In the Cyber-Physical Systems Engineering (CPSE) program, students learn about engineering systems that integrate physical processes, computation, and control. Students will also learn how the networked, smart physical entities are used to manage electric grids and other critical infrastructures, home utilities and appliances, robots, autonomous vehicles, environmental sensor networks, traffic control, smart toys and Internet of Things (IoT) systems. In a time where everyday objects around us are becoming smart, future CPSE engineers have tremendous career prospects in a broad range of application domains.
Unlike traditional engineering programs that specializes in one engineering discipline, CDM’s CPSE program is interdisciplinary, combining the core components of Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and generalist engineering programs. This means that students in the program experience the complete lifecycle of developing a cyber-physical system and master mechanical design, fabrication, electronic circuits, software development, networking, and cyber-security.
For international students: this is a STEM-designated program.
Faculty Spotlight
In March 2021, assistant professor Isuru S. Godage received an National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award totaling $529,999 for his project “Transformable and Reconfigurable Soft Robots.” With this funding, Dr. Godage will introduce a novel systematic approach to combining simple soft robotic modules into sophisticated cyber-physical systems, capable of performing complex manipulation and locomotion tasks. The proposed research is expected to significantly advance the theory and practice of reconfigurable heterogeneous soft robots in the interconnected areas of design, fabrication, morphological optimization, and intelligent control.
The new Idea Realization Lab (IRL) is a 4,500 square foot makerspace that includes a variety of state-of-the-art fabrication facilities like 3D printers, thermal formers and molding, and more. The IRL also supports several types of rapid prototyping technologies including Inventables X-Carve, laser cutters, vinyl cutters, sergers, and precision multi-axis CNC milling machines. Students have access to leading-edge engineering software tools to bring innovative ideas to life.
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Isuru Godage
Dr. Godage’s research interests include designing, modeling, analysis, and controlling of soft and modular robotics for search/rescue and healthcare applications.
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Ljubomir Perkovic
Dr. Perkovic’s research interests include computational geometry, graph theory and algorithms, distributed computing, computer science education, and computational thinking.
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Filipo Sharevski
Dr. Sharevski’s main areas of research interest include wireless and mobile networks, cybersecurity, cyber-forensics, cyber resilience, intrusion tolerance, moving target defense, cyber operations, and information assurance.
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Sharief Oteafy
Dr. Oteafy’s research interests lie in next generation networking systems, with a core focus on leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT) towards ubiquitous and synergistic service proliferation.
Research: Smart, Secure IoT
Increasingly every electronic device is connected to the Internet, thus increasing the security risks. In addition, the reliance of one networking technology (e.g. Wi-Fi) for connectivity can lead to denial of service attacks. CDM faculty Filipo Sharevski, Sharief Oteafy, and Isuru Godage are investigating how to integrate security and redundancy as integral elements of next generation smart entities and to eliminate such security vulnerabilities of smart, connected devices. This technology has the potential to significantly improve the security of future cyber-physical systems in diverse applications in defense and healthcare.
Having conquered the manufacturing space, the next phase of robot revolution is in the human space. With the advent of smart sensors, powerful embedded systems, and bioinspired design and computational methodologies, robots are becoming commonplace in human life. The Robotics and Medical Engineering Lab (RoME) strives to be at the forefront of this robot revolution. The RoME lab develops tele-operable, MRI-guided, MRI-compatible robots to safely carryout intricate surgical procedures in previously inaccessible regions.
The Secure Design Lab is managed by Dr. Sharevski and developed as part of a grant from the National Security Agency (NSA) for implementation of the Cybersecurity National Action Plan (CNAP). It is equipped with the state-of-the-art smart Internet of things (IoT) technologies to research on user-centered interaction design without compromising cybersecurity of smart devices while preventing the users of these homes to be security fatigued.
The inaugural course of the CPSE program is CSE 316: Cyber-Physical System Security. In this course, students design for security of cyber-physical systems, security breaches and enforcement, standardization, best practices, security policies, security threat and protection-in-depth modeling, vulnerability and risk assessment for cyber-physical systems, CPS security incidents, and trends.
Research Directions
Soft and continuum robots are ideally suited to work in human spaces without posing safety risks. But their compliance makes the control of such arms challenging. Faculty Iyad Kanj and Isuru Godage are researching computationally efficient motion planning algorithms for continuum arms. The success of this research will enable soft continuum robots to be even closer to the applications in human spaces, e.g. human-friendly robots to work with humans in healthcare and manufacturing spaces.
This student-run club is currently working in the RoME Lab under the tutelage of Professor Godage on number of research and development projects related to soft and continuum robotic technology. The team is collaborating on to design a tele-operated, novel robotic arm where members work on embedded system development, pneumatic muscle actuator fabrication, hardware integration through experimentation.
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