City St George’s, University of London Joins Theta EdgeCloud’s Academic Network
Theta Labs3 min read·Just now--
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Ferheen Ayaz, Lecturer in Computer Science at City St George’s, University of London and member of its Centre for Software Reliability, is working with Theta EdgeCloud to support her research into the security of edge AI systems.
City St George’s was formed through the recent merger of City, University of London and St George’s, University of London, making it one of the U.K.’s largest and most research-active universities. The addition builds on Theta’s growing U.K. and European academic presence, which includes Imperial College London, and extends a global partner network that now spans Stanford University, Peking University, Nanyang Technological University, and four of the top five universities in South Korea.
City St George’s is now Theta Labs’ 34th member of its academic network, following the announcement of Illinois Institute of Technology last month.
Dr. Ferheen Ayaz and the Centre for Software Reliability
Dr. Ayaz joined City St George’s in August 2024, having previously served as a Research Fellow at the University of Sussex. Her research sits at the intersection of security, distributed systems, and energy efficiency, with a particular focus on three areas: blockchain-based approaches to the security and privacy of vehicular networks; multimodal AI-based security at the edge; and energy-efficient systems including electric vehicle charging and environmental monitoring.
Her work has been supported by a series of funded research collaborations. As part of the Green, Connected and Prosperous Britain project, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), she developed energy-efficient solutions for EV charging using vehicle-to-grid networks, working alongside researchers from Imperial College London, London South Bank University, and the University of Essex. She also served as an Associate Researcher at the University of Glasgow on the Multimodal AI-based Security at the Edge (MAISE) project — a partnership with STMicroelectronics funded by PETRAS — which focused on the security of intelligent IoT devices. She was subsequently awarded a HEIF Grant in 2025 to support dissemination of that work. Her research at the University of Sussex included IoT-based flood monitoring and autonomous UAV systems.
Theta EdgeCloud Supports Security and Edge AI Research
“My research includes work on multimodal AI-based security at the edge, and energy-efficient systems,” said Dr. Ferheen Ayaz, Lecturer in Computer Science at City St George’s, University of London. “Exploring Theta EdgeCloud allows us to consider how distributed AI may support academic research across these areas.”
“Theta EdgeCloud is designed to support academic research by providing flexible access to decentralized and hybrid GPU infrastructure,” said Mitch Liu, CEO and Co-Founder of Theta Labs. “Dr. Ayaz’s research spans security, edge systems, and sustainability, which are areas well aligned with the types of workloads Theta EdgeCloud is designed to support.”
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