LAYTON, Dr Robert

2014 Young Alumnus of the Year

After completing his Bachelor of Applied Computing, Robert Layton undertook an honours year and then obtained a scholarship to study his PhD. Robert's research investigated applying technologies to cybercrimes. As an early career researcher, Robert developed an impressive track record with over 30 publications, 130 citations and numerous grants.

Degree

Bachelor of Computing with First Class Honours

Graduation year

2008

Current position

  • Received scholarship to do PhD with the ICSL
  • Perform lab work software engineering for industry partners

What are some of your career highlights?

Presented at the eCrime researcher's summit in 2009 in Tacoma, USA. Audience members included those from Facebook, Google and eBay.

Presented the CTC workshops held in both Brisbane and Ballarat in 2009/2010 speaking to members from police, government and industry.

Research into the extent of BitTorrent research is used worldwide to help discuss the impact of copyright infringement.

Describe the most enjoyable and challenging aspects of your job

Every day I get to come to work and research interesting problems related to Internet security using technologies that may have only been thought of in the last few months. I really enjoy the collaborative nature of the lab as well - more ideas are created in discussion than reading papers. I also get to talk with people who are leaders of their respective fields to discuss what the problems facing security online are, and how to solve them.

What are your strongest memories while you were studying at the University of Ballarat?

Being exposed to a large range of ideas and knowledge. I remember in research seminars held at UB learning about different thought processes related to research and recognising that the way I thought about ideas was only one of the possible ways. It was an eye opening thought to have about research.

Do you have any advice about life after study to pass on to current students?

I haven't finished studying yet! The best advice I can give is to work out what you want from life, then you can decide how to achieve those goals.