Snt ar15-web

Snt ar15-web
Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust Annual Report 2015
6564 Editorial FinTech – technology-driven innovation in the financial and banking sector – presents a natural opportunity for Luxem- bourg. Unlike the music or entertainment business, e-commerce, media, telecom, banking and the financial sector have seen little disruption due to this technology. But that may soon change with the emergence of business models driven by novel technologies such as block chain, smart contracts, crypto-currencies or crowd-sourced lending. Will the FANGs (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google) bite off a big piece of the financial services market, offering tailored solutions based on their intimate, big data based consumer knowledge? Regulations are changing in India, for example. Amazon plans to offer mutual funds directly to customers online – just one of many examples of potential disintermediation. Can Luxembourg become an international FinTech hub? At SnT, we believe Luxem- bourg has a unique opportunity to create an innovative environment for productive relations between FinTech entrepreneurs and established business. SnT and its partners are committed to taking a lead in FinTech research, development and innovation. FinTech is not only about dis- ruptive technologies; security and trust are key to any ICT solution. Also, as the complexity of the law increases, we will need ICT tools to provide scalable and affordable compliant solutions – an interdisciplinary matter where SnT holds the necessary technical and legal expertise. In 2015, SnT welcomed four new members to its partnership programme: CHOICE, Olamobile, pEp Security, and Rogler. All four are newly established in Luxembourg and bring R&D investment to the country. Three existing partnerships were also extended last year. Our recently created Tech Transfer Office had an amazing year with 7 proof-of-concept projects launched and a second SnT spin- off company established. Our turnover increased by 18% last year, and our staff grew to more than 250 people. Two new SnT research groups were created: SEDAN (Service and Data Mana- gement in Distributed Systems), headed by Dr. habil. Radu State, and Crypto- Lux, headed by Prof. Dr. Alex Biryukov. We had a remarkable ramp-up of projects in the highly competitive H2020 programme with 9 successful acquisitions in only 12 months. I am also proud to announce the first ERC Advanced Grant (2.3M euros over five years) awarded to Prof. Lionel Briand in Luxembourg, our FNR PEARL chair heading the SnT Software Verificati- on and Validation Lab. This demonstrates SnT’s ability to combine scientific excellence at the highest international levels with innovation and economic impact. Prof. Dr. Björn Ottersten Director 1
54 Table of contents When unbounded demand meets finite supply SnT researcher Dr. Shree Krishna Sharma is the winner of the Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis 2015 of the Fonds National de la Recherche. In his thesis, the researcher analyzed the inefficient usage of the radio frequencies used in wireless communication applications with the emphasis on Satellite Communi- cations (SatCom). »The demand for radio frequencies is unbounded due to continuously increasing demand for high speed telecommunication services and smart devices. Their supply, however, is definitely finite«, Sharma states. In his PhD thesis, he therefore presents several novel techniques to address the spectrum scarcity problem. Furthermore, he contrib- utes to the application of Cognitive Radio technology in SatCom systems. In this domain, he proposes innovative enabling techniques to allow the spectral coexistence of satellite-terrestrial systems and two satellite systems by exploiting the unique features of SatCom systems. Sharma’s project was carried out in collaboration with SES with Prof. Dr. Ottersten and Dr. Chatzinotas as advisors and with the financial support of FNR‘s AFR-PPP Grant. Editorial It‘s all in the mix Demonstrating the future of communication Computer coaching for stroke survivors Black Swan: safety at your wrist Supporting the spirit of innovation Efficient encryption and secure financial cryptography Safety in numbers – trusting the WiFi crowd Systematically learning from errors Smart analytics for smart grids Software-defined networks: hype vs. reality Privacy for genomic data Basic research for big data SnT partners Encryption made easy Crystal Security Towards dependable autonomous driving Access control for situational-aware systems Hand in hand into the future of printing Smart assistance for electric driving Events Organisation Financial data People Awards Projects Publications 3 6 8 10 12 14 15 16 17 18 21 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 35 36 38 40 42 44 46 47 53 4
76 It’s all in the mix Director‘s view Prof. Dr. Ottersten, what was the greatest success at SnT in 2015? Ottersten: On the whole, it was the fact that we expanded our collaborative research model, boosting both scientific output and technology transfer. This is manifested in excellent research publications, acquisition of competitive research funding, and intellectual property or IP protection and licensing for exploitation. In the very competitive EU research funding programme Horizon 2020, we ac- quired nine projects in the last 12 months with a total SnT funding of four million euros. That really is exceptionally good. Horizon 2020, like its predecessor programme, focuses on excellent research, but explicitly includes innovation as a fac- tor as well. How does that suit a university research institute like SnT? It suits SnT perfectly. Our strategy since day one has been to conduct excellent research with high relevance creating socio-economic impact. This requires that we continue to develop research outcomes towards their innovative application. It’s why we set up the Partnership Programme, where we are researching into fundamentally new concepts to tackle challenges confronting industry and the public sector in information and communication technology. Linking research and innovations is exactly what the EU Commission is now funding. Our strategic approach anticipated this, and now it’s paying off. Does that mean there will only be application-oriented research from now on? No, creating a balance between long- term research and demand-driven research is the key to success. Long-term scientific work is our investment in the future, application related projects ensure relevance, and the interaction between the two is where the magic lies. The two aspects mutually enrich each other and the transition from one to the other is smooth. So, SnT conducts basic research with the aim of contributing to the innovation process. How do you ensure the results obtained with public funding do in fact yield returns for public research? We have contracts with our partners defining the rules for using the research results. Plus, our technology transfer office, the TTO, is now up and running. We have 5 to 6 highly experienced people with diverse backgrounds working on business development, intellectual property, entrepreneurship, training, etc. The TTO has a clear view of where results of economic value are being produced, which need protection with patents or copyrights for example. They also have the contacts and specialised knowledge for licencing out IP or creating new ventures and ultimately generating revenue from them. But your question is actually far too de- fensive, I think. It is not about sealing ourselves off from the rest of the world. We see ourselves as an activator: we shape and prioritise SnT research with the goal of keeping Luxembourg competitive and innovative. Publishing and disseminating our scientific results is not sufficient per se – we want to bring results closer to exploitation. We continue developing them as part of the Proof-of-Concept Programme, in short PoC, which is princi- pally funded by the Fonds National de la Recherche. In the PoC projects, ideas are tested and validated, potential customers and investors are contacted, IP is protected; a business plan can be developed before being spun-off. Spin-offs tend to have a hard time finding funding especially in the start-up phase. Isn’t there a risk of an early end? The PoC stage aims at de-risking projects. But seed funding is a bottleneck. The problem is known – to SnT, politics and industry. We have combined our efforts to establish a seed fund with the activities of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. The fund just started last December, dedicated specifically to start-ups in the ICT sector. The idea is for Luxembourg to develop into a working ecosystem in this field – in which start-ups find favourable conditions, and proof-of-concept projects find their way into industrial use. 19.2 million euros are available for this in the fund. What role does the university play in all this? The university has an option to become a stakeholder in the fund during 2016. It will be involved in one way or another because, while the fund is focussed on the ICT sector, it is not focussed on SnT. It will consider deals from anywhere but is willing to establish in Luxembourg. The university should become a stakeholder in the fund so that the entrepreneurial spirit spreads further. How do the SnT employees perceive SnT’s stronger alignment towards innovation and towards cooperation with industry and the public sector? Many scientists have come to SnT because of this very alignment. Here, they find ideal conditions for collaborative research projects creating synergies between high-risk, long-term scientific work and demand-driven, application- oriented research. This mixture makes us successful. Prof. Dr. Björn Ottersten
98 SigCom Demonstrating the future of communication Since the end of 2015, SnT has housed a highly remarkable new laboratory, called CommLab. It is part of the SigCom research group headed by SnT director Prof. Dr. Björn Ottersten. »The lab allows us to implement several types of wireless communication techniques through software defined radio,« says Dr. Symeon Chatzinotas, who is responsible for supervising the wireless communication laboratory together with research associate Dr. Stefano Andrenacci. »To establish the CommLab, we used some equipment from previous laboratories, complemented by a large number of cut- ting-edge devices,« Chatzinotas says. Now the facility, developed as a consequence of intense research on signal processing techniques, provides the researchers with sophisticated possibilities. The usable infrastructure includes various software-defined radio platforms connected to a central hub. With these, the required sub-infrastructure for specific tests can be selected, monitored and controlled. The whole lab can be used for testing and validating both terrestrial and satellite communication systems. »Our goal is to demonstrate different end-to-end proofs of concept through this flexible wireless communication testbed,« Chatzinotas comments. The testbeds will be used to model, design and test digital signal processing algorithms currently being studied by the members of the SigCom group. The specifically configured lab with its broad range of technical equipment therefore enables the researchers to perform many experiments in a highly flexible manner. The main challenge Chatzinotas and Andrenacci are working to meet right now is to further improve the specific performance features of mobile communication tools such as cell phones and tablet computers. »People want these tools to grow better and better with every product generation, offering higher speed of wireless data transfer and higher video resolution,« Chatzinotas says. Typically, better communication performance is achieved by using a wider frequency bandwidth. »But instead, in our lab we employ multiple antennas combined with novel signal processing methods for transferring huge amounts of information.« The equipment in the lab is an ideal platform for impres- sively demonstrating the improvements achieved by multi-anten- na technologies. Another example of projects executed in the lab is spectrum sensing for cognitive radio technologies. Cognitive radios are intelligent radios capable of sensing the spectral environment and using information to provide wireless links dynamically and opportunistically to meet the user communication requirements. »Because of the high flexibility of the installation, we can also configure our equipment to be able to handle satellite data,« Andrenacci adds. At present the SigCom researchers are developing preco- ding techniques for satellite communication and emulating satellite communication systems. In the next step, however, they hope to gain access to real satellite data for ground-to-space communication. The founding of the CommLab has created valuable opportunities for SnT to attract the interest of stakeholders and to become involved in international EU research projects. »Additionally,« Symeon Chatzinotas emphasises, »we intend in the medium- and long-term to license the innovative communication technologies developed in our group and maybe to found start-up companies for developing subsystems of innovative wireless communication products.« SigCom – MIMO Radar project Contact: Dr. Bhavani Shankar Typical automotive applications like parking assistance employ ultrasound sensors drilled into the bumpers with an optional camera; ultrasound sensing, while being eco- nomical, has its own drawbacks in terms of resolution and aesthetics. Radar technology, possesses better resolving capabilities than ultrasound, while causing no harm to the aesthetics. The envisaged research activity builds on the IEE initiatives and deals with the application of Coherent Radar Array processing to the automotive industry. FLASHLIGHT 9 Dr. Symeon Chatzinotas and Dr. Stefano Andrenacci
