Summer 2018 Graduates

June 27, 2018 by

Our CEEN graduates will have their commencement ceremony at Reed Arena at 9 a.m. on Friday, August 10, 2018. We will bestow the following degrees this summer: 3 – PhD in Computer Engineering, 2 – Master of  Engineering in Computer Engineering, and 4 – MS in Computer Engineering.

Dr. Yingyezhe “Jimmy” Jin             Praneet Bhatia             Shilpa Bhosekar

Dr. Chaofan Li            Lee “Bryan” Elliot            Ignatius Praveen Lawrence

Dr. Lijia Sun               Asok Mani Sidharth        Richard Einstein Marveldos

Congratulations on their perseverance, acquiring deeper knowledge, and many accomplishments while in our program!

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Texas A&M College of Engineering fares well in latest U.S. News graduate rankings

March 21, 2018 by

Texas A&M Engineering’s graduate program was again ranked 11th overall nationally in the latest U.S. News & World Report survey, “America’s Best Graduate Schools 2018.” The college also ranked seventh among public institutions.

Individual programs ranked were:

      computer engineering 21 (11)

      electrical engineering 22 (13)

Computer science, which was last ranked in the Sciences category in 2014, was 40th nationally and 23rd among public institutions.

Full post on 1/12/18 at http://engineering.tamu.edu/news.html

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Aggie sweeps hackathon challenge, gets honored by India’s prime minister

March 21, 2018 by

As cybersecurity emerges as a significant differential for economic progress across the globe, an open dialog between cybersecurity experts and governments becomes critical in influencing the global community and ensuring a safe cyberspace for the world economy.

A team of Aggies researching these cybersecurity issues has won the Global Cyber Challenge Peace-a-thon at the 2017 Global Conference on Cyber Space (GCCS), which was inaugurated by the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, in New Delhi, India.

Bharadwaj Satchidanandan, a graduate student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, is the team lead for “Aggies” – the Texas A&M team that emerged as the winner of Best International Team award at the hackathon challenge. Satchidanandan’s team included his research advisor, Dr. P.R. Kumar, College of Engineering Chair in Computer Engineering and Distinguished Professor in the electrical and computer engineering department.

“Cyberspace remains a key area for innovation,” said Modi in a speech at the conference. “Nations must take responsibility to ensure that the digital space does not become a playground for the dark forces of terrorism and radicalization. Information sharing and coordination among security agencies is essential to counter the ever-changing threat landscape.”

Finalists for the challenge consisted 15 teams from India, Canada, United States, France and Argentina.

The hackathon began with 14 problem statements in the area of cybersecurity and privacy. The teams had 36 hours to present their solution to the problem statements and develop a proof of concept demonstrating their solution, and Satchidanandan presented Texas A&M Engineering’s video on his research with Kumar. A jury selected the winners based on a pre-decided evaluation framework. Modi presented the winners with their awards after the event.

Delegates and officials representing more than 120 countries attended the GCCS event, which was launched in 2011 to establish the internationally agreed “rules of the road” for behavior in cyberspace.

“We as a society are becoming more and more reliant on the cyberspace,” said Satchidanandan when asked about his biggest takeaway from the event and what he would like the local community to know about the cybersecurity issues he is studying. “The technical community, policy makers and law enforcement agencies are hard at work behind the scenes to ensure that the privacy and security of each individual is ensured in the digital domain.”

Aggie Bharadwaj Satchidanandan accepting the Best International Team award from India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Also seen in the picture are India’s Law & Justice, Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad (first from left) and Sri Lanka’s Ranil Wickremesinghe (fourth from left)

Original Post: https://engineering.tamu.edu/news/2017/11/29/aggie-sweeps-hackathon-challenge-gets-honored-by-indias-prime-minister.html

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Kumar, Martell, Schneider receive Regents Awards for contributions to Texas A&M System

March 21, 2018 by

Three from Texas A&M Engineering were recognized for their outstanding contributions to The Texas A&M University System and their respective fields of expertise by the Board of Regents. Dr. P.R. Kumar was named a Regents Professor, and Marilyn Martell and Dr. Dean Schneider were recipients of the Regents Fellow Service Award.

Kumar is the College of Engineering Chair in Computer Engineering and a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M. He has been awarded numerous academic titles and awards. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from ETH, Zurich, and has received the Outstanding Contribution Award from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) SIGMOBILE, the Infocom Achievement Award, the SIGMOBILE Test-of-Time Paper Award, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Field Award for Control Systems, the Donald P. Eckman Award of the American Automatic Control Council and the Fred W. Ellersick Prize of the IEEE Communications Society. Kumar is a member of the U.S. and Indian National Academies of Engineering and a Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences. He also is an ACM Fellow and a Fellow of IEEE.

