Reliable and secure computing systems
Computing is constantly becoming more essential in our lives even as its complexity keeps increasing. Ensuring that computer systems are secure and reliable is therefore crucial. Reliability is a science that ensures the correct functioning of computer systems even as individual hardware and software components may fail. Security considers failures in an adversarial context, where someone is explicitly trying to make a system behave incorrectly.
Research in reliability and security includes modeling and analysis of how various systems can fail and how they can be attacked, the design of monitoring systems that detect and prevent attacks and failures, and verification of correctness of hardware and software, as well as communication protocols.
Honey Badger BFT is the first *asynchronous* consensus protocol for the post-Bitcoin world
They also include looking at the resiliency of supercomputers in the presence of accidental failures and malicious attacks; investigating the resiliency of Big Data systems and the application of machine learning methods; and health monitoring. Researchers improve the reliability and security of cloud computing platforms, petascale supercomputers, critical infrastructure, and the Internet.
View a selection of recent highlights featuring accomplishments by faculty and students in this area.
Research Topics in this Area
- Computer security, privacy, and information trust
- Cryptographic systems and protocols
- Fault tolerance and reliability
- Formal methods and software verification
Related Courses
| Number | Title | Prerequisites | Web Site |
|---|---|---|---|
| ECE 541 | Computer Systems Analysis | Credit in ECE 313 or MATH 461 or MATH 463 or STAT 410 | |
| ECE 542 | Design of Fault-Tolerant Digital Systems | Credit in ECE 411 | Website |