P.R. Kumar of Texas A&M University

Abstract: The coming decades may see the large scale deployment of networked cyber–physical systems to address global needs in areas such as energy, water, health care, and transportation. However, as recent events have shown, such systems are vulnerable to cyber attacks. We begin by revisiting classical linear systems theory, developed in more innocent times, from a security-conscious, even paranoid, viewpoint. Then we present a general technique, called “dynamic watermarking,” for detecting any sort of malicious activity in networked systems of sensors and actuators. We present a field test on an automobile, experimental demonstration of this technique on an automobile on a test track, a process control system, and a simulation study of defense against an attack on Automatic Gain Control (AGC) in a synthetic four area power system.

Biography:

P. R. Kumar is at Texas A&M where he is a University Distinguished Professor, Regents Professor, and holds the College of Engineering Chair in Computer Engineering. He received M.S. and D.Sc. degrees in Systems Science and Mathematics from Washington University, St. Louis in 1975 and 1977, respectively. Kumar also held faculty positions in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illinois between 1985 and 2011. Kumar has worked on problems in game theory, adaptive control, stochastic systems, simulated annealing, neural networks, machine learning, queueing networks, manufacturing systems, scheduling, wafer fabrication plants and information theory. His current research focus includes renewable energy, smart grid, security, privacy, automated transportation, unmanned aerial vehicle traffic management, wireless networks, 5G, cyber-physical systems, control theory, information theory, stochastic systems, and operations research. Kumar is a member of the National Academy of Engineering of the USA, the World Academy of Sciences, and the Indian National Academy of Engineering. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule) in Zurich. He received the IEEE Field Award for Control Systems, the Donald Eckman Award of American Automatic Control Council, the Fred Ellersick Prize of IEEE Communications Society, the Outstanding Contribution Award of ACM SIGMOBILE, the Infocom Achievement Award, and a SIGMOBILE Test-of-Time Paper Award.

Email:

Address:Texas A&M University, Room 331E, 3259 TAMU, College Station, Texas, United States, 77843