Xiaoyan Hong, a professor of engineering, and two other UA professors have been selected to receive funding from the National Science Foundation. The funding will go toward the research and advancement of a science network and engineering program named GENI.
“We have three professors involved here, so we’re very excited.” Hong said.
Hong will be working with two other UA professors, Fei Hu and Yang Xiao, on a project that is designed to help GENI define and investigate security requirements and issues. Hong’s team was one of 33 to be chosen for funding to help GENI.
GENI is a “unique virtual laboratory” designed to help bring modern engineers together to help broaden the future of the Internet.
According to the GENI Web site, its mission is to “open the way for transformative research at the frontiers of network science and engineering; and inspire and accelerate the potential for groundbreaking innovations of significant socio-economic impact.”
While GENI is in its early prototype and design stage, it is expected to have a large impact on the advancement of the Internet.
Hong and her team will be investigating the types of security issues that might arise due to hackers and other threats.
“We are trying to test security without causing problems for the researchers,” Hong said.
This is very important because one of the functions of GENI will be to provide a “deep programmability” that will allow many engineers and academics to calculate and share information easily.
“GENI tries to meet the requirements of many scientists who need calculations for many projects,” Hu said. “We’re trying to find out what kind of potential attacks somebody could do to the GENI system.”
Another aspect of the research is that students in the department of computer science are helping Hong and her team in their research.
Hong said that the tests and experiments are helping students understand network and security problems, and the GENI program is good practice for the students to get involved in the Internet.
Hong is an associate professor in the department of computer science, and directs the wireless, mobile, and networking research laboratory. She received her master’s of science degree from the computer science department at Zhejiang University in China, and she received in computer science from the University of California at Los Angeles in 2003.
Xiao is also a professor in the computer science department, whose research areas include security, telemedicine, robotics, sensor networks and wireless networks.
Hu is an associate professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering, with a focus in cognitive sensor networks, wireless networks, and network security.
This is not the first time the three have worked together. They published an online article together in 2008 titled, “A Survey of Anonymity in Wireless Communications Systems” for the Wiley International Journal.
