Hardware Security and Trust GRA - CIPHER - Fall

Overview:

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934 as the Engineering Experiment Station, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $940 million of problem‑solving research annually for government and industry. GTRI's renowned researchers combine science, engineering, economics, policy, and technical expertise to solve complex problems for the U.S. federal government, state, and industry.

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Hardware Security and Trust Division (HST) within the Cybersecurity, Information Protection, and Hardware Evaluation Research Laboratory (CIPHER) seeks a Graduate Research Assistant starting the Fall 2026 semester with an interest in the development of novel cutting‑edge software tools and/or hardware design to support research in microelectronics and embedded systems hardware security. Work under this research assistant may include:

• Formal verification of cyber-physical systems involving interactive theorem proving and model checking.
• Investigating the forefront of various technologies (software development, programming languages, hardware security controls, FPGAs, etc.) as they apply to the security and trust of microelectronic devices and the systems in which they are used.
• Writing, translating, and coding software programs, applications, tools, and prototypes according to research goals.
• Researching and implementing applications of hardware-assisted technologies for a variety of cybersecurity-related efforts.
• Designing and implementing meaningful visualizations of experimental test results and intermediary analysis data structures.
• Review, analyze, and/or validate software and hardware functional designs.
• Additional novel research objectives as instructed.

Graduate Research Assistant

• Pursuing a Master’s degree or PhD at Georgia Tech in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, or related field.
• Must be enrolled full-time (12+ credit hours).
• Must have a 3.0 or higher cumulative GPA.
• Commit to 15‑20 hours of work per week.

• Computer proficiency (Software Internship): experience in computer programming using at least one of the following: C/C++, Rust, Java, Kotlin, Python, or TCL. Proficiency with languages not listed will also be taken into consideration.
• Computer proficiency (Hardware Internship): experience working with digital hardware and embedded systems in some capacity (e.g., Digital Design, FPGAs, Microcontrollers, circuit design, schematic capture, etc.).
• Comfortable working in a Linux environment and with standard laboratory test equipment.
• Analytical and critical thinking, accountability, strategic thinking and planning, software development, debugging, working in teams; attention to detail, customer service focused.
• Strong technical skills and ability to learn complex engineering concepts.
• Ability to clearly communicate technical ideas to non‑technical audiences.
• Strong mathematical foundation including linear algebra, abstract algebra, real…