1110 Computer coaching for stroke survivors SigCom It takes a lot of effort to recover one’s quality of life after a stroke and to adapt one’s lifestyle to the new situation. Patients may have to relearn simple sequences of movements, such as getting up out of a chair or reaching for a teacup. In hospital, physiotherapists give exact instructions, coach patients and correct them when they don’t do the exercises correctly. But once they complete the first rehab phase and can return home, patients only see their therapists for a fraction of the time and hence the intensity and quality of training can drop. In cooperation with medical professionals and engineers, computer scientists at SnT are looking to find a solution to this situation. In the scope of the EU funding line Horizon 2020, SnT is participating in the research project STARR – which stands for Decision SupporT and self-mAnagement system for stRoke survivoRs. The aim of the researchers from Luxembourg, Spain, France, UK, Germany, Serbia and Sweden is an automated system that supports a change in the patients’ lifestyle and thereby minimises their risk factors for secondary stroke. STARR will support stroke survivors by informing them about their level and type of activity so that they can improve self-management of their lifestyle. For that reason the researchers in STARR will investigate the extent to which everyday movements and pres- cribed exercise routines can be automatically monitored – feedback will be given to the users about the extent and quality of their activity. The principal investigator for the part of the project at SnT is Dr. Djamila Aouada, who also heads the Compu- ter Vision laboratory in the SIGCOM research group: »In recent years, we have developed algorithms that enable 3D cameras to generate very good 3D videos out of data of lower quality, and are therefore cost-effective. We can make use of this experience in STARR, since the cameras which are required also have to be robust and affordable to be employable in the patient’s environment.« The actual challenge, however, is how the data will be processed down the line, Aouada says. »We have to develop a method that measures the movements of the patients. Only that way will it be possible to make an automated evaluation of the quality of movements. The third step is then to give recommendations or instructions, which the patient receives from the system in order to be able to make better decisions about their activities.« In the scope of the Horizon 2020 funding, the scientists now have three years and a half to meet this challenge. »We will be cooperating very closely with researchers from many other disciplines at the partner institutions,« says Djamila Aouada, »because we naturally have to consider not only questions of mathematical modelling and programming, but also of medical therapy, users’ acceptance, data security, privacy, and technical implementation. I find this interdisciplinarity of the project especially exciting.« The flying lab SnT has broad experience in research in the field of autonomous vehicles. What comes to mind first are cars – like those of Google – or drones used by military forces. But there are fields of application that go far beyond this, such as autonomous inspection of heritage buildings or the surveillance of African nature reserves to fight against poachers. Dr. Miguel Olivares Mendez and PhD student Arun Annaiyan are working to improve the capabilities of UAVs – Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. They are part of the Automation & Robotics Research Group headed by Prof. Dr. Holger Voos, and are cooperating with partners such as the Army of Luxembourg for civil uses of UAVs. The main challenge is to select the right combination of onboard sensors and algorithms to get precise positioning in real-time of the close environment of the UAVs to be able to detect and avoid any potential collision autonomously. At their spacious flight arena installed in a lab on Campus Kirchberg, the researchers test various models of UAVs and attach additional hardware to find solutions for these challenges. A net hangs between the control room and the flight arena to keep everyone safe from harm. Because sometimes even such sophisticated devices develop a will of their own... Dr. Djamila Aouada 11
1312 Black Swan: Safety at your wrist NetLab To stay healthy, the in-office doctor visit can provide a lot of information useful for keeping an eye on our health, but infrequent visits only provide a snapshots of the whole picture. For those with greater health risks, sparse visits may not be enough, and a consistent monitoring regimen can greatly help a patient and their family. Project Black Swan seeks to use existing technologies to create a better network of safety and well-being monitoring for individual patients, referred to as Ambient Assisted Living. Through the development of apps, the project seeks to improve care for those with health risks, like people with Alzheimer’s, dementia, or other conditions. »By using devices like smart phones, smart watches and wearable devices, Project Black Swan is able to help a patient maintain a continuous record of sensor data that provides information to family and caregivers,« says Dr. Alexandru Tantar, Vice President R&D of the Black Swan company. »As time goes on, the data collected from the patient create a profile unique to their circumstances that can be used to alert professional care givers and family of abnormalities or emergencies.« Currently, there are many devices on the market capable of monitoring body attri- butes, such as heart rate, movement, location, and distance. Combined with commonly used GPS systems, the Black Swan project is able to track a patient’s location if they become lost or disoriented. In an emergency, a series of protocols is initiated and the device contacts a list of pre-registered care givers or family members – known as the circle of trust. The circle consists of three types of contacts. The first is to notify the patient of an abnormality. For instance, if the device measures an increased heartrate that’s abnormal, the device can alert the wearer of potential danger. »At this point, the device checks in with the patient to see if everything is fine, letting them know something is out of the ordinary,« says Tantar. »The patient can then choose to dismiss the alert if it’s a non-emergency or toggle the device to seek help.« The second contact is a designated family member, friend, or carer who will be notified of the situation. For example, if a patient is disoriented or deviates from their usual patterns, a family member can be notified to assist. And in an emergency, a doctor or ambulance can be notified of the situation with real time information relayed to the medical personnel ahead of the patient’s arrival. The Black Swan project is designed to be customisable with the ability to tailor itself to a person’s unique situation, and is based on parameters from care professionals and doctors. The system is also designed to take the patient’s comfort into consi- deration, allowing the level of monitoring to be adjusted according to the patient’s requirements. »This system can easily be scaled to accommodate people with other needs, like employees who work in high risk areas or in isolated conditions,« says Tantar. »We are excited to continuously refine the product to improve usability while addressing the needs of the wearer.« The Black Swan team is currently testing the device in pilot studies with patients at nursing homes and assisted living facilities. The project was born out of collaborations inside SnT, led by Prof. Dr. Thomas Engel and the SECAN lab team and launched as a spinoff in October 2015. The close colla- NetLab – Analysing real world systems Contact: Prof. Dr. Thomas Engel Researchers from the NetLab group headed by Prof. Dr. Thomas Engel continue their efforts to make industry control systems more secure and resilient against a wide range of network attacks. Together with the Luxembourg utility company Creos, they search for weaknesses within contemporary SCADA deployments using emulation – a method of analysing real-world systems with a high level of detail. To this end, the SCADA team researches methods of making control systems safe and robust against network attacks. FLASHLIGHT boration with SnT represents a nurturing ground for innovation especially on connec- tivity related aspects emerging from IoT. »Both FNR and SnT’s Technology Transfer Office have played an important role in the process of spinning off the Black Swan project,« says Tantar. »As a young SnT spin-off company we are proud to be affiliated with both organisations and look forward to continuing our fruitful collaboration.« 13 Dr. Hannes de Wachter, Dr. Emilia Tantar, Dr. Alexandru Tantar
1514 Supporting the spirit of innovation Technology Transfer Office Efficient encryption and secure financial cryptography CryptoLux »Research that leads to technological innovations is a cornerstone of SnT,« says Dr. Cécile Petit. Petit has worked as project coordinator at SnT since 2011. She knows how researchers tick and which partners from industry and the public sector they are successfully cooperating with. This background knowledge makes Cécile Petit the ideal employee for SnT’s Technology Transfer Office (TTO). Petit has been a member since its founding. And she is the »go-to person« for everyone. The initiative to establish the TTO started in 2014 with a benchmark study funded by the Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR). The study concluded that the University of Leuven (KU Leuven) can serve as a best-practice example for Luxembourg. It has had a tech transfer office for more than 40 years: the very successful KU Leuven Research & Develop (LRD). »Many university administrations believe that technology transfer is about patents and creating spin-offs,« says SnT Director Prof. Dr. Björn Ottersten, who is heading the TTO until a permanent head can be appointed: »But an essential and more important component is collaborative research with businesses and industry. Without demand driven research projects conducted in cooperation with industrial partners, the tech transfer is much less efficient.« The Tech Transfer Office is accordingly based on the SnT Partnership Programme, since cooperative partnerships with industry and the public sector are familiar to just about every SnT scientist. These are ideal conditions for the TTO’s activities, as Cécile Petit agrees: »We are now helping the researchers to formulate their business cases, supporting them in negotiating with financers or cooperation partners, and offering advice on how to obtain public funding.« Patenting issues are especially important in this regard, and are the domain of Sigmar Lampe. As a patent lawyer and tech transfer officer he is responsible for managing intellectual property for the entire university. He advises scientists on applying for patents and negotiating licences. A key instrument for the TTO is the proof-of-concept project (PoC). The PoCs are financially supported by the FNR and internal university resources. They are not driven by research objectives but are launched when we see a commercial exploitation potential, either by licensing IP to an existing business or launching an SnT spin-off. Based on research outcomes, the PoC is a great opportunity to develop a prototype, protect IP, discuss with potential customers or investors and work on a business plan. Researchers can also participate in training sessions on every aspect of entrepreneurship. All these activities show great success, as Cécile Petit states: »Two SnT PoCs have already resulted in spin-off companies so far. We are very proud of this!« Prof. Dr. Alex Biryukov Science Technology Transfer Innovation Commercialisation Encryption remains one of the best ways to protect data in the information age. In many encryption methods, called ciphers, a message undergoes a sequence of transformations involving a secret key. The longer the sequence, the more secure the message – but it comes at a cost. A recipient at the end of the process decrypts the message by running the reversed transformations with the same key. But the additional security requires more processing power and ultimately more time on both sides. Prof. Dr. Alex Biryukov and his team are prominent cryptographers who are working on several projects to improve the efficiency of encryption techniques and better secure financial cryptography. Alex Biryukov, a Professor at the Univer- sity´s Faculty of Science, Technology and Communication, recently established his SnT research group CryptoLux. »Encryption can consume serious amounts of processing power to complete its task,« says Biryukov. »We’re looking at ways to lighten the load, because a system that spends less on encryption has more resources available to handle other tasks.« The corresponding industry term is »Light- weight Encryption«, and the CryptoLux team is designing faster and more com- pact ciphers which would fit into cheap Internet-of-Things devices such as smart lights and doorkeys. Biryukov and his team are also investiga- ting financial cryptography, in particular decentralised payment systems where transactions do not involve a central authority. Of the numerous currencies launched, the most widely used is Bitcoin which debuted in early 2009. Bitcoin is notable for keeping currency holders anonymous while providing a peer to peer system to validate transactions. The CryptoLux group is currently looking to improve the security of not only Bitcoin, but other solutions as well, where the security and regulatory requirements for these widely used payment instruments may be vulnerable. A successful online form of currency would be both secure and scalable, according to Biryukov. For it to endure the rigours of the online world, it must meet three standard security requirements: confidentiality of private data, integrity of transactions, and availability of the system under high loads and attacks. »Given that these currencies exist only digitally, they are prime targets for hackers,« says Biryukov. By understanding the vulnerabilities faced by these online currencies, CryptoLux researchers learn how the systems can address security concerns and instill more trust into the system. »Equipped with these criteria, we are putting online currencies to the test by measuring their level of security through deep analysis and simulated security threats,« says Biryukov. Dr. Cécile Petit
