Iowa State University’s participation in the SmartAmerica Challenge has instilled a renewed focus on cyber-physical systems security for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. As part of the challenge, which was organized by the White House Presidential Innovation Fellows program, a team of Iowa State researchers teamed up with several industry and university partners to form the Smart Energy CPS. Using PowerCyber, a cyber-physical security testbed developed at Iowa State University, the team is working to provide an accurate representation of cyber-physical grid interdependencies.
In addition, ECpE and the Information Assurance Center will expend the Information Assurance Graduate Program and Cyber Defense Competition to include a Cyber-Physical System (CPS) Security focus beginning in the fall 2014 semester. The expansion will improve two premiere components of the department’s cybersecurity and information assurance education initiatives.