Apply now for Society of Women Engineers scholarships for the 2017-2018 academic year. Collegiates who will be sophomores through Ph.D. candidates can apply on-line from December 1, 2016 through February 15, 2017.

The SWE Scholarship Program provides financial assistance to women studying baccalaureate or graduate programs, in preparation for careers in engineering, engineering technology and computer science. In 2016, SWE disbursed more than 230 new and renewed scholarships valued at over $750,000.

Students complete one application and are considered for all scholarships for which they are eligible. The online application is entirely electronic - including submittal of reference recommendations and transcripts.

MS Thesis Defense

Attacking and Defending the Automotive CAN Bus

Jackson Schmandt

12:30pm Thursday, 8 December, 2016, ITE 325b, UMBC

The scope and complexity of Automotive Computer Networks have grown drastically in the last decade. Once present only in high end vehicles, multi-use infotainment systems are now included in base models of some economy vehicles. Frequently connected to drivetrain components, these systems bring out multiple network access points, many of which are wireless. This unprecedented access has led to several high-profile exploits from both white-hat hackers and criminals. Although industry members are working toward long-term solutions, current systems suffer from inadequate protocol security and a lack of common-sense design practices. To address the security problem in the short term, this thesis describes a flexible Message Authentication Code that can be retrofitted with software only, as well as implementations on microcontrollers, an FPGA and an ASIC design. This work shows that on current embedded controllers, message authentication tags can be generated or verified in under 400 microseconds and in under 10 microseconds on a special-purpose ASIC.

Committee Members: Drs. Nilanjan Banerjee (chair), Alan Sherman (co-chair) and Anupam Joshi

The post Attacking and Defending the Automotive CAN Bus appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

More information and the application can be found on the website. You may also be interested to hear directly from former interns, or see one of the field trips from last summer.

For more information, please contact:

jyork@udel.edu

302-831-7040

UMBC students planning to apply should also notify Janet McGlynn, mcglynn@umbc.edu .

Diana Parr, adjunct instructor in UMBC’s Cybersecurity Graduate Program, has been selected to participate in the highly competitive Brookings Legis Congressional Fellows Program. The year-long program allows professionals in the public and private sectors to work on Capitol Hill alongside individual members of the U.S. Congress or on a congressional committee to understand the policy-making side of government.

“I am most excited about the opportunity to work for a member of Congress and to learn how the legislative process flows. It will be a huge time for change on Capitol Hill—a new president and many newly elected officials. I would like to bring my technical knowledge to the Hill as those new officials discuss legislation relating to cybersecurity,” she said.

In addition to her role at UMBC, Parr is a cybersecurity technical leader for the National Security Agency. She anticipates that her work in Congress will focus on cybersecurity education.

“There are many opportunities for new legislation this year to make our nation stronger and safer,” Parr said. “My biggest hope is to build awareness of the need to grow educational opportunities for young people, especially young women, in the growing field of cybersecurity.”

More information about the Brookings Legis Congressional Fellows Program can be found on the Brookings Institution website.

Republished from UMBC News, header image by Robert Lyle Bolton (CC by 2.0), headshot by Marlayna Demond ’11 for UMBC.

The post UMBC cybersecurity instructor selected for prestigious Brookings Legis Congressional Fellows Program appeared first on Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

Meet Flora,

She is an Ancient Studies major and an URA Scholar. She is also a Designer for UMBC’s Student Events Board, a student assistant at AOK’s Special Collections and is the secretary for the Ancient Studies Club. Her future goals will to become a museum curator, preferably specializing in an ancient roman field.

Flora's research will examine Roman coins from the second and third centuries CE and their use as a means of communication for Rome’s emperors. She will investigate how the physical characteristics of the coins – the amount of silver, the weight, the level of wear and use – all contribute to the emperors’ strategies of communication throughout the period. She will also examine the imagery of coins based on category (tradition, military problems, dynastic emphasis, personal preferences, disasters, and civic prosperity), one can begin to identify trends and their correspondence to contemporary events.

Read more about her research here…