A new research exchange with Turkey to excel in security of IIoT
Dr. İsmail Bütün at STC has been awarded 150,000 SEK from STINT to initiate a joint research collaboration between Mid Sweden University and Hacettepe University (HU) in Ankara, Turkey. The universities will collaborate on the development of the security of Industrial Internet of Things, IIoT.
Congratulations!! How does it feel to get this grant?
This project is really exciting and it aligns with my research field information security, in which I have worked since my Master’s degree in 2006. This is actually my “home university” where I studied at before my PhD in 2013. Hacettepe University, which was founded in 1954, is the first Turkish university to offer a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering.
The education language is 100% English. The department has 23 active Professors and 22 graduate Assistants. It has approximately 700 undergraduate and 300 graduate students. The department has graduated more than 2 000 computer engineers so far. Therefore, they are very prominent in Computer Science which makes us very glad to work with them.
Why are these two universities working together?
Both participants have strong knowledge of Computer Networks Security and Informatics. The team at Mid Sweden University is especially expert in the applications and analytics of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The team at Hacettepe University on the other hand, has a great experience of the application of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cyber-security, especially on Intrusion Detection Systems. During the ongoing project, we are also initiating an ERASMUS application process for student exchange to work even closer together in a near future.
What is the goal of the project?
The purpose of the project is Detecting Intrusions in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). IIoT is a booming industry in the U.S. as well as in Europe. It is a new paradigm and introduces new challenges to us, engineers. Neither enough data sets nor enough solutions are provided for the security of the collected data through IIoT.
Hence, we are going to focus on creating efficient algorithms which will catch up the act of hacking, we call them intrusions. Hackers are constantly trying to steal information and distribute different ill-mannered actions. IIoT and its greater family Internet of Things are now becoming a part of the everyday life with smart systems, smart cities, smart industry, etc. and users of all these things need to be protected.
How will you cooperate?
The project will start now in September’18. I will be the Project Manager from Mid Sweden University and Associate Prof. Sevil Şen will lead her team from Hacettepe University. The project also includes STC Senior Researchers Dr. Ulf Jennehag and Dr. Stefan Forsström. Prof. Mikael Gidlund, Prof. Tingting Zhang. Dr. Patrik Österberg from Mid Sweden University will be advising the project.
We are also going to involve a number of master and doctoral students from both universities. We will visit each other’s universities during the year to plan and coordinate our research. These visits will also include organization of seminars and workshops for dissemination of the knowledge.
Finally, we are hoping that the results of our research will be a good starting point to extend our research and eventually apply for more funding from the European Union as well as STINT and other research funders.
