Training stellar students to secure semiconductors

In the wetlands of King’s Bay, Georgia, the sail of a nuclear-powered Trident II Submarine laden with sophisticated computer equipment juts out of the marshy waters. In a medical center, a cardiac surgeon prepares to implant a state-of-the-art wireless pacemaker in a waiting patient. In a suburban supermarket, a busy mom waves a credit card over a payment processing terminal to buy her family’s groceries.

These scenarios all have one thing in common: They illustrate the world’s dependence on technology powered by microelectronics. From fighter jets to flat-panel televisions, from cars to credit cards — microchips, or chips, are everywhere.

And they are vulnerable to attack.

Michel Kinsy, an associate professor of computer science and engineering in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, is a leading expert on microelectronics and is on a mission to find ways to effectively protect them.

In 2020, he founded the Secure, Trusted, and Assured Microelectronics (STAM) Center, a consortium of six laboratories, each with a different research theme but a common purpose: to prepare the best students for challenging careers in securing the nation’s microchips.

Kinsy has created an experiential learning system that begins with recruiting capable, interested students and connecting them with opportunities to solve microelectronics security problems, working on both hardware and software.

“The most dynamic and rewarding opportunities available in the microelectronics industry require a solid technical foundation,” Kinsy says. “Therefore, early access to advanced training is essential for developing the necessary skills and competencies to contribute effectively to ongoing revitalization initiatives. The STAM Center is playing a significant role in this training pathway.”

At a workstation in the STAM Center, doctoral students use a high-powered microscope to inspect microchips, learning to spot defects and deviations in the designs. On nearby computers, they create machine learning algorithms — a type of artificial intelligence, or AI — to make software programs that will be able to help detect counterfeits.

The STAM Center’s mission is of particular interest to the U.S. Department of Defense, or DOD. In a world where ballistic submarines carry 54% of America’s nuclear arsenal and those submarines are dependent on microelectronics to properly operate, ensuring that microchips destined for those computers have not been tampered with is vital to national and global safety.

In fact, concerns about microelectronic attacks have been mounting for some time. In 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ordered the recall of half a million pacemakers due to concerns that they could be hacked. In February of this year, FBI Director Christopher Wray said hackers are targeting water treatment plans, the electrical grid and transportation systems with cyberphysical attacks, or hybrid attempts to compromise both hardware and software.

With an increasing amount of information stored on chips, hacking microelectronics can allow bad actors to eavesdrop on cell phone calls, harvest usernames and passwords, and even discern, in real time, what a computer’s user is typing.

Because addressing current and future workforce shortages is essential, the DOD works closely with Kinsy in the STAM Center. The agency provides information about real problems they are encountering in the field, gives access to the real equipment that they use and occasionally embeds experts in the center who work directly with students.

The STAM Center team then goes to work. They conduct outreach activities for high school students, provide workshops and learning opportunities for undergraduates and ultimately recruit doctoral students to conduct research across their six laboratories.

While Kinsy takes the mission of securing government infrastructure very seriously, he explains that the center’s work has broader social implications.

“People tend to associate the Department of Defense with the creation of military technology,” he says. “But the agency’s real mandate is ensuring America’s security and prosperity. The research it supports extends to protecting people in their everyday lives.”

He points to work underway in the STAM Center to study, and ultimately prevent, near field communication skimming. Most credit cards today contain an EMV chip that facilitates contactless payment if a customer brings their card near a payment terminal. As more people tap instead of swipe, criminals are finding new ways to steal data.

While the research has potential defense implications, it will also provide better day-to-day security for Americans.

Kinsy’s experiential learning system works.

In 2022, Alan Ehret completed his doctoral degree in computer engineering in the STAM Center. After graduation, he joined Secure Micro Technologies, a startup founded by Kinsy’s former students and researchers. The new company works with federal government partners, including the DOD, to design and deploy secure and high-assurance computing systems.

As head of hardware development, Ehret has been busy designing new technology including The Pioneer, a next-generation mobile hybrid cyber range platform. A cyber range is a piece of equipment that simulates a complex network, allowing cybersecurity professionals to spot vulnerabilities in both hardware and software.

The new design from Ehret and the group adds hardware-in-the-loop capabilities, or the ability to connect controllers, making it ideal to help secure industrial systems such as power grids.

Secure Micro Technologies is helmed by Heather R. Kinsy, a graduate of the Fulton Schools industrial engineering program and the W. P. Carey School of Business, who joined as president following a successful career including experience in aerospace, defense, management consulting and biopharmaceuticals.

She says the startup is well-positioned to put the STAM Center’s graduates to work.

“Secure Micro Technologies offers a distinctive value proposition to its defense industrial base clients by bridging the gap between fundamental research and practical application through the development of prototype systems for validation, testing and field deployment,” Heather Kinsy says. “The STAM Center’s students seem to really thrive in that space. They are simply the best we have recruited.”

Current researchers in the STAM Center see their work in the center as laying a strong foundation for future careers. Among them is Eric Jahns, a student seeking a doctoral degree in computer science and working with Michel Kinsy’s team.

“I believe our work is important as it addresses the increasing demand for a skilled workforce in secure microelectronics,” Jahns says. “By equipping us with the expertise to meet both current and future needs, the center ensures we are prepared to tackle emerging security threats and drive innovation.”

Michel Kinsy plans to build on the center’s early success by continuing to foster collaborations with the DOD and national laboratory partners, as well as with ASU stakeholders such as the Fulton Schools and University Provost Nancy Gonzales.

“The STAM Center stands as a model for the nation’s goal of revitalizing sustainable and trusted microelectronics development in the U.S.,” Michel Kinsy says.