Security of Networked Control Systems

Dr. Arman Sargolzaei
Assistant Professor ME Department, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, TE

Cerent Engineering Science Complex, Salazar Hall 2009A
3:00 PM

Abstract – With the immense growth of networked control systems (NCSs) development and utilization in critical infrastructures such as unmanned aerial vehicles and autonomous systems, assurance of their safety, security, and resiliency are yet a significant challenge for industries. Although defense mechanisms for NCSs have been significantly improved, incorporating smart detection and control platforms, yet a similar growth in the generations and models of cyber-attacks cannot be discarded. Existing control and communication protocol strategies are not fully capable of preventing and responding to new types of cyber-attacks. This requires vulnerability identifications along with smart, collaborative integration of controllers, sensors, actuators, and communication protocols in real-time. The seminar discusses recently introduced a mathematical approach to the Time Delay Switch (TDS) attack as a comprehensive outlook for the new generation of cyber-attacks.

Dr. Arman Sargolzaei's expertise is in applying linear and nonlinear control methods, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to the field of Cyber-Physical Systems. His mission is to enhance the quality of life for people, by assuring the safety, security, and privacy concerns through extensive collaboration among multi-disciplinary fields. His research on the security of Networked Control Systems (NCSs) and resiliency of Multi-agent systems, particularly his doctoral dissertations combined with the knowledge of control theory, system identification, mathematics, and statistics carried significant practical implications in better understanding the pathways of faults, failure, and attack detection and compensation for NCSs. He is recognized with the honor of the "Faculty Research Excellence Award" for two consecutive years. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Tennessee Technological University. Before joining Tennessee Tech, he was director of Advanced Mobility Institute (AMI) and an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at Florida Polytechnic University.