RHUL Cyber CDT Blog

Rights Con is an international conference which brings conversations on the intersection of digital and human rights together, as described on their website it is, 'The world’s leading summit on human rights in the digital age.' Originating as the Silicon Valley Human Rights Conference in 2011, Rights Con in 2023 is now a community of 8000+ people passionate about the freedom and protection of communities navigating through technological developments.   I was delighted to be selected to participate in the Young Leader's Summit which took place the day before the official conference began. With approximately 30 young people in the room, it was a wonderful opportunity to connect with and learn from other passionate young people working at many different angles of digital rights. The relationships built throughout this session became a foundation for the busy week ahead. The day started with a session by Data 4SDGs to discuss data values followed by the Internet Society who le

Having now reached the end of the process, this is a good time to reflect upon my CDT and PhD experience as a whole.  I have separated out ‘PhD’ from ‘CDT’ for a reason. The CDT approach of a first year of learning within a cohort environment offers many advantages compared to a PhD solo venture. The interaction with fellow cohort members, and the ability to experiment with other areas of cybersecurity that I wouldn’t otherwise have gone anywhere near, provided an experience that I believe is far more valuable than just the PhD research portion alone.  Something I didn’t consider was how it would feel to actually finish the programme. By the time my viva arrived, I had already been in work for a number of months. Passing the viva was a strange experience – whilst it was somewhat anticlimactic (probably due to the fact I hadn’t been working fulltime on my PhD in the run-up), something certainly felt different. It took a few minutes sitting in the car for it all to sink in!  Since the Ph