Technical Program

TECHNICAL PAPER TRACK:

COMING SOON – Our Call for Papers is closed and details for the technical tracks can be viewed on the Technical Program Schedule.

TECHNICAL WORKSHOPS & TUTORIALS:

In addition to technical paper tracks, the following workshops and tutorials will be offered at the conference.  Registration in these tutorial and workshop tracks do not require registration in the conference.  The fee schedule for these tutorial and workshops are:

Note to all registrants:  Any registration after 23:59 (Eastern US Time Zone) of March 22, 2019 will be considered Late and subject to late fee rates.

Technical Tutorial and Workshops Full day tutorial and workshops include lunch function
Full Day (8 PDH) Early: $180 Late: $200
Half Day (4 PDH) Early: $100 Late: $120
2-Hr (2 PDH) Early:  $45 Late:  $65
1-Hr (1 PDH) Early:  $25 Late:  $45

Topic: Software System Safety
Presenter: Donald S. Hanline II, CCDC RDECOM
Duration: 4 – Hours (4 PDH)
Location: Embassy Suites – Big Spring C (4/12/19 08:00 – 12:00)

Abstract: Software System Safety Engineering (SSSE) focuses on two primary objectives; first to design, code, test, and support software with the appropriate Level-of-Rigor (LOR) to instill a confidence, or the assurance of safe software; and to define the necessary safety requirements for the design, code, test, verification, and validation of software that specifically target and mitigate the software “causes” of the defined hazards and mishaps of the system.  Each of these two objectives is covered in detail within the Joint Software Systems Safety Engineering Handbook (JSSSEH).  Requirements to meet the SSSE objectives are specified in MIL-STD-882E.  The Joint Services – Software Safety Authorities (JS-SSA) Software System Safety, Implementation Process and Tasks Supporting MIL-STD-882E provides Department of Defense (DoD) Acquirers and their Developers with the implementation details necessary to take the requirements of MIL-STD-882E and the “guidance” of the JSSSEH and define the process and tasks required for a compliant SSSE program. MIL-STD-882E and guidance of the JSSSEH will continue to be the parent source for guidance on how to meet identified software safety engineering requirements.  This tutorial provides an overview of the MIL-STD-882E System Safety and Software System Safety process tasks and requirements, as well as how SSSE is integrated into the System, System Safety and Software Engineering processes. Finally, the tutorial will provide an introduction to the fundamental SSSE task introduced by MIL-STD-882E, Task 208, the Functional Hazard Analysis (FHA).

Topic: Artificial Intelligence – Pragmagtic Application and Approach
Presenters: Mike McMahon, Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, IBM Industrial Sector; Ben Amaba, PhD PE CPIM®, LEED®AP BD+C, Chief Innovation Officer,
IBM Industrial Sector, Mitsuko Hope Ihaza/US/IBM, Dale Mumper/US/IBM, Dominic Farrar/US/IBM
Duration: 8 – Hours (8  PDH)
Location: Von Braun South Hall – Ballroom 2 (4/11/19 08:00 – 17:00)

Abstract:  Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing organizations and the world at a rapid rate. No longer is artificial intelligence and machine learning an emerging technology. Artificial intelligence is being deployed on wide ranging systems from quantum computers to edge devices. These systems are becoming more responsive in thinking, perceiving and acting within time performance constraints. Designers are becoming increasingly confident in applying multiple technological advancements to solve volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous challenges. Machine Learning techniques have revolutionized the way we think about anomaly detection & root cause analysis. Root cause analysis applies to many areas of operations that supply chains care about—order processing, warehouse operations, customer delivery & vendor management. Information is often fragmented & biased by individuals who obtain the information. Piecing the info together itself takes time, and if not identified quickly enough, the problem may have been over looked or identifying a root cause may not have led to an actionable insight. It’s now possible to take many disparate data sources, curate those into a searchable catalog, & develop a story through data science & machine learning to eliminate human bias in assigning root cause, providing automated action thereafter.

Topic: Blockchain – Real Solutions Changing the Industry
Presenters: Dennis Miller, Blockchain Expert, IBM Cloud Platform Industrial Sector; Thalia L Hooker/Minneapolis/IBM, Ben Amaba, PhD PE CPIM®, LEED®AP BD+C, Chief Innovation Officer,
IBM Industrial Sector
Duration: 4 – Hours (4 PDH)
Location: Von Braun South Hall – Meeting Room 1 (4/12/19 13:00 – 17:00)

Abstract: The digital world is moving at a fast pace and blockchain technology is helping lead. Blockchain is no longer an emerging technology. It is already evolutionizing the digital world by bringing a new perspective to security, resiliency, and efficiency of systems. While initially popularized by Bitcoin, Blockchain is much more than a foundation for crypto currency. It offers a secure way to exchange goods, services, or transactions. Industrial growth increasingly depends on trusted partnerships; but increasing regulation, cybercrime and fraud are inhibiting expansion. To address these challenges, Blockchain will enable more agile value chains, faster product innovation, closer customer relationships, and tighter integration with platforms. Further, Blockchain provides a lower cost of trade with a trusted contract monitored without intervention from third parties who may not add direct value. It facilitates smart contracts, engagements, and agreements with immutable, robust cyber security features. This demonstration and workshop provides a pragmatic demonstration and use of Blockchain technology in multiple industrial applications. The technology must be underpinned by disciplined methods and governance to reap the benefits of blockchain technology. The workshop provides a concise and complete view of the technology, platform and governance framework to enable visible and measurable outcomes that can be quickly monetized for secure enterprise solutions.

Topic: Future of Cybersecurity
Presenters: Dr. Patrick Jungwirth, Army Research Lab; Tom Barnett, CCDC AMC;    Phil Chan, ARL SLAD; Arun Thomas, Draper Labs; Will Keegan, Lynx Software Technologies
Duration: 4 – Hours (4 PDH)
Location: Von Braun South Hall – Ballroom 1 (4/12/19 08:00 – 12:00)

Abstract: The cybersecurity threat landscape is constantly evolving.  The standard industry response is to deploy subvertable software security solutions.  These solutions are not up to the challenge and often worsen security by increasing the attack surface.  In recent years, cyber attacks have been moving closer to the hardware level with Hardware assisted virtualization attacks, Row-hammer, Spectre and Meltdown.  These threats are information leakage attacks rooted in the complexity driven by “higher performance at all costs” philosophy.  They circumvent “traditional” application and operating system level cyber security by attacking below the protection provided by even software-level separation kernels.  Future cyber security should reconsider past principles such as those demonstrated by Saltzer and Schroeder in 1975, Multics in the 1970’s, and the i432 microprocessor in the 1980’s.  In 2014, Alves-Foss, et al. highlighted how hardware security tagging makes Saltzer’s security principles practical.

Future cyber defense must protect the entire architecture by utilizing hardware level security primitives, hardware and software co-design for security emphasizing information flow control, and simple, provable security methods.

This session will explore recent advances in secure architectures such as hardware-assisted separation kernels, formally verified secure operating systems such as seL4, resilience monitoring, hardware abstraction layers, trusted boot/authentication, memory-tagged architectures and encrypted memory stores.

Topic: Hands-On Introduction to Field Programmable Gate Arrays
Presenter: Dr. Glenn Parker, GTRI
Duration: 8 – Hours (8 PDH)
Location: Von Braun South Hall – Ballroom 1 (4/11/19 08:00 – 17:00)

Abstract: This hands-on workshop is for students or practicing engineers who want to know how to use the latest trend in programmable logic to design an embedded system. Through a series of lessons and exercises, students will learn what separates FPGA’s from other programmable logic, how to program them using Verilog, when to use FPGA’s versus microcontrollers, and how to interface with external devices and data links. Beginning with the basics, this workshop builds from programming an FPGA for simple tasks such as reading switches and controlling LEDs to a final project that embeds a 32-bit soft-core processor to drive a VGA display from C code. Students will leave with detailed course notes and an Intel development board that they have programmed during the course. Some advanced topics such as machine learning and OpenCL will be briefly discussed.

Prerequisites: 

  • Familiarity with the C programming language (in-depth knowledge of another low-level language is sufficient);
  • Familiarity with digital logic design, such as the first course taught to electrical and computer engineers;
  • A laptop running Windows 10 or a recent version of Linux (Apple users can install one of these through VirtualBox or VMWare);
  • Installed Intel Quartus Lite Edition v18.1 (free).

Topic: Lightweight Cryptography and IOT – CANCELLED
Duration: 4 – Hours (4 PDH)

Workshop aims at providing basics about lightweight cryptography and its applicability in real world applications. Since the dawn of Internet of Things, data and system security have always been a major concern for the developers. As most of the IoT devices operate on 8-bit controllers,  to implement security using traditional crypto algorithms seems to be a challenge as they are heavy in footprint area, memory size and generally results in higher power consumption while encrypting a block of data.This led to the emergence of Lightweight cryptography which endorses algorithms which can consume less power, their hardware implementation should result in less Gate Equivalents (GE’s) and should consume less memory space.  The tutorial aims at demonstrating the application of lightweight ciphers in real time applications. The tutorial also aims at discussing key issues while designing new lightweight ciphers. In this tutorial, basic cryptographic attacks like Linear and Differential will also be thoroughly demonstrated.

Topic: Big Data in Healthcare
Presenters: Dr. Cheryl Ann Alexander & Dr. Lidong Wang
Duration: 4 – Hours (4 PDH)
Location: Von Braun South Hall – Ballroom 4 (4/11/19 13:00 – 17:00)

Big Data analytics is increasing in acceptance for use in healthcare. Many stakeholders find Big Data analytics can reduce medical costs and personalize medical services for the individual patients. Big Data analytics can be used in several ways; most common use cases are large-scale genetics studies, public health cases such as influenza outbreaks and infectious medicine control, personalized and precision medicine, and new drug development. The key to understanding and using Big Data analytics in healthcare cases is the presentation of the types, sources, and features of healthcare big data as well as the applications and benefits of Big Data analytics in healthcare and Precision and Predictive Medicine. Digital health data infrastructure and electronic health records (EHR) have been used in reaching public health goals such as health-related research, healthcare delivery in urban and rural populations, population health surveillance, most notably infectious disease prevention, and personal health management, including personalized medicine. Teleradiology and telemedicine systems enable healthcare delivery to rural and urban patients, as well as disparate populations.

The target audience for this workshop is all the stakeholders working in healthcare field. The suggested topics are wearable sensors, smart devices (e.g., Fitbit, Android, Apple devices, etc.), AI, cybersecurity in healthcare data, precision and predictive medicine, telemedicine, teleradiology, -omics, EHR, EMR, PHR (public health records), and any other topics related to the use of big data in healthcare

Topic: Hands-on SCADA Cyber-Security
Presenter: Rishabh Das
Duration: 4 – Hours (4 PDH)
Location: Embassy Suites – Big Spring D (4/12/19 08:00 – 12:00)

This workshop introduces the participants to a virtual heat exchanger simulator which provides a very robust platform to demonstrate the five main components of SCADA (sensor, cyber-physical link, controller, industrial protocol and human machine interface) and allows participants to experience firsthand how a SCADA system works. The curriculum designed using the simulator is divided into two major sections: Theory and Hands-on. In the theory, the participants are introduced to concepts bit by bit; real life examples of cyber physical plants are used to corelate the concepts of the lecture to the actual physical plants. After the introduction to the key concepts and definitions, four major attack vectors: Interruption, Interception, Modification and Injection and their impact on the C-I-A (Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability) triad are demonstrated. Real cyber incidents like, Stuxnet, Maroochy, Black energy and Newyork Dam incidents are used to corelate the attack vectors and their effects. Finally, participants are provided a brief descriptions of risk analysis, vulnerability timeline and defense-in-depth.

The practical session of the curriculum is built around the heat exchanger simulator and the exercises complements the theory very closely. The simulators allow the participants to understand the behavior of a SCADA system during a normal or an abnormal condition. Control algorithms like ON/OFF and PID control are demonstrated in the heat exchanger. Participants are provided a brief practical course on ladder logic development and three distinct attack vectors (Bad input in the HMI, volumetric denial of service and injection attack) are implemented using custom scripts, Low-orbit-ion-cannon and Radzio Modbus. The countermeasures of each attack are enforced using IPTables and by sanitizing the ladder logic program. Cyber-security awareness and impact of good programming practices is highlighted during the entirety of the coursework.

Topic: Partial Discharges (UPDATED)
Presenter: Pratap Basappa
Duration: 4 – Hours (4 PDH)
Location: Von Braun South Hall – Ballroom 4 (4/12/19 13:00 – 17:00)

A practical perspective: Partial Discharge (PD) is a localized electrical discharge that only partially bridges the insulation between conductors, and which may or may not occur adjacent to a conductor. They are classified as internal discharges occurring in voids(cavities), surface discharges occurring at boundary of different insulating materials and Corona discharges occurring in gaseous dielectrics in non-uniform fields. Although, PD may occur on application of high voltage to an insulation system, it may not result in immediate breakdown. However, a consistent occurrence of this pre-breakdown phenomenon will eventually result in failure of the insulation systems of power apparatus such as switchgear, power cables, transformers and rotating machinery.

Topic: Fast-tracking Safe Autonomous Vehicles through Simulation – CANCELLED
Presenter: ANSYS, Inc.
Duration: 2 – Hours (2 PDH)

Autonomous vehicles are threatening to disrupt the automotive, aerospace and industrial equipment industries with the emergence of self-driving cars, drones, and mobile autonomous robots. They promise to drastically reduce accidents, minimize congestion, bring mobility to the immobile, and perform mundane or hazardous tasks in a fraction of the time required by human-controlled vehicles.  The critical engineering challenge to overcome is demonstrating compliance with safety requirements. For an autonomous car, for example, this means driving billions of miles — a practical impossibility when time to market is critical. Autonomous vehicle makers are turning to “simulated miles driven, flown or maneuvered” as an alternative means of performing the required testing in a reasonable timeframe.  ANSYS will discuss how industry leaders are leveraging simulation and open, configurable virtual prototyping solutions to validate vehicle performance against safety requirements through leveraging high-fidelity sensor models plus open- and closed-loop simulations to validate the embedded software responsible for perception, localization, motion planning, and execution.
This session will discuss key components for simulating autonomous vehicle systems:

  • High-fidelity, physics-based simulations (including radar, lidar, camera and ultrasonic sensors, electronics reliability, and semiconductors)
  • Full closed-loop simulation with software-in-the-loop (SIL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL)
  • Model-based software development methods with certified safety-critical automatic code generation
  • Functional safety analysis and cybersecurity analysis methods and tools.

Topic: Algorithms for Analyzing Big Data – CANCELLED
Presenter: Dr. John Elder
Duration: 8 – Hours (8 PDH)

This one-day session surveys advanced methods for predictive modeling (aka machine learning). Predictive analytics has proven capable of generating enormous returns across industries – but, with so many machine learning modeling methods, there are some tough questions that need answering:

  • How do you pick the right one to deliver the greatest impact for your business, as applied over your data?
  • What are the best practices along the way?
  • How do you make it sure it works on new data?

In this tutorial, renowned practitioner and hugely popular instructor Dr. John Elder will describe the key inner workings of leading machine learning algorithms, demonstrate their performance with business case studies, compare their merits, and show you how to select the method and tool best suited to each predictive analytics project.

Attendees will leave with an understanding of the most popular algorithms, including classical regression, decision trees, nearest neighbors, and neural networks, as well as breakthrough ensemble methods such as bagging, boosting, and random forests.  This tutorial will also cover useful ways to visualize, select, reduce, and engineer features – such as principal components and projection pursuit. Most importantly, Dr. Elder reveals how the essential resampling techniques of cross-validation and bootstrapping make your models robust and reliable.

Topic: Guided Inquiry Collaborative Learning (GICL) in Cyber Security
Presenter: Drs. Xiaohong Yuan, Li Yang, and Wu He
Duration: 2 – Hour (2 PDH)
Location: Von Braun South Hall – Meeting Room 2 (4/12/19 13:00 – 15:00)

The landscape of cybersecurity is ever-changing, therefore, the primary task of  cybersecurity education is to teach students how to solve problems and think critically. To meet the demand for a workforce that can address the cybersecurity challenges confronting our society and our nation, cybersecurity programs in universities and colleges need to produce cybersecurity professionals who not only have in-depth technical knowledge in cybersecurity, but also have “soft skills” including communication, enthusiasm and attitude, team work, networking, problem solving and critical thinking, and professionalism. Guided Inquiry Collaborative Learning (GICL) is effective in improving student learning and key skills including “soft skills”. While hands-on labs and case studies have been developed for cybersecurity education, a large portion of cybersecurity classroom teaching is traditional/lecture-based.

Topic: Launching a New Product or Product Line?  Legal Strategies to Maximize Opportunity and Minimize Risk
Presenter: Stephen Hall
Duration: 2 – Hour (2 PDH)
Location: Von Braun South Hall – Meeting Room 2 (4/12/19 15:00 – 17:00)

Stephen Hall, an attorney in Bradley’s Huntsville Office, discusses the legal issues related to launching a new product or product line, including software-based products.  The discussion with include legal issues surrounding the original development, evaluation of competitor intellectual property, evaluation of different protection options for newly-developed products, and tips for naming, and branding the new product. The talk will focus largely on patent and trademark issues, but also address other contractual considerations, and open source software issues.

Topic: Reverse Engineering Network APIs
Presenter: Dan Nagle
Duration: 2 – Hour (2 PDH)
Location: Von Braun South Hall – Meeting Room 2 (4/12/19 10:00 – 12:00)

A foundational component of communication between devices is the TCP/IP network stack. Web browsing, streaming video, secure control, and innumerable other applications are built upon this technology. This 2-part demonstration will use open source tools to focus on the data transfer components UDP and TCP while targeting an IoT device. Part 1 is reverse-engineering the network commands to better understand them and then mimic it (a common attack strategy). Network protocols will be discussed during this process. Armed with our new knowledge and skills, part 2 will take them a step further to discover and analyze malware present on the IoT device. This presentation is light on slides and heavy on demos.

Topic: Introduction to GPS
Presenter: Dr. Elizabeth Chesnutt – MITRE
Duration: 1 – Hour (1 PDH)
Location: Von Braun South Hall – Ball Room 1 (4/12/19 15:30 – 17:00)

In this tutorial,  Dr. Chesnutt will describe the key workings of Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system.  Learn the fundamentals of how GPS works. Obtain an understanding of how it can determine your location and time, learn about the common sources of error, and hear about the future of military GPS.

Topic: Additive Manufacturing for Human Space Exploration (NEW)
Presenter: Kenneth Cooper – NASA
Duration: 1 – Hour (1 PDH)
Location: Von Braun South Hall – Meeting Room 1 (4/12/19 09:00 – 10:00)

Discussing the current state of NASA’s utilization of 3D Printing technologies from cubesats to Martian habitats, includes rocket engine test programs, process certification, and cool test firing videos.

Topic: Overview of Material and Process Development for Printable Electronics at MSFC (NEW)
Presenter: Curtis Hill – NASA
Duration: 1 – Hour (1 PDH)
Location: Von Braun South Hall – Meeting Room 1 (4/12/19 10:00 – 11:00)

The objective of NASA’s In-Space Manufacturing (ISM) Multi-Material Fabrication projects is to develop and enable the technologies, materials, and processes required to provide next-generation materials and process technologies for in-space manufacturing and repair during exploration missions.  Our development is in support of the ISM FabLab effort to develop a multi-material 3D printer for ISS and also for the development of advanced technologies for flexible sensors for Astronaut Crew Health Sensing and Environmental Sensing on ISS.  In this presentation, you will learn how innovations in materials and process development will lead to new applications and better performance on a wide variety of 3D printed applications in electronics for sensors, energy storage (supercapacitors), energy generation (thermoelectrics), and composite materials. New electronic pastes and filaments, new processing technologies, and new equipment are all being developed in support of these challenging tasks.  Short demonstration following talk.

Topic: Engineering Ethics for Professional Engineers (NEW)
Presenter: Griffin Pritchard – Alabama Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors
Duration: 2 – Hour (2 PDH)
Location: Von Braun South Hall – Ball Room 1 (4/12/19 13:00 – 15:00)

The BELS-led presentation will focus on refreshing professional engineers on the different canons of ethics they must adhere as part of receiving their certificate as well as a look at different case studies and their outcomes and a chance to answer different grey area questions.  The presentation will feature question and answer sessions at the end of the first hour and the second hour.

Are you ready to help when the next disaster strikes? At IEEE SoutheastCon 2019 you will have the opportunity to train to deploy with the IEEE-USA MOVE truck – visit the website to learn more about past deployments to disasters! Two types of training are required for deployment and are being offered at IEEE SoutheastCon. The Red Cross Disaster Services Technology 101 course normally takes 7 weeks to complete, but you will be able to complete it in one day on Thursday. On Sunday, you can take the MOVE truck training, with the truck on-site. To see details and register to participate: