Profile

I’m a mature student doing a PhD in Automotive Cybersecurity. I studied Electronic and Computer Engineering at Leeds University. In the past I worked as an embedded software engineer, a requirements engineer, a technical translator and a whitewater raft guide. I live in Derbyshire surrounded by hills and fields. In my spare time I am creating a garden, go for walks and run STEAM events to inspire people about science, technology, engineering, arts and maths – especially robots.

Human society is increasingly reliant on complex, software-intensive systems, but our ability to comprehend and describe them is failing to keep pace with the technology. The result is increasingly chaotic, ad hoc networks of systems that behave in unexpected ways.

Connected vehicles extensively employ networked technologies and have great potential to benefit society: they can reduce accidents, provide mobility to those unable to drive, and reduce pollution. Connected vehicles also create great challenges: they are massively complex, vulnerable to cyber-attacks, and pose threats to privacy. For them to operate securely, and therefore safely, connected vehicles must be developed and operated using advanced methods that exceed the existing capabilities of many of the organisations involved.

My research focusses on methods applicable across the secure connected vehicle lifecycle. I am interested particularly in how collaborating organisations can establish the conditions necessary for creating, maintaining, and retiring secure connected vehicle technology. This is a massive challenge in an environment characterised by rapid innovation, conflicting needs, complex supply chains, and evolving legislative frameworks. The task is made yet more difficult by the lack of an agreed definition of acceptable security against which success can be measured.