of relevant clients and servers while preserving backward compatibility. Customization can also support protocol dialects that modify the original protocol standard in settings  where backward compatibility is not a strict requirement. A central project theme is ensuring that customization is “accountable” — i.e. carefully vetting properties of customized protocols by tightly coupling protocol customization operations with rigorous formal analysis and machine-checked proofs in the Coq proof assistant.  A particular target area is modern web protocols such as HTTP2 and TLS. 

Our APC project, in collaboration with Carnegie-Mellon University and Stanford University, brings together researchers with expertise in formal methods, programming languages, distributed systems, and network security. 

The APC team at Penn has funding for one post-doctoral researcher. This is a one-year position, based in Philadelphia, with the option of a second year subject to mutual agreement and funding availability. The postdoc will have the freedom to lead individual projects as well as working with a strong team of researchers including Ph.D., Masters, and undergraduate students.

We seek applicants with expertise in at least one, preferably two or more, of the following areas: formal methods, programming languages, distributed systems, and network security. Applicants should email their CV and a research statement to Dr. Boon Thau Loo (boonloo at seas.upenn.edu <mailto:boonloo at seas.upenn.edu>) and also ask two or three references to email letters of recommendation to Dr. Loo.

For more information, please feel free to contact any of the APC Principal Investigators: 
    Boon Thau Loo (boonloo at seas.upenn.edu <mailto:boonloo at seas.upenn.edu>)
    Benjamin C. Pierce (bcpierce at seas.upenn.edu)
    Andre Scedrov (scedrov at seas.upenn.edu)
    Steve Zdancewic (stevez at seas.upenn.edu) 

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