Ning Zhang
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Computer Science·Early-career
Computers now run physical machines such as self-driving cars and surgical robots, and they also run distributed networks that keep shared digital records. For these systems, security means more than keeping data private.
- Fields
Computer Science
Engineering
- Topics
cyber-physical systems
real-time systems
system availability
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through May 2028
What they work on
- Provide guaranteed computing and I/O availability inside trusted execution environments despite an untrusted operating system, using the predictable timing of real-time cyber-physical systems to keep the trusted code small.
- Preserve the availability of safety-critical processes using context-sensitive software compartmentalization and rapid recovery, trading reduced functionality for continued safe operation.
- Formalize and analyze performance interference between programs as an availability attack, and isolate safety-critical processes from interference by non-safety-critical processes in real-time systems.
- Model how mining-pool concentration, uneven network connectivity and peer-to-peer link manipulation affect blockchain consensus, quantifying fairness, liveness and safety.
- Build remotely attestable, policy-driven software-defined networks using trusted computing to defend blockchains against routing-based attacks.
- Design a trustworthy blockchain data feed that uses decentralized truth discovery and efficient off-chain agreement to resist false inputs from Byzantine (possibly malicious) outside sources.
More about the research
The system must also keep working correctly and on time when it is attacked. This research builds theories and systems for that kind of dependability in two areas: keeping real-time cyber-physical systems available, and strengthening the basic security of blockchains.
Why it matters
Autonomous vehicles, surgical robots and blockchain-based applications increasingly support daily life, and attacks that disrupt them can cause real harm. This work could give engineers ways to keep safety-critical control software running on time even when parts of a system are compromised. It could also make blockchains more resistant to concentrated mining power, network routing attacks and false external data.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Gene Tsudik
University of California-Irvine, CA·Computer Science
Define an execution model for safelets, small safety-critical programs that must run no matter what, and formally verify the safety monitor responsible for executing them.
Kartik Ravidas Nayak
Duke University, NC·Computer Science·Early-career
Define and study mechanisms for fault detection and recovery in consensus protocols, and analyze how accountability acts as a feedback loop on the security and efficiency of blockchain systems.
Radu Sion
Stony Brook University, NY·Computer Science
Design plausibly deniable storage systems that hide the existence of data from a multi-snapshot attacker, one who inspects a device repeatedly, while holding the user's devices and credentials.
The school
Washington University in St Louis: 97 labs on PI Pages, $1.2B a year on research, 365 research doctorates a year.
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