Secure Information Systems and Networks

Fall Semester

• ECE 5560 (3C) – Fundamentals of Information Security
• ECE 5565 (3C) – Network Architectures and Protocols I
• ECE 5480 (3C) - Cybersecurity and the Internet of Things
• ECE 5424G (3C) - Advanced Machine Learning
• ECE 5944 (1C) - Seminar

Spring Semester

• ECE 5444 (3C) - Advanced Technological Singularity
• ECE 6504 (3C) - Cyber-physical Systems Security
• ECE 5566 (3C) - Network Architectures and Protocols II
• ECE 5984 (3C) – Quantum Engineering
• ECE 5944 (1C) - Seminar

Summer I & II

• ECE 5904 (3C) - Project and Report
• ECE 5434 (3C) - Cyber-physical Systems

Fall Semester

• ECE 5560 (3C) – Fundamentals of Information Security
• ECE 5565 (3C) – Network Architectures and Protocols I
• ECE 5480 (3C) - Cybersecurity and the Internet of Things
• ECE 5424G (3C) - Advanced Machine Learning
• ECE 5944 (1C) - Seminar

Spring Semester

• ECE 5444 (3C) - Advanced Technological Singularity
• ECE 6504 (3C) - Cyber-physical Systems Security
• ECE 5584 (3C) – Network Security
• ECE 5984 (3C) – Quantum Engineering
• ECE 5944 (1C) - Seminar

Summer

• Summer Internship GRAD 5944 (for International Students)

Fall Semester

• ECE 5904 (3C) - Project and Report
• ECE 5580 (3C) – Cryptographic Engineering 

Assistant Professor of ECE

Dr. Tam Chantem is an assistant professor in ECE at Virginia Tech. Her primary areas of research are embedded systems and cyber-physical systems, with focuses on the hardware/software co-design of real-time embedded systems, integrated security, energy-aware and thermal-aware system-level design, and intelligent transportation systems. She received her Ph.D. and Master’s degrees from the University of Notre Dame in 2011 and her Bachelor’s degrees from Iowa State University in 2005. Before joining Virginia Tech, Chantem was an assistant professor in ECE at Utah State University. Chantem received a U.S. Air Force Research Lab Summer Faculty Fellowship, Utah State University’s 2016 ECE Advisor of the Year, and 2011 Outstanding Research Assistant Award from University of Notre Dame. She has also served as the TPC co-chair (ISVLSI 2019, ICESS 2017, RTSOPS 2017, and LPDC 2015) and technical program committee for several conferences such as RTAS, ECRTS, RTSS, DATE, and DAC. Chantem is a senior member of the IEEE.

Dr. Chantem’s Google Scholar profile.

Research Interests:

• Real-time embedded systems, cyber-physical systems (especially intelligent transportation systems, emergency response systems, and smart cities), energy-aware and thermal-aware system-level design, and hardware-software co-design.

Assistant Professor of ECE

Dr. Ryan M. Gerdes is an Assistant Professor in ECE at Virginia Tech. Dr. Gerdes’ work focuses on designing resilient computing systems, with an emphasis on cyber-physical systems operating in adversarial environments and leveraging the physical layer for defensive and offensive purposes. He is the principal investigator on NSF and DOE projects that examine the security and privacy of cooperative, automated vehicles; unmanned aerial systems (UAS); and next-generation battery electric vehicles and chargers. Recent research topics have included: use of intentional electromagnetic interference for the physical-layer manipulation of sensors and actuators, including radar and electric motors; identification and tracking of cognitive radios; attack detection and prevention for automotive systems; electromagnetic side-channel analysis for code-change detection; machine learning in adversarial environments; and detection of malicious logic in untrusted, integrated circuit designs.

Dr. Gerdes’s Google Scholar profile.

Research Interests:
Cyber-physical systems security (physical-layer sensor/actuator spoofing and countermeasures, devising/countering attacks against control systems, and secure localisation), physical layer identification (identifying devices based on electrical side-channels), and integrated circuit security (designing, detecting, and remotely triggering malicious logic).

ECE Graduate Courses Taught

• ECE 5580: Cryptographic Engineering
• ECE 5434: Cyber-physical Systems
• ECE 6504: Cyber-physical Systems Security

Professor of ECE

Dr. Jerry Park Dr. Jerry Park received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University in 2003. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Virginia Tech and the Site Director of an NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (I-UCRC) called Broadband Wireless Access & Applications Center (BWAC). Park is also an Executive Committee member of the National Spectrum Consortium (NSC). NSC is a large consortium of wireless industry stakeholders and universities collaborating with multiple US federal government agencies through a $1.25 billion agreement to support the development of advanced spectrum access technologies. Park’s research interests include dynamic spectrum sharing, cognitive radio networks, wireless security and privacy, applied cryptography, and IoT applications. Current or recent research sponsors include the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Army Research Office (ARO), Office of Naval Research (ONR), and several industry sponsors. Park is a recipient of a 2017 Virginia Tech College of Engineering Dean’s Award for Research Excellence, a 2014 Virginia Tech College of Engineering Faculty Fellow Award, a 2008 NSF Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, a 2008 Hoeber Excellence in Research Award, and a 1998 AT&T Leadership Award. He is currently serving on the editorial boards of a number of IEEE journals, and is actively involved in the organization of a number of flagship conferences. Park is currently serving as the Steering Committee Co-Chair of the IEEE International Symposium on Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks (DySPAN). He is an IEEE Fellow for his contributions to dynamic spectrum sharing, cognitive radio networks, and security issues.

Dr. Park’s Google Scholar profile.

Research Interests:

• Dynamic spectrum sharing
• Co-design and co-existence of heterogeneous wireless technologies, including coexistence of radar and communication systems
• Emerging wireless technologies and applications, including V2X communications, 5G, and IoT
• Wireless security and privacy
• Security issues in machine learning
• Applied cryptography
• Prototyping and evaluation using large-scale wireless testbeds

ECE Graduate Courses Taught

• ECE-CS 5560: Fundamentals of Information Security
• ECE-CS 5566: Network Architecture and Protocols

Professor of ECE

Dr. Angelos Stavrou is a Professor at the Bradley Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering. Stavrou has served as principal investigator on research awards from NSF, DARPA, IARPA, DHS, AFOSR, ARO, ONR, he is an active member of NIST's Mobile Security team and has written more than 125 peer-reviewed conference and journal articles. Stavrou received his M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, M.Phil. and Ph.D. (with distinction) in Computer Science all from Columbia University. He also holds an M.Sc. in theoretical Computer Science from University of Athens, and a B.Sc. in Physics with distinction from University of Patras, Greece. Stavrou is an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Reliability and was a co-chair of the IEEE Blockchain initiative. His current research interests include security and reliability for distributed systems, security principles for virtualization, and anonymity with a focus on building and deploying large-scale systems. Stavrou received the GMU Department of Computer Science Outstanding Research Award in 2010, 2016 and 2018 and was awarded with the 2012 George Mason Emerging Researcher, Scholar, Creator Award, a university-wide award. In 2013, he received the IEEE Reliability Society Engineer of the Year award. He is a member of the ACM and USENIX, and a senior IEEE member and was a NIST guest researcher until July of 2020. Under DHS funding, Kryptowire designed and implemented novel MDM and analysis software that can collect mobile application and network telemetry from mobile devices for which his team was awarded the DHS Cyber Security Division's "Significant Government Impact Award" in 2017 and "Bang for the Buck Award" in 2019.

Professor of ECE

Dr. Haining Wang is a Professor in ECE at Virginia Tech. His research interests lie in the areas of security, networking systems, cloud computing, and Internet-of-Things (IoT) systems. The main thrusts of his current and past research include security issues in Domain Name Systems (DNS) and Content Distributed Networks (CDN), defense against use-after-free vulnerabilities in software, security issues in IoT devices, online reputation systems, energy/power attacks and countermeasures inside data centers, covert channel attacks and countermeasures in the cloud, behavioral biometric-based user authentication, automatic online bot detection, transparent anti-phishing, and countering distributed denial-of-service attacks. Before joining Virginia Tech, Haining was a Professor in ECE at University of Delaware.

Dr. Wang’s Google Scholar profile.

Research Interests:
Network and system security, networking systems, cloud computing, and IoT systems.