OPEN POSITIONS

PhD Student Position: Cyber-Physical Security for Military Ground Vehicles

Department: Automotive Engineering, Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR)

Project: Resilient Vehicle Network Security Architecture for Next-Generation Military Ground Vehicle

 

Position Overview

We are seeking a motivated PhD student to develop and validate an innovative hybrid detection framework for identifying hardware trojans and cyber-physical attacks in military ground vehicles. This position focuses on creating digital twin models and integrating physics-based behavioral analysis with machine learning techniques to enable real-time threat detection while maintaining vehicle operational capabilities.

 

Key Responsibilities

• Develop physics-based behavioral models of vehicle subsystems to establish baseline operational characteristics

• Design and implement deep learning architectures for attack signature recognition across CAN bus and vehicle networks

• Create hybrid detection algorithms that fuse model-based and data-driven approaches

• Conduct hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) validation using the Deep Orange 14 vehicle platform

• Collaborate with hardware security researchers at George Mason University on trojan characterization

• Validate detection framework performance through red team assessments and timing analysis

 

Required Qualifications

• US Citizenship required (due to defense-related research restrictions)

• MS degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related field

• Strong background in control systems, cyber-physical systems, or vehicle dynamics

• Proficiency in Python and MATLAB/Simulink

• Experience with machine learning frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch)

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

 

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with automotive networks (CAN, Ethernet) and embedded systems

• Knowledge of hardware security concepts or intrusion detection systems

• Familiarity with real-time systems and HIL testing environments

• Background in model-based design or digital twin development

• Experience with GPU computing (CUDA) for ML acceleration

 

What We Offer

• Competitive graduate research assistantship with tuition waiver

• Access to state-of-the-art Deep Orange facility and DO14 vehicle platform

• Collaboration with Army Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC)

• High-performance computing resources (Clemson Palmetto cluster with H100/A100/V100 GPUs)

• Opportunity to work on cutting-edge defense research with real-world impact

 

Start Date: May 2026

Contact: Dr. Pierluigi Pisu (pisup@clemson.edu)