FORCES Research Showcased at the Smart America Challenge

June 11, 2014 - Today a team of FORCES researchers from UC Berkeley and Vanderbilt University showcased a testbed designed to demonstrate the potential impacts of cyber attacks against ground transportation networks as part of the Smart America Challenge. The Smart America Challenge brought together teams from academia, industry, and the government to rapidly design and demonstrate ways in which cyber-physical systems can benefit society.

The Smart Roads project integrated NSF FORCES and other government and industry funded research in a few short months, bringing attention to the need for resilience in current and next-generation transportation networks and systems.

Researchers created a short video that demonstrates the vulnerability and, ultimately, resilience of traffic systems and how an attack might play out in the real world.

Media coverage of the demonstration, dubbed 'Carmageddon,' highlighted the security and vulnerabilities of our nation's complex transportation infrastructure, the need for standards as technologies of the future are deployed, and the challenges to ensuring the technology remains operational in the face of faults, failures, and attacks.

Submitted by Carolyn Winter on