Structure, Systems and Autonomy

C-ALPS Centre for Advanced Low Carbon Propulsion Systems

Microcab Hydrogen Fuel Cells

Cybersecurity

In an increasingly uncertain world, the need for the security of citizens, data and critical infrastructure is a major concern. A parallel but not unrelated body of research acknowledges safety needs requiring rigorous engineering, fail-proof mechanisms and protection systems to ensure a dependable design and reliable operation. The Cyber Security team is a group of multi-disciplinary researchers addressing issues of systems security for automotive, rail and connected infrastructure. Over the past 6 years, the group has been involved in a number of projects including:

• CyberOwl, a new commercial venture spun-out of the group in 2016 that is developing early warning systems for the cyberspace;
• Automotive Cyber Security collaboration with HORIBA MIRA, involving a number of doctoral students investigating both testing and design aspects of security on vehicular platforms; 
• App Collusion Detection (ACiD) (2015-2017), which is funded by the EPSRC, in collaboration with City and Swansea Universities, and with Intel Security as industrial partner. The aim of this work is to develop novel theoretical methods and tools to detect Android applications of suspected collusion;
• Knowledge Elicitation for Railway Safety (KEEP SAFE) (2013-2014), which was funded by the RSSB to assess the use of safety-related data for effective safety decision-making for rail safety and security;
• Unmanned Distribution Capability (2011-2013), which was funded by the MoD to investigate communication resilience for semi-autonomous military logistics vehicles;
• Efficient and Reliable Transportation of Consignments (ERTOC) (2010-2012), which was funded by InnovateUK and EPSRC, and led by Ricardo, to build an open-API data-centric approach to logistics routing and payload sharing aimed at reducing carbon footprint.

News

• Jeremy Bryans gave an invited talk recently at Chatham House, where he spoke about his recent paper on "The Internet of Automotive Things: vulnerabilities, risks, and policy implications”.
• Call for Papers: Special Issue on Smart Cities and Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (IJDSN)
• Universities to lead on research to underpin UK’s cybersecurity policymaking 
• Samsung self-driving car trial in South Korea approved. BBC, May 2nd, 2017
• We are working with local firm EmbedUK, and they have provided us with their telematics development toolsuite and hardware to experiment with rapid prototyping of secure software.
• Dr. Jeremy Bryans is speaking on “From Automotive Safety to Automotive Security: Progress, Possibilities and Pitfalls” at the IMechE Event on ISO 26262: Functional Safety for Engineering on 24th May 2017
• The paper titled “Towards A Testbed for Automotive Cybersecurity”, by Dan Fowler, Madeline Cheah, Jeremy Bryans and Siraj Shaikh, has won the Best Industry Paper Award at the 10th IEEE International Conference on Software Testing, Verification and Validation, March 2017, Tokyo, Japan
• AutoCAN Security, a commercial proposition by Dr. Jeremy Bryans and Dr. Siraj Shaikh, has been awarded a place in the second cohort of CSIT Labs to receive three months of product engineering resource from CSIT’s security engineering team, February 21st, 2017
• CyberOwl, a Coventry University spinout, has been chosen for the very first GCHQ Cyber Accelerator, BBC News, January 11th, 2017
• Why are the tech giants struggling to build their own driverless cars? The Conversation, October 21st, 2016
• Madeline Cheah and Dan Fowler are both working with HORIBA MIRA on automotive cybersecurity challenges, March 10th, 2016.

The team

	Prof. Siraj Shaikh Cyber security
	Dr. Jeremy Bryans Cyber security, formal verification, cyber-physical systems
	Dr. Hoang Nguyen Railway verification, computational logic, model checking and multi-agent systems
	Emma Moreton Cyber security policy making, corpus linguistics
	Atif Hussain Cyber security and computer science
	Madeline Cheah Cyber-security, digital forensics and penetration testing
	Daniel S. Fowler Automotive cyber-security, digital forensics and trustworthy systems
	Andrew Tomlinson Cyber-security
	Mike Waters Connected & autonomous vehicles, vehicle to infrastructure connectivity
	Stephen Powley Connected & autonomous vehicles, vehicle to infrastructure connectivity
	John Heneghan Digital forensics, security testing, systems engineering and automotive cybersecurity

Training

Automotive cybersecurity poses a major challenge to connected and autonomous vehicles. This course addresses the wider challenge of increasing digital and software components on connected platforms and focusses specifically on threat intelligence and engineering aspects of automotive systems. Issues of policy and personal data are also explored.

This course is for engineers, scientists and consultants with an interest in cybersecurity of connected and autonomous vehicles; automotive manufacturers, electronics designers and suppliers, components manufacturers and software tool developers; and policy makers, academics and researchers.

Vehicle Dynamics and Safety

There are huge opportunities for reducing collisions, injuries and emissions in future traffic through advanced design and manufacture of the next generation of vehicles and control systems.

In this team, we have brought together experts in accident investigation and traumatology, with those who are experts in light weight structures and optimisation and vehicle performance modelling (including tyre and suspension systems). In addition, we look at the contribution electric motors will play in efficiency and then also look at how advances in control systems engineering will contribute to future vehicle design and functional safety.

Extreme light weighting without degrading vehicle safety can be achieved only through multifunctional structures. We are researching and developing multidisciplinary optimisation algorithms and tools that facilitate the design, analysis and verification of these structures.

To complement work on the performance of vehicles within a collision we also look at new communication and control systems designed to avoid collisions through driver support functions.

The team

	Professor Mike Blundell Vehicle dynamics, impact and safety
	Dr. Jesper Christensen Structural analysis, optimisation algorithm development and implementation
	Dr. Christophe Bastien Automotive safety, lightweighting, optimisation and human trauma predictions
	Dr. Stratis Kanarachos Motion control, active dynamics and learning behaviour
	Dr. Arash Moradinegade Dizqah Optimisation and control, electric and hybrid vehicles, autonomous vehicles
	Dr. Mauro Innocente Analysis & optimisation for engineering design, connected & autonomous vehicles
	Dr. Mike Bromfield Flight safety, flight data monitoring, aircraft flying qualities, in-flight loss-of-control
	Dr. Neophytos Lophitis Power electronics, semiconductor engineering & batteries
	Dr. Dina Shona Laila Instrumentation and control
	Dr. Leon Shpanin Energy, plasmas and compressed air
	Dr. Konstantinos Gyftakis Induction motors, insulation and rotors