NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU)
Description
Training Research for Undergraduate Students in Secure and Trusted Systems (TRUST)
Secure and Trusted Systems
This Summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site, funded by the NSF Division of Computer and Network Systems, focuses on Training Research for Undergraduate Students in Secure and Trusted Systems (TRUST). It emphasizes hardware security in areas such as Internet of Things (IoT), embedded AI security, detection and mitigation of side-channel attacks, and the security and trust of firmware and embedded systems.
Project Objectives
- Engage in trusted microelectronics research to gain practical experience in areas critical to national
- Facilitate self-assessment for interns regarding their interests in cybersecurity and potential graduate studies
- Acquire advanced knowledge in hardware security, encompassing hardware, software, IoT, communications, and machine/deep learning security
Activities
- Hands-on FPGA development and simulation of CNN accelerators
- Data analysis of voltage traces captured during inference.
- Application of noise reduction techniques for accurate data interpretation.
- Exploration and implementation of countermeasures against hardware side-channel attacks.
- Design partitioning and hardware integration for enhanced security measures.
Topic Areas:
- Hardware Security in Trusted System
- Side-Channel Attack and Countermeasures
- AI Hardware Security and Firmware Protection
- Embedded System Security in IoT Applications
- Research Collaboration in Secure Microelectronics Development
Award Information:
- $6,500 stipend for 10 weeks
- On-campus housing included
- Food allowance
- Round-trip travel expenses up to $600 ➢ The total is approximately $9,000
Eligibility Requirements
- U.S. citizen or permanent resident
- Electrical engineering, computer/software engineering, computer Science or any other related disciplines with a 3.0 or higher GPA
- Sophomore, junior or senior
- Must graduate after September 2025
Deadline
March 1, 2025Application
Apply NowAnnouncement of Awards
April 1, 2025Apply
Faculty
InvestigatorHe specializes in digital microelectronics and leads the $29.75M AFRL effort namely Assured Digital Microelectronics Education and Training Ecosystem (ADMETE), National Pathway to Success in Cybersecurity (NPS), $1.036M grant supported by the NSA.
Dr. Kenneth Hopkinson (AFIT): co-Principal InvestigatorHe holds the position of Professor of Computer Science and Department Head of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in Dayton, Ohio. He is a Senior Member of both the IEEE and ACM professional societies. Proficient in Networking, Security, Cryptography, Remote Sensing, Sensor Fusion, Critical Infrastructure Protection, and Space Applications, he has made significant research contributions that enhance our national security and technological advancements.
Dr. Junjie Zhang (WSU): Senior PersonnelHe is an Associate Professor in Wright State University’s Computer Science department, also directs the Cybersecurity Programs within the CSE Department. His extensive research is centered on secure and trusted communication systems, with a strong focus on developing trusted and secure systems. Dr. Zhang’s cybersecurity research has received support from federal, state, and industrial grants. Committed to advancing cybersecurity education, he has led significant initiatives, including serving as the Principal Investigator for the “REU Site: Cyber Security Research at Wright State University” project (CNS-1560315, 2016-2019). This initiative empowered undergraduate students to engage in independent research in cybersecurity, contributing to the progression of trusted and secure systems in the field.
She is an Assistant Professor in Wright State University’s Computer Science department, specializes in AI-assisted techniques for developing efficient, secure, and trusted IoT applications. Her research encompasses projects in the Authentication of Multi-Hop Routing and Energy Allocation in Distributed IoT Systems based on Multi-agent RL, Sparsity-Aware Spatiotemporal Data Reconstruction Framework for Self-Secure and Trusted AIoT Systems. Dr. Zhang’s work also includes Joint-optimization of Node Placement and UAV’s Trajectory for Efficient, Self-Secure and Trusted Air-Ground IoT Systems, demonstrating her commitment to advancing the field of Secure and Trusted IoT systems.
Tamzidul Hoque (KU): Senior PersonnelHe is an Assistant Professor in Kansas University’s Electrical and Computer Engineering department, specializes in hardware security and leads two NSF projects focusing on hardware education and microelectronic security education in NSF IUSE and NSF SaTC respectively. He secured funding from NSF, NSA, and industry with more than half a million.
Lingwei Chen (WSU): Senior PersonnelHe is Assistant Professor at WSU, specializes in machine learning and security. His research focuses on developing machine learning algorithms for security challenges and enhancing trust in intelligent systems. Dr. Chen’s work has been published in prestigious venues, including SIGIR, AAAI, and IJCAI, and he holds an NSF CRII award (Grant #NSF CNS-2245968) for data-effective security attack detection. He has extensive teaching experience in machine learning and cybersecurity, mentoring students at various levels, including REU participants and high school students in computer science.
Projects
List of Projects:
AI Hardware Trojan Design and Detection: This project equips students with comprehensive knowledge and hands-on experience in hardware security by focusing on both the creation and detection of hardware Trojans in AI accelerators.
- Part 1: Trojan Design: Students will learn about the design principles of hardware Trojans, covering different abstraction levels such as gate-level, RTL, and layout. They will design a simple Trojan circuit within an AI accelerator, comprising a trigger and payload, and observe its effect on system behavior. Using provided HDL code, students will modify the accelerator to insert the Trojan. After synthesizing the modified design onto an FPGA, they will analyze how the Trojan disrupts clock behavior during image processing, potentially leading to misclassifications.
- Part 2: Trojan Detection: Students will explore side-channel analysis as a method to detect hardware Trojans. By collecting power signatures from a suspected Trojan-infected chip and comparing them to a Trojan-free reference design, students will apply machine learning-based tools to detect discrepancies in power usage. The project aims to give students hands-on experience with Trojan design, side-channel analysis, data collection, and hardware security.
Power Side-Channel Hardware Attacks and Countermeasures: This project provides students with practical insights into executing power side-channel attacks on AI hardware and designing countermeasures to protect against these vulnerabilities.
- Part 1: Power Side-Channel Attacks: Students will implement power side-channel attacks on a CNN accelerator running on an FPGA. They will analyze power consumption patterns using an oscilloscope to identify foreground and background image components during inference. Through voltage trace analysis, students will learn to separate these components based on power usage. They will also apply noise reduction techniques to improve data accuracy and extract image details from background pixels.
- Part 2: Countermeasures Against Side-Channel Attacks: This phase teaches students how to design and implement protective strategies against side-channel attacks. They will partition the hardware design and create obfuscated variants to mask timing information and randomize execution paths. By generating FPGA bitstreams and collecting timing data, students will assess the effectiveness of these hardware countermeasures in defending against timing-based side-channel attacks.
Embedded System Security: This project introduces students to the security challenges and solutions in modern embedded systems. The focus is on hardware testing, verification, FPGA programming, and compiler integration.
- Hardware Testing and Verification: Students will collaborate with the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) to test and verify modules for a RISC-V embedded processor. This involves developing test software and firmware to validate processor modules and prevent errors.
- Trusted Hardware Platforms on FPGA: Students will gain hands-on experience in programming Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) using Hardware Description Languages (HDL) like VHDL. They will develop and test trusted hardware platforms, focusing on ensuring security in embedded systems.
- Trusted Microprocessor Integration: Students will assist in integrating a trusted microprocessor into the LLVM compiler suite in collaboration with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). They will work on low-level assembly programming and optimize hardware instructions, ensuring their proper execution in a processor emulator. This task provides insights into compiler optimization, hardware security, and embedded system development.
Facilities
1. Microfabrication Facilities
The NEC Building has ~ 1100 square feet dedicated to fabrication, packaging, and integration o f semiconductor devices, components, and systems. A short list o f available facilities and equipment is as follows (Fig. 1): (1) Class 1,000 cleanroom (835 SF) for generic chemical and thin-film processing; (2) Class 100 cleanroom (260 SF) for basic photolithography down to ~1.0 micron scale including spinner, UV patterning (flood and contact printing), and development; (3) basic metallization including thermal evaporation and plating; (4) wet-chemical processing including metal lift-off, etch-back, and anisotropic deep etching; (5) annealing, wire bonding, and other contact technologies; (6) cleaving, dicing, and related chip generation; (7) lapping and polishing down to 100 micron or less (depending on the material) using diamond-grit and other slurries; (8) reactive-ion etching, including plasma ashing capability; and (9) sub-micron analysis and imaging capabilities using a Dektak profilometer, Rudolph ellipsometer, Infinity metallurgical microscope, or Phenom scanning electron microscope.
