Timely news-related posts can be found via LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deepakundur/detail/recent-activity/shares/.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL 2021.The dates no longer apply.

Mohammad Al Janaideh and I will be co-chairing the Security and Resilience of Autonomous Cyber-Physical Systems Special Track as part of IEEE ICAS 2020.

Cyber-physical systems have established themselves as critical building blocks for modern society. They can be found in energy, transportation, healthcare and robotics sectors. The tight integration of computational and telecommunication elements with application-based physical components provides and outstanding opportunity to engineer autonomous systems that can be adaptable and functional yet efficient. However, autonomy albeit advantageous in its convenience leads to natural concerns of trust and safety of these systems. Specifically, challenges exist in ensuring security and resilience. This special track aims to provide an exposition of leading-edge papers in the field of secure and resilient autonomous cyber-physical systems.

The Kundur (ECE, U of T) and Strauss (Psychiatry, U of T, CAMH) Research Groups have multiple openings for graduate students on a CIHR-funded project related to early relapse detection in youth depression. Our focus is a novel use of digital phenotyping technologies and leading-edge dynamic systems algorithm development in a clinical youth population (age 12-21) for the prediction and secondary prevention of major depressive disorder in youth (MDD-Y). With tested and validated algorithms, the potential exists to create a software agent (app) that would be used by youth and their clinicians to anticipate relapse in real time, for short-term prevention of MDD-Y relapse and improvement of long-term prognosis. More information and application instructions are found here: https://www.comm.utoronto.ca/~dkundur/prospective/.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Privacy is a growing concern for the future of smart grids. The smart aspect of the grid requires near real time monitoring of the grid state, including consumer demand and response behaviour, to increase the resilience and reliability of the grid. However, with advances in machine learning and data mining technologies, such fine-grained information about user activity can easily provide sensitive information about individual consumers, threatening their privacy. Hence, it is essential to develop information technologies that can provide the necessary security and reliability to the grid without sacrificing consumer privacy.

Topics of interest:

• Security against data injection and falsification attacks
• Intrusion detection in smart grids
• Privacy and security issues in AI applications in smart grids
• Key management and authorization in energy management systems
• Privacy in smart meters
• Privacy and security issues in smart grid interoperability
• Game theoretic study of smart grid security and privacy problems
• Information theoretic models of privacy and security in smart grids
• Data analytics-based approaches for privacy and security assessment and mitigation
• Secure integration of Internet-of-things solutions to smart grids
• Data analysis, simulation and assessment studies from testbeds and real-time implementations
• Cyber-physical security of energy storage and management systems
• Secure and private demand-response management
• Wide area monitoring and control for attack detection, prevention, mitigation
• Cyber-physical testbed development for risk analysis
• Cyber-physical security of distributed energy resources (DER) systems
• Cyber-physical security of micro-grids and DC grids

Submission Guidelines:
This Special Issue solicits original work that is not under consideration for publication in other venues. Please submit the full paper directly to the journal’s review system: www.ietdl.org/IET-STG
Any changes on deadlines or other updates related to this Special Issue will be announced in the “Call for papers for upcoming Special Issues” section of the above website.

Important Dates:
October 2019: Issue of call for paper
February 3, 2020: Deadline for submission of full papers (early submission is highly recommended)
March 1, 2021: Publication date

Guest Editorial Board:
Deniz Gunduz (Lead Guest Editor), Imperial College London, UK
Tobias Oechtering, KTH, Sweden
Gabriela Hug, ETHZ, Switzerland
Deepa Kundur, University of Toronto, Canada
Mohammadreza Arani, Ryerson University, Canada
Fei Teng, Imperial College London, UK

Editor-in-Chief:
Vince Poor, Princeton University, USA
Hongjian Sun, Durham University, UK

This month’s IEEE Signal Processing Magazine contains four exciting feature articles on identifying network structure via graph signal processing, solutions to the problem of graph learning, and state-of-the-art developments for modelling count time series in a signal processing framework. My collaborative feature article with Prof. Pirathayini Srikantha entitled Intelligent Signal Processing and Coordination for the Adaptive Smart Grid promises to be a good read. Great job, Piratha!

The Kundur Research Group has potential graduate-level (masters, PhD) openings for September 2019 at the interface of smart grid, cyber-physical security, data analytics, machine learning and distributed control. Students with strong academic records, good communication skills, and a natural interest in lifelong learning are encouraged to apply. Applicants should have an undergraduate degree or undergraduate and master’s degree in electrical & computer engineering or equivalent (e.g., systems engineering, computer science depending on the projects of interest) with relevant courses in area(s) of interest.

If you are a UofT student and are interested in research or graduate studies with me, feel free to email me for an appointment and come talk to me in person.

If you are interested in applying for graduate studies in Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, I encourage you to visit the UofT ECE Graduate Office website. If you decide to apply and would like me to consider your application, please list my name as a faculty member with whom you are interested in working with in your application.

The 2018 IEEE GlobalSIP Symposium on on Information Processing, Learning and Optimization for Smart Energy Infrastructures will be held November 26-28, 2018 at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, CA and is organized by Drs. Deepa Kundur, Yue Zhao, Hao Zhu and Emiliano Dall’Anese. The paper submission deadline is June 29, 2018 (NOTE: EXTENSION!)

The energy grid is undergoing a rapid transformation toward a more sustainable, efficient, resilient and secure infrastructure, in which advanced information science and technology play an essential role. New challenges emerge with the increasing penetration of renewable energy sources, extreme weather conditions, and cyber and physical security threats. Meanwhile, promising opportunities arise with next-generation monitoring and control devices as well as increasing customer participation. The rich algorithmic and analytical toolsets developed by the classical signal processing community along with contemporary and emerging advancements in the field are actively contributing to the development of innovative solutions for smart energy systems. Conversely, smart grid challenges are accelerating developments in core signal and information processing theory that are also applicable to new domains. This symposium aims to bring together researchers in the fields of information and signal processing, learning, and optimization for smart energy infrastructures.

The official symposium website and Call for Papers provides submission details.

Important Dates:

• June 29, 2018: Paper submission deadline <—- EXTENSION!
• August 7, 2018: Notification of acceptance
• August 22, 2018: Camera-ready paper due

Are you looking for an exciting graduate school experience in a vibrant research group? 

The Kundur Research Group at the University of Toronto has a variety of openings for masters and doctoral students starting September 2018 in the fields of smart grid, cybersecurity and resilience, machine learning and psychiatric informatics. More information can be found here.

If interested, please email Prof. Kundur (dkundur[at]ece[dot]utoronto[dot]ca) a resume/CV along with a copy of your transcripts and a brief statement in the body of your email 1) introducing yourself; 2) articulating why you are interested in pursuing graduate studies; 3) stating the topic(s) you are interested in pursuing; and 4) anything else you think is relevant.

Professor Deepa Kundur’s opinion piece on how the engineering profession is making progress in leveling the gender gap appears in MacLean’s. The article discusses how engineering is one of the professions in Canada with the narrowest pay gap and how balanced gender representation improves profitability. She highlights how engineers are complex problem solvers whose next brave step requires using their ingenuity to build bridges to address equity, diversity and inclusivity.

The article can be read here.

Thanks go to Marit Mitchell for her vision and support!

Professor Deepa Kundur was interviewed by Matt Galloway on CBC Metro Morning on December 6, the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women in Canada, about her memories of the Montreal Massacre in 1989. She highlights the significance of role models and the importance that the role higher education plays. Her interview can be heard here.

Former doctoral student, Jin Wei Kocsis, received the best paper award for her paper entitled “Towards Resilient Networked Microgrids: Blockchain-Enabled Peer-to-Peer Electricity Trading Mechanism” at the First IEEE Conference on Energy Intenet and Energy System Integration. Jin, you were a talented and trusted doctoral student whose idea to use energy storage system control to aid in transient stability was continued for a generation after you graduated. You clearly continue to inspire and influence others with your work. Go Jin! Go!

Former postdoctoral fellow Abdallah Farraj’s work entitled “Impact of Cyber Attacks on Data Integrity in Transient Stability Control” by Farraj, Hammad and Kundur was featured by the Smart Cybersecurity Network (SERENE-RISC). The research, originally presented at the 2nd Workshop on Cyber-Physical Security and Resilience in Smart Grids at CPSWeek 2017, considered the impact of false data injection attacks on transient stability control schemes that make use of energy storage systems.

