Jianli Pan, Associate Professor, Information Sciences and Technology, College of Engineering and Computing (CEC), and Md Arafin, Assistant Professor, Cyber Security Engineering, CEC, received funding for a project aimed at modernizing Internet of Things (IoT)/Edge cybersecurity research and curricula.
They aim to prepare the U.S. workforce to design and secure IoT and edge networks and devices that incorporate foundation models in the embodied AI era.
The researchers will research and teach emerging foundation models for students at different educational levels by developing innovative research and learning materials on deploying, optimizing, and securing these models on IoT and edge platforms.
They will create structured modules that provide students with advanced research and experiential learning opportunities in foundation-model-enabled cyber analytics at the edge. They will also develop innovative training materials on secure kernels and system architectures for edge-deployed foundation models.
Project outcomes will be broadly disseminated through a new textbook, hands-on laboratories with complementary virtual-machine-based tools, training modules, workshops, and a cybersecurity competition.
Pan and Arafin received $500,000 from the National Science Foundation for this project. Funding began in Sept. 2026 and will end in late Aug. 2029.
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