"CAREER Award Supports Cyber-Physical Systems Research"

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award to a University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) professor in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science to support security research for critical infrastructure systems. Dr. Justin Ruths, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and systems engineering, has been awarded about $500,000 for a five-year project aimed at improving automation and control system security. The award supports Ruths' research focusing on developing detectors capable of recognizing, deterring, and mitigating cyberattacks targeting computer-based controllers that regulate and monitor physical processes in critical infrastructure (e.g., power plants, petrochemical refineries, and water treatment plants). He focuses on developing techniques to detect the presence of attacks that manipulate measurement data in the cyber layer by leveraging the physics of these systems. The method entails making predictions about how a system should behave and setting up an alert system if measurements do not match those predictions. In Ruths' lab, researchers use a full-scale testbed separator to simulate real-world security breaches, as well as the Nova, a test electric vehicle. This article continues to discuss the CAREER award received by UT Dallas' Dr. Justin Ruths in support of research to bolster the security of automation and control systems.

UT Dallas reports "CAREER Award Supports Cyber-Physical Systems Research"