2. Facilities and Major Equipment at College of Engineering and Computer Science
The College of Engineering and Computer Science has two Dayton-campus buildings whose primary use is in support o f the college. Additional laboratory and teaching space is available throughout Dayton campus on as-available/as-needed basis. All college/department facilities are reasonably available to all programs in the college. The College o f Engineering and Computer Science is housed in the 173,000 square foot Russ Engineering Center which was built in 1992.
- The Russ Engineering Center (1992) is the focal point ofthe college, with 173,110 square feet of space dedicated to CECS use. This space includes 60+ labs (including a High-Bay area), 90+ faculty/staff offices, and several classrooms o f varying size. The basement o f the Russ building (refurbished 2022) holds the CECS Machine shop and senior design spaces for all CECS programs.
- The Joshi Research Center (2006) adds 48,000 square feet o f space for CECS programming. Joshi is directly adjacent and accessible from every floor o f Russ. This facility added 20+ faculty offices, 30+ research laboratories, and an additional classroom.
- The Wright State University-Lake Campus is a regional campus, located in Western Ohio, between Celina and St. Marys. Lake campus focuses on associate degree programs, but provides an all-inclusive experience, including on-campus dormitories and several four-year programs through Dayton campus. Trenary Hall houses facilities engineering facilities used for students enrolled in Dayton campus CECS baccalaureate programs.
Major research equipment and facilities of relevance to this proposal in the Mechanical and Materials Engineering, and Electrical Engineering departments include:
2.1 Digital Microelectronics Lab
Digital Microelectronics lab, led by PI Amsaad, is supported by the assured and trusted digital microeconomics ecosystem (ADMETE), a nearly $30M AFRL grant led by Wright State University. The AFRL supports the lab and has state-of-the-art, including Printed Circuit Board software/hardware tools, embedded system fabrication devices, and reconfigurable hardware. Currently have four available workstations for designing and fabricating printed circuit boards. Additional equipment has been ordered that will increase the workstation capacity to 10 PCB design stations, digital oscilloscopes, power/single analyzes, logic analyzers, temperature, environmental chambers, etc., and provide increased capabilities for the lab and opportunities for hands-on learning for students. Once completed, the lab can produce secure circuit boards ofup to 8 layers with a trace spacing ofless than one mil.
2.2 Advanced Visual Data Analysis
The WSU Advanced Visual Data Analysis Laboratory, directed by Prof. Wischgoll, is housed in a 454 sq. ft. laboratory and provides space for up to 9 researchers. The computing infrastructure o f this laboratory is supported by servers providing centralized storage space. It is equipped with state-of-the-art graphics workstations running Ubuntu Linux. Computers with high-end graphics cards are available in this laboratory. There are two 50-inch stereo-capable display systems available with active-stereo shutter glasses and a NaturalPoint Optitrack tracking system with three cameras. Non-standard input devices that are utilized for different visualization tasks include Wiimotes, gamepads, Microsoft Kinect, and AcceleGlove. A tiled display consisting o f 8 screens in a 4×2 configuration provides higher-resolution capabilities and is driven by just a single computer composed o f four individual graphics cards.
In a separate 486 sq. ft. laboratory solely designated to teaching and student work, ten high-end graphics workstations equipped with Intel Core i7 processors, 16 GB. o f memory, and an Nvidia 3900 graphics card running Windows 10 and Ubuntu Linux in a dual-boot configuration are available. Each workstation is connected to a standard monitor and a 50-inch 3D stereo-capable display. There are 20 active-stereo shutter glasses, 6 NaturalPoint OptiTrack optical tracking systems, and 6 Microsoft Kinects available in that laboratory. In addition, each workstation has a Wiimote and a Logitech gamepad that can be used as an additional input device. In addition, 15 Magic Leap One augmented reality head-mounted displays, 4 H.T.C. Vive eye virtual reality head-mounted displays, and 4 HP mixed reality head-mounted displays are available.
Prof. Wischgoll is also the Director of Visualization Research at Wright State University, responsible for the Appenzeller Visualization Laboratory. This 1225 sq. ft laboratory supports various types of visualization tasks. It includes two head-mounted displays (H.T.C. Vive and HP mixed reality), two tiled display systems consisting of 20 full HD monitors providing over 40 megapixels and six 55-inch 4K displays with 48 megapixels combined, respectively, and passive stereo projection wall. This lab offers access to a Barco CADWall, a Virtalis ActiveCube, and a mobile projection system. Two Barco Galaxy projectors drive the CADWall with a resolution of 1450×1050 using edge-blending. The ActiveCube is a CAVE-type display system with four projection screens powered by Barco F80 laser projectors with a resolution of 2560×2560 per wall. An ART Optical tracking system can track a pair of active stereo glasses and the flight stick with buttons and joystick control. A similarly configured display system composed of 27 full HD thin-bezeled large-format displays provides a three-walled, fully immersive, 3D- stereo-capable display environment with optical tracking that provides 54 Megapixels display capabilities. The system is driven by four computers equipped with AMD FirePro V7900 graphics cards.
2.3 Advanced Manufacturing Lab
Advanced Manufacturing Lab led by PI Dr. Mian is located in Russ 138B. This 1,350 sq. ft. (45′ x 30′) facility houses the following equipment:
- Metal 3D Printers
- OpenAdditive (https://www.openadditive.com/) powder bed fusion metal 3D printer
- A Coherent CREATOR metal 3D printer based on laser Powder Bed Fusion (acquired on loan).
- Polymer 3D Printers
- ProJet printer by 3D Systems (3Dsystems.com). It is a Multi-Jet Modeling (MJM) rapid prototyping machine that uses photo-curable resins. The machine we used is capable of printing 656x656x800 DPI in x, y, and z directions with accuracy of 25 micron to 35 micron of resolution. The material used is the proprietary EX200 UV curable acrylic plastic designed to provide fine features, sharp edges, and smooth curves in 3D printing
- FABPRO lO00LST Printer by 3DSystems (https://www.3dsystems.com/3d-printers/fabpro- 1000). It is a stereolithography (SLA) printer that uses photo-curable resins. The printer has a minimum layer thickness of 30 micron.
- Form 3 by Formlabs (formlabs.com). It is a stereolithography (SLA) printer that uses photo-curable resins. The Form 3 prints with 25 micron XY resolution and 25-300 microns (user selectable) in the Z, using an 85-micron laser
- Formlabs Fuse 3. It’s a powder bed fusion polymer printer that uses Nylon material. Maximum part size is 6.3 in x 6.3 in x 11.6 in. Layer thickness 110 micron. The printer uses lOW Yb fiber laser with spot size of 200 microns.
- Stratasys 3D printers based on Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) Technology (in FDM, parts are built layer-by-layer by heating thermoplastic material to a semi-liquid state and extruding it according to computer-controlled paths)
- One Stratasys Dimension 1200es
- One Stratasys uPrint
- Electronic Printer
- Jetlab 4XL Printer by MicroFab (microfab.com). The printer is based on inkjet technology. Electric Discharge Machining (EDM)
Computer numerical control (CNC) Mill
- Jetlab 4XL Printer by MicroFab (microfab.com). The printer is based on inkjet technology. Electric Discharge Machining (EDM)
- Electric Discharge Machining (EDM)
- Computer numerical contro (CNC) Mill
2.4 Material Characterization Lab
The facility is located in several rooms of Russ Engineering bldg. The equipment available are below:
- Microstructural characterization
- JEOL 7900 Low Vacuum Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (LV FESEM) with
EDS, EBSD and STEM capabilities - Rigaku SmartLab X-Ray Diffraction system for polycrystalline and powder diffraction analysis with heated stage for analysis up to 1200°C, and low angle capability
- A Nikon research optical microscope with digital image capture
- A Clemex microhardness tester with Vickers and Knoop indenters for automated microhardness measurements using loads from 10 to 1000g.
- Kratos AXIS-ULTRA x-ray photo-spectrometer (XPS)
- A Renishaw micro-Raman spectrometer
- Standard metallography laboratory with sample preparation facilities for optical and SEM samples, including sputter coating, and several optical microscopes with image capture
- Other facilities include resistivity measuring equipment, low speed ball mill, powder compacting presses
- JEOL 7900 Low Vacuum Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (LV FESEM) with
- Thermomechanical processing and deformation testing
- Anelevated temperature deformation testing system consisting of a 100 ton MTS hydraulic test frame with a vacuum/controlled environment furnace and several load cells.
- A 100 ton MTS hydraulic test frame, with induction and radiant heat furnaces
- A 15 ton and a 10 ton Instron screw-driven universal testing machine with a radiant heat
furnace - A 25 ton Dake hydraulic press with heated dies.
- Box and tube furnaces
2.5 Computer Facilities
Computer software available in the College includes ABAQUS, NASTRAN, ANSYS, MATLAB, Mathematica, SolidWorks, AutoCAD, COMSOL Multiphysics, Cadence, and Microwave Design Studio, on a networked system of microcomputers, workstations and mainframes.In addition, supercomputer access is provided by The Ohio Supercomputer Center, and may be used for performing part of the computations.
3. Other Resources
3.1 Office of Financial Aid
Wright State University (WSU) has dedicated Office of Financial Aid (OFA) that manages scholarships and financial aids. The project team will leverage help from the WSU OFA in selecting stipends with unmet need. The intuitional support letter from FOA is submitted.
3.2 Career Services
Wright State University has the office of Career and Academic Advising within the Division of Student Success. In addition, the College of Engineering and Computer Science (CECS) has a separate Career Services office that coordinates experiential learning with industrial partners. The project will work with these offices to facilitate experiential leaning for the students.
4. Unfunded Collaborators
The following collaborators will help with experiential learning.
- Dr. Emily Heckman, Senior Electronics Research Engineer, Sensors Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, 2241 Avionics Circle, WPAFB, OH 45433. Dr. Heckman’s lab will provide hands-on learning experience in the application o f additive approach o f electronic manufacturing.
- Mariann Boron, Career Consultant-College ofEngineering and Computer Science, Joshi Research Center 280, Wright State University. Ms. Boron will assist with career consulting and placement for experiential learning.
Logistics
Housing
Occupancy on-campus housing will be coordinated and provided for REU participants for 10 weeks. The rooms are furnished with a twin sized bed, desk, and a chair. The desk will be open 24 hours and the participants may pick-up their keys there. For more information about housing, please check the website here.
Work Site
All REU students would be working at College of Engineering and Computer Science, Wright State University and Air Force Institute of Technology Lab.
Transportation
RTA buses run from downtown Dayton to Wright State and from downtown to many other destinations. RTA transportation passes and schedules are available at the Wright State University Campus Store, 182 Student Union. The RTA’s phone number is 937-425-8300. All buses feature bike racks and meet ADA accessibility guidelines.
Greene CATS Public Transit’s services are open to the general public and meet ADA accessibility guidelines.
They provide two types of Demand Responsive service:
- Scheduled Rides pick up and drop off riders at any location within Greene County with limited service to neighboring counties;
- Flex Routes have defined routes with scheduled time points that circulate and link Greene County communities of Beavercreek, Fairborn, Xenia, and Yellow Springs. Deviations on Flex Routes up to 1/2 of a mile are available upon request. The Wright State University’s time point is located along the Orange Line flex route and is at the Student Union (shared bus stop with Greater Dayton RTA and the Raider Shuttle). Flex Route buses are also equipped with bike racks.
For more information about transportation, please visit here.