Year 1 Student - 2024 Cohort - Cohort 6

I hold a BA (HONS) in Architecture and Planning, with accreditations from RIBA, ARB, and RTPI. My work has been featured in Blueprint magazine, and I contributed to the Bristol European Green Capital initiative. During these projects I refined my understanding of systems thinking, strategic planning and design. A lifelong passion for technology helped me transition into the tech industry, gaining experience through freelancing and working with several start-ups. This journey helped me to embrace DevOps as a solution for scaling and reliability challenges. At ForgeRock (now Ping Identity), I delved into OAuth and the identity sector. This highlighted the security challenges associated with scale to me. As a Senior Platform Engineer at the NHS, I developed cloud deployment strategies for Wales, addressing sensitive information handling and identity issues. 

Currently, my interests focus on smart cities and distributed identity, with a core emphasis on scalability, reliability, security, and overcoming implementation and business barriers. I am dedicated to maintaining an end-user focus and enjoy engaging with innovative hardware and technology.

Securing Advanced Metering Infrastructure in Distributed Smart Grids

The smart grid is a modernization of the traditional electricity grid. The smart grid utilizes, Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and Internet of Things (IoT) to control the generation, transmission, distribution and utilization of electricity with the aim of increased efficiency, lower energy losses, and to allow the integration of renewable energy sources via two-way communication. Two-way communication allows for endpoint devices to not only send sensor readings but also receive commands and allows for energy to be directed to singular properties in the event of an outage. The smart grid is a complex non-linear system, that is run and managed through the utility of cyber-physical devices, that need to remain interoperable, available, reliable and secure. The introduction of two-way communication into the traditional electricity grid, increases the complexity of an already complex system, increasing the likelihood of cascading failures. Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), within smart grids exist in the Transmission, Distribution and Consumption layers of the smart grid. As the grid increasingly becomes decarbonized the reliance on AMI to help manage the limitations of renewable energy generation is likely to increase, simultaneously increasing its attractiveness to bad actors. My PhD aims to look at the overall systems security of this cross-cutting critical national infrastructure component and attempt to reimagine the security paradigms in play, whilst keeping feasibility in mind.

Parliamentary Lunch – Palace Yard -  The Future of Nuclear

CSIDES Weston Super Mare

Academic Placement
Sana Belguith – Critical Literature Review of Prominent materials

Industry Placement
Tales – Exploring Vulnerabilities in Advanced Metering Infrastructure

https://www.linkedin.com/in/suner/