John S. Baras

ECE Faculty Honored at Inaugural Scholarship & Research Celebration

The University of Maryland held the Inaugural Scholarship and Research Celebration on Thursday, May 1, 2008 to honor faculty research across the university. President C. D. Mote, Provost and Senior Vice President Nariman Farvardin, and Vice President for Research Mel Bernstein delivered remarks at the event.
In all, 27 faculty researchers from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department were honored, representing around 1/8 of those who were recognized at the event, despite the fact that ECE faculty constitute a much smaller proportion among the total faculty population at the University of Maryland.
Those honored on the Scholarship and Research Celebration program included: John Baras, David Barbe, Alexander Barg, Shuvra Bhattacharyya, Rama Chellappa, Mario Dagenais, Christopher Davis, Anthony Ephremides, Reza Ghodssi, Romel Gomez, Victor Granatstein, Bruce Jacob, K. J. Ray Liu, Steve Marcus, Nuno Martins, Isaak Mayergoyz, John Melngailis, Thomas Murphy, Patrick O'Shea, Gang Qu, Martin Reiser, Raj Shekhar, Igor Smolyaninov, Ankur Srivastava, Uzi Vishkin, Edo Waks, and Min Wu, as well as ECE affiliate faculty Michael Fu.

Event Info: Inaugural Scholarship and Research Celebration
Date: May 1, 2008
Place: University of Maryland, College Park

Researchers Win MURI Award for Multi-Scale Networks

A research team that includes Prof. John Baras (ECE/ISR) and Prof. Anthony Ephremides (ECE/ISR) has won a 2008 MURI award for their proposal, titled "MAASCOM : Modeling, Analysis, and Algorithms for Stochastic Control of Multi-Scale Networks." The $6 million grant will fund the research project for three years with the potential for two additional years. The portion of the award going to the University of Maryland is $1,087,337.
This MURI project will be coordinated by Baras and Ephremides from University of Maryland with partnering teams at Ohio State University, led by Dr. Ness Shroff; MIT, led by ECE alumnus Dr. Eytan Modiano (Ph.D., '92); University of Illinois; and Purdue University. The group's research deals with multiple time scales, traffic characteristics, and control of communication networks.
The Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) is a multi-agency Department of Defense program that supports research teams whose efforts intersect more than one traditional science and engineering discipline. Multidisciplinary team effort can accelerate research progress and hasten the transition of research findings to practical application.

Baras, Theodorakopoulos selected for IEEE Abraham Prize

Ph.D. candidate George Theodorakopoulos and his advisor, Professor John Baras (ECE/ISR), were selected as winners of the 2007 IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc) Leonard G. Abraham Prize in Communication Systems for their paper: "On Trust Models and Trust Evaluation Metrics for Ad Hoc Networks," IEEE J. Selected Areas in Communications, Vol. 24, No. 2, pp. 318-328, Feb. 2006.
The awards ceremony was held June 25, 2007, at the 2007 International Conference in Communications (ICC 2007), in Glasgow, Scotland. In their work the pair developed new innovative algebraic techniques, using the theory of ordered semirings to evaluate trust in communication networks, and they successfully applied to systems like the PGP’s Web on Trust and Mobile Adhoc Networks (MANET). Dr. Theodorakopoulos, who graduated in May of 2007 (Dr. Baras was his advisor) is currently a Senior Researcher with the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland.
The Abraham Prize is awarded annually for the best paper in communications systems, published in the IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications in the previous calendar year. The selection is based on quality, originality, utility, timeliness, clarity of presentation, after wide solicitation of nominations by the Journal Editor-in-Chief from the Editorial Board, guest editors, and readership.

Event Info: Awards Ceremony at the 2007 International Conference in Communications (ICC 2007)
Date: June 25, 2007
Place: Glasgow, Scotland

Krishnaprasad, Baras, Moss participating in new MURI awards

ISR faculty are members of three research teams that have been awarded new Department of Defense grants through its Multi-disciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) program.


Designing Reliable and Secure Tactical MANETs
"Designing Reliable and Secure Tactical MANETs" is headed by Principal Investigator Virgil Gligor (ECE). ISR Founding Director and Professor John Baras (ECE/ISR) is part of the team, which also includes his former student and ISR alum Radha Poovendran (EE Ph.D. '99), now an associate professor at the University of Washington. Jonathan Katz (CS/UMIACS) is also on the team. The Maryland researchers will be joined by a Carnegie Mellon team headed by Adrian Perrig and a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign team led by Nitin Vaidya.

This research will develop and implement practical techniques to integrate MANET reliability and security for tactical operations. The goal is to achieve superior performance characteristics in the face of both failures and deliberate adversary attacks. The research is based on active protocol monitoring for performance, stability and adversary handling; communication channel diversity (e.g., multi-route diversity) for robust end-to-end operation in the face of failures and deliberate attacks; and cross-layer interaction for predicting the effects of performance changes caused by layer-specific failures and attacks on end-to-end MANET operation. The team will use design and analysis techniques found in network theory, statistics, game theory, cryptography, economics and sociology, and system theory to develop, design and analyze models, tools, and mathematical representations for predicting performance and prescribing resilient, secure MANETs.

The MURI program supports multi-disciplinary science and engineering research in areas of interest to the Department of Defense. MURIs involve a team of researchers with expertise in a variety of disciplines, which helps accelerate research progress and convert research results to application. The Army Research Office (ARO), the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) received 129 MURI proposals for 2007; just 36 were selected for funding, based on a merit review by panels of experts. The dollar amounