VCU Cybersecurity Center Focus Area: Dependable Cyber Physical Systems and Smart Technologies

VCU Dependable Cyber Physical Systems and Smart Technologies focus area is lead by Professors Sherif Abdelwahed, Robert Klenke, and Carl Elks.

The VCU Cyber Physical Systems group is focused around three converging technologies: (1) Autonomous systems, (e.g. sUAS, semi-autonomous vehicles), (2) Dependable and secure systems, and (3) Smart and Connected Cities. The VCU Cyber Physical Systems group focuses on the research, design, and verification of trustworthy and secure Cyber Physical Computing Systems. Our lab is multidisciplinary, comprising faculty and research members whose expertise spans across hardware architectures, resilient control, model based engineering, systems based cyber-security, Unmanned Autonomous Systems, nuclear energy Instrumentation and Control, and advanced sensors. Our labs have a strong focus on experimental methods and practices, we develop techniques and methods that are applied to real world systems or verified with actual data. TheVCU CPS lab group consists of three adjacent and interacting lab spaces located in the West Main Engineering Building of VCU. Each lab focus area is lead by a faculty PI. Dr. Elks leads the dependable and Secure CPS lab. Dr. Abdelwahed leads the VCAST lab ( VCU center for Cyber Analytics and Smart Technology). Dr. Klenke leads the Unmanned Aerial Systems lab. Each lab is a full operational research and development space and houses a variety of CPS devices, sUAS, embedded systems, industrial control system and networks, virtual instrumentation, wireless network devices and sensors, digital controllers, and smart actuation devices. The ensemble of devices, platforms, wireless networks constitute a basis for integrating diverse systems, networking architectures, and simulators to realize systems at scale.. The CPS lab facility provides about 2300 square feet of space with graduate student office environments adjacent to support research activities.

Sherif Abdelwahed is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), where he teaches and conducts research in the area of computer engineering, with specific interests in autonomic computing, cyber-physical systems, formal verification and cyber-security. Before joining VCU in August 2017, he served as the associate director of the Distributed Analytics and Security Institute at Mississippi State University (MSU). He was also is also an Associate Professor in the ECE Department at MSU. He received his Ph.D in 2002 from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Professor W. M. Wonham. Prior to joining Mississippi State University, he was a research assistant professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and senior research scientist at the Institute for Software Integrated Systems, Vanderbilt University, from 2001-2007. From 2000-2001 he worked as a research scientist with the system diagnosis group at the Rockwell Scientific Company. Dr. Abdelwahed has chaired several international conferences and conference tracks, and has served as technical committee member at various national and international conferences. He received the StatePride Faculty award for 2010 and 2011, the Bagley College of Engineering Hearin Faculty Excellence award in 2010, and recently the 2016 Faculty Research Award from the Bagley College of Engineering at MSU. He has more than 150 publications and is a senior member of the IEEE.

Dr. Elks’ professional experience and interests over the past 20 years are in the analysis, design and assessment of dependable embedded cyber physical systems of the type found in critical infrastructure such as nuclear power, flight control systems, medical devices, electric power and transportation. His recent research and teaching interests include Cyber Physical Systems, Biologically Inspired Digital Systems, fault injection, cyber threat and vulnerability analysis, Human Systems Interactions in complex systems, and Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles. As such, his career has been focused on maturing and advancing the state of the art in the areas of safety assessment, cyber-security, and fault tolerance/resilience through education, innovation and technology demonstration projects. While at NASA, he was significantly involved in the initial development of full-authority digital flight control technology for civil air transports that are used in today’s fly-by-wire airliners. His recent projects include research related to model based approaches to assessing security in Cyber Physical Systems, developing innovative I&C architectures to address burden of verification and dedication, and Biologically inspired self-healing systems.

Funded Projects

Dynamic Defense Strategy Planning for Research and Development and Infrastructure Networks, United States Army Corps of Engineers (PI: Sherif Abdelwahed), May 2017-May 2020.

Advanced Naval Power Systems through Electric Ship Systems Research and Development, ONR (Co-PI: Sherif Abdelwahed),May 2016 - May 2021.

A Supervised Learning Approach to Identify Malware in Windows Memory, NSA (PI, Sherif Abdelwahed), August 2015 - Feb 2017.

Assessing and managing ICT security risks of industrial controls systems for oil and natural gas production and transmission, Qatar Foundation (PI: Sherif Abdelwahed), August 2016-July 2019.

Scalable Distributed Event and Intrusion Detection Systems (DEIDS) for Cyber- physical Power Systems, DHS (Co-PI), June 2016-May 2018.

Assessing and managing ICT security risks of industrial controls systems for oil and natural gas production and transmission, Qatar Foundation (PI: Sherif Abdelwahed), August 2016-July 2019.

Scalable Distributed Event and Intrusion Detection Systems (DEIDS) for Cyber- physical Power Systems, DHS (Co-PI: Sherif Abdelwahed), June 2016-May 2018.

Automated Approach to Tug-Plane Collision Avoidance, FedEx Corporation (co- PI: Sherif Abdelwahed), June 2015-May 2016.

Stable Trustworthy Neighborhood Scheme for Secure Mobile Sensor Networks, Clarkson Aerospace Corporation (AFRL) (co-PI: Sherif Abdelwahed), Jan. 2016-Jan 2017.

Idaho Bailf Project: Task C3 - Autonomic Control Frameworks for High Performance Computing, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) (PI: Sherif Abdelwahed), July 2014-July 2016.

Verification of Component based Modular Mobile Phones, Metamorphosys Inc., (PI: Sherif Abdelwahed), July 2014-October 2014.

Development of a Collaborative High Performance Computing enabled Model Based Design Platform, Consortium for Energy, Environment, & Demilitarization (Co-PI: Sherif Abdelwahed) October 2013-September 2014.

Title: Development and Demonstration of a Model Based Assessment Approach for Qualification of Embedded Digital Devices in Nuclear Power Applications.

PI: Carl Elks (PI-VCU), Richard Wood (PI- U of Tenn), and Carol Smidts (PI- Ohio State), Sponsor: US Department of Energy, Period of Performance [2015-2018]

Title:Verifiable Instrumentation and Control (I&C) System for Nuclear Power Plant Upgrades, PI: Carl Elks (PI-VCU), Matt Gibson(PI-EPRI), Sponsor: Electric Power Research Institute / US Department of Energy, Period of Performance: [12/1/2015- 4/1/2019]

Title: Application and Integration of Advanced System Modeling and Attack Tree Modeling Tools for Prioritizing Selection of Cybersecurity Solutions, PI: Carl Elks, Sponsor: Office of Secretary of Defense via Systems Engineering Research Consortium (SERC), Period of Performance: [5/2015 – 12/ 2015]

Title: Mission Architecture Tools for Cyber-Security and Cyber Resiliency, PI: Carl Elks, Sponsor: Office of Secretary of Defense via Systems Engineering Research Consortium (SERC), Period of Performance: [2/2018 – 2/2019].

Selected publications of Dr. Elks

G. Bakirtzis, B. Simmons, C. Fleming, C.Elks, Looking for a Black Cat in a Dark Room: Security Visualization for Cyber-Physical System Design and Analysis, 15th IEEE Symposium on Visualization for Cyber Security, Berlin Germany, October 22, 2018. AR = 31%.
B.T. Carter, C.H. Fleming, C.R. Elks, and G. Bakirtzis, “Cyber-Physical Systems Modeling for SecurityUsing SysML”, Conference on Systems Engineering Research, 2018, Proc. Springer (2018). [B]
G. Bakirtzis, B.T. Carter, C.R. Elks, and C.H. Fleming, “A Model-Based Approach to Security Analysis for Cyber-Physical Systems”, IEEE SysCon 2018, Proc. ieee (2018) AR =28% [A]
B.T. Carter, G. Bakirtzis, C.R. Elks, and C.H. Fleming, “A Systems Approach for Eliciting Mission-Centric Security Requirements”, IEEE SysCon 2018, Proc. ieee (2018), Best Student Paper Award – 2nd place [B]
Carl Elks, Matt Gibson, Tim Bakker , Richard Hite, Smitha Gautham, Vidya Venkatesh, SymPLe 1131: A Novel Architectural Solution for the Realization of Verifiable Digital I&C Systems and Embedded Digital Devices, 10th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT 2017). [B]
F. E. Derenthal IV, C. R. Elks, T. Bakker, M. Fotouhi, "Virtualized Hardware Environments for Supporting Digital I&C Verification," 10th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT), 2017. [A]
Shawkat S. Khairullah, Tim Bakker, and Carl R. Elks, Biologically inspired Self-Healing Digital I&C Systems for Safety Critical Applications using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), 10th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT 2017). [A]
M Demas, C Elks, N Lau, Advancing Human Performance Assessment Capabilities for Integrated System Validation - A Human-in-the-loop Experiment 9th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT 2015), February 23–26, 2015 [B]
C. Elks, M. Reynolds, B. Johnson, N. George, M. Waterman, and J. Dion. Application of a Fault Injection Based Dependability Assessment Process to a Commercial Safety Critical Nuclear Reactor Protection System. Dependable Systems and Networks Symposium, Chicago, Ill, June 2010. [A] AR =20%
N. George, C. Elks, B. Johnson, and J. Lach. Transient Fault Models and Architecture Vulnerability Factor (AVF) Revisited. ”. Dependable Systems and Networks Symposium, Chicago, Ill, June 2010. [B] AR =20%
N. George, C. Elks, B. Johnson, and J. Lach. Spatial Multi-Bit Soft-Error Tolerance in Logic. Dependable Systems and Networks Symposium, Chicago, Ill, June 2010. [B] AR=20%
T. Aldemir1, S. Guarro2, J. Kirschenbaum1, D. Mandelli1, L. A. Mangan1, P. Bucci1, M. Yau2, B Johnson3, C. Elks3, E. Ekici1, M. P. Stovsky1, D. W. Miller1, X. Sun1, S.A. Arndt4, Dynamic Reliability Modeling of Digital Instrumentation and Control Systems in Nuclear Power Plants, 6th International topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation Control and Human Machine Interface Technology (NPIC&HMIT 2009), April 5 - 9, 2009, Knoxville, TN. Best Paper Award.
M. Reynolds, C.R. Elks, N. George, M. Sekhar, Todd Delong, and Barry Johnson. A Quantitative Safety Assessment Methodology for Safety-Critical Programmable Electronic Systems Using Fault Injection, 2009 SAE World Congress April 20-23 2009, Cobo Center, Detroit, Michigan. Outstanding SAE Paper of 2009. [A]