The Smart Cybersecurity Network (SERENE-RISC) is a knowledge mobilization network created to improve the general public’s awareness of cybersecurity risks and to empower all to reduce those risks through knowledge. SERENE-RISC is using knowledge mobilization, a technique that involves moving knowledge from where it was created to where it can be used, strengthening connections among research, policy and practice. Knowledge mobilization takes a scientific approach to implementing and harmonizing multiple research disciplines and to sharing that research between research producers (e.g. university researchers) and the end-users who could benefit from the research results, including government, industry and not-for-profit representatives. Great job, Abdallah! Paper details follow:

Elevate AI is a one-day event organized by MaRS, the Vector Institute, CDL, Element AI, and Factory Ventures to demonstrate the undeniable impact that artificial intelligence will have on humanity. It is part of the Elevate Toronto Festival running September 12-14, 2017.

At Elevate AI, which takes place September 13, 2017, speakers will address the untold story of Canada’s role in building global AI, the use of AI to solve global problems, and how to incorporate AI into business and talent: the currency of AI. As part of a panel on Building the AI ecosystem in Canada, Professor Deepa Kundur will discuss the importance of producing high quality talent in this emerging environment.

Former doctoral student, Jin Wei Kocsis, continues to amaze as she receives the NASA Early Career Faculty Award for her three-year project entitled RNCP: A Resilient Networking and Computing Paradigm for NASA Space Exploration.

NASA selected eight university-led proposals for the study of innovative, early-stage technologies that address high priority needs of America’s space program. The grants from NASA’s Space Technology Research Grants program are worth up to $200,000 per year with up to three years of research. The grants are awarded to outstanding faculty researchers early in their careers as they conduct space technology development of high priority to NASA. The proposals address unique, disruptive or transformational technologies. Yay, Jin! You are missed!

Piratha Srikantha was recently featured as an Engineering Grad to Watch in 2017. The now, Dr. Srikantha, will be beginning a tenure-track faculty position at Western University as of July 1, 2017. So proud of you, Piratha! Can’t wait to see the amazing things you will do.

CALL FOR PAPERS: IEEE Journal on Selected Topics in Signal Processing
Special Issue on Signal and Information Processing for Critical Infrastructures

This special issue of IEEE J-STSP will showcase the research from the signal and information processing community that is providing leadership in advancing the design, analysis, optimization, and operation of critical infrastructures. Particularly of interest to this special issue will be novel multidisciplinary signal processing approaches at the nexus of big data analytics, control, game theory, and machine learning.

Topics of interest and details can be found in the official CFP.

Important Dates:
Manuscript submission due: October 15, 2017 
First review completed: December 15, 2017
Revised manuscript due: February 1, 2018
Second review completed April 15, 2018
Final manuscript due: June 1, 2018
Publication: August 2018

Prospective authors should visit http://www.signalprocessingsociety.org/publications/periodicals/jstsp/ for submission information. Manuscripts should be submitted using ScholarOne (Manuscript Central) at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/jstsp-ieee.

Guest Editors:
Deepa Kundur, University of Toronto (Lead), dkundur [at] ece.utoronto.ca
Javier Contreras, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Javier.Contreras [at] uclm.es
Dipti Srinivasan, National University of Singapore, dipti [at]nus.edu.sg
Nikolaos Gatsis, University of Texas at San Antonio, Nikolaos.Gatsis [at] utsa.edu
Meng Wang, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, wangm7 [at] rpi.edu
Srinivas Peeta, Purdue University, peeta [at] purdue.edu

Professor Deepa Kundur’s invited OpEd piece  on cyber security and implications to Canada appears in the opinion section of the Globe and Mail.

Congratulations go to former doctoral student, Jin Wei Kocsis, for receiving a coveted best paper award at the 2016 IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting in Boston for her work entitled: “Towards Smarter Cities: A Self-Healing Resilient Microgrid Social Network” by He, Mendis and Wei. Yay, Jin! You are missed, but are making us all very proud with your continued accomplishments!