1716 Safety in numbers – trusting the WiFi crowd NetLab Systematically learning from errors SerVal No software is bug-free. Just consider that almost all modern technical devices contain a computer chip controlled by some form of software. Be it in a smartphone, a television or the much-touted refrigerator with Internet connection – our little pro- grammable helpers are everywhere. While a system crash in a refrigerator or television will likely present no more than a spot of bother, there are applications in which a single programming error can very quickly put people in danger or have serious economic repercussions – for example, in nuclear power plants, medical settings or financial transactions. Reliable testing and rapid troubleshooting is extremely important in these areas. »Practically we have already seen, at one time or another, all bugs that are disco- vered nowadays.«, reflects Dr. Tegawendé Bissyandé of the Security Design and Validation Research Group (SerVal) at SnT. »The question is how to turn this knowledge into a systematic procedure that finds and fixes bugs.«, adds his colleague, Dr. Mike Papadakis. Papadakis aims to use this information to identify new bugs, while Bissyandé’s goal is to use it in debugging projects. This is the objective of the RECOMMEND project, which is funded within FNR’s CORE scheme. »Our RECOMMEND project will serve to provide programmers with the right bug fixes for their bug reports largely automatically from reports in the past,« Tegawendé explains. Say, for example, a device driver for a USB webcam appears faulty; the sug- gested bug fixes might instead trace the real problem back to a fundamental fault in the USB driver of the operating system, which was written by another programmer entirely. The complex interplay of bugs in multiple, different software components is a very typical situation in major projects, such as the Linux operating system, and only allows for very slow and painstaking bug fixes using manual methods. Dr. Kim Dongsun is following another approach in the FIXPATTERN project, also funded by CORE. The aim of this project is to find automatic fixes for bugs that have been checked by automated methods. »We also want our system to benefit from human-written patches,« he explains. In this approach, established methods for automatic bug fixing in machine-checkable test situations will reduce trial and error by accessing a pattern database of similar earlier situations to generate high-quality, bug-fixed code. When it comes to public WiFi, familiar access points are not always what they seem. An afternoon latte while web surfing at a favorite café can turn a relax- ing day into a session of data theft. The computer isn’t to blame. After all, it did its job and automatically connected to the familiar WiFi hotspot as in the past. But this time something was different, this time it was a trap. And the hacker responsible now has access to the user’s data. The trap is called a »rogue access point« and it’s a commonly used trick by data thieves to gain access to computers and cell phones. By mimicking a common WiFi access point, thieves can fool phones and computers into connecting because the devices cannot differentiate legitimate from threatening connections; they only look for a few simple parameters and connect when they find a match. The average user isn’t helpless in this fight. The NetLab group, led by Prof. Dr. Thomas Engel, Dr. Raimondas Sasnauskas, along with Dr. Andriy Panchenko and Marc Verschaeren from SnT´s industry partner Red Dog communications, are working on a project called »HotspotID«. Currently, they are waging a two-fold campaign to reduce the likelihood of these traps being successful. The first task is to raise awareness about public WiFi risks. The second is to help users validate whether an access point is trustworthy using an app designed by NetLab called HotspotID. »The premise is simple. The app checks if the user is connected to a rogue access point or not by comparing the fingerprint of the current WiFi connection to a data base of fingerprints,« says Sasnauskas. »By just using the app each user contri- butes fingerprints to the system, making the system more reliable.« The app offers another level of security, allowing a WiFi provider (like a café) to preload their access point parameters on to the HotspotID database. By preregist- ering information like IP address, name and location, it can be cross-checked with the app, verifying that the connection is valid. HotspotID is the first security solution to provide users with a real-time WiFi reputation evaluation based on crowd- sourced and certified fingerprints. The goal is to build a robust database which can single out suspicious access points that show up out of place. »The app lets people know when they are connected to a less trusted source,« says Sasnauskas. If everything checks out, the app confirms without interrupting the user. If not, the app can alert the user or take action like shutting down the device’s WiFi. In doing so, the HotspotID team hopes to raise awareness of the WiFi threats out there by pointing out some of the easy ways hackers can take advantage of security holes in the system. »People often have a long list of WiFi access points saved to their phones which are set to connect automatically,« said Sasnauskas. »By inserting a safety check between this automated process, we empower people to make more conscious decisions about where they connect, enabling them to protect themselves and their data in the future.« Dr. Raimondas Sasnauskas Dr. Kim Dongsun, Dr. Tegawende Bissyande, Dr. Michail Papadakis
1918 Smart analytics for smart grids SerVal Big data volumes are being generated just about everywhere these days. Smart- phones record the places we visit, the steps we take, the time we sleep and the websites we surf. Smart heating controllers know the temperature of every single room. And smart power grids know at any time how much energy a consumer is drawing and how much power a wind or solar plant is currently delivering. As things stand, we have hardly scratched the surface of what we could do with all this data. Power grids don’t yet know exactly when a washing machine will start or when a cold store will draw more energy. And we are still a long way from reciprocal control, where the grid decides for itself when a cold store should take a rest or when an electric vehicle may charge its batteries. Dr. François Fouquet, Dr. Gregory Nain, Thomas Hartmann and Dr. Assaad Moawad of the Security Design and Validation Research Group (SerVal) are working to find out how these kinds of data from so many complex networks can be put to good use. »You can categorise data analytics into three different decision levels. Merely looking for patterns and signals in large data volumes is descriptive analytics,« Fouquet explains. Predictive analytics goes a step further and can derive future values from the data. Fouquet continues, »A grid operator could ask the system: What would be the load on a specific cable in two hours time if no reconfiguration of the grid is undertaken?« The researchers, however, want to push their research all the way to the third level: to prescriptive analytics. Nain explains the example of a smart grid: »When a grid operator has to take action to stem an overload, the system can find out the best option like adding a second parallel cable between nodes or limiting or shutting down some energy producers.« Such a system could serve as a decision aid in complex business processes. Smart technology providers are obviously keenly interested in this business sector. Fouquet and Nain were well aware of that in 2015, and successfully applied to the national research fund FNR for support in evaluating the opportunities to create a spin-off. Their activities are now being funded and tested for economic viability in the »Proof-Of-Concept« (POC) program. »Since 2014, we have been working on a framework for a novel database structure that will especially facilitate the analysis of large data volumes with independent physical measurement values.« Their Kevoree Modeling Framework is open source software that was developed during 2015 to the point where it could be used in a commercial application. The business model of their spin-off aims at modelling concrete application cases with the framework and then selling and refining these models as ready-to-use software. The main partner for its first embodiment is Luxembourg’s largest energy supplier CREOS, which hopes the cooperation will lead to more accurate analytics and better control of the smart grids of the future. The SnT software models do not control any power grids just yet. However, by analysing the grid’s consumption and power data from the past, the grid operator can draw important conclusions on how to modernise the infrastructure. The system should then be up and running within the next two years. Combined with switch- able consumers, it will then be able to make decisions in real time. SerVal – Static Analysis to detect privacy leaks in Android Apps Contact: Dr. Jacques Klein Supported by a Google Grant, SerVal researchers contributed by developing scalable tools to detect private data leaks in Android Apps. A leak is present in an app when sensitive information, e.g. your credit card number, leaves the app, e.g. in a text message or email. These open-source tools (Dexpler, FlowDroid, Epicc etc.) analyse an app without running it. This process is what we call »static analysis«. Such tools are now in use worldwide. FLASHLIGHT Smart grids, especially, are the next big thing worldwide. Major technology providers still have no off-the-shelf solutions for the complex measurement and control circuits of power grids. Even big players such as IBM can only offer predictive software, but not derive substantiated decision aids from the data. This is exactly where the SnT researchers come in: »Our advantage is that we are already specialised in combining technical measurements with mathematical methods.« 19 Dr. Gregory Nain and Dr. François Fouquet
2120 has since been cited more than two hundred times – an excellent impact. Kreutz investigated the various commercially available SDN solutions: »We made an in-depth analysis of the existing hardware, software interfaces, programming languages used and network applications. As far as we know, this is the most comprehensive study of this kind to date.« For their analyses, Kreutz and co-authors introduced various abstraction layers into the SDN architecture to serve as classification criteria for the various component classes. The resulting catalogue is kept in open, editable form within a database popularly used in IT: «We invite the SDN community to use our work as the basis for a living document,« says Diego Kreutz. In this way, the CritiX researchers want to help ensure that this network infrastructure, which is becoming increasingly important for cloud solutions for example, remains operationally stable and secure against attacks in the future. Software-defined networks: hype vs. reality CritiX FinTech gets people going More than 500 participants followed SnT’s invitation to join the conference on the hot topic of FinTech at the Chambre de Commerce on Luxembourg’s Kirchberg – and even more people wanted to come. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy Etienne Schneider inaugurated the conference and was overwhelmed by the huge interest. Prof. Dr. Björn Ottersten and Karl A. Johannesson of SnT gave welcoming speeches. These were followed by talks by 40 speakers covering the diverse programme of the exciting Tuesday of January 19. Keynotes by Dr. Garrick Hileman (London School of Economics), Philippe Gelis (Kantox) and Mali Fernando Marafini (Interruptive) covered their perspectives on the future of FinTech, and topics such as blockchain technology and Bitcoin were discussed intensively during the breaks. Leading figures from Luxembourg’s research and ICT scene, such as Marc Schiltz (FNR) and Gérard Hoffmann (Telindus), also gave talks and guided the discussions with their expertise. SnT contributed with 20 speakers to the outcome of this event. 20 It is still the norm for a household to have only one WLAN router. However, most companies have several networks interconnecting their delegations, connected through many wireless and wireline switches and access points to the Inter- net – whose heart is in turn composed of an intricate mesh of so-called core routers. Securely managing these nodes can become very complicated: System administrators have to install regular updates, add and remove devices, and monitor data packets for any conspicuous security-related anomalies. The structure of these networks has undergone a change in recent years. »In software-defined networks (SDN), the actual data forwarding and control structures are made separate,« explains Professor Paulo Veríssimo, Head of the Critical and Extreme Security and Dependability Research Group (CritiX) at SnT. »The nodes are thus becoming simpler, or »dumber«, while the control logic is being outsourced to specialised servers.« Veríssimo had already shown in 2013 that, while this structure offers the advantage of easier administration, it could also serve as a gateway for a series of new attacks on network security. In light of this work, in the spring of 2015, his PhD student Diego Kreutz published a paper surveying the problematic of SDN in the journal »Proceedings of the IEEE«, which Prof. Dr. Paulo Veríssimo
