This work examines how to get safety and security in Internet of Things (IoT) systems where multiple devices (things), each designed in isolation from others, are brought together to form a networked system, controlled via one or more software applications ("apps"). "Things" in an IoT environment can include simple devices such as switches, lightbulbs, smart locks, thermostats, and safety alarms as well as complex systems such as appliances, smartphones, and cars. Software IoT "apps" can monitor and control multiple devices in homes, cars, cities, and businesses, providing significant benefits such as energy efficiency, security, safety, and user convenience. Unfortunately, programmable IoT systems also introduce new risks, including enabling remote control by hackers of devices in smart homes, cars, and cities, via buggy IoT apps. Testing IoT apps to remove bugs is currently challenging due to a variety of physical devices with which such apps may interact, including devices that were not even available during app development. The proposed work will help develop techniques for testing IoT apps efficiently and for enforcing safety and security constraints on their run-time behavior. More specifically, the proposed work is centered around three technical thrusts: 1) creating virtual device models to help efficiently test IoT apps systematically without knowing the precise details of physical devices that the apps will control in advance; 2) automating test development for an IoT app to check safety and security specifications against a flexible set of devices; and 3) providing support for enforcement of specifications at run-time for security and safety assertions. The work includes extensive experimentation and evaluation using diverse devices and will represent a significant advance in hardening this important spaces

This research investigates a cyber-physical framework for scalable, long-term monitoring and maintenance of civil infrastructures. With growth of the world economy and its population, there has been an ever increasing dependency on larger and more complex networks of civil infrastructure as evident in the billions of dollars spent by the federal, state and local governments to either upgrade or repair transportation systems or utilities. Despite these large expenditures, the nation continues to suffer staggering consequences from infrastructural decay. Therefore, paramount to the concept of a smart city of the future is the concept of smart civil infrastructure that can self-monitor itself to predict any impending failures and in the cases of extreme events (e.g. earthquakes) identify portions that would require immediate repair, and prioritize areas for emergency response. A goal of this research project is to make significant progress towards this grand vision by investigating a framework of infrastructural Internet-of-Things (i-IoT) using a network of self-powered, embedded health monitoring sensors. The collaborative and interdisciplinary nature of this research would provide opportunities for unique outreach programs involving undergraduate and graduate students in technical areas, e.g., sensors, IoTs and structural health monitoring. The project would also provide avenues for disseminating the results of this research to stakeholders in the state governments and for translating the results of the research into field deployable prototypes. This research addresses different elements of the proposed i-IoT framework by bringing together expertise from three universities in the area of self-powered sensors, energy scavenging processors, structural health monitoring and earthquake engineering. At the fundamental level, the project involves investigating self-powered sensors that will require zero maintenance and can continuously operate over the useful lifespan of the structure without experiencing any downtime. The challenge in this regard is that sensors need to occupy a small enough volume such that an array of these devices could be easily embedded and can provide accurate spatial resolution in structural imaging. This research is also investigates techniques that would enable real time wireless collection of data from an array of self-powered sensors embedded inside a structure, without taking the structure out-of-service. The methods to be explored involve combining the physics of energy scavenging, transduction, rectification and logic computation to improve the system's energy-efficiency and reduce the system latency. At the algorithmic level the project explores novel structural failure prediction and structural forensic algorithms based on historical data collected from self-powered sensors embedded at different spatial locations. This includes kernel algorithms that can exploit the data to quickly identify the most vulnerable part of a structure after a man-made or a natural crisis (for example an earthquake). Finally, the technology translation plan for this research is to validate the proposed i-IoT framework in real-world deployment, which includes buildings, multi-span bridges and highways.

The objective of this research is to (1) gain insights into the challenges of securing interactions in Internet of Things (IoT)deployments, (2) develop a practical framework that mitigates security and privacy threats to IoT interactions, and (3) validate the proposed framework in a medium-scale IoT testbed and through user studies. The emerging IoT computing paradigm promises novel applications in almost all sectors by enabling interactions between users, sensors, and actuators. These interactions can take the form of device-to-device (e.g., Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)) or human-to-device (e.g., voice control). By exploiting vulnerabilities in these interaction surfaces, an adversary can gain unauthorized access to the IoT, which enables tracking, profiling and posing harm to the user. With the thousands of diverse IoT manufacturers, developers, and devices, it is very challenging, if not impossible, to ensure all devices are properly secured at production and kept up-to-date after production. IoT users and administrators have to place their trust in a set of devices, with the least secure device breaking the security chain. By shifting the trust base from the various manufacturers and developers to a single framework under the user's control, deploying IoT devices will be more feasible and less vulnerable. The proposed framework will help advance the national health, prosperity and welfare, and also secure the national defense. Securing IoT interface surfaces as case studies will be integrated in graduate-level courses, and used to train (especially underrepresented and female) students with interdisciplinary topics that require a balanced mix of theory and practice, thus developing human resources in the nationally needed areas.The proposed research will also significantly advance the understanding of the challenges to secure IoT interaction surfaces in practice, thus promoting the progress of science. This project will establish a general direction to secure interactions in the current and future IoT deployments. It will offer an additional protection layer in the cases where security cannot be properly built-in and maintained.

Scaling the Internet of Things (IoT) to billions and possibly trillions of "things" requires transformative advances in the science, technology, and engineering of cyber-physical systems (CPS), with none more pressing or challenging than the power problem. Consider that if every device in a 1 trillion IoT network had a battery that lasted for a full five years, over 500 million batteries would need to be changed every day. Clearly, a battery-powered IoT is not feasible at this scale due to both human resource logistics and environmental concerns. There is a need for a battery-less approach that dependably meets functionality requirements using energy harvested from the physical world. This project brings together experts in materials, devices, circuits, and systems to pursue a holistic approach to self-powered wireless devices deployed in real-world environments and IoT systems and applications. In addition, educational and outreach activities will help develop the workforce for this relatively new field with the holistic, materials-to-systems perspective that will be necessary to lead innovation in this space.A critical challenge that this project addresses is that both optimal device operation and energy harvester efficiency are heavily dependent on physical world dynamics, and thus, self-powered devices that are statically configured or that just respond to instantaneous conditions are unlikely to provide the dependability required for many IoT systems and applications. To address this fundamental and critically enabling challenge, data collections will be performed to study the physical world dynamics that impact device operation and harvester efficiency, such as ambient conditions, electromagnetic interference, and human behavior. This scientific study will lead to the development of dynamic models that will, in turn, be used to develop algorithms to dynamically configure devices and harvesters based not only on past and current conditions but also on predictions of future conditions. These algorithms will then be used to dynamically configure technological innovations in ultra-low power device operation and ultra-high efficiency energy harvesting to engineer and operate dependable self-powered things for the IoT.