Concordia University hosted the IEEE Signal Processing Society Winter School on Distributed Signal Processing for Secure Cyber Physical Systems on November 2 to 4, 2016 in Montreal, Canada, sponsored by the IEEE Signal Processing Society and IEEE Montreal Chapters. Speakers included:

• Ali H. Sayed
• Pramod K. Varshney
• Georgios B. Giannakis
• Tongwen Chen
• Deepa Kundur
• Mark Coates
• Usman Khan
• Arash Mohammadi
• Sajith Nair

More information and Winter School presentations are found at the Winter School website.

Congratulations go to both Eman Hammad and Pirathayini Srikantha for each receiving a C.W. Bowman Graduate Scholarship administered by the University of Toronto (UofT) Institute for Sustainable Energy. The Clem Bowman Graduate Scholarship is presented to graduate students registered in the Faculty of Applied Science and Engineering at UofT in recognition of their outstanding academic achievement and leading scientific work in energy research and technology, that not only furthers the boundaries of important engineering research but the interests of humanity. Yay, Eman and Piratha!

IET Generation, Transmission & Distribution
Cyber-Physical Power Systems: Design, Modeling, Simulation and Control

Guest Editors: Deepa Kundur, Karen Butler-Purry and Jin Wei Kocsis

[PDF of Guest Editorial]
[PDF of Archival Call for Papers]

After a year of paper recruiting, reviewing and decision-making, we are proud to present the first IET Generation, Transmission and Distribution Special Issue on Cyber-Physical Power Systems. Cyber-physical power systems, also known as smart grids, provide unprecedented opportunities for improved efficiency, reliability, consumer-centricity and resilience of energy delivery through the integration of information technology within the power grid. Thus, the design mantra for smart grid evolution can be described, in part, as “knowledge is power.”

This special issue includes 9 papers that provide a cyber-physical flavor to power systems research and development studies. Papers focus on novel “smart grid” designs that consider cyber and physical system elements, modeling and simulation approaches that embody cyber-physical interactions as well as control paradigms at the cyber-physical interface of these systems.

It is clear that the field of cyber-physical power system modelling, design, simulation and control is a growing area in which information technology innovation interacts with operations technology and regulation. This Special Issue is intended to provide an overview of the area through select snapshots of research and development contributions in the field. We hope that this collection inspires continued technological progress, greater debate, and increased interaction between the many forces affecting and affected by the field of smart grid.

Relevant Dates:
Manuscript Submission deadline:
31 August 2015
Print publication date:
August 2016

The 2016 IEEE GLOBECOM Workshop on Cyber-Physical Security and Resilience held December 4, 2016 in Washington DC is organized by Drs. Deepa Kundur, Abdallah Farraj, Marthe Kassouf and Hamed Mohsenian-Rad. The Workshop Website and CFP (PDF format) are available. The paper submission deadline is July 1, 2016.

Smart grids are undergoing a rapid technological, economic and environmental evolution. The marriage of information and communication technologies with traditional energy production, delivery and distribution systems, aims to create more reliable, efficient, environmentally-friendly and consumer-centric energy systems. However, this increased dependence on information technology heightens system vulnerabilities to include those of its cyber-enabled components. The high degree of complexity, connectedness and collaboration of emerging energy systems makes comprehensive identification of weaknesses challenging. To help secure future energy systems, approaches to protect and enhance resilience during both system design and operations are critical.

This workshop addresses issues of cyber-physical smart grid security and resilient energy system design and operation. Emphasis is placed on efficient strategies that harness communication networking, computation and/or control to improve security and resilience through increased adaptability, reliability and functionality. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

• Cyber-physical security models and metrics
• Smart grid resilience metrics
• Resilient cyber-physical control
• Software defined networks (SDN) for enhanced smart power system security
• Cognitive communication systems for resilient energy systems
• Cyber-physical co-simulation for security and resilience assessment
• Smart grid communication protocols security analysis
• Cyber-physical resilience for energy systems with a high penetration of renewable sources
• System planning and design for secure energy systems
• Role of storage and distributed generation in system resilience
• Microgrids and resilience
• Smart grid optimization for improved survivability and robustness
• Cloud-based smart grid analytics
• Big data for improved situational awareness for enhanced security and resilience
• Reshaping system dynamics for resiliency to attack
• Secure load and renewable energy forecasting, modeling and monitoring
• Energy system state estimation for enhanced resilience

Fourth year capstone design project students with Professor Deepa Kundur, Anthony Kwan, Aditi Kumaraswamy and Sumieth Kulendran, were featured on the Discovery Channel for their navigation aid for the blind called, the NAVI. Click on the photo above to access the video.

The ECE Department and Centre for Power and Information (CPI) at the University of Toronto are hosting a CPI Research Showcase on April 18, 2016 in the Sanford Fleming Building (10 King’s College Road), Room 1105.The Showcase plans to be an interesting, stress-free and fun-filled day, with talks, demos and posters. Refreshments and lunch will be served.

One main objective of the event is to bring together people from the broad University community as well as local industry to open a dialogue on topics related to “smart infrastructure” and energy systems. We hope that this showcase helps to both inspire existing work and encourage future opportunities.

Speakers include:
Professor Ben Liang on Stochastic Optimization of Renewable Integrated Power Grids
Professor Josh Taylor on Representing Storage and Demand Response in Power System Operations
Professor Steve Mann on Grasping Gravitational Waves with the Gravlet Transform: Unlocking the Secrets of Nature with the SWIM (Sequential Wave Imprinting Machine)
Professor Zeb Tate on Sustainability and the Smart Grid
Professor Deepa Kundur on Cyber-Physical Security of Energy Infrastructure

Demos include:
EV Power Train Demo by Professor Peter Lehn
SWIM Demo by Professor Steve Mann

There will also be Research Posters from several research groups.

We open a broad invitation to the UofT community and hope to see many of you at this event. Attendance requires online registration at:
https://www.ece.utoronto.ca/research/workshops/cpi-research-showcase-april-18-2016/

Hope to see you there! For more information, please contact Deepa Kundur (dkundur@ece.utoronto.ca).

The 7th ACM International Conference on Future Energy Systems (ACM e-Energy 2016) is being held June 21-24, 2016 in Waterloo, Canada. ACM e-Energy aims to be the premier venue for researchers working in the broad areas of computing and communication for smart energy systems, and in energy-efficient computing and communication systems.

In particular we invite papers for submission to the 2016 ACM e-Energy Workshop on Communications, Computation and Control for Resilient Smart Energy Systems that is being organized and hosted on June 21, 2016. More information (CFP, submission instructions) are found here. For inquiry and questions, please feel free to contact the workshop organizers:

• Deepa Kundur, General Chair
• Abdallah Farraj, Technical Program Chair

Please note that Workshop papers will be published as part of the ACM e-Energy proceedings in the ACM digital library.

UofT ECE Alumni were invited to the Fall ECE Alumni Networking Reception to catch up with classmates and hear a lecture by Professor Deepa Kundur (a three-time ECE alumnus herself, ElecE 9T3, MASc 9T5, PhD 9T9) on her current cyber-security research. The event was a great success with the event’s registration filling capacity early. More information on ECE Alumni Events can be found here.

Deepa Kundur (Elec 9T3) and Gary Knopf (Elec 5T7) at ECE Fall Alumni Reception.

Professor Deepa Kundur gave a well-attended invited guest lecture on November 17, 2015 entitled Photography and the History of the Manipulated Image  in tandem with The Robert McLaughlin Gallery exhibit Mindful Manipulation (Selections from the Thomas Bouckley Collection) that runs from August 26, 2015 to January 10, 2016. The talk was presented in partnership with The Robert McLaughlin Gallery and the Oshawa Historical Society.

Lecture Abstract: “Seeing is believing” and “a picture is worth a thousand words” are common idioms that have shaped and influenced the way in which we have interpreted, weighed and valued photographs in society. But what if these photographs are not what they seem? In this talk we will begin with a historical account of doctored photographs leading to modern digital techniques for image modification. We will discuss the emerging field of digital forensics and its technological use in applications beyond classical image modification.