2322 Privacy for genomic data CritiX It was four years before the first complete sequencing of a human genome when, in 1997, the film Gattaca addressed the social consequences of a full genetic analysis of the entire population. The people in this society are classed according to their genetic ancestry and susceptibility to disease, and the life they get to lead depends on their genetic predisposition, of which the authorities have a complete record. Today, the human genome is being deciphered routinely using modern sequencing methods. »Due to ground-breaking technical advancements, the capacity of sequencing at fixed price has increased from 2007 on, at a much faster pace than the analogous predictions by Moore’s and Kryder’s laws of IT, which respectively state that computing power and storage capacity double about every two years,« explains Professor Paulo Veríssimo, Head of the Critical and Extreme Security and Dependability Research Group (CritiX) at SnT. This progress is reflected in the precipitous drop in the cost of sequencing human genomes: while the first deciphe- ring in 2001 cost about 100 million US dollars, as of the end of 2015, a human genome can already be sequenced for just under a thousand dollars. Consequently, increasing amounts of genomic information are being deciphered, generating volumes of data that require enormous database infrastructures and processing capacities, especially for comparative scientific analyses. »Genome researchers work at times with several petabytes of data – that is thousands of terabytes!« Veríssimo stresses. These mega datasets are sometimes kept in cloud storage so that researchers can access them from multiple locations and institutions. In other words, the individual researchers no longer have sovereignty over the physical data, nor indeed do those whose genome is being studied. This poses considerable risks in terms of privacy. Genomes could reveal indicators of disease risk or even genetic abnormalities. »The risk is not limited to the individual whose gene sequence becomes public. Given their genetic similarities, it would also affect relatives and descen- dants – including those who haven’t even been born yet,« Veríssimo warns. One approach of CritiX to minimise the risk of unwanted disclosure of genomic data is to identify especially privacy-sensitive parts of the genomic sequence and to label them, preferably immediately during sequencing. Such parts could hold information about specific genetic dispositions or reveal kinship or even the identity of the individual subject. These parts are then either removed from the researchers’ data collections or protected by strong encryption. »We suggest upgrading genome sequencing with a mechanism we call the DNA Privacy Detector,« says Vinicius Cogo, PhD student at the University of Lisbon and co-author of Veríssimo. In their collaborative work, they have developed detection methods for labelling those genomic data that could be susceptible to several modes of attack. The main technical problem in this case is the sheer volume of data. There are more than one thousand million entries in the database of privacy-sensitive DNA sequences. This amounts to 35 gigabytes of data against which all genomic sequences have to be compared. Parts that match the criteria are then la- belled as particularly sensitive for further processing. The good news is – the new method is substantially faster than the genome CritiX – Safe and secure autonomy and cooperation of smart vehicles Contact: Dr. Francisco Rocha, António Lima Autonomous and cooperating vehicles are a hot topic today, although the future vision of multiple cars on open streets, not to speak of free-flight planes, still remains a grand research challenge. First, the increasing complexity of control components introduces degrees of freedom that potentially degrade safety. Second, the foreseeable increase of vehicle-to-vehicle or to-infrastructure wireless networking amplifies that threat surface further by placing internal vulnerabilities within the reach of external attackers. CritiX is researching new architectures and automatic mechanisms liable to bring these security and safety risks down to an acceptable level. FLASHLIGHT sequencing itself. »Our privacy protection scheme does not present a bottleneck for present-generation sequencers, and can still accommodate significant speed increase« says Cogo. The researchers believe this or similar methods should be routinely integrated into the sequencing process as soon as possible. »If too little is done too late, a severe leak may reverse the public opinion trend to make DNA sequences public or shareable, and hurt genomic studies,« Veríssimo cautions. Prof. Dr. Paulo Veríssimo 23
2524 SEDAN – Who locked my harddrive? Contact: Beltran Fiz Pontiveros Ransomware, which encrypts files and personal data and then demands money in order to unlock them, has been known for a while. With the emergence of virtual currrencies like Bitcoin, criminals are beginning to gain the upper hand. SEDAN in collaboration with Telindus is addressing this topic by developing tools which correlate known BitCoin addresses participating in scams with advanced analytics on the blockchain and open source intelligence in order to proactively detect these threats. FLASHLIGHT 25 Basic research for big data SEDAN Scientifically, Radu State lives from large volumes of data and security for IT networks: »We are experiencing an explosive increase in data that are being exchan- ged in the Internet and can be used for controlling more complex systems,« says the computer scientist. »It is becoming increasingly important to analyse these masses of data so that we can manage them effectively.« Dr. habil. Radu State has been tackling questions relating to this since December 2015 with his own SnT research group called SEDAN, which stands for Service and Data Management in Distributed Systems. The name of the group suggests a strong application-orientation of Radu State’s research: »Indeed, we already have cooperative partnerships with a number of technology-oriented companies, which I supervised while I was with the research group NetLab,« State confirms the impres- sion. Nevertheless, he feels it important to stress the basic research aspect: »I can combine the two together here at SnT – basic research and application orientation. This is important because many specific technological problems can’t be solved without insights from basic research. And, vice versa, it is very frustrating if one conducts research for research’s sake without it leading to any benefit.« So, what is a tangible benefit, Mr. State? »One partner of the research group SEDAN is the Brazilian company CHOICE, with research and development in Luxembourg and business activities in Brazil, Columbia and Turkey,« State names an example. »CHOICE is specialised in computer-based systems that can detect non-technical power losses – through theft, for example. Newly industrialised countries like Brazil and other countries in Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia are undergoing extremely rapid expansion of their infrastructure, and their power grids along with it. In this situation, electric energy suppliers are confronted with a problem that is almost unheard of in Western Europe – losses in power grids as a result of power theft. CHOICE is specialised in this field. The company’s technology is based on algorithms for machine learning, which we want to improve together.« CHOICE continuously analyses the data from supply companies in order to detect patterns and to predict any theft or other deviations. If such anomalies are detected, then controllers onsite investigate their cause and find out whether anyone is illegally stealing electricity or if there are technical reasons. Such onsite investigations are difficult and expensive. »Indications of potential consumption anomalies must therefore be firmly substantiated, factoring in as many measurable parameters as possible,« State explains. »This is where we come in, because we have great experience in analysing large volumes of data: CHOICE has to make very reliable decisions very quickly based on such masses of data. This demands new, powerful computer programs, the algorithms for which we are working on in SEDAN.« It is not as simple as merely measuring power consumption: »Rather, you only gain evidence of anomalies when you also take into account the power throughput in neighbouring grids, climatic data such as temperature or precipitation, or economic development – such as the performance of factories,« Radu State says. »So we need to develop algorithms that can process data from numerous sources and even overlapping data. We can explore and learn a lot of fundamental things about computing operations in Big Data from this example.« Other partners with whom State is conducting basic research for application-oriented topics are, for example, telecom operator Telindus, Olamobile and Nexus, an IT security firm. »Data analysis and data security play a central role in these strategic partnerships,« State asserts. »The related problems bring us forward scientifically and have a tangible benefit.« And what makes managing one’s own workgroup so exciting, Mr. State? »It’s the mixture of responsibility and autonomy that fascinates me. I can choose the subject matter I want to work on next myself, where most projects are exciting and challenging. But I can also ensure my employees, the PhD students and post- docs are given good working conditions and enjoy success in their projects. My aim is for the PhD students now working with me to get good degrees and to have good future prospects, and for us to gain new, committed research associates for the group. Then we will also publish good papers and gain new partners from industry with exciting problems for us to solve.« Dr. habil. Radu State
2726 SnT partners CHOICE, Olamobile, pEp Security, Rogler SnT is a leading international research institute with a strong focus on modern-day information and communication technology (ICT). Together with its partners, the Centre is helping establish Luxembourg as a European centre of excellence and innovation in the field of secure, reliable and trustworthy ICT systems and services. Following a collaborative research model, SnT conducts long-term strategic projects with partners from industry, the private sector and ICT start-ups. A key role in this process is played by SnT’s Partnership Program. In 2015, four new partners committed themselves to the programme: Choice, Olamobile, pEp Security and Rogler Software GmbH. CHOICE Calls for energy and water conservation are growing strongly; electric, gas and water utilities are seeking ways to protect their revenue and reduce waste without large capital investments. CHOICE provides worldwide innovative solutions for energy utilities in order to avoid loss, for example from theft of electri- cal energy. CHOICE experts in loss recovery and computational intelligence review available data sources and non-technical loss investigation rules and procedures. Through this shared learning approach, CHOICE is able to develop utility-specific recommendations employing highly flexible data analytics solutions. The partnership between SnT and CHOICE focuses on Anomaly Detection and Machine Learning with Big Data Systems. Olamobile Olamobile is a performance marketing company which focuses on CPI (Cost per Install) mobile campaigns, delivering quality users to app developers who are keen to promote and acquire users for their products, such as applications or games. Olamobile combines new methods with advanced data mining and statistical modelling technologies to provide users with the most relevant apps. Olamobile’s platform allows publishers to distribute apps that will generate more revenue for the publisher, guaranteeing higher profitability and achieving a much larger sales volume and user engagement. The partnership between SnT and Olamobile focuses on Self-learning Predictive Algorithms that match In-App data for effective Mobile Gaming Monetisation. pEp Security pEp Security is a Luxembourg-based small company providing end-to-end encryption peer-to-peer without central infrastructure. pEp Security’s objective is to revolutionise the security industry by making privacy and security available to everyone. The partnership between SnT and pEp Security focuses on Protocols of Privacy Se- curity Analysis. The goal of the project is to employ, customise, and extend automatic tools (e.g. security model checkers like FDR 3, Proverif and Tamarin) and methodologies (e.g. proofs of security) for the design and analysis of security of protocols and mechanisms. Rogler ROGLER Software GmbH – active in this market since 1992, with 20 employees and customers in 9 European countries – offers the ROGLER Software Suite: one of the leading Management Infor- mation Systems (MIS) and Product Planning Systems (PPS) for all areas of the printing industry. It is based on the entire company workflow from CRM, cost accounting and internal paper tracing to material logistics, goods inspection and quality control. The central monitor is technoPLAN, an electronic planning board suitable for visualising all processes in operation. Together with SnT, Rogler is focusing on »industry 4.0 concepts« for its professional software to support process automation in the printing industry more efficiently in the future.
2928 Encryption made easy APSIA is collaborating with Senior Researcher Dr. Gabriele Lenzini and other members of the Applied Security and Information Assurance (APSIA), led by Prof. Dr. Peter Y. A. Ryan. They aim to streamline the encryption process, making it more accessible to everyone while still remaining secure against most common attacks. Protecting data, preserving its integrity »Encryption technology doesn’t have to be just for the tech-savy,« says Lenzini. »The pEp engineers are doing a great job designing a system to automatically encrypt and decrypt information, offering people the ability to protect their information seamlessly with peace of mind.« The key challenge in designing the system is ensuring the protection and integrity of data throughout the decryption process. A streamlined system like this also requires safeguards to protect against tampering, so the user is able to know if their security has been compromised. »The pEp mission is to provide this privacy by design,« says Lenzini. »From this aspect, pEp’s engineers intend to design the encryption code so it will run on different platforms like Windows, iOS, and Android and do it in such a way to preserve the security at the design level.« The team is currently working on methodologies to create protocols proven to be secure against a myriad of challenges. The generic term »secure« refers to several desirable properties like: confidentiality, au- thentication, and ultimately, privacy. Their research mission is twofold: the first task is to provide insurance at the design level, verifying that the structure is free from security flaws, and the second is to confirm that the code generation process does not introduce undesirable or unexpected flaws. With the lessened user intervention in encryption and the automation of its key management, pEp protects the user’s data making sure the process is well-secured with encryption but also tamper proof. »Given the security threats we face today, it’s time to start sending our ‘postcards’ inside envelopes again, and taking an active approach to protecting our data,« says Lenzini. Protecting digital data and sending secure messages can be a complicated process. Current methods often involve a series of steps in order to digitally encrypt information and then another series of steps to later decrypt it. Without the encryption process, though, it’s like writing messages on a postcard and doing nothing to protect the content; anyone can read it. The situation has not improved much since the days of postcards, even in the digital world. Most of us still write e-mails and send them openly over the Web, often unaware that strangers with a bit of skills – and there are many – can read them with little effort. The engineers at PrettyEasyPrivacy (pEp), a start-up created in Luxembourg in 2014, think it’s time to do better and to empower the average user. But because encrypting is still a complicated process, the pEp team pEp CEO Leon Schumacher, Dr. Gabriele Lenzini and pEp project director Volker Birk ETFA 2015: Successful debut in Luxembourg From cyber-physical production systems to intelligent robots and optimised manufacturing systems, from industrial communication to resilient high performance clouds in industry – the scope of the 20th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation (ETFA) was enormously broad. Organised by a team of SnT researchers with Prof. Dr. Holger Voos as general co-chair of the conference it was the first time the ETFA has been hosted in Luxembourg. In September 2015, the conference offered a high quality technical programme to more than 320 practitioners and researchers from all over the world. There were keynote and plenary sessions as well as a panel discussion on the »Prospects for the Growth of Hi-tech Startup Industry Sector in Europe«. Established in 1992, the conference has emerged as one of the most important platforms for reporting on recent advances and developments in the areas of technology, as well as actual and potential applications in industrial and factory automation. 29
3130 Crystal Security APSIA Being able to prove authenticity is as crucial today as in the past. From commerce to industry to information, the ability to validate and prove a shipment is legitimate is key to building trust. In the digital world, e-signatures and encryption methods offer some reliable answers to matters of online transactions. But what about the real world? Solutions that work well for digital assets may not be enough for physical goods. For a high value delivery, more is needed. Historically, low tech methods like signet rings and wax seals did the job for centuries. More recently, technologies like the barcode allow for packages to be tracked, cross-referenced, and confirmed upon delivery. Prof. Dr. Jan Lagerwall and Dr. Gabriele Lenzini have gathered a team to work on a new technology called Crystal Security, a new physical means to help validate transactions between trusted partners. Lagerwall, a professor of physics at the Physics and Material Research Unit of the University of Luxembourg, and Lenzini, a senior research scientist at SnT, are using microspheres of cholesteric liquid crystals to create a more secure »barcode«. »Through our partnership with Prof. Dr. Lagerwall’s team, we are utilising the unique properties of crystals manufactu- red in the laboratory,« says Lenzini. »The crystals are very much like snowflakes, no two are alike and it’s that diversity that makes them viable for commercial use.« When exposed to white light, the crystals reflect light in brilliant patterns unique to each single sphere arrange- ment. This produces the foundation of a physical watermark, which can be combined with other unique crystals for an increasingly complex light signature. Further, batches of crystals can be layered onto thin films and applied to a surface, creating an ID patch for an object. A trusted seller can then take an image of the micro crystal patch and securely relay that »confirmation image« to the customer who will verify when they receive the shipment using a detector like a spectrometer. »A traditional barcode can be tamp- ered with and even reproduced,« says Lagerwall. »But because of the immense diversity of the crystals, they cannot be replicated and any attempt to tamper with them would result in telltale damage.« The key to the crystals’ diversity happens in the manufacturing process, where post- doc and Ph.D. candidate team members are able to adjust different factors like diameter, polarisation, build materials and different techniques to produce layers of unique batches. The spheres are tiny, measuring only 100 micrometers in diameter (the width of a human hair), which means that a lot of them can be packed onto a small area, creating a scannable ID patch that’s discreet. These ID patches are well suited for further development and usage because they work using regular white light, as compared to other existing products which rely on the use of specific wave- lengths of light like a laser, making the technology much more expensive and less available to the masses. Lenzini is currently working to better understand the security features of these crystals that come from the complex ways in which they cooperatively reflect light. The laboratory team is also working to refine the crystals to improve their transparency and ability to transmit signals. The work began in late 2015 and the project will run until early 2018. If their use as secure ID tokens is confirmed, a future step in Crystal Security will be to understand whether they can generate digital private encryption keys from the crystals. »Looking ahead, we will continue to assess whether the coloured patterns are unique to the microsphere crystals and whether they have some degree of randomness,« says Lenzini. »If this is possible, cholesteric crystals can open up a new avenue of security for both the physical and digital world; they could literally become our physical keys to reading our e-mails while keeping the content private.« FLASHLIGHT 31 APSIA – Simple and intuitive – voter verification Contact: Prof. Dr. Peter Ryan Selene is a new coercion-resistant voting system with transparent voter verification. In Selene voters have unique, private tracker numbers that they can use to look up their vote on a public web Bulletin Board. This contrasts with previous such systems, that require voters to handle encrypted receipts. To avoid coercion threats, voters are notified of their tracker after the trackers and votes have been posted, giving coerced voters the opportunity to select an alternative tracker that points to the coercer’s vote. The Crystal Security team headed by Dr. Lenzini (far left) and Prof. Dr. Lagerwall (4th from left)
3332 Towards dependable autonomous driving SVV twofold: »On the one hand, a huge amount of different situations have to be taken into account, such as all kinds of weather conditions, different types of roads, vehicles and pedestrians, intersections, and buildings.« To test them all would be extremely time-consuming, costly, and probably infeasible in most cases. «Further, many test scenarios cannot be successfully tried in the real world«, Nejati says. »Because one would have to make a pedestrian or animal really cross the road while a car is approaching. This is both dangerous and unacceptable.« That’s why developers rely on virtual test simulation platforms. They concentrate their testing budget on the most risky and critical behaviours that are usually characterised by multiple system and environment aspects. The platforms used are able to simulate various sensor technologies such as radar, cameras and GPS, different environmental conditions, vehicle types, pedestrians and animals. This enables engineers to analyse how the driver assistance systems react to the risky situation under examination. In current practice, test scenarios executed on simulation platforms have been specified manually. The goal of this project is to develop automated test generation techniques for the simulation platforms. The researchers use artificial intelligence techniques to provide effective guidance in identifying the most critical simulation scenarios for feeding the mathematical testbed models. »To achieve this, we use a combination of meta-heuristic search techniques and surrogate models based on machine learning«, Shiva Nejati explains. Making use of artificial neural networks, she and her team have developed a new kind of multi-objective search algorithm to identify, in a scalable and efficient way, the most risky traffic scenarios – which may lead to an accident. The SnT researchers demonstrated promising results for their innovative search technique using an IEE Night Vision system. »We were able to develop an automated test generation algorithm that identified a number of dangerous traffic situations, which had not been exercised by existing software testing scenarios before«, Nejati reports. Based on this success, she and her colleagues will continue their work together with IEE: »Our next aim is to improve the efficiency of the test generation algorithm by significantly reducing the computational time required for test simulations.