Cyber-physical Security of Power Electronics Systems

 

  1. Instructor Team

Alan Mantooth, University of Arkansas,  mantooth@uark.edu

Chris Farnell, University of Arkansas, cfarnell@uark.edu

Jin Ye, University of Georgia, jin.ye@uga.edu

  1. Abstract:
    This tutorial is intended to introduce the recent advancements in cyber-physical security of power electronics systems.  With increasing connectivity and software-based control, power electronics systems have become vulnerable to a variety of cyber-attacks, ranging from data integrity attacks to the denial-of-service attacks. This tutorial is organized into three parts: Part I overviews vulnerabilities and describes the open-source architecture that the UA Power Group has defined as a basis for cyber-hardened by design approaches; Part II presents potential attack vectors and mitigations at the device-level; and Part III discusses attack impacts and cyber-attack detection and diagnosis.

 

  1. Duration of Tutorial:  3 hours
  1. Tutorial Outline
  2. Sections Instructor Subtitle Brief Description

     

    		  Time Allocation

     
    I Alan Cybersecurity hardening by design We will describe the open-source architecture that the UA Power Group has developed for promoting cyber hardening by design to maximize the security of connected power electronics.

     

    		 1 hour
    II Chris Device-Level attack vectors and mitigation We will discuss what happens once an attacker breaches the security of a user’s network and gains access to the system. We will then present several techniques for detection and mitigation of potential attacks.

     

    		 1 hour
    III Jin Attack impacts and attack detection We will start with assessment of a variety of cyber-attacks on PV system, causing performance degradation and system instability. Then we will present a few techniques for cyber-attack detection.

     

    		 1 hour

 

  1. Tutorial format and Required Material:

Traditional Tutorial format using PowerPoint and a projector

 

  1. Instructors Biographies:

Alan Mantooth received the B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. degrees from the University of Arkansas in 1985 and 1986, and the Ph.D. degree from Georgia Tech in 1990. He then joined Analogy, a startup company in Oregon. In 1998, he joined the faculty of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where he currently holds the rank of Distinguished Professor. His research interests now include analog and mixed-signal IC design & CAD, semiconductor device modeling, power electronics, power electronic packaging, and cybersecurity. Dr. Mantooth established the National Center for Reliable Electric Power Transmission (NCREPT) at the UA in 2005. Professor Mantooth serves as the Founding Director of the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center on GRid-connected Advanced Power Electronic Systems (GRAPES). He was Executive Director of the Cybersecurity Center on Secure, Evolvable Energy Delivery Systems (SEEDS) funded by the U.S. Department of Energy from 2015-2022. Dr. Mantooth currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Open Journal of Power Electronics. He is a past-president of the IEEE Power Electronics Society, a Fellow of IEEE, a member of Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu, and registered professional engineer in Arkansas. He is the recipient of the 2023 Harry A. Owen, Jr. Distinguished Service Award for the IEEE Power Electronics Society.



Jin Ye received the B.S. and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China, in 2008 and 2011, respectively. She also received her Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 2014. She is currently an assistant professor of electrical engineering and the director of the intelligent power electronics and electric machines laboratory at the University of Georgia. She is a general chair of 2019 IEEE Transportation Electrification Conference and Expo (ITEC), a publication chair and women in engineering chair of 2019/2020 IEEE Energy Conversion Congress and Expo (ECCE). She is an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics, IEEE Open Journal of Power Electronics, IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification and IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. Her main research areas include power electronics, electric machines, energy management systems, smart grids, electrified transportation, and cyber-physical systems.

 


Chris Farnell received the B.S.E.E., M.S.E.E., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Arkansas in 2010, 2017, and 2022, respectively. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at the University of Arkansas. His research interests include Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure, Embedded System Design, FPGA Design, Advanced Control Algorithms, and Power Electronics. He is currently serving as an Associate Director for the National Center for Reliable Electric Power Transmission (NCREPT) located at the University of Arkansas. This 12,000 ft2 laboratory provides the equipment, technical staff, and instrumentation to test and evaluate power electronic circuits and systems at realistic industrial and distribution voltage levels up to 6 MVA power ratings. Chris is the current chair for the IEEE Ozark Section, treasurer for the newly formed IEEE Computer Society Chapter, the CyberHogs Registered Student Organization (RSO) faculty mentor, and remains active in K-12 outreach activities.