Selected publications of Dr. Abdelwahed

S. Iannucci and S. Abdelwahed, “Model-based Response Planning Strategies for Autonomic Intrusion Protection", ACM Transaction on Autonomous and Adaptive System, vol. 13, no. 1, April 2018.
Q. Chen, M. Trivedi, S. Abdelwahed, and T. Morris, “A Model-based Autonomic
Security Management Approach to Protect SCADA Systems from Cyber
Attacks," International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, vol. 12, no. 4,
pp. 273-294, 2016.
H. A. Kholidy, A. Erradi, S. Abdelwahed and F. Baiardi “A Risk Mitigation
Approach for Autonomous Cloud Intrusion Response System", Computing Jour-
nal, Special issue on Cloud Computing and Services Science., vol. 98, no. 11,
pp. 1111-1135, Nov. 2016.
Q. Chen and S. Abdelwahed, “A Model-Based Validated Autonomic Approach
to Self-Protect Computing Systems," IEEE Internet of Things Journal, vol. 1,
no. 5, pp. 446-460, October 2014.
H. Kholidy, H. Hassan , A. Sarhan, A. Erradi, and S. Abdelwahed, “QoS Optimization
for Cloud Service Composition Based on Economic Model," in Internet
of Things. User-Centric IoT, Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences,
Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering Volume 150, pp.
355-366 Springer International Publishing, 2015.
Z. Thomas and S. Abdelwahed, “Active Malware Countermeasure Approach for
Mission Critical Systems," in Proc. the 15th IEEE International Conference
on Dependable, Autonomic and Secure Computing (DASC 2017), Orlando, FL,
November 2017.
S. Iannucci, H. A. Kholidy, A. D. Ghimire, R. Jia, S. Abdelwahed, and I. Banicescu,
“A Comparison of Graph-Based Synthetic Data Generators for Benchmarking
Next-Generation Intrusion Detection Systems" in Proc. the IEEE Cluster Conference, HI, Sept. 2017. Acceptance rate: 21.8%
S. Iannucci, Q. Chen and S. Abdelwahed. \High-Performance Intrusion Response Planning on Many-Core Architectures." in Proc. Workshop on Network Security Analytics and Automation, part of The 25th Int. Conference on Computer Communication and Networks (ICCCN 2016), Waikoloa, HI, August 2016.
Q. Chen, J. Lambright and S. Abdelwahed. “Towards Realizing a Self-Protecting
Healthcare Information System." The First International Workshop on Security,
Privacy, and Trustworthiness in Medical Cyber Physical System (MedSPT 2016),
Washington DC, 2016.
S. Iannucci and S. Abdelwahed. “A Probabilistic Approach to Autonomic Security
Management." in Proc. the IEEE 13th International Conference on Autonomic Computing (ICAC 2016), Wurzburg, Germany, July 2016.
H. A. Kholidy, A. Erradi, and S. Abdelwahed \Attack Prediction Models for
Cloud Intrusion Detection Systems", in Proc. the 2nd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Modelling and Simulation, (AIMS 2014), Madrid,
Spain, November 2014.
H. A. Kholidy, H. Hassan, A. Sarhan, A. Erradi, and S. Abdelwahed “QoS Optimization
for Cloud Service Composition Based on Economic Model", in Proc. the International Conference on IoT as a Service (IoTaaS 2014), Rome, Italy, October 2014.
H. A. Kholidy, A. Erradi, and S. Abdelwahed “Online Risk Assessment and Prediction
Models For Autonomic Cloud Intrusion Prevention System", in Proc.
the 11th ACS/IEEE International Conference on Computer Systems and Appli-
cations (AICCSA 2014), Doha, Qatar, November 2014.
H. A. Kholidy, A. Erradi, A. M. Yousof, S. Abdelwahed, and H. Ali “A Finite
Context Intrusion Prediction Model for Cloud Systems with a Probabilistic Sux
Tree", in Proc. the 8th IEEE European Modelling Symposium (EMS2014), Pisa,
Italy, October 2014.
Q. Chen and S. Abdelwahed, “Towards Realizing Self-protecting SCADA Systems," in Proc. the 9th Cyber Security and Information Intelligence Research Workshop (CISR'14), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, April 2014.
H. A. Kholidy, A. Erradi, S. Abdelwahed, and A. Azab “A Finite State Hidden
Markov Model for Predicting Multistage Attacks in Cloud Systems", in Proc.
