Darktrace funded studentships -01

Loughborough UniversityLoughborough, United Kingdom

Course overview

Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, particularly Large Language Models (LLMs), have demonstrated significant capabilities across diverse application domains. AI agents, autonomous software programs driven by LLMs that can perceive their environment, make decisions, and take actions to achieve goals, have started to be widely used to solve problems in traffic, medicine, research, and software development. Communication between agents and traditional systems has become a significant challenge.

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open-source standard for connecting AI agents to external systems, including other AI agents, introduced in late 2024 and quickly became a common standard. With MCP, external systems serve as MCP servers to provide services to these AI agents. However, it has been demonstrated that malicious MCP servers can mislead AI agents and even instruct them to perform malicious activities on users' computers, posing a critical issue for AI-agent-based systems.

As MCP has only recently emerged, effective methods for identifying malicious MCP servers are not yet available. This project aims to identify potentially malicious MCP servers through analysis of their open-sourced develop defence mechanisms to protect AI agents from compromise. We will develop a multi-agent system (MAS) for program analysis, in which multiple autonomous agents collaborate to analyse software, requiring the development of coordination methods.

All analysis will be conducted using open-source code and publicly available benchmark data, ensuring reproducibility and enabling publication of findings. 94% of Loughborough’s research impact is rated world-leading or internationally excellent. REF 2021

Key highlights

Studentship funded by cybersecurity company Darktrace
Research into detecting malicious Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers
Develop defence mechanisms protecting AI agents from compromise
Build multi-agent systems that collaborate on software program analysis
Uses open-source code and public benchmarks, enabling publishable findings
94% of research impact rated world-leading or internationally excellent (REF 2021)

Entry requirements

Degree: 1st — 1st

Scholarships

Alumni Bursary
10% of tuition fees which will be credited to the student’s tuition fee account.
Up to 10% of fees
Alumni Discount
UK students: £1,500 tuition fee discount for one academic year. International students: £3,000 tuition fee discount for one academic year.
Care Leaver's Scholarship
Excellence Scholarships
UK students: £3,000 off tuition fees; International students: £6,000 off tuition fees which will be credited to the student’s tuition fee account.
International Sports Student Postgraduate Bursary
Our International Sports Student Postgraduate Bursary offers a £12,000 tuition fee discount (set against the tuition fees of your chosen postgraduate taught programme ONLY).
Up to £12,000
London 10th Anniversary Award
£5,000 off tuition fees.
Up to £5,000
Loughborough Business School Scholarship
£1,500 (UK students) and £3,000 (international students) off tuition fees which will be credited to the student’s tuition fee account.
MBA Progress with Purpose Scholarship
50% of tuition fees which will be credited to the student’s tuition fee account.
Up to 50% of fees
Qatari Ghanim Al-Muftah Excellence Scholarship

Careers this course leads to

AI security researcher
Cybersecurity research scientist
Machine learning engineer
Postdoctoral research associate
Software security analyst
University lecturer in computer science

Admission

Applications are made through AHZ at no cost. Share your transcripts, English test scores and personal statement, and your AHZ Counsellor will review your profile, submit your application to Loughborough University, and guide you through interview, offer, CAS and visa — right up to enrolment.

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