Qu Wins NIST Grant

Qu Wins NIST Grant

Qu Wins NIST Grant


The U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have partnered to grant Professor Gang Qu (ECE/ISR/MC2) approximately $100,000 to study the use of Silicon Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) as an entropy source.

Cryptographic keys play a vital role in modern cryptography and almost all security applications. A short key is easy to break, but a longer key does not guarantee better security. For a key to be strong, it must be random and unpredictable, which can be measured by entropy. In this project, Dr. Qu will investigate whether the randomness in silicon fabrication variation can be captured and used as a source to generate entropy and to enhance the quality of other entropy sources. 

"This is the first time that the NIST Computer Security Division awards a research grant specifically focused on randomness extraction in hardware security research," said Dr. Apostol Vassilev, the technical director of NIST's Cryptographic Module Validation Program, "It will be very interesting to investigate how hardware can generate entropy and we are excited about the opportunity to work with Dr. Qu and his group."

Ring Oscillator (RO) PUF captures the timing difference of a pair ROs introduced during the fabrication process and defines one bit of information based on which RO is faster. Since 2008, Dr. Qu and his group have published a series of research papers on how to improve the security, robustness, and hardware efficiency of RO PUF. In this one-year project, the research team proposes to conduct both a theoretical analysis on the entropy provided by different implementations of RO PUF and hardware simulation and prototyping to collect empirical evidence. In addition, the team will exploit how silicon PUF can be integrated with other entropy sources. The researchers anticipate that successful completion of this project will also directly impact hardware related design for trustworthy computing, which is critically important for cybersecurity.

Dr. Qu, a leader in hardware security research, is known for his work on hardware design intellectual property protection (by watermarking, fingerprinting, and obfuscation), ring oscillator physical unclonable functions (PUF), trusted integrated circuit design, and their applications in the Internet of Things (IoT). He is currently leading the Maryland Embedded Systems and Hardware Security (MeshSec) lab and the Wireless Sensor Laboratory. 

Related Articles:
Alumnus Amr Adly Promoted to Vice President at Cairo University
UMD Researchers Creating First Onboard Fast-Charging System for Electric Vehicles
NSF Funds Novel Research to Create Scalable Wireless Networking, Averting Usage Crisis
Improving Fairness and Trust in AI Used for College Admissions and Language Translation
Srivastava wins NSF funding for integrated circuit fabrication security
Espy-Wilson Featured in MIT’s Tech Review
UMD Researchers’ New Nanoscale Solar Cells Could Revolutionize Solar Industry
Khaligh Wins Best Vehicular Electronics Paper Award for Third Time
ECE Announces Computer Engineering Minor
Liu Wins Wylie Dissertation Fellowship

January 5, 2016


Prev   Next
"This is the first time that the NIST Computer Security Division awards a research grant specifically focused on randomness extraction in hardware security research."

Dr. Apostol Vassilev

Technical Director
Cryptographic Module Validation Program
NIST



Current Headlines

MATRIX Lab Hires Assistant Director for Research Development

Reliability Engineering PhD Candidate Sami Wismer wins PSA 2025 Best Student Paper Award

State of Affairs: UMD Team Assesses Energy Efficiency of Maryland’s Capital

TPTPR Conference Showcased Cutting-Edge Research on Eco-Friendly Refrigerants

Fischell Institute Hosts Maryland Department of Commerce Secretary

Rudolph Awarded Women in Defense Scholarship

Edward Eisenstein Elected President of American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Why 'Thinking More' Isn't Always Making Generative AI Smarter

News Resources

Return to Newsroom

Search News

Archived News

Events Resources

Events Calendar

Bioengineering Senators

Yang Tao

Immediate Past Chair

Beatrice Kondo

Senior Lecturer

Catherine Kuo

Associate Professor

Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering Senators

Panagiotis Dimitrakopoulos

Associate Professor

Amy Karlsson

Associate Professor

Esohe Fawole

Associate Professor

Civil & Environmental Engineering Senators

Xianfeng (Terry) Yang

Assistant Professor

Mark Austin

Associate Professor

Marya Anderson

Senior Faculty Specialist

Electrical & Computer Engineering Senators

André Tits

Professor

Kevin Daniels

Assistant Professor

Romel (Mel) Gomez

Professor

Yavuz Oruc

Professor

Danilo Romero

Senior Lecturer

William Hawkins

Lecturer

Fire Protection Engineering Senators

Fernando Raffan-Montoya

Assistant Professor

Vacant

Materials Science & Engineering Senators

Luz Martinez-Miranda

Associate Professor

Ray Phaneuf

Professor

Amber Johnson

Director, UMD Radiation Facilities

Mechanical Engineering Senators

Nikhil Chopra

Senate Chair

Johan Larsson

Associate Professor

Eleonora Tubaldi

Assistant Professor

Yunho Hwang

Research Professor

Cecelia Huertas Cerdeira

Assistant Professor

Vacant

Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics Senators

Carol Espy Wilson

Professor

Thomas "Tom" Murphy

Professor