« That will enable developers to increase the number of tested scenarios – thus leading to even higher safety on the roads. And it will provide a stable basis for ensuring the dependability of future automatic driving. Advanced driver assistance systems support drivers in critical situations and thus essentially contribute to safety in traffic. The systems help to keep cars inside the lane, to maintain safe distance between cars or to recognise pedestrians crossing the road – particularly at dawn or by night. To effectively reduce the road risks, developers have to ensure a high degree of reliance of the systems. That is an even more critical challenge considering future automatic driving that will transfer the responsibility for safety from the driver to technology and software. A research project at the SnT Software Ve- rification and Validation Laboratory (SVV), that was started in January 2015, aims to enhance the dependability of advanced driver assistance systems. This is an essential step in the shift to autonomous cars. Wit- hin this project, Dr. Shiva Nejati and Raja Ben Abdessalem, working in the Software Verification and Validation Laboratory led by Prof. Dr. Lionel Briand, collaborate with IEE, a Luxembourg based manufacturing company producing automotive systems including driver assistance systems. »The main difficulty in developing highly reliable software for such systems is their sheer number of test scenarios and the difficulty and cost of executing such scenarios«, says Nejati. The reasons for that are FLASHLIGHT 33 SVV – Extracting metadata from legal texts Contact: Dr. Mehrdad Sabetzadeh The SVV Lab has been working in collaboration with CTIE (Centre des Technologies de l‘Information de l‘Etat) on analysing legal texts in order to provide assistance in compliance activities. The lab has developed a framework, relying on model-driven engineering and natural language processing, for extracting metadata from legal texts and transforming them into navigable documents. The lab is now helping SCL (Service Central de Législation) in migrating texts from pdf files to web resources. Dr. Shiva Nejati
3534 Access control for situational- aware systems SVV Hand in hand into the future of printing Automation research Industry is in a state of upheaval. Estab- lished processes are inevitably yielding to emerging digital technologies and to the networking of machines and sensors, customers and suppliers. »Industrie 4.0« is already clearly making its mark in the printing industry as well, with newspapers, magazines and brochures being produced on increasingly complex machines. »Digitalisation and networking offer a wealth of new possibilities,« says Prof. Dr. Holger Voos, head of the Automation & Robotics Research Group at SnT. They make it possible to record and collect data and to automate production steps such as printing, binding and packaging. And they create a close connection to customers: »Customers can produce a PDF with the data of the print product at home and send it to the print shop,« explains Voos – along with strict specifications on quantities and delivery dates. The printing industry must accordingly be able to manage numerous orders and production processes more flexibly than ever. Together with Rogler Software GmbH from Langenzersdorf near Vienna, the researchers in Holger Voos’s team are looking to develop solutions that will make print shops fit to meet this challenge. SnT and the Austrian company entered a partnership agreement to this effect at the end of 2015. Rogler Software is setting up a dedicated developmental centre near the institute for this cooperation. »Our aim is to design new approaches for maximally adaptable production planning and control for print shops,« says Voos. Rather than applying abstract and ultimately difficult mathematical optimisation methods, the researchers have embarked on a new path instead in order to find methods that are more flexible and easier to use. One possible approach is employing a decentralised mechanism like a free market system – providers and users make agreements directly with each other – and to emulate this in the computer. »Machines will be depicted by digital representatives, or agents,« Holger Voos explains. »Every incoming order is also re- presented by an agent.« Virtual customers and suppliers then negotiate the sequence of production steps, calculate prices and thus reach an optimal utilisation level of the machine capacities. »We will test concepts like this not only in the laboratory,« Voos stresses, »but also in reality.« To this end, Rogler Software is mediating contact with customers to test the novel system in routine print shop operations. »For our doctoral students, direct communication with users makes for enormous added value,« says Voos. Rogler Software, too, benefits from the partnership: the excellent research infrastructure and central location in Luxembourg, at the heart of Europe, are further advantages for the company. Plus, if the results of the joint development are right, then they will open up entirely new perspectives for other applications outside the printing industry. Data represent the most important resources of modern enterprises. To protect them from unauthorised access, secure and reliable protection mechanisms are essential. In particular, access control mechanisms manage which employees are allowed to access which data and under which conditions. The most widespread access control mechanism in enterprise systems is based on the role-based access control (RBAC) paradigm. With RBAC, the access rights of employees are determined on the basis of their role in the enterprise. The problem: there exist different kinds of RBAC policies, indeed, but until now there has been no unified framework that can be used to define all types of RBAC policies in a coherent way, using a common model. This drawback impedes the practical usage of RBAC for defining complex, fine-grained access control policies in enterprise systems. Dr. Domenico Bianculli and Ameni Ben Fadhel, working in the Software Verifica- tion and Validation Laboratory at SnT, led by Prof. Dr. Lionel Briand, have succeeded in developing a comprehensive model for RBAC. This model, called GemRBAC+CTX, makes it possible to precisely specify access control privileges inside an enterprise or organisation. »The definition of this model uses standardised languages such as the Unified Modelling Language (UML) and Object Constraint Language (OCL)«, Bianculli says. By leveraging these standard technologies, Bianculli and Ben Fadhel were able not only to specify complex access control requirements, but also to verify them in existing systems, making sure that there is no unauthorised access to critical data. In this project the SnT team worked together with security experts from HITEC Luxembourg – a provider of situational- aware information systems for emergency scenarios. In such systems, restricting access to sensitive and confidential data is an essential and critical requirement. With the aid of the model created by the team in the Software Validation and Veri- fication Laboratory, the HITEC engineers were able to precisely express new, fine-grained access control policies that take into account the location of users, and successfully deploy these policies in the systems they develop. Prof. Dr. Holger Voos Ameni Ben Fadhel and Dr. Domenico Bianculli
3736 Smart assistance for electric driving Automation Lab Electric vehicles count as an important component in a future of clean mobility. Until now, however, only a small number of such vehicles have made it onto our roads. The reason is that e-driving suffers from several problems and constraints that have to be solved before a mass market can be created. Two of these problems are the low efficiency and high cost of batteries, demanding better battery technology. »The main focus of our work is on another important challenge,« says Amin Sajadi, PhD student in the SnT Automation & Robotics research group: »the short range of electric cars due to the limited battery capacity.« To cope with the range problem, Sajadi and his colleagues have developed an advanced driving assistance system for e-vehicles based on intelligent digital technology. The system uses information about the internal state of the car plus information about the environment captured by a navigation system and sensors. A mathematical algorithm developed by the researchers in the automation lab adapts the speed of the vehicle as needed to optimise the driving efficiency automatically. »For example, on hilly roads, the system checks when to accelerate or brake to achieve a velocity that guarantees it will overcome the hill with a minimum consumption of energy,« Sajadi says. Or when approaching a bend, the electronic assistance calculates where it is and how sharp it is in order to take the curve in the best possible manner. In addition, the algorithm predicts the proper velocity for the vehicle when approaching another speed limit zone. »We look for the next 15 seconds coming up,« Sajadi says. Using a Model for Predictive Control (MPC) approach, the assistance system predicts upcoming behaviour and what will happen in front of the car, and then computes an optimal input trajectory based on the predictions. Even uncertain events are taken into account, Sajadi continues: »For instance, we don’t know what the car in front of us will do and how the distance between the two cars will vary.« Such effects are dealt with by so-called stochastic MPC, which construes the constraints probabilistically and by risk analysis. At present, the system – which is adapted specifically to the requirements of electric driving – works semi-automatically. It assists the driver, who has only to steer. For the far future, however, the researchers have solutions in mind for fully automated driving. The first ideas for this project were born some six years ago. Amin Sajadi has been driving the development onward for two years. During 2015, he achieved significant progress. When Sajadi started his PhD studies, the system was able to save 10 to 15 percent of energy in electric driving – ve- rified in simulations as well as in test runs with a smart e-drive vehicle. Since then, the researcher has improved the performance enormously to energy savings of up to 30 percent. The reason for this progress is twofold, Sa- jadi explains: »Firstly, we have improved the mathematical algorithm such that the calcu- lation time could be drastically reduced to only about one millisecond.« Secondly, this in turn has made it feasible to consider not only linear but also non-linear behaviour of the car components, which is computa- tionally very challenging. An example for highly complex non-linear behaviour is the transfer of energy from the battery to the wheels, which involves many conversion and interaction processes. The success in combining all these things in the development of an intelligent electronic assistant for e-driving is remarkable. »Normally the battery of an e-Smart has a range of around 95 kilometres, but with our system it can be extended up to 125 kilometres,« Amin Sajadi says. With that, he is well en route to solving the range problem. Automation & Robotics Research Group – space robotics and space resources Contact: Dr. Somasundar Kannan Together with the partner LuxSpace Sarl., SnT recently finished a study on how to turn microsatellites into space robots by equipping them with suitable sensors and manipula- tors. These satellites could be applied for space debris removal or on-orbit servicing such as refueling of larger satellites. Space robots could also be a contribution of SnT in the national space resources strategy of Luxembourg. This envisages sending spacecraft to other objects in space like asteroids, where they would land and mine in order to exploit resources such as water and minerals. FLASHLIGHT 37 Amin Sajadi
