Professor Dirk Pesch
School of Computer Science and Information Technology
Lecture Title: The Internet of Things and Sustainability
Date: 30 September 2021, 5pm.
Location: Online Zoom Meeting
Lecture Summary:
Over the last decade, we have started to extend the Internet from connecting computers to access information and to communicate with each other to connecting “Things” around us. These Things can be anything from our homes and the appliances therein, our buildings and cities, to our cars, to things in our environment and even our bodies. The “Internet of Things” connects the Internet through wireless communication, sensors and actuators to our physical world. This gives us unprecedented data on our environment to gain insights into how our world works but also the ability to control our environment. Connecting to the physical world offers the opportunity to become more sustainable but the current trend also threatens sustainability. This lecture will give examples of the potential of the Internet of Things for sustainability but will also highlight challenges and some solutions to making the Internet of Things more sustainable itself.
About:
Dirk Pesch joined the School of Computer Science and Information Technology (CSIT) as Professor of Computer Science (Internet of Things) in February 2019. Prior to joining University College Cork, Dirk was with Cork Institute of Technology (now Munster Technological University Cork), where he developed research activities that led to the establishment of the Nimbus Research Centre of which he became the founding director in 2009. Under his leadership, Nimbus became a leading centre for application and industry-focused research in Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems applications. In December 2016, CIT designated him as a Professor. Dirk holds a Dipl.Ing (MEng) degree from RWTH Aachen University, Germany, and a PhD from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, both in Electrical & Electronic Engineering.
Prof. Pesch’s research focuses on the design and analysis of future networked systems for the Internet of Things and Cyber-Physical Systems with applications in smart and connected communities and smart manufacturing. He is the Director of the Science Foundation Ireland funded Centre for Research Training in Advanced Networks for Sustainable Societies (http://www.advance-crt.ie) and a co-Principal Investigator in the SFI CONFIRM Centre for Smart Manufacturing (http://www.confirm.ie) and the SFI CONNECT Centre for Future Networks (http://www.connectcentre.ie). Dirk is also a steering committee member of the Cork Smart Gateway (http://www.corksmartgateway.ie), a smart communities initiative in Cork City and County. Before joining academia, Dirk was a design engineer with Nokia in Germany and the UK, developing and implementing communication protocols for a range of cordless telecommunication systems.
Research Links:
Professor Utz Roedig
School of Computer Science and Information Technology
Lecture Title: Authentication in the Digital World
Date: 28 October 2021, 5pm.
Location: Online Zoom Meeting
Lecture Summary:
We increasingly depend on digital systems and rely on their secure operation. To provide a secure system it is essential to identify and authenticate users and, in many cases, machines. We need to know who requests access or provides data to authorise access. Typically, users are authenticated by providing a password; a procedure we are all familiar with and we are also aware of the difficulties in keeping passwords and the consequences when passwords are lost or revealed. However, our digital world is becoming more complex and in many scenarios passwords are not usable, useful or desirable for authentication of either users or machines. New methods are necessary to authenticate users, machines and data. In this talk I will describe first classical authentication and associated challenges, and then describe some of my research work looking at novel authentication methods. My talk will cover areas such as wireless signal authentication, Physical Unclonable Functions (PUF) and authentication in Personal Voice Assistants (PVA) such as Siri and Alexa.
About:
Professor Utz Roedig joined the School of Computer Science and Information Technology (CSIT) at UCC in January 2019, and has been Head of the School of CSIT since September 2021. Before moving to Cork he was Professor at Lancaster University, UK, where he led the Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACE-CSR). Prior to his work in Lancaster he held research positions at UCC and Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany. Prof Utz Roedig received his Dipl.-Ing degree in Electrical Engineering in 1997 and his Dr.-Ing in Computer Science in 2002 from Darmstadt University of Technology, Germany.
He is a co-Principle Investigator of the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) funded CONNECT Centre for Future Networks, and Principle Investigator of the SFI Frontiers of the Future Award 'Personal Voice Assistant Security and Privacy'.
His research interests are computer networks and security with focus on the Internet of Things (IoT). His work looks at IoT communication mechanisms and the software used to construct IoT systems with a particular focus on cybersecurity. He has published over 160 peer-reviewed papers in this field and his research collaborations with industry partners have resulted in several patents. Over the last number of years his research has been supported by a number of research grants funded by EU, SFI, EPSRC and Industry. He frequently serves as TPC member of international conferences such as DCOSS, EWSN, IPSN, and he is a grant reviewer for international funding bodies such as EPSRC (UK), ESF (EU) and FWO (Belgium).
Research Links:
