Research assistants (MSc thesis workers), Digital Economic Security Lab DIESL

Start date: February-June 2026

Post duration: 6 months

Salary: 2,564.18€ per month full-time (or pro rata for part-time if taking courses concurrently)

Place of work: Aalto University, Computer Science building, room A238

Digital Economic Security Lab (DIESL) is hiring research assistants to conduct research on the international political economy of digital infrastructures. The research assistants are expected to be final-year MSc students in the Computer Science department (including the Information Networks Master’s programme) and will write their Master’s thesis as part of the role. The supervising professor is Vili Lehdonvirta and the thesis will additionally be advised by a lab member based on the topic of interest.

The research assistants will be members of DIESL (http://diesl.eu/), a multi-disciplinary research group that brings together diverse expertise in an open and constructive research environment. DIESL members study computational infrastructures and how they are shaped by economic and political forces globally. The group examines the changing geography of these infrastructures and how it is shaped by the interaction of technology companies’ business interests and states’ economic and security interests.

Interested students are strongly encouraged to attend the International Relations and Technology course this spring (CS-E505004).

Thesis topic areas

The research assistant will write a thesis that addresses a research question relevant to DIESL’s aims, chosen in consultation with the supervisor and advisor. Potential topics include:

• Network analysis of data centre host countries
  • Use eg. S&P Global Capital IQ or CAIDA data to build an international network model of countries’ data infrastructures, and study how geopolitics has shaped this network
  • Skills needed: Network science, statistics, ML

• ML feasibility study of inferring where (in which country) public sector data is hosted
  • Use DNS records and ML techniques to infer the physical host country of a given public sector online service
  • Skills needed: Basic understanding of internet architecture, ML/statistics

• Assessment of geopolitical risk mitigation measures such as “sovereign clouds”
  • Analyse and evaluate technologies and/or organizational/legal instruments that are used to mitigate the risk of using a technology platform provided by a foreign company, eg. AWS European Sovereign Cloud
  • Skills needed: Cybersecurity, privacy, data protection, organization studies

• Case study or comparative tech policy analysis of European or East/Southeast Asian countries
  • Carry out country/regional level analyses on public procurement rules, industrial policies, and/or tech governance through mixed methods
  • Skills needed: Basic understanding of policymaking, affinity for mixed methods

• Subsea cables and international dependencies
  • Assess safety and security risks of subsea cable networks
  • Skills needed: Network analysis and/or network security, cyber resilience, critical infrastructure protection

• Your own research idea relevant to the lab

Selection criteria

Essential selection criteria (you should have all of these)

- Strong interest in studying technology from the perspectives of international trade and global politics

-Basic understanding of Internet architecture

-Attention to detail

-Skills required to work on a specific research topic (see above)

-Ability to write fluent academic English

Additional selection criteria (you should have some of these)

-Basic multivariate statistics (e.g. multiple regression, logistic regression)

-Basic skills in statistical software (R, Python libraries, etc)

-Basic understanding of policymaking, industrial policies, and tech governance

How to apply

Submit your application by February 6th via Aalto’s online application system. Indicate in your cover letter which topic(s) you are interested in. Please include the following attachments:

1. CV

2. A cover letter that includes a point-by-point response to how your profile matches the selection criteria listed above (max. 800 words)

3. One writing sample demonstrating your academic writing skills in English, not necessarily on a related topic; e.g. a course paper (ideally 1,000-6,000 words)

If your application is shortlisted, you will be contacted to arrange an interview.

Please send any informal queries via email to vili.lehdonvirta@aalto.fi (cc stefka.schmid@aalto.fi) with ‘DIESL thesis’ in the subject line.

Related readings

Lehdonvirta, V. Wu, B., and Hawkins, Z. (2025). Weaponized interdependence in a bipolar world: How economic forces and security interests shape the global reach of U.S. and Chinese cloud data centres. Review of International Political Economy. https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4670764

Kilpi, J., Kässi, O., and Lehdonvirta, V. (2025) Most Finnish digital public services hosted by U.S. cloud providers. DIESL blog. https://diesl.eu/most-finnish-digital-public-services-hosted-by-u-s-cloud-providers/

Mikelsaar, A. (2025) Ruptures at the Top of the World: High North Network Infrastructure Protection. International Centre for Defence and Security https://icds.ee/en/ruptures-at-the-top-of-the-world-high-north-network-infrastructure-protection/

Hawkins, Z., Lehdonvirta, V. and Wu, B. (2025). AI Compute Sovereignty: Infrastructure Control Across Territories, Cloud Providers, and Accelerators. Working paper available at SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5312977

Lehdonvirta, V. Wu, B., and Hawkins, Z. (2024). Compute North vs. Compute South: The Uneven Possibilities of Compute-based AI Governance Around the Globe. 7th AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society. San Jose, CA, October 21-23, 2024. https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/8yp7z

Previous theses

Kilpi, J. (2025). Detecting digital dependence: Inferring public-sector hosting arrangements from Internet infrastructural records, https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202512179426

Liukkonen, K. (2025). Competing clouds: U.S.-China tech rivalry and the geoeconomic turn, https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202506174870

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