TULIPS Research Group

Resources for students completing a UG4 or MSc project in the TULIPS lab.

Informatics dissertation information

Email lists

Intersting email lists for people interested in TULIPS type discussions. Note that some lists are limited to the University of Edinburgh staff and students and others are limited to people in Scotland.

Informatics Security-privacy list - Used for internal discussion and advertisement of local security and privacy events related to Informatics.
SICSA Cyber Security list - Scottish list of cyber security researchers. Used for advertisement of Scottish events, discussion, and job postings.
SICSA Human Computer Interaction list - Scottish list of human computer interaction researchers. Used for advertisement of Scottish events, discussion, and job postings.

Evaluation and ethics

Informatics ethics forms - In most cases you will need to fill out the Part C form.
Ethics guidance from Linguistics and English Language
University GDPR Data Protection Training
Statistics and probability by Khan Academy
System Usability Survey (SUS) - Basic survey which can be used to assess the usability of a system.
- LaTeX version
- PDF of survey

Writing the thesis

Thesis Template
- LaTex (Recommended)
- Microsoft Word
- School provided guidance on:
  - Bibliography writing
  - Thesis Outline Wiki for IRP
Gantt Charts
- pgfgannt LaTeX package makes it easy to put a Gantt chart into your proposal.
- Example LaTeX and PDF of the Gantt Chart of a multi-year project.
Scientific Paper Writing - A Survival Guide (scanned selection of book) provides a nice introduction to writing scientific papers.
When writing your introduction first read the book's section on abstracts which is very detailed with many examples. An introduction is nearly identical to an abstract, just longer and more detailed.
Past UG4/MSc Dissertations.
- UG4: A game to teach emotion skills to children with ASD through technology and narrative
Dissertations supervised by Kami Vaniea:
Peer Proofreading - Service for non-native English speakers who would like someone to help proofread their writing.

Seed papers

Each project is different, but there are a couple of famous papers in Usable Security and Privacy that are often cited for broad statements about privacy, security, and usability.

Why Johnny Can't Encrypt
Famous paper on usability of security technologies and how they are often not usable even by highly skilled computer scientists.
Users are not the Enemy
One of the first studies on why people cannot manage large numbers of passwords. Also key paper on how people manage the security requirements imposed on them by organizations.
The Psychology of Security
High level paper that tries to answer: "why do good users make bad decisions?"
A Framework for Reasoning About the Human in the Loop
Presents a framework for thinking about security warnings and indicators. Using the framework it is possible to do a short analysis of how a security technology is likely to perform with users. The framework might be used in advance of a larger study with users, or to help you understand the large problems when designing a technology.
"I've Got Nothing to Hide" and Other Missunderstandings of Privacy
Discussion of what "privacy" means and how to counter arguments like "if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear".
So long, and no thanks for the externalities: the rational rejection of security advice by end users by Cormac Herley
Opinion paper discussing security advice which is often given to users and how useful that advice actually is in practice. The premise is that people ignore advice not because they are lazy, but because following the advice does not lead to the best outcome for the person.
From Weakest Link to Security Hero: Transforming Staff Security Behavior by Sari Lawrence Pfleeger, M. Angela Sasse and Adrian Furnham

White papers

A white paper, or technical report, is a document that is published without being reviewed by a third party. Often companies will use white papers to publish statistics or report on incidents that they see. These papers are excellent places to find statistics about security.