Deepa Kundur was interviewed by Makda Ghebreslassie of CBC Radio Television News to express her opinion regarding the viral video of U.S. hackers controlling a Jeep Cherokee to crash. Parts of her interview aired at on the 6 o’clock CBC Toronto news and nationally across Canada on CBC Radio. Her television interview is found here and her radio comments here.

Deepa Kundur has been featured in an interview for the European Alliance for Innovations (EAI) newsletter, and on blog and social media channels. She discusses security and privacy of smart grids and smart cities as well as the Smart Grids for Smart Cities Conference, for which she is General Chair, held in Toronto, Canada October 13-14, 2015 that is co-located with the SmartCity360 Summit.

Deepa Kundur appeared on CityNews interviewed by Cynthia Mulligan to discuss a cyber attack on federal government computing resources.

The University of Toronto is hosting a multi-disciplinary workshop entitled Information Security in a Connected World on May 5, 2015 in Sanford Fleming Building Room 1105. Professor Deepa Kundur along with other speakers from across the University will be exploring the security benefits and risks of the growing trend of cyber-enablement in modern applications as well as opportunities that can bring together researchers from disparate fields to meet the challenges of achieving security in a connected world. The full agenda outlines the list and topics of speakers. Registration is required to attend the workshop.

 Professor Deepa Kundur serves as General Chair for  the International Conference on Smart Grids for Smart Cities (SGSC), which is collocated with Smart City 360 Summit 2015 in Toronto, Canada from October 13 to October 16. SGSC 2015 focuses on utilizing new ideas and technologies in the field of smart grid to make our urban environment more sustainable, increasing quality of life and efficiency of urban infrastructure, operation, services, and competitiveness while meeting the needs of present and future generations with respect to economic, social and environmental aspects in smart cities.

The CFP is found here. The submission deadline is May 31, 2015.

The GlobalSIP’15 Symposium on Signal and Information Processing for Optimizing Future Energy Systems invites papers on cutting-edge optimization techniques, approaches and theory for cyber-physical energy systems, as well as new analytical insights for traditional and modern power grid problems. The CFP is here! The submission deadline is: May 25, 2015.

For inquiries and questions please contact the Symposium Chairs: Nikolaos Gatsis, Hao Zhu, Abdallah Farraj or Deepa Kundur.

Doctoral Candidate, Eman Hammad (left), was the recipient of the J.L. Allen Yen Scholarship for demonstrating high academic achievement in Electrical Engineering. Masters Candidate, Joseph Dongchan Lee (right), won the H.W. Price Research Fellowship in Electrical Engineering for demonstrating academic excellence in an area relevant to Hydro One. Yay, Eman and Joseph! We are indeed proud to have you in the group!

UofT Engineering has featured Ten female students to watch as well as Female professors advancing four key areas in engineering research in honour of International Women’s Day. Professor Deepa Kundur was featured along Professors Emma Master, Keryn K. Lian and Jennifer Drake.

Professor Deepa Kundur was briefly interviewed by Peter Kim on Global News regarding hacking.

Congratulations go to doctoral candidate Eman Hammad who won a best poster award for her work entitled Off-Grid Cooperative Microgrid Networks with High Renewable Penetration at the Institute of Sustainable Energy (ISE) Research Symposium on Friday, November 21, 2014. Fifty posters were presented at the ISE Sympsoium displaying the impressive breadth of energy research at the University of Toronto.

Professor Deepa Kundur was interviewed nationally on CBC Morning Radio on the U.S. indictment of five Chinese military hackers. Her interview can be heard here (interview starts 32 min into the 1 hour show).

Professor Deepa Kundur was featured in ECE ANNUM on her research group’s work on biologically inspired flocking models for achieving smart grid resilience.

The Institute of Sustainable Energy at the University of Toronto was featured in Skulematters Magazine discussing the need for teams of interdisciplinary researchers to tackle problems of high impact. The research work of Dave Sinton, Deepa Kundur and Heather MacLean was featured.

A recent discussion on cyber security issues can be found on CBC’s Turning Point Panel, which aired October 8, 2013. The Panel consisted of Professor Deepa Kundur, Brian Stewart, distinguished senior fellow at University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs, Dr. Samantha Nutt, founder of War Child Canada, and Mark Raymond of the Centre for International Governance Innovation at University of Waterloo.