the IEEE International Conference on Dependable, Autonomic and Secure Com-
puting (DASC 2014), Dalian, China, August 2014.
Q. Chen, S. Abdelwahed, and A. Erradi. “A Model-based Approach to Self-
Protection in SCADA Systems," in Proc. the 9th International Workshop on
Feedback Computing, Philadelphia, June 2014.
Q. Chen, S. Abdelwahed, and A. Erradi. “A Model-based Approach to Self-
Protection in Computing System," in Proc. the ACM Cloud and Autonomic
Computing Conference (CAC 2013). Miami, August 2013.
H. Kholidy, A. Erradi, S. Abdelwahed, and F. Baiardi, “HA-CIDS: A Hierarchical
and Autonomous IDS for Cloud Environments", in Proc. the 5th IEEE Inter-
national Conference on Computational Intelligence, Communication Systems &
Networks (CICSyN 2013), Madrid, Spain, June 2013.
Q. Chen, S. Abdelwahed, and W. Monceaux, “Towards Automatic Security Management:
A Model-Based Approach," in Proc. the 8th Cyber Security and In-
formation Intelligence Research Workshop (CSIIRW), Oak Ridge National Laboratory,
Oak Ridge, January 2013.
H. Kholidy, A. Erradi, S. Abdelwahed, and F. Baiardi, “A Hierarchical, Autonomous,
and Forecasting Cloud IDS", the 5th International Conference on
Modeling, Identification and Control (ICMIC2013), Cairo, September 2013.
W. Monceaux, D. Evans, K. Rappold, C. Butler, S. Abdelwahed, R. Mehrotra,
and A. Dubey “Implementing Autonomic Computing Methods to Improve Attack
Resilience in Web Services," in Proc. DoD High Performance Computing
Modernization Program Users Group Conference, Portland, OR, June 2011.
Q. Chen, S. Abdelwahed, and A. Erradi. \An Autonomic Detection and Protection
System for Denial of Service Attack," in Proc. the 24th IASTED International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing and Systems (PDCS 2012), Las Vegas, November 2012.
Q. Chen, R. Mehrotra, A. Dubey, S. Abdelwahed, and K. Rowland, “On State
of The Art in Virtual Machine Security", in Proc. IEEE SoutheastCon 2012,
Orlando, March 2012.
S. Iannucci and S. Abdelwahed, “Model-based Response Planning Strategies for Autonomic Intrusion Protection", ACM Transaction on Autonomous and Adaptive System, vol. 13, no. 1, April 2018.
Q. Chen, M. Trivedi, S. Abdelwahed, and T. Morris, “A Model-based Autonomic
Security Management Approach to Protect SCADA Systems from Cyber
Attacks," International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, vol. 12, no. 4,
pp. 273-294, 2016.
H. A. Kholidy, A. Erradi, S. Abdelwahed and F. Baiardi “A Risk Mitigation
Approach for Autonomous Cloud Intrusion Response System", Computing Jour-
nal, Special issue on Cloud Computing and Services Science., vol. 98, no. 11,
pp. 1111-1135, Nov. 2016.
Q. Chen and S. Abdelwahed, “A Model-Based Validated Autonomic Approach
to Self-Protect Computing Systems," IEEE Internet of Things Journal, vol. 1,
no. 5, pp. 446-460, October 2014.
H. Kholidy, H. Hassan , A. Sarhan, A. Erradi, and S. Abdelwahed, “QoS Optimization
for Cloud Service Composition Based on Economic Model," in Internet
of Things. User-Centric IoT, Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences,
Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering Volume 150, pp.
355-366 Springer International Publishing, 2015.
Z. Thomas and S. Abdelwahed, “Active Malware Countermeasure Approach for
Mission Critical Systems," in Proc. the 15th IEEE International Conference
on Dependable, Autonomic and Secure Computing (DASC 2017), Orlando, FL,
November 2017.
S. Iannucci, H. A. Kholidy, A. D. Ghimire, R. Jia, S. Abdelwahed, and I. Banicescu,
“A Comparison of Graph-Based Synthetic Data Generators for Benchmarking
Next-Generation Intrusion Detection Systems" in Proc. the IEEE Cluster Conference, HI, Sept. 2017. Acceptance rate: 21.8%
S. Iannucci, Q. Chen and S. Abdelwahed. \High-Performance Intrusion Response Planning on Many-Core Architectures." in Proc. Workshop on Network Security Analytics and Automation, part of The 25th Int. Conference on Computer Communication and Networks (ICCCN 2016), Waikoloa, HI, August 2016.
Q. Chen, J. Lambright and S. Abdelwahed. “Towards Realizing a Self-Protecting
Healthcare Information System." The First International Workshop on Security,
Privacy, and Trustworthiness in Medical Cyber Physical System (MedSPT 2016),
Washington DC, 2016.
S. Iannucci and S. Abdelwahed. “A Probabilistic Approach to Autonomic Security
Management." in Proc. the IEEE 13th International Conference on Autonomic Computing (ICAC 2016), Wurzburg, Germany, July 2016.
H. A. Kholidy, A. Erradi, and S. Abdelwahed \Attack Prediction Models for
Cloud Intrusion Detection Systems", in Proc. the 2nd International Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Modelling and Simulation, (AIMS 2014), Madrid,
Spain, November 2014.
H. A. Kholidy, H. Hassan, A. Sarhan, A. Erradi, and S. Abdelwahed “QoS Optimization
for Cloud Service Composition Based on Economic Model", in Proc. the International Conference on IoT as a Service (IoTaaS 2014), Rome, Italy, October 2014.
H. A. Kholidy, A. Erradi, and S. Abdelwahed “Online Risk Assessment and Prediction
Models For Autonomic Cloud Intrusion Prevention System", in Proc.
the 11th ACS/IEEE International Conference on Computer Systems and Appli-
cations (AICCSA 2014), Doha, Qatar, November 2014.
H. A. Kholidy, A. Erradi, A. M. Yousof, S. Abdelwahed, and H. Ali “A Finite
Context Intrusion Prediction Model for Cloud Systems with a Probabilistic Sux
Tree", in Proc. the 8th IEEE European Modelling Symposium (EMS2014), Pisa,
Italy, October 2014.
Q. Chen and S. Abdelwahed, “Towards Realizing Self-protecting SCADA Systems," in Proc. the 9th Cyber Security and Information Intelligence Research Workshop (CISR'14), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, April 2014.
H. A. Kholidy, A. Erradi, S. Abdelwahed, and A. Azab “A Finite State Hidden
Markov Model for Predicting Multistage Attacks in Cloud Systems", in Proc.
the IEEE International Conference on Dependable, Autonomic and Secure Com-
puting (DASC 2014), Dalian, China, August 2014.
Q. Chen, S. Abdelwahed, and A. Erradi. “A Model-based Approach to Self-
Protection in SCADA Systems," in Proc. the 9th International Workshop on
Feedback Computing, Philadelphia, June 2014.
Q. Chen, S. Abdelwahed, and A. Erradi. “A Model-based Approach to Self-
Protection in Computing System," in Proc. the ACM Cloud and Autonomic
Computing Conference (CAC 2013). Miami, August 2013.
H. Kholidy, A. Erradi, S. Abdelwahed, and F. Baiardi, “HA-CIDS: A Hierarchical
and Autonomous IDS for Cloud Environments", in Proc. the 5th IEEE Inter-
national Conference on Computational Intelligence, Communication Systems &
Networks (CICSyN 2013), Madrid, Spain, June 2013.
Q. Chen, S. Abdelwahed, and W. Monceaux, “Towards Automatic Security Management:
A Model-Based Approach," in Proc. the 8th Cyber Security and In-
formation Intelligence Research Workshop (CSIIRW), Oak Ridge National Laboratory,
Oak Ridge, January 2013.
H. Kholidy, A. Erradi, S. Abdelwahed, and F. Baiardi, “A Hierarchical, Autonomous,
and Forecasting Cloud IDS", the 5th International Conference on
Modeling, Identification and Control (ICMIC2013), Cairo, September 2013.
W. Monceaux, D. Evans, K. Rappold, C. Butler, S. Abdelwahed, R. Mehrotra,
and A. Dubey “Implementing Autonomic Computing Methods to Improve Attack
Resilience in Web Services," in Proc. DoD High Performance Computing
Modernization Program Users Group Conference, Portland, OR, June 2011.
Q. Chen, S. Abdelwahed, and A. Erradi. \An Autonomic Detection and Protection
System for Denial of Service Attack," in Proc. the 24th IASTED International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Computing and Systems (PDCS 2012), Las Vegas, November 2012.
Q. Chen, R. Mehrotra, A. Dubey, S. Abdelwahed, and K. Rowland, “On State
of The Art in Virtual Machine Security", in Proc. IEEE SoutheastCon 2012,
Orlando, March 2012.