“Dr. Kumar is a true scholar, a leader in many research fields, a passionate teacher and mentor,” said Dr. Miroslav Begovic, head of the electrical and computer engineering department, in his nomination letter. “He embodies academic excellence, with achievements that have an impact on Texas A&M University, the state of Texas, our nation and internationally.”

Martell has served as the senior assistant vice chancellor for marketing and communications for Texas A&M Engineering more than 16 years. She is directly responsible for marketing, communications and public relations for the College of Engineering and TEES, as well as providing strategic brand development and guidance to maximize the strengths of the Texas A&M System Engineering Program. During her tenure, Martell has elevated and maximized the Texas A&M Engineering and Texas A&M System brands. Some of her greatest accomplishments include the crisis communications she led during the deployment of Texas Task Force 1 to the World Trade Center and coordinating the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition Design Weekend held at Texas A&M in 2016, which had such an impact on the community that Martell received the Hometown Hero Award from the Convention Sales Department at the Bryan/College Station Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“Ms. Martell is a person of integrity who embraces our core values and encourages others to do the same,” said Dr. Diane Hurtado, associate vice president for federal relations, in the nomination letter. “She has demonstrated a long history of professional service to the A&M System, which I have had the privilege of witnessing. As I chart her future trajectory based on her historical performance, I am convinced beyond the shadow of a doubt that we can only expect extraordinary and spectacular things from her in the future.”

Schneider is the co-director of the Gulf Coast Regional Manufacturing Center of the Texas A&M Energy Institute, and a Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) Center Fellow. He is a retired U.S. Air Force research and development engineer with over 30 years of experience in technology program management and development. After joining TEES, Schneider helped provide organization and vision to TEES researchers in responding to federal manufacturing initiatives, leading to significant involvement in five national Manufacturing USA institutes, including regional leadership in three of them. He has received many awards during his career, including an Air Force Commendation Medal, an Air Force Logistic Command Outstanding Company Grade Military Engineer of the Year Award and numerous Air Force Meritorious Service Medals.

“Dr. Schneider is a model of servant leadership and consistently demonstrates his commitment to serving others,” said Dr. Dimitris Lagoudas, TEES deputy director and associate vice chancellor for engineering research, in his nomination letter. “His sustained contributions to the mission of TEES makes him an exemplary asset to our agency providing extension in research to the citizens, both private and corporate, of the state of Texas.”

The Board of Regents established the Regents Professor Awards program in 1996 and the Regents Fellow Service Awards program in 1998 to recognize employees who have made exemplary contributions to their university or agency and to the people of Texas.

The Regents Professor Award honors individuals at the rank of professor or equivalent whose distinguished performance in teaching, research and service have been exemplary. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the A&M System on faculty members.

The Regents Fellow Service Award honors and recognizes extension, research and service professionals within the agricultural and engineering agencies, health science center and veterinary medical diagnostic laboratory. These professionals must have demonstrated a significant commitment and contributions to their respective agency by providing exceptional leadership in educational or program delivery/scholarship, research or service that have resulted in significant impact and lasting benefits to the state of Texas and beyond.

“These professors and professionals make The Texas A&M University System extraordinary,” said Board of Regents Chairman Charles Schwartz in a statement. “Because of them, the universities and agencies within The Texas A&M University System will continue to thrive.”

Original Post on 2/8/18 at  http://engineering.tamu.edu/news/2018/02/08/kumar-martell-schneider-receive-regents-awards-for-contributions-to-texas-am-system.html

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Kumar elected Indian National Academy of Engineering Fellow

March 21, 2018 by

Dr. P.R. Kumar was elected Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE). He is among five foreign fellows elected this year.

INAE is an autonomous institution with a membership comprising of the most distinguished engineers, engineer-scientists and technologists from all branches of engineering, technology and related sciences. Up to 50 fellows from academia, industry and government are elected every year. Election to INAE is by nomination only.

Kumar is a College of Engineering Chair in Computer Engineering and a distinguished professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University. He obtained his Bachelor of Technology degree in electrical engineering (electronics) from Indian Institute of Technology Madras in 1973, and the Master of Science and Doctor of Science degrees in systems science and mathematics from Washington University, St. Louis, in 1975 and 1977, respectively

Kumar studies 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 research focus currently includes cybersecurity, privacy, cyberphysical systems, wireless networks, smart grid, autonomous vehicles and unmanned air vehicle systems.

Kumar is a member of the National Academy of Engineering in the U.S., and a Fellow of the World Academy of Sciences.

Original Post: 1/19/18 at https://engineering.tamu.edu/news.html

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Best Paper Award from ACM MobiHoc 2017

December 11, 2017 by

Dr. I-Hong Hou and Dr. P.R. Kumar, part of our CESG faculty, contributed to the Best Paper Award from the Eighteenth International Conference on Mobile Ad Hoc Networking and Computing (ACM MobiHoc 2017) earlier this year. The paper was selected as the best paper out of 179 submissions – which is truly a feat to be recognized!

Title:   “Throughput-Optimal Scheduling for Multi-Hop Networked Transportation Systems With Switch-Over Delay”

Abstract:   The emerging connected-vehicle technology provides a new dimension for developing more intelligent traffic control algorithms for signalized intersections. An important challenge for scheduling in networked transportation systems is the switchover delay caused by the guard time before any traffic signal change. The switch-over delay can result in significant loss of system capacity and hence needs to be accommodated in the scheduling design. To tackle this challenge, we propose a distributed online scheduling policy that extends the well-known Max-Pressure policy to address switch-over delay by introducing a bias factor favoring the current schedule. We prove that the proposed policy is throughput-optimal with switch-over delay. Furthermore, the proposed policy remains optimal when there are both connected signalized intersections and conventional fixed-time ones in the system. With connected-vehicle technology, the proposed policy can be easily incorporated into the current transportation systems without additional infrastructure. Through extensive simulation in VISSIM, we show that our policy indeed outperforms the existing popular policies.

Full list of authors:   I-Hong Hou, Ping-Chun Hsieh, Jian Jiao, P. R. Kumar, Xi Liu, and Yunlong Zhang

Congratulations to all!

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Rajendran Joins ECE Faculty at TAMU

October 5, 2017 by

Dr. Jeyavijayan “JV” Rajendran, assistant professor, was intrigued by the strong computer engineering research area within the electrical and computer engineering department and the Texas A&M Cybersecurity Center. He studies hardware security, nanoelectronic computing architectures and very-large-scale integration design.He is teaching ECEN 474/714 Digital Integrated Circuit Design class this semester.

Before joining Texas A&M, Rajendran was an assistant professor at The University of Texas at Dallas. He received his bachelor’s degree from Anna University in India in 2008, his master’s degree from the Polytechnic Institute of New York University in 2010 and his doctoral degree from New York University in 2015.

Rajendran looks forward to developing his students’ interest in attacks on cyberinfrastructure that are happening around the world, making security an important issue to tackle as a computer engineer.

By: Shraddha Sankhe
Original Posting

JV Rajendran

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Texas A&M Today: Engineering Researchers Develop System That Prevents Autonomous Vehicles From Crashing, Being Hacked

May 25, 2017 by
Dr. P.R.Kumar and graduate students Bharadwaj Satchidanandan and Woo-Hyun Ko have applied the theory of dynamic watermarking of sensors in autonomous vehicles to prevent malicious attacks.

 

Texas A&M University researchers have developed an intelligent transportation system prototype designed to avoid collisions and prevent hacking of autonomous vehicles. Modern vehicles are increasingly autonomous, relying on sensors to provide information to automatically control them. They are also equipped with internet access for safety or infotainment applications making them vulnerable to cyberattacks. This will only multiply as society transitions to self-driving autonomous vehicles in which hackers could gain control of the sensors, causing confusion, chaos and collisions.

Although autonomous vehicles are essentially large computers on wheels, securing them is not the same as securing a communication network that connects desktop computers and smartphones to large geographical areas due to the roles that the sensors and actuators play in the physical layer of the network.

Working in the Texas A&M’s Cyberphysical Systems Laboratory, Dr. P.R.Kumar, University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, along with graduate students Bharadwaj Satchidanandan and Woo-Hyun Ko, have applied the theory of dynamic watermarking of sensors in autonomous vehicles to prevent malicious attacks.

 

In their research demonstrations, 10 cameras recorded the movement of the self-driving prototype vehicles. The vision sensors in the system received the images and accurately calculated the exact location and orientation of the vehicles. Then they transmitted this information to a server, which in turn controlled the vehicles.

“Sensors are like GPS navigation in the network that gather information about the environment,” said Satchidanandan. “Actuators such as motors, or controls such as the steering wheel, interact with them. If the sensors are corrupted or hijacked by malicious agents through the internet, they can provide false information on vehicle locations resulting in collisions.”

To fix this, Kumar and his team added a random private signal called a ‘watermark’ to the actuators. The presence of this watermark and its statistical properties were known to every node in the system, but its actual random values were not revealed. When the measurements reported by the sensors did not have the right properties of this watermark, the actuators assumed that the sensors or their measurements had been tampered with somewhere along the line. With this new information, the researchers could predict a collision.

The researchers showed that their technology could work in the lab. The actuators in the autonomous vehicles halted themselves when the sensors were tampered with.

“This is an instance of the broader concern of security of cyberphysical systems. The increasing integration of critical physical infrastructures, such as the smart grid or automated transportation, with the cyber system of the internet has led to such vulnerabilities,” said Kumar. “If these technologies are to be adopted by society, they will need to be protected against malicious attacks on sensors.”

Read more about the research here. The research is supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center on Science of Information, the United States Army Research Office, and the Qatar National Research Fund, a member of the Qatar Foundation.

###

This story by Shraddha Sankhe originally appeared on the College of Engineering website.

Video and story is also found at Texas A&M Today:

Engineering Researchers Develop System That Prevents Autonomous Vehicles From Crashing, Being Hacked

 

Filed Under: News

Tao Zhao – Best Student Paper Award

May 2, 2017 by

Mr. Tao Zhao, a PhD Student in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University, and his advisor Dr. I-Hong Hou are proud to announce that Tao Zhao has won the Best Student Paper award of the 15th International Symposium on Modeling and Optimization in Mobile, Ad Hoc, and Wireless Networks (WiOpt 2017) in Paris, France. Zhao co-wrote the paper “A Non-Monetary Mechanism for Optimal Rate Control Through Efficient Delay Allocation” with Dr. I-Hong Hou and Dr. Korok Ray.

Their paper proposes a practical non-monetary mechanism that induces the efficient solution to the optimal rate control problem, where each client optimizes its request arrival rate to maximize its own net utility individually, and at the Nash Equilibrium the total net utility of the system is also maximized. Existing mechanisms typically rely on monetary exchange which requires additional infrastructure that is not always available. Instead, the proposed protocol is based on efficient delay allocation, where the server controls the delay experienced by each client through an intelligent scheduling policy. Specifically, they present an efficient delay allocation rule for the server to determine the target delay of each client. Then they propose a simple scheduling policy to achieve such delay allocation. Furthermore, they design a distributed rate control protocol for the system to converge to the Nash Equilibrium. The optimality of their mechanism is validated via extensive simulations on two representative systems against a baseline mechanism with FIFO scheduling and centralized rate control.

Congratulations Tao Zhao!

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Texas A&M Hosts 2017 Texas Systems Day

April 19, 2017 by

(On March 31, 2017), top researchers from across the state of Texas studying systems, controls and robotics visited Texas A&M University to participate in the fourth annual Texas Systems Day.

The one-day symposium was established in 2014 at Texas A&M to promote the interaction between researchers in Texas and the exchange of the next generation of ideas.

“This year we’ve had 168 registered attendees, which is a significant increase from last year,” said Dr. Raktim Bhattacharya, associate professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and chair of the event’s organizational committee. “This has been a great opportunity for students to interact with other researchers and get an exposure to high-quality work.”

Dr. Jonathan How, the Richard Cockburn Maclaurin Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, kicked off the conference with his plenary presentation. Fifteen back-to-back presentations were delivered by faculty members and researchers from institutions, such as the University of North Texas, Texas Tech University, The University of Texas at Arlington, The University of Texas at Austin, Rice University, The University of Texas at Dallas and the University of Houston.

More than 50 participants presented their research in the poster session that covered topics such as cybersecurity, aerial networks, autonomous cars, innovative aerial vehicles robotics, biomedical system identification, control and optimization of smart grids, chemical plants and turbulent flows and novel estimation for space surveillance.

“The diversity of the topics highlights the importance of systems and controls in the modern engineering systems,” said Bhattacharya.

The Texas Systems Day’s steering committee includes Dr. P.R.Kumar, Distinguished Professor and chair of the computer engineering group in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Dr. Mark Spong, dean of the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering & Computer Science at UT Dallas; and Dr. Ari Arapostathis, professor and Texas Atomic Energy Research Foundation Centennial Fellow in Electrical Engineering at UT Austin..

UT Dallas and UT Arlington hosted the one-day conference in 2015 and 2016, respectively.

Article Written By: Shraddha Sankhe

Filed Under: News
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