3938 Events Distinguished Lectures at SnT Prof. Dr. Michael Backes (University of Saarland): Privacy in Tomorrow‘s Internet, January 2015 Prof. Dr. Bashar Nuseibeh (Open University): On Software Engineering for Privacy in Ubiquitous Computing, February 2015 Prof. Dr. Bart De Moor (ESAT-STADI- US KU Leuven): Serious Data, Serious Mining, February 2015 Prof. Dr. Jane Cleland-Huang (DePaul University): Towards Effective Software and Systems Traceability, March 2015 Prof. Dr. David Basin (ETH Zurich): Monitoring Policy Compliance, April 2015 Prof. Dr. Bill Roscoe (Oxford University): What‘s in a game of cards? Options for programming mobile systems in CSP, June 2015 Prof. Dr. Adi Shamir (Weizmann Insti- tute): Post-Snowden Cryptography, June 2015 Prof. Dr. Mark Harman (University Col- lege London): Recent Advances in Search Based Software Testing and Genetic Improvement, October 2015 Prof. Dr. Alexander Egyed (Johan- nes Kepler University Linz): Effective Reuse across Many Variants of Software Systems – a new Paradigm for Evolvable Product Lines, November 2015 Conferences SnT Partnership Day 2015, June 2015 ETFA 2015: 20th IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technolo- gies & Factory Automation by Prof. Dr. Holger Voos, September 2015 Annual Privacy Forum 2015 by Prof. Dr. Thomas Engel, October 2015 The Rise of Fintech: Challenges for Law, Economics, Finance and Technology by Prof. Dr. Mark D. Cole, October 2015 European Data Forum, November 2015 EAPRIL Conference - European Asso- ciation for Practitioner Research on Improving Learning by Prof. Dr. Charles Max, November 2015 Hagemann, Law Firm Schiweck Weinzierl Koch, Munich, May 2015 Information Security Education Day 2015 by Prof. Dr. Yves Le Traon, May 2015 Ownership and Liability for Communi- cation Satellites by Prof. Dr. Mahulena Hofmann, June 2015 Thought leadership lecture series: Accountability in the Cloud by Dr. Siani Pearson, Principal Research Scientist at Security and Cloud Lab, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, July 2015 TTO Training: Writing Effective PoC Applications by Dr. Jeff Skinner, London Business School, September 2015 TTO Training: From Proof of Con- cept to Spin-Off by Dr. Raphaël Frank, November 2015 Workshop: Moving Corporate Lear- ning from Good to GREAT! by Prof. Dr. Charles Max, November 2015 IEEE SCVT 2015: 22nd IEEE Sym- posium on Communications and Vehicular Technology in the Benelux by Dr. Bhavani Shankar, November 2015 Workshops and Summer Schools LCSB/ SnT Joint Workshop on Future Challenges for Biomedical Data Secu- rity, February 2015 Workshop on Satellite Communica- tions: Advances in Random Access & Related Activities by Dr. Symeon Chatzinotas, March 2015 God and the Rockets by Prof. Dr. Mark Cole, March 2015 8th IC1004 Training School: from Het- nets to cloud radio access networks by Dr. Symeon Chatzinotas, April 2015 TTO Training: Computer-implemented inventions: The journey from source code to a European patent by Borys
4140 Princess Léa of Belgium visits SnT In November 2015 SnT’s director Prof. Dr. Björn Ottersten had the honour of welcoming a very distinguished visitor: HRH Princess Léa of Belgium. The Princess presided over a diplomatic, economic and academic delegation visiting the University of Luxembourg and its two interdisciplinary centres, one of them being SnT. The visit took place as part of Luxembourg’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union and was organised by the International Diplomatic and Consular Society (CIDIC) in collaboration with the Federation of Regional Actors in Europe (FEDRA). The delegation focused on the economic and academic leading sectors, in particular »secure and reliable information, communication and technology systems« and »biomedicine«. Both areas are within the strategic research focus of the University of Luxembourg. CritiX Paulo Esteves Veríssimo Organisation Governance of SnT A Centre Advisory Board, chaired by the President of the University of Luxembourg, advises the President on the Centre’s activities (strategy, annual plan, budget, monitoring, review, etc.). A Scientific Advisory Board reviews the Centre‘s activities and provides input and recommendations on future activities. The Director is appointed by the University’s Board of Governors and is responsible for day-to-day management. Management Team SEDAN Radu State Centre Advisory Board Rainer Klump President University of Luxembourg, chair Franck Leprévost Vice-President University of Luxembourg Martin Halliwell CTO SES S.A. Jean-Marie Spaus Director POST Telecom Jean-Paul Zens Premier Conseiller de Gouvernement, SMC Roland Millen, Chief Enginieer, Delphi SerVal Yves Le Traon SVV Lionel Briand SnT Vice Director SnT management team NetLab Thomas Engel Head of SnT Office Financial Controller Laurent Betry SigCom Björn Ottersten SnT Director APSIA Peter Ryan Automation Lab Holger Voos 41 CryptoLux Alex Biryukov
4342 2015 SnT expenses (in kEUR) Financial data 73+5+2+5+1+2+5+7 2015 SnT consumed income (in kEUR) 33+17+8+41+1 Partners UL (University of Luxembourg) FNR (Fonds National de la Recherche) EU/ESA (European Union/European Space Agency) Other 6,353 (42%) 2,499 (17%) 31 (<1%) 4,933 (33%) 1,165 (8%) Salary costs Travel Investments Representation and registration In-Kind contributions Operating expenses Sub-contracting Documentation 11,055 (74%) 781 (5%) 332 (2%) 756 (5%) 1 (<1%) 680 (5%) 1,015 (7%) 349 (2%) SnT 2011-2015 consumed income per source (in kEUR) 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 UL Partners EU/ESA FNR Other 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 SnT 2011-2015 expenses per category (in kEUR) Salary costs Sub- contracting Investments Travel Repres. & registration Operating exp. In-Kind 11,000 10,000 9,000 8,000 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0 Docu- mentation 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 SnT 2011-2015 expenses per funding source (in kEUR) UL Partners EU/ESA FNR Other 0 2,000 4,000 6,000 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 8,000 10,000 12,000 2,730 1,351 852 3,592 84 2,338 1,053 186 1,550 21 3,444 1,811 1,086 5,046 226 3,488 1,966 866 6,144 182 14,000 16,000 4,933 2,499 1,165 6,353 31
4544 People Heads of SnT research groups · OTTERSTEN, Björn, Prof. Dr., Director · BRIAND, Lionel , Prof. Dr., Vice-Director · BIRYUKOV, Alex, Prof. Dr. · ENGEL, Thomas, Prof. Dr. · LE TRAON, Yves, Prof. Dr. · RYAN, Peter, Prof. Dr. · STATE, Radu, Dr. · VERÍSSIMO, Paulo, Prof. Dr. · VOOS, Holger, Prof. Dr. · BOUVRY, Pascal, Prof. Dr. · COLE, Mark, Prof. Dr. · HOFMANN, Mahulena, Prof. Dr. · KELSEN, Pierre, Prof. Dr. · LEPREVOST, Franck, Prof. Dr. · MARTIN, Romain, Prof. Dr. · MAUW, Sjouke, Prof. Dr. · MAX, Charles, Prof. Dr. · SACHAU, Jürgen, Prof. Dr. · VAN DER TORRE, Leon, Prof. Dr. · VITI, Francesco, Prof. Dr. · KLEIN, Jacques, Dr. · LENZINI, Gabriele, Dr. · SABETZADEH, Mehrdad, Dr. · AOUADA, Djamila, Dr. · CHATZINOTAS, Symeon, Dr. · KOENIG, Vincent, Dr. · NEJATI, Shiva, Dr. · PANCHENKO, Andriy, Dr. · PANG, Jun, Dr. · SHANKAR, Bhavani, Dr. · AGUILERA GONZÁLEZ, Adriana, Dr. · ALLIX, Kevin, Dr. · ALODEH, Maha, Dr. · ANDRENACCI, Stefano, Dr. · AVANESOV, Tigran, Dr. · BARTOLINI, Cesare, Dr. · BEZZAOUCHA, Souad, Dr. · BIANCULLI, Domenico, Dr. · BISSYANDE, Tegawendé, Dr. · CAIRE, Patrice, Dr. · CASSAGNES, Cyril, Dr. · PASTORE, Fabrizio, Dr. · PENANNEN, Harri, Dr. · POPLETEEV, Andrei, Dr. · RAHLI, Vincent, Dr. · RIENSTRA, Tjitze, Dr. · ROBALDO, Livio, Dr. · ROBERT, Jérémy, Dr. · ROCHA, Francisco, Dr. · ROSICH, Albert, Dr. · SANNIER, Nicolas, Dr. · SASNAUSKAS, Raimondas, Dr. · SHAR, Lwin Khin, Dr. · SHARMA KRISHNA, Shree, Dr. · SIRRES, Raphaël · SOLTANALIAN, Mojtaba, Dr. · SONG, Ju-Youn, Dr. · TANG, Qiang, Dr. · TANTAR, Alexandru Dr. · TANTAR, Emilia Dr. · TSINOS, Christos, Dr. · VELICHKOV, Vesselin, Dr. · VÖLP, Marcus, Dr. · WANG, Lin, Dr. · WU, Yining, Dr. · ZIAFATI, Pouyan · AFZAL, Hassan · AL ISMAEIL, Kassem · ALBANESE, Claudia · AMBROSSIO, Diego Agustin · ANNAIYAN, Arun · APPELT, Dennis · ARORA, Chetan · ATASHPENDAR, Arash · BEN ABDESSALEM, Raja · BEN FADHEL, Ameni · BILIBIN, Ilya · BOECHAT, Andre · BRONZI, Walter · BRUEHL, Manuel · CALDEIRA LIMA, Antonio · CHENAL, Massimo · CODECA, Lara · COLOMBO TOSATTO, Silvano · CORREA, Bahnsen Alejandro · DELERUE ARRIAGA, Afonso · DEMISSE, Girum · DENTLER, Jan · DERRMANN, Thierry · DI DONNA, Simone · CASTIGNANI, German, Dr. · CHRISTOPOULOS, Dimitrios, Dr. · CRAMER, Marcos, Dr. · CUNHA DE ALMEIDA, Eduardo, Dr. · DERBEZ, Patrick, Dr. · DOLBERG, Lautaro, Dr. · EL KATEB, Donia, Dr. · EMERAS, Joseph, Dr. · FAYE, Sébastien, Dr. · FERREIRA, Ana, Dr. · FOUQUET, François, Dr. · GADYATSKAYA, Olga, Dr. · GERARD, Benjamin, Dr. · GHEORGHE, Gabriela, Dr · GIURGIU, Andra, Dr. · GNIEWEK, Alicja, Dr. · GOKNIL, Arda, Dr. · GONCALVES ALMEIDA ANTUNES, Michel, Dr. · GUZEK, Mateusz, Dr. · HACK, Nathalie · HENARD, Christopher, Dr. · IOVINO, Vincenzo, Dr. · JHAWAR, Ravi, Dr. · JOSTOCK, Markus, Dr. · KANNAN, Somasundar, Dr. · KANTOR, Miroslaw, Dr. · KAYHAN, Farbod, Dr. · KIM, Dongsun, Dr. · KLIAZOVICH, Dzmitry, Dr. · KUBLER, Sylvain, Dr. · LADID, Latif · LAGUNAS, Eva Dr. · LANCRENON, Jean, Dr. · LANZE, Fabian, Dr. · LI, Yumei, Dr. · LOUVETON, Nicolas, Dr. · LUCIA, Lucia, Dr. · MACHALEK, Aurel · MALEKI, Sina, Dr. · MAZZALI, Nicolò, Dr. · McCALL, Rod, Dr. · MELAKESSOU, Foued, Dr. · MUSIAL, Jedrzej, Dr. · NAIN, Gregory, Dr. · NAVEH, David, Dr. (from 01/07/2015) · NGUYEN, Duy Cu, Dr. · OLIVARES MENDEZ, Miguel Angel, Dr. · OUCHANI, Samir, Dr. · PALATTELLA, Maria Rita, Dr. · PAN, Lin, Dr. · PAPADAKIS, Michail, Dr. Faculty