Hardware Internship Program - Edinburgh, On-site - Nethermind

About the Hardware Team

The Hardware Team at Nethermind is pioneering biometric security solutions. We apply advanced cryptography and blockchain to create secure, privacy-preserving hardware systems for identity verification and tamper-proof authentication.

Areas of Internship Focus:

• 3D Biometric Imaging & Reconstruction: Research and develop computer vision techniques for low cost 3D biometric reconstruction to improve matching accuracy and spoof detection.
• Privacy-Preserving CNN Improvement: Develop continual learning methods to adapt CNNs for biometric verification without storing raw data. Use flow or score-matching models to generate privacy-safe synthetic data, enabling on-device or TEE-contained updates without degrading accuracy.
• TEE (Trusted Execution Environment) Integration: Implement secure pipelines where camera capture, CNN inference, encryption, and attestation all occur inside a TEE for maximum security.
• Presentation Attack Defence: Designing and testing methods to identify attempts to fool our biometric system.
• Next-Generation Imaging Methods: Explore alternative imaging approaches to reduce power consumption, enable device miniaturisation, and enhance image quality.
• Tamper Prevention: Designing hardware and manufacturing methods to ensure robustness against physical tampering or counterfeiting.
• Manufacturing Optimisation: Reviewing form factor, component selection, assembly, and test fixture processes to reduce overall cost and improve user experience.
• Applied Cryptography: Working with the research team to incorporate MPC (Multi-Party Computation) and ZKP (Zero-Knowledge Proof) protocols to enhance biometric data security.

• Biometric Image Processing & ML: Build and train models for biometric feature extraction, matching, 3D reconstruction, and anti-spoofing.
• Machine Learning Pipeline Research: Explore privacy-preserving ML flows for improving CNNs in production without storing training data.
• Electronics & Sensor Engineering: Work on tamper prevention, modular component design, power optimisation, and miniaturisation for biometric devices.
• Tamper Prevention Hardware Design: Apply secure manufacturing techniques and security engineering to prevent and detect physical intrusion.
• Secure Cryptographic Protocols: Implement MPC, ZKP, and TEE-based processing to ensure biometric data never leaves the secure environment in raw form.
• Embedded Systems & Firmware: Develop firmware to integrate sensors, cryptographic modules, embedded deployment (Yokto) and secure data pipelines.
• Imaging System Innovation: Research and test imaging methods that reduce power draw while enhancing accuracy and reliability.
• Product Prototyping & Testing: Design, build, and evaluate hardware prototypes for accuracy, reliability, and security.

• Machine Learning Engineers with expertise in computer vision, biometric recognition, 3D reconstruction, or anti-spoofing techniques.
• Embedded developers experienced with Yocto, deploying on embedded systems, or working with Trusted Execution Environments
• Electronics Engineers experienced with either sensor systems, power optimisation, PCB design, tamper prevention, penetration testing.
• Manufacturing Engineers with knowledge of secure manufacturing processes, or experience in component sourcing.
• MPC & ZKP Engineers skilled in designing privacy-preserving protocols for biometric verification or secure enclave integration.
• Optical Engineers with experience in advanced imaging methods, preferably with biometric experience.

• Biometric data acquisition and processing
• Applied cryptography for secure hardware
• Industrial design with a security focus
• Hardware security evaluation and testing

• Global and Diverse Workforce: You'll work with people from various backgrounds and cultures.
• Learning and Development: You'll work on innovative, challenging projects and have access to experts and mentors to enhance your skills.
• Career Growth: Access to training, mentorship, and opportunities to contribute to open-source initiatives.
• Collaborative and Innovative Culture: We foster teamwork and encourage new ideas.