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Contact Information

Name Phil Legg
Email Phil.Legg@uwe.ac.uk
Website https://pa-legg.github.io

Experience

  • 2022 - present

    Bristol, UK

    Professor of Cyber Security
    University of the West of England (UWE Bristol)
    • Full Professor in Cyber Security in recognition of ‘Advancing Teaching and Learning’ and for ‘Research with Impact’.
    • Successful research grant income with over £2.1M directed awarded from external funding sources, and over £3.7M in total (see projects page for futher details).
    • Published 90+ academic articles as of April 2026, in high-quality journals and conference venues (see publications page for further details).
    • Supervision of PhD student research (4 completions, 6 current, March 2026), as well as supporting post-doctoral research fellows (2 former, 2 current, March 2026) (see projects page for further details).
    • Experience of supervising 100+ student research projects across undergraduate and postgraduate level, as well as supporting extra curricula paid student research and consultancy work (see projects page for further details).
    • Leading outreach initiatives and upskilling educators and industry professionals in cyber security (see teaching page for further details).
  • 2020 - present

    Bristol, UK

    Co-Director of UWEcyber Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Education (NCSC Certified)
    University of the West of England (UWE Bristol)
    • Co-Director of UWEcyber ‘Gold’ NCSC Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Education (ACE-CSE) that brings together our teaching and learning, external engagement, outreach, research and knowledge exchange in Cyber Security, with a multi-disciplinary perspective involving staff across the entire University, a regional network of educators with a passion to upskill cyber security education, and a regular guest speaker seminar series that has attracted presenters from across the globe.
  • 2024 - present

    Bristol, UK

    Programme Leadership Team BSc Cyber Security and Digital Forensics
    University of the West of England (UWE Bristol)
    • I joined the BSc Cyber Security and Digital Forensics programme leadership team in 2024, to support and mentor a new leadership team, and to further promote opportunities of external industry engagement for our undergraduate students, including the continued organisation of guest speakers as well as new industry collaboration with teaching.
  • 2019 - present

    Bristol, UK

    CSRC Cyber Security Research Theme Lead
    University of the West of England (UWE Bristol)
    • The Computer Science Research Centre (CSRC) at UWE is made up of 5 themes: Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, Data Science, Expressive Computer Interaction, and Smart Cities. I serve as Cyber Security Research Theme Lead since the reorganisation of the CSRC in 2019, supporting academic staff and PhD researchers to develop cyber security research across infrastructure security, software security, AI/data security, and cyber crime domains.
  • 2018 - 2024

    Bristol, UK

    Programme Leader MSc Cyber Security (NCSC Certified)
    University of the West of England (UWE Bristol)
    • Former Programme Leader of the NCSC-Certified MSc Cyber Security, having grown the programme from its initial delivery for 13 students in 2018 to as many as 150 students across two intakes in an academic year, and achieving a PTES overall student satisfaction score of 92% (2024).
  • 2018 - 2022

    Bristol, UK

    Associate Professor of Cyber Security
    University of the West of England (UWE Bristol)
  • 2015 - 2018

    Bristol, UK

    Senior Lecturer in Computer Science
    University of the West of England (UWE Bristol)
  • 2025 - present

    London, UK

    Member of the UK Government Cyber Advisory Board (GCAB)
    Cabinet Office
  • 2019 - present

    UK

    Co-Founder / Co-Director
    CSE Connect
    • A National Cyber Security Education network to bring together academia, industry and government. Supported by the UK National Cyber Security Centre, the network hosts regular events as well as an annual conference, that promotes collaboration and sharing to enhance cyber security education, both within the UK and working with global partners. (Formerly CISSEUK, a UK chapter of CISSE, the Colloquium of Information Systems Security Education)
  • 2013 - 2015

    Oxford, UK

    Post Doctoral Research Associate
    University of Oxford
    • Cyber Security Centre, Department of Computer Science
    • Research project: ‘Corporate Insider Threat Detection (CITD)’ funded by the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI).
    • Lectureship post at St. Catherine College, teaching Computer Graphics.
    • Lectureship post at Worcester College, tutoring International students in Computer Graphics
    • Teaching at the Department of Computer Science includes classes for the Visual Analytics postgraduate course, and both tutorials and practical labs for the Computer Graphics course.
    • Supervision of postgraduate projects in the Centre for Doctoral Training in Cyber Security
  • 2010 - 2013

    Swansea, UK

    Post Doctoral Research Assistant
    Swansea University
    • Department of Computer Science
    • Research project: ‘Sports Video Visualization’ funded by the Welsh Assembly Government.
    • Guest lecturer on iOS Software Development and Sports Video Visualisation
    • ‘Inspirational Speaker’ and iOS Schools Workshop Lead for Technocamps Wales.
    • Supervision of undergraduate and postgraduate projects.
  • 2010 - 2015

    UK

    Software Developer
    Freelance
    • Desktop and Mobile (iOS, Android, Blackberry) development.
    • Over 40,000 paid downloads on the iOS App Store worldwide since July 2011, with Tide Times being recognised in the Stuff magazine ‘200 best apps of all time’, and also achieving #1 in the ‘Top Paid Weather’ category (Summer 2011).
    • PocketCoder used by top sports clubs worldwide including Manchester United FC, Welsh Rugby Union, Ireland RFU, Barnsley FC, Bolton FC, QPR, and the Football Association.
    • Desktop software includes collaborative development with University Hospital Wales and NHS, producing a 3D stereoscopic imaging system for ophthalmic clinical assessment based on PhD research.
    • Proficient in variety of development languages: Python, Javascript, Java, C++, C#, Objective-C, Swift.
  • 2010 - 2010

    UK

    Software Developer
    Cardiff University
    • Development of research-led Android mobile application, GeoCaption.

Education

  • 2015 - 2016

    Bristol, UK

    PGCert
    University of the West of England
    Teaching and Learning for Higher Education
  • 2006 - 2010

    Cardiff, UK

    PhD
    Cardiff University
    Computer Science
    • Multi modal Retinal Imaging: Improving Accuracy and Efficiency of Image Registration using Mutual Information
  • 2003 - 2006

    Cardiff, UK

    BSc
    Cardiff University
    Computer Science
    • Online Multi player Chinese Checkers Game with Intelligent Computer Opponent

Certificates

Projects

  • UWEcyber Research Laboratory strategic investment

    Wallscourt Foundation (£1.5m).

  • Cyber Sandpit - Linking cyber effect to mission objectives

    DSTL Serapis Framework in collaboration with Trimetis Ltd. (Total £120k, UWE £50k).

  • Every human a sensor - Crowdsourcing Cyber Data

    DSTL Serapis Framework in collaboration with Trimetis Ltd. (Total £80k, UWE £41k).

  • Teaching CyBOK through Cyber Physical Systems

    CyBOK (Cyber Security Body of Knowledge) and NCSC (Total £5k).

  • Autonomous Resilience in Cyber Defence

    DSTL Serapis Framework in collaboration with Trimetis Ltd. (Total £30k, UWE £5k).

  • Cyber Security and Data Governance for SMEs

    National Cyber Security Centre (Total £40k).

  • CyberWEST - Cyber Security Education for Schools

    National Cyber Security Centre (Total £41k).

  • Transform Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) - UK First Technology Line of Defence

    InnovateUK Smart Grant in collaboration with Synalogik Ltd. (Total £458k, UWE £37k).

  • Building a place-based approach to preventing online sexual abuse

    Vice Chancellor’s Challenge Fund 2022-23 (Total £25k internal).

  • Turing Network Development Awards

    Alan Turing Institute (Total £25k).

  • Cyber Security and Cyber Crime Cluster (CSC3)

    UWE Expanding Research Excellence Scheme (Total £100k internal).

  • Cyber security analytics in telecommunications systems: Managing security and service in complex real-time 5G networks

    PhD 50-50 studentship in collaboration with Ribbon Communications Ltd. (Total £35k external, £35k internal).

  • Co-creation of innovative school projects for teachers to improve cyber security education

    National Cyber Security Centre (Total £50k).

  • Teaching CyBOK Cyber-Physical Systems Security through Interactive Simulation

    CyBOK / National Cyber Security Centre (Total £5k).

  • Identifying and Tackling Counter-Terrorism Finances through Investigation Automation (SCOUT: A fully automated enhanced risk assessment engine)

    InnovateUK Smart Grants (Total £490k).

  • Cyber Security Assessment for Project CAVForth (An Autonomous Bus Service From Park & Ride Across Forth Bridge to Edinburgh Park Train & Tram Interchange)

    Innovate UK and Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) (Total £34k).

  • Analysis and Visualisation of Ransomware and Malicious Network Propagation

    National Cyber Security Centre Internship Award (Total £2.4k).

  • Penetration testing Consultancy

    VQ Communications Ltd. (Total £9k).

  • Interactive Inspection of Adversarial Machine Learning for Collaborative Human-Machine Trust and Security in Data-Driven Military and Defence

    PhD 50-50 studentship in collaboration with Techmodal Ltd. (Total £35k external, £35k internal).

  • Shared Collaborative Project Planning in Secure Federated Learning Environments

    PhD 50-50 studentship in collaboration with Techmodal Ltd. (Total £35k external, £35k internal).

  • Travel Grant: Colloquium for Information Systems Security in Education 2019, Las Vegas, USA

    National Cyber Security Centre (Total £2k).

  • Cyber Security in the Home: Detecting IoT Threats

    National Cyber Security Centre Internship Award (Total £2.4k).

  • Travel Grant: Colloquium for Information Systems Security in Education 2018, New Orleans, USA

    National Cyber Security Centre (Total £2k).

  • HASTE: Human-centric Active-learning for decision Support in Threat Exploration

    DSTL Defence and Security Accelerator (Total £85k).

  • Creating Machine Intelligence with Intelligent Interactive Visualisation

    PhD 50-50 studentship in collaboration with Montvieux Ltd. (Total £35k external, £35k internal).

  • RicherPicture: Automated network defence through business and threat-led machine learning – Phase 2

    DSTL Centre for Defence Enterprise (Total £280k).

  • Enhanced personal situational awareness through network and systems visualization

    UWE Bristol Vice-Chancellor’s Early Career Researcher Development Awards (Total £13k internal).

  • RicherPicture: Automated network defence through business and threat-led machine learning

    DSTL Centre for Defence Enterprise (Total £108k).

Talks

Awards