Research scientists Affiliated faculty Senior research scientists PhD candidates Research associates 44 · DI NARDO, Daniel · DINU, Dumitru-Daniel · DOU, Wei · DU, Manxing · FALK, Eric · FELTES, Florian · FIANDRINO, Claudio · FIZ PONTIVEROS, Borja Beltran · FORSTER, Markus · GHARANJIK, Ahmad · GHARBI, Nasser · GIESE, Mark Otto · GIUTOLISI, Rosario · GOTTMANN, Susann · HAJRI, Ines · HAMMERSCHMIDT, Christian · HAMMES, Christian · HARTMANN, Thomas · HUMPHREYS, Llio · HURIER, Médéric · HUYNEN, Jean-Louis · JAFARNEJAD, Sasan · JAN, Sadeeq · JIMENEZ, Matthieu · KALANTARI, Ashkan · KIEFFER, Emmanuel · KRACHEEL, Martin · KREUTZ, Diego · LE, Ha Thanh · LI, Daoyuan · LI, Li · LIU, Bing · LOPEZ BECERRA, José Miguel · LOUNIS, Karim · MADDOURI, Sami · MARCHAL, Samuel · MARTINEZ PERDIGUERO, Jabier · MATINNEJAD, Reza · MEIRA, Jorge · MENGALI, Alberto · MOAWAD, Assaad · MOULINE, Ludovic · MOUTON, Maximilien · NACHTIGALL, Nico · NESHVAD, Surena · NGUYEN, Anh Quan · NGUYEN, Phu H. · NORTA, David · OUAFO, Lambo Adrienne · PEJO, Balazs · PEREZ URQUIDI, Miguel José · PERRIN, Léo Paul · PIAZZA, Roberto · PIERINA BRUSTOLIN SPAGNUELO, Dayana · POLITIS, Christos · POURMOGHADDASLANGROUDI, Ameneh · QUINTANAR GUZMAN, Serket · RUBAB, Iram · SAJADI ALAMDARI, Amin Seyed · SANCHEZ GUINEA, Alejandro · SIGNORELLO, Salvatore · SKROBOT, Marjan · SOLTANA, Ghanem · SPANO, Danilo · STEICHEN, Mathis · TABATABAEI, Masoud · THOME, Julian · TSAKMALIS, Anestis · UDOVENKO, Aleksei · VAN ZEE, Marc · WANG, Chunhui · WANG, Jun · ADEDJOUMA, Morayo · ARCURI, Andrea, Dr. · CHERKAOUI, Omar · DE WACHTER, Hannes · IQBAL, Zohaib, Dr. · JOHANNESSON, Karl · KENNY, Steve · NAVEH, David (up to 30/06/2015) · ORMAZABAL, Gaston · SPANIOL, Otto · VON SCHEFFER, Guido · ZHENG, Gan · ZURAD, Macieij Marcin Zurad · ANNET, Stéphanie, Communications and Events Assistant · BETRY, Laurent, Head of Administration and Support/Financial Controller · CHESNAY, Isabelle, Project Coordinator · EDWARDSDOTTIR, Helga, Administrative Assistant · FANK, Elise, Administrative Assistant · FUHRER, Pierre, Project Coordinator · GALLO, Marie-France, HR Assistant · GUGAN, Daniel, Project Coordinator · HANS, Dirk, Communication (freelance) · KINET, Christine, Administrative Assistant · LAGROST, Céline, Project Coordinator · LAMPE, Sigmar, Technology Transfer Officer · LAROCHE, Corinne, Administrative Assistant · MARTIN, Magali, Administrative Assistant · OCHSENBEIN, Anne, Dr., Project Coordinator · ÖSTLUND, Stefanie, Project Coordinator · PETIT, Cécile, Dr., Project Coordinator · SCHWEITZER, Jean, Dr., Project Develop- ment Manager · THUR, Claudia, Administrative Assistant · VOOS, Mia, Administrative Assistant · AFSHARI, Saeed · DUNLOP, Dominic · FERNANDES CARDOSO, Gilberto · KORDY, Piotr · NEY, Marco · WANG, Husen · ALLIO, Nicholas, Politecnico di Torino, Italy · BRORSSON, Mats, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden · BROWNE ROENNE, Peter, Inria Nancy, France · BUDA, Andrea, Aalto University, Finland · CECCATO, Mariano, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Italy · EWERLING, Stéphane, International School of IT-Security of Bochum, Germany · HURKALA, Adam, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland · HURKALA, Jaroslaw, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland · KAUSHIK, Ankit, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany · KRZYSZTOF, Daniluk, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland · PHILIPPOV, Anton, University of Trento, Italy · WILLEMSE, Tim, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands · ZEBROWSKI, Karol, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland · ZIADI, Tewfik, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, France · ZOTKIEWICZ, Mateusz, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland Visitors Staff Technical staff 45 Research fellows
4746 Awards SnT researcher Dr. Miguel Mendez received the EUSFLAT Best PhD Thesis Award. At the 9th Conference of the Euro- pean Society for Fuzzy Logic and Techno- logy (EUSFLAT), held in July 2015 in Gijón, Spain, Dr. Miguel Mendez received the award for his thesis »Soft-Computing Based Visual Control for Unmanned Vehicles«, exploiting the use of Fuzzy Logic to control unmanned vehicles using vision sensors. SnT researcher Dr. Shree Krishna Sharma received the FNR Award for Outstanding PhD Thesis 2015. The award amounts to 5,000 euros. The main research problem considered in Sharma´s thesis is the inefficient usage of the radio frequencies used in wireless communication applications with the emphasis on Satellite Communications (SatCom). The project was carried out in collaboration with SES, Luxembourg, with financial support from the AFR-PPP grant of the Fonds National de la Recherche, Luxembourg. SnT researchers Dr. Raphaël Frank and Dr. German Castignani won the competition »Mind & Market« organised by Deloitte, the University of Luxembourg, the Fonds National de la Recherche (FNR), Luxinnovation and Mind & Market Belgium. SnT scientist Prof. Dr. Leon van der Torre was appointed ECCAI fellow. ECCAI – the European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence – is the representative body for the European Artificial Intelligence community. Its aim is to promote the study, research and application of Artificial Intelligence in Eu- rope. The ECCAI Fellows program singles out scientists who have made significant, sustained contributions to the field of Artificial Intelligence in Europe. Prof. Dr. Lionel Briand was the recipient of the Most Influential Paper of ICSE 2015 award. This award is presented at each ICSE conference to the authors of the paper considered most influential over the previous 10 years since its original publica- tion. For his paper entitled »Is Mutation an Appropriate Tool for Testing Experiments?« together with co-author Jamie Andrews (Google Inc.), Briand received the prestigi- ous award at ICSE 2015, the 37th Internati- onal Conference on Software Engineering, which was held in Florence, Italy, from 16 to 24 May 2015. SnT researcher Dr. Michail Papadakis received a Microsoft Azure Research Award. Over a period of 12 months Papadakis will develop a software analysis tool the Microsoft Azure Platform. Azure is a cloud computing platform and infrastructure. It is used to build, deploy and manage applications and services through a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters. SnT researcher Dr. Domenico Bian- culli received the »Best Reviewer Award« at ESEC/FSE 2015. The 10th Joint Meeting of the European Software Engineering Conference and the ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering was held in Bergamo, Italy Effective Test Suites for Mixed Discrete- Continuous Stateflow Controllers Reza Matinnejad, Dr. Shiva Nejati, Prof. Dr. Lionel Briand, Thomas Bruckmann, 10th Joint Meeting of the European Software Engineering Conference and the ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering, Bergamo, Italy Graphical Cues Effectively Inform Users? A Socio-technical Security Study in Accessing WiFi Networks Jean-Louis Huynen, Dr. Ana Ferreira, Dr. Vincent Koenig, Dr. Gabriele Lenzini, Sal- vador Rivas, 3rd International Conference on Human Aspects of Information Security, Privacy and Trust (HAS 2015), Los Angeles, CA, USA Real–Time Non–Rigid Multi–Frame Depth Video Super–Resolution Kassem Al Ismaeil, Dr. Djamila Aouada, Thomas Solignac, Bruno Mirbach, Prof. Dr. Björn Ottersten, MSF 2015 - IEEE/ISPRS 2nd Joint Workshop on Multi-Sensor Fusion for Dynamic Scene Understanding, Boston, Massachusetts, USA Cooperative Spectrum Sensing for Heterogeneous Sensor Networks Using Multiple Decision Statistics Dr. Shree Krishna Sharma, Dr. Symeon Chatzinotas, Prof. Dr. Björn Ottersten, CROWNCOM 2015 – International Conference on Cognitive Radio Oriented Wireless Networks, Doha, Qatar A study on ethical aspects and legal issues in e-learning Stefanie Östlund, Dr. Andriy Panchenko, Prof. Dr. Thomas Engel, E-learning 2015 International Conference, Berlin, Germany Projects Ongoing partnered projects 2015 Project Principal investigator PhD student Partner Satellite Systems Transmission and Reception Techniques for Smart Gateways in Next Gene- ration Satellite Systems Prof. Dr. Björn Ottersten Ahmad Gharanjik SES / FNR-AFR Spectrum Management and Interference Mitigation in Cognitive Hybrid Satellite Networks Prof. Dr. Björn Ottersten Anestis Tsakmalis SES / FNR-CORE Satellite Sensor Networks for spectrum monitoring Prof. Dr. Björn Ottersten Christos Politis SES / FNR-CORE Advanced Signal Processing techniques for satellite communications Prof. Dr. Björn Ottersten Alberto Mengali SES / FNR-AFR Broadband/Broadcast Convergence through Intelligent Caching in 5G Satellite Networks Prof. Dr. Björn Ottersten Danilo Spano SES / FNR-AFR Model translation and Model Visualisation Prof. Dr. Thomas Engel Susann Gottmann SES / FNR-AFR Refactoring and Semantical Correctness Prof. Dr. Thomas Engel Nico Nachtigall SES / FNR-AFR Model-based Regression Testing Strategies Prof. Dr. Lionel Briand Daniel Di Nardo SES / FNR-AFR Model-Driven Requirements Engineering to ensure Consistency Prof. Dr. Lionel Briand Chetan Arora SES / FNR-AFR Vehicular Software and Sensor Systems Cost-Effective Automated Test Case Generation in Automotive Embedded Systems Prof. Dr. Lionel Briand Reza Matinnejad Delphi / FNR-AFR Automated Debugging and Fault Localization of Matlab/Simulink Models Prof. Dr. Lionel Briand Bing Liu Delphi / FNR-AFR Requirements-Based Test Generation for Embedded Systems Prof. Dr. Lionel Briand Chunhui Wang IEE Automated Model-based Support for Change Impact Analysis in Automotive Software Systems Prof. Dr. Lionel Briand Sami Maddouri Delphi Automating Regression Test Selection for Requirements-based Testing in Embedded Systems Prof. Dr. Lionel Briand Ines Hajri IEE / FNR-AFR Multi-View Sensor Fusion Prof. Dr. Björn Ottersten Hassan Afzal IEE / FNR-CORE VICO – Vision-based Control of Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Prof. Dr. Holger Voos Arun Annaiyan Lux Army / FNR-AFR Traceability from requirements to design to support context-driven testing of embedded software systems Prof. Dr. Lionel Briand Raja Ben Abdessalem IEE Optimized Design and Modeling for Automotive Radar Systems Prof. Dr. Björn Ottersten Nasser Gharbi IEE Radar Waveform design for Automotive Applications Prof. Dr. Björn Ottersten Christian Hammes IEE Individual awards Best Paper Awards Networked and Autonomous Vehicles Advanced Vehicle Routing in Urban Environments Prof. Dr. Thomas Engel Lara Codeca POST / FNR-AFR Incentives and Game Design concepts to change driver behavior Prof. Dr. Thomas Engel Martin Kracheel POST / FNR-CORE Security of Embedded and Distributed Vehicular Systems Prof. Dr. Thomas Engel Sasan Jafarnejad POST

Snt ar15-web

Snt ar15-web

Recommended

More Related Content

Slideshows for you(20)

Similar to Snt ar15-web(20)

Recently uploaded(20)

Snt ar15-web