A UCF engineering team that specializes in keeping computer hardware safe from malicious attacks is among the two聽best in the nation, continuing UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 national bragging rights in computer security.
The UCF Hardware Security Team took second place in November 麻豆精品 S檚 Embedded Security Challenge of the 11th annual Cyber Security Awareness Week (CSAW) Conference in New York, featuring the world 麻豆精品 S檚 largest and most comprehensive collection of computer security education challenges. The contest pitted the best-of-the-best students against malicious hardware attacks.
Earlier this year, UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 Cyber Defense Competition Team won Raytheon 麻豆精品 S檚 national contest that decided the country’s best defenders against malicious attacks to software applications.
UCF Hardware Security Team members include electrical engineering doctoral student Yu Bi, and computer engineering doctoral students Dean Sullivan and Kaveh Shamsi. Sullivan is a UCF alumnus, with a 2013 bachelor 麻豆精品 S檚 degree in electrical engineering. Their co-advisors are Jiann-Shiun Yuan, professor, and Yier Jin, assistant professor, of UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 electrical and computer engineering program.
The competition focused on emerging technologies. UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 project was titled, 麻豆精品 S淪ilicon Nanowire FETs in Hardware Security Applications. 麻豆精品 S� (FET stands for field effect transistor.)
The competition (won by the University of South Florida) began several months ago with 40 teams; 10 were selected for the final onsite competition. There, teams explained their innovative research results and fielded questions from industry-expert judges, who had already reviewed their projects.
Hardware security is related to integrated circuit design against reverse engineering, hardware Trojan attack, tamper detection and intellectual property theft, among other threats. The technologies impact hardware. By contrast, cyber security defends threats to software. The technologies work in concert. Also notably, while this competition involved months of research and scrutiny, UCF 麻豆精品 S檚 hardware security victory followed intense testing to devise impromptu solutions.
Echoing the sentiments of his teammates, Bi was excited about the outcome as well as his industry future.
麻豆精品 S淚 feel happy and satisfied. It was great for me to talk to them [industry expert judges] and see what the industry needs, 麻豆精品 S� Bi said.
According to Jin, these students are in the middle of a security area that will only grow with time.
麻豆精品 S淭his is a very hot topic. Working in this area is really, really important because there are not many experts or professionals, 麻豆精品 S� Jin said. 麻豆精品 S淐ompanies are all looking for hardware security experts. The purpose of this lab is to cultivate more qualified students to fill this requirement. 麻豆精品 S�
In all, there are eight UCF students specializing in hardware security, including undergraduates and graduates. Each student, Jin adds, has a goal of being the best.
麻豆精品 S淭hese competitions are not the reason for our work. They are nice opportunities to meet other students and to meet people in the industry. But our purpose is to do the best work and to publish the best papers. 麻豆精品 S