Course Information
* Course syllabus can be found here (including the grading scale and expected course schedule).
Course description
A comprehensive study of the principles and practices of cyber-physical systems (CPS) security, covering hardware platforms, software systems, and a range of attacks and defenses. Topics include CPS hardware organization (microcontrollers, industrial control systems, robotic and autonomous vehicles, sensors, and actuators); CPS software (communication protocols, real-time requirements, control algorithms, sensor filtering, autonomy frameworks, and simulators); and security challenges and countermeasures across domains, such as sensor spoofing and jamming, network and software vulnerabilities, system-level exploits, and adversarial machine learning attacks.
Instructor information
Email address: chungkim 'at' utdallas 'dot' edu
Office hours: Mon 11:30am-12:30pm (this could be changed at the instructor's discretion)
Location: ECSS 3.201
Class meetings and modality
Modality: Traditional
When: MW 10-11:15am
Where: ECSW 1.365
Video recordings of the class will NOT be provided
Prerequisites
Students are required to satisfy the following prerequisites:
Algorithm Analysis and Data Structures (CS 5343)
Operating System Concepts (CS 5348)
Optionally, the course project would require students with the following skills:
Familiarity with command line Unix/Linux
Understanding and debugging a C/C++ program (e.g., using GDB)
Basic understanding on how a program executes at low machine instructions and operating systems levels (e.g., basic level of IA-32 assemblies, how a process is created, and how system calls are handled)
Student learning objectives/outcomes
Students shall be able to understand the hardware and software foundations of cyber-physical systems, the unique threats and vulnerabilities they face, and the principles and techniques for securing them. They will learn to analyze CPS from an adversarial perspective, study practical attacks on sensors, networks, control software, and AI components, and evaluate corresponding defenses. Students will also be able to assess the significance of CPS-specific threats, reason about real-time and safety-critical constraints, and gauge the protections and limitations of current CPS security technologies.
Grading policy
Assignment (20%): Paper presentations (3-4 times per student over the semester)
Course Project (80%): Hands-on team project (2-3 students per team)
No midterm or final exam
Evaluation & late policy
Project presentations and materials will be evaluated on a 100-point scale (0-100).
Late submission will be penalized 10 points per day (24-hour period).
COVID-19 guidelines
Academic integrity
Important
Cheating vs. collaboration
Collaboration is a very good thing. On the other hand, cheating is considered a very serious offense and is vigorously prosecuted. Vigorous prosecution requires that you be advised of the cheating policy of the course before the offending act.
- For this semester, the policy is simple: don't cheat:
Never share code or text on the homeworks and projects.
Never use someone else's code or text in your solutions.
Never consult potential solutions on the Internet (including copying code from GitHub or ChatGPT).
- On the other hand, for this class, you are strongly encouraged to:
Share ideas.
Explain your code to someone to see if they know why it doesn't work.
Help someone else debug if they've run into a wall.
If you obtain help of any kind, always write the name(s) of your sources.
(ref. http://courses.cs.washington.edu/courses/cse451/15au/)