IC2Tech Colloquium: Assured Microelectronics: A National Security Necessity

In our increasingly digital world, microelectronics—those tiny components powering everything from our smartphones to critical military systems—play a vital role. But ensuring these components are secure from threats and reliable is a complex challenge, especially when national security is at stake.

This year's colloquium will delve into some cutting-edge research and pressing concerns surrounding this critical area. We'll explore how we can guarantee the integrity of these essential technologies, protecting them from tampering, counterfeiting, and malicious attacks.

Our speakers will discuss how advancements in areas like hardware security, supply chain integrity, and advanced manufacturing are crucial for safeguarding our national security in the face of evolving threats. We hope this colloquium will provide a deeper understanding of this vital field and spark important conversations about the future of assured microelectronics.

This event is sponsored by the The Illiana Consortium for Intelligence and Critical Technology (IC2Tech).

This online event is free and open to the public.

Keynotes

Keynote 1

Bridging the Gap: Enhancing Hardware Security with Analog Innovations

Speaker: Waleed Khalil, Ph. D.

Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department/ElectroScience Lab, Ohio State University

Co-Director: Center of Excellence for Enabling Cyber Defense in Analog and Mixed Signal Domain (CYAN) and Co-Director: National Microelectronic Security Training (MEST) Center

Abstract:
Advances in microelectronics have had a tremendous positive impact on society, providing users with more features, more automation, and more connectivity. However, these advancements come at a cost, as increasing complexities in designs and increased reliance on offshoring lead to growing threats and vulnerabilities. While there has been some research into hardware security to address these issues, most efforts have focused on the digital realm, where it is easier to analyze circuits in the abstracted 1's and 0's. Unfortunately, this approach leaves significant gaps in analog hardware security that must be addressed.

This keynote talk will highlight the progress made by the analog community to complement the digital domain and establish a more secure and resilient hardware platform. By addressing these vulnerabilities, we can ensure the integrity and trustworthiness of our electronic systems, safeguarding critical infrastructures and sensitive data. A multidisciplinary approach, involving stringent supply chain oversight, advanced authentication mechanisms, and continuous monitoring, is essential to detect and mitigate potential vulnerabilities in hardware components and designs.

Join us as we explore the strides taken by the analog community to build towards a more secure and resilient hardware landscape.

Keynote 2

Microelectronics Assurance in an Untrusted Supply Chain: Can AI Help?

Speaker: Swarup Bhunia, Ph.D.

Semmoto Endowed Chair Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida

Director, Warren B. Nelms Institute for the Connected World

Abstract:
Recent discoveries and reports on numerous security attacks on microchips and circuits violate the well- regarded concept of hardware trust anchors. The current business model and the supply chain eco-system for microelectronics give rise to unprecedented security and trust issues and accentuate the need for secure, trustworthy hardware. Consequently, verification of hardware for security and trust has become an integral part of the modern electronic system design flow. The talk will cover a spectrum of challenges associated with microelectronics assurance in current supply chain and describe emerging solutions in creating trustworthy hardware that can enable microelectronics security for the mass. It will outline the need and challenges for verification of an electronic design’s security properties. Finally, it will outline how AI-driven assurance of hardware, specifically the usage of generative AI, is creating a promising new paradigm of microelectronics security and trust.

Speaker Bios

Waleed Khalil, Ph. D.

Dr. Waleed Khalil received his BS and MS degrees from the University of Minnesota, and his PhD degree from Arizona State University. He is currently serving as a Professor at the ECE department and the ElectroScience Lab, The Ohio State University. He also serves as Co-Director of the Air Force Center of Excellence for Enabling Cyber Defense in Analog and Mixed Signal Domain (CYAN) and The National MicroElectronics Security Training Center (MEST). Prior to joining OSU in 2009, he spent 16 years at Intel Corporation where he held various positions in research and product groups. His group’s research is focused on integrated circuits and systems, with applications in the areas of hardware security and trust, wireless and wireline communications, heterogeneous chip integration, and image sensors. He is the recipient of OSU’s College of Engineering Lumley Research Award and IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu/Fred H. Pumphrey's Distinguished Teacher Award. His research group has received several best paper awards in several conferences. He authored 19 issued and several other pending patents, over 120 journal and conference papers and three books/book chapters. He served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Solid-State Circuits and is currently serving as the Associate VP for Publications at the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society and Co-general Chair for the IEEE International Symposium on Hardware Oriented Security and Trust (HOST).

Swarup Bhunia, Ph.D.

Dr. Swarup Bhunia is currently a preeminence professor of cybersecurity and Semmoto Endowed Chair Professor of Internet of Things (IoT) at University of Florida. He serves as the Director of the Warren B. Nelms Institute for the Connected World. Earlier, he was appointed as the T. and A. Schroeder associate professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Case Western Reserve University. He has over twenty years of research and development experience with 10 authored/edited books and over 350 publications in peer-reviewed journals and premier conferences and 40 granted patents. His research interests include hardware security and trust, adaptive nanocomputing and novel test methodologies. Dr. Bhunia received IBM Faculty Award, National Science Foundation career development award, Semiconductor Research Corporation Inventor Recognition Award, IEEE HOST Hall of Fame award, University of Florida Research Foundation Professorship Award, SRC technical excellence award as a team member, and several best paper awards/nominations. He is co-founding editor-in-chief of a Springer journal on hardware and systems security. Dr. Bhunia received his PhD from Purdue University on energy-efficient and robust electronics. He is a Fellow of the IEEE.

Event Sponsors

The Illiana Consortium for Intelligence and Critical Technology (IC2Tech) is hosting this event. IC2Tech is an Intelligence Community Center for Academic Excellence. The IC2Tech Consortium Consists of the Center for Information Security Education and Research (CINSE R) at Chicago State University and Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana.