The UMBC Cyber Defense Lab presents

Interactive Proof Assistants for Verification

Ian Blumenfeld
Principal Research Mathematician
Two Six Labs   

12:00-1:00 pm Friday,  31 January 2020, ITE 227

Many advances have been made in software and hardware assurance using automated tooling.  Constraint-based solving tools like SAT and SMT solvers have proved very useful proving functional correctness in the world of software, while the hardware world relies heavily on the use of industrial-strength model checkers to provide formal verification of important properties like liveness and non-interference.  Sometimes, however, push-button tools are simply not enough. In this talk, we will discuss formal mathematical reasoning using interactive proof assistants, particularly Isabelle. While Isabelle is often thought of as a tool for checking the work of mathematicians, it is, in fact, a powerful engine for reasoning about software and hardware security.  We will work through an example of the verification of a multi-precision arithmetic software library using Isabelle. This talk is aimed at total beginners in the realm of automated theorem proving, and seeks to provide an overview of the fundamental techniques and ideas. 

Ian Blumenfeld is a Principal Research Mathematician at Two Six Labs.  He currently is the principal investigator of TwoSix’s efforts on the DARPA SafeDocs program, attempting to help do type-theoretic reasoning about document specification formats.  He is a former employee of Apple where he worked on the formal verification team, ensuring the security of the iPhone SEP chip. He has done extensive work verifying cyber-physical systems at Johns Hopkins APL.  Mr. Blumenfeld’s interest in formal methods began with his time working as an Applied Research Mathematician in NSA’s Research Directorate. He’s also a pretty good swing dancer.

Host: Alan T. Sherman, *protected email*

Support for this event was provided in part by the National Science Foundation under SFS grant DGE-1753681. 

The UMBC Cyber Defense Lab meets biweekly Fridays.  All meetings are open to the public.

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Lockheed Martin Distinguished Speaker Series

Designing Secure Hardware Systems

Shawn Blanton

Trustee Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Carnegie Mellon University

1:00-2:00pm Friday 7 Feb. 2020

Commons 329, UMBC
University Center Ballroom

On October 29, 2018, DARPA issued an RFI that stated: “This Request for Information (RFI) from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Microsystems Technology Office (MTO) seeks information on technology, concepts, and approaches to support the integration of security capabilities directly into System on Chip (SoC) system design and to enable the autonomous integration and assembly of SoCs.

This RFI and the tens of millions of dollars that the US government has already invested in hardware security research and development is based on the fact that the fabrication of state-of-the-art electronics is now mostly overseas. With the recent announcement that GLOBALFOUNDRIES is going to stop all 7nm development, there is now only one company in the US that continues to pursue advanced semiconductors (Intel). Unfortunately, Intel does not have the same experience of making chips for third parties as does Samsung and (most importantly) TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation). As a result, the US government believes it will be forced to fabricate advanced, sensitive electronics overseas in untrusted fabrication facilities. As a result, there is keen interest in design methodologies that mitigate reverse engineering, tampering, counterfeiting, etc.

In this talk, an overview of hardware security will be presented followed by a discussion on a concept called logic locking. This approach will be described and the “back and forth” that is now occurring in the research community involving: (i) vulnerability discovery and (ii) logic locking improvement.

Shawn Blanton is a professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Carnegie Mellon University and Associate Director of the SYSU-CMU Joint Institute of Engineering (JIE). In 1995 he received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His research interests include various aspects of integrated system tests, testable design, and test methodology development. He has consulted for various companies and is the founder of TestWorks, a Carnegie Mellon University spinout focused on information extraction from IC test data. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and Senior Member of the ACM and served as the program chair for the 2011 International Test Conference.

The post talk: Shawn Blanton (CMU) on Designing Secure Hardware Systems, 1pm Fri 2/7; COmmons 329 appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

**from the Graduate Student Association**

Manpreet Singh is our inaugural Student of the Month for the Graduate Student Association for the Month of October/November-2019. Presently, Singh is a 2nd year PhD candidate in the department of Mechanical Engineering working at Bioheat Transfer Laboratory, UMBC under the supervision of Dr. Liang Zhu (Principal Investigator) on a National Science Foundation project title “Mild Hyperthermia to enhance delivery of therapeutic nanocarriers in tumors: imaging, in vivo study, and simulation”. Singh is presently developing integrated computationally-predictive models based on in-vivo laboratory experiments on PC3 tumors to understand the interplay between different nanoparticle-mediated heat and mass transport mechanisms. His research explains the correlation among blood perfusion, permeability, porosity, interstitial fluid pressure, diffusion, accumulation, retention, penetration, and vascular tortuosity affected by heating and providing means to extrapolate the in-vivo results from mouse models to clinical applications.

Singh added that the clinical translation of cancer nanomedicine may become feasible by targeting tumour pathophysiological micro-environment with nanoparticles. Tailoring nanoparticles with chemotherapeutics induce synergistic effect which may be considered as “paradigm shift” in cancer invasion. Heterogeneous perfusion, increased vascular tortuosity, inhomogeneity, and high interstitial fluid pressure impairs nanoparticles in their uptake, accumulation, retention and penetration inside deep-seated tumours. This thereby hampers the delivery of targeting moieties at effective concentrations. Under normothermic temperature conditions (34°C-39°C), nanoparticles do not cross vascular wall while mild hyperthermia (40°C-42°C) significantly improves extravasation by dilating the vessels and thereby increase the tumour vascular pore size and reduce interstitial fluid pressure. The ultimate goal of his research is to develop a drug delivery method that can be customized for the needs of individual cancer patients to enhance quality of life.

Manpreet came from a small village, Mullanpur Garibdass, Mohali district, Punjab in India. Despite several other offers and opportunities around globe, he chose UMBC because of the high research impact of the Bioheat Transfer Lab. One of his favorite things about UMBC is that the administration is very approachable and listens to the concerns of students.

Manpreet is also working as Assistant Medical Physicist at Maryland Proton Treatment Center (MPTC), University of Maryland School of Medicine in evenings through the UMBC, Career Center’s authorized Curriculum Practicum Training program. Singh is independently providing clinical professional service to ensure that right amount of dose to be delivered to right location as part of treatment planning. Also, Singh is doing patient-specific plan verification measurements/ calculations ensuring safety, quality assurance and assists the interdisciplinary medical physics team with the development of customized software tools. Maryland Proton Treatment Center, is one of the fewer radiation oncology clinics throughout the USA providing thermal therapy at 40-44°C (thermotherapy) and proton therapy under one roof. Apart from his PhD responsibilities, in the Summer of 2019, he worked under the supervision of Dr. Dario Rodrigues, Assistant Professor Radiation Oncology, UMD to design hyperthermia applicators with his computational learnings at UMBC.

Further, Singh shares his interests to file a patent for “Glioblastoma- a deadliest brain cancer” through his device “CeriseEnov” which is capable of simplifying cancer care. He said bringing interdisciplinary disciplines to collectively act together will definitely help in better prognosis and thus better treatment outcomes in near future.

Manpreet was chosen because of his outstanding work ethic, sincerity and upon recommendation by his peers, as well as Dr. Jeff Halverson, Associate Dean of the Graduate School. He was also recently featured in National Newspapers in India (Hindustan Times, Tribune).

Two of his favorite quotes are “Arise, Awake, and Stop Not Until your Goal is Achieved” and “Dream is not that you see in sleep, Dream is something which does not let you sleep”.

You can follow GSA on Twitter @umbcgsa, Instagram @umbc_gsa, and Facebook @UMBCGSA. Manpreet will be hosting a social media takeover day in the near future for us to learn about his typical day in the lab. So stay tuned!

If you know of a graduate student who is doing amazing work—either for the community or towards their studies– please send an email to gsa@umbc.edu to nominate for a future Graduate Student of the Month.

Image, Left to right: Deanna Cerquetti, GSA Vice President; Manpreet Singh, Alex Rittle; GSA President

More on how to nominate students: https://gsa.umbc.edu/gsa-awards/

Recruiting McNair Scholars!

The McNair Scholars Program focuses on the preparation of undergraduate students (who qualify as either low-income/first-generation college students or members of groups underrepresented in graduate education) to pursue doctoral degrees.

The program offers a number of benefits, such as summer and academic year research funding, assistance connecting with faculty research mentors, hands-on guidance and navigation through the graduate school application process, first-hand exposure to individuals who have earned Ph.D.’s in their field of study, and the opportunity to attend research conferences (fully funded).

Note: Rising Seniors & Rising Juniors must have had research experience and one of their recommendations must be from a faculty member (not necessarily from UMBC) who mentored them in their research experience. 

McNair Open Houses/Informational

For any students interested in the UMBC McNair Scholars Program, attend one of the open houses on Nov 18th, Dec 4th, January 29th, 12 pm - 1 pm, Sondheim 101. Missed the event(s)? Please reach out to staff mcnairs@umbc.edu to set up a 1on1 meeting.  Sign up now on the Interest Form to receive updates (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf2Mj0Bd9kiunv_S7i-ERwd3x8YoNTxqdQIfCngPzcol3Rtxg/viewform)

Become a McNair Mentor or Faculty Research Mentor

UMBC faculty and staff are invited to mentor a McNair Scholar. There are two options: McNair Mentor and McNair Research Mentor. For details, please read the attached Mentor Informational for McNair Scholars Program, open to UMBC faculty and staff who have a graduate degree. To apply to be a mentor, please complete the form at www.tinyurl.com/mentorsumbcmcnair.

For more info, review the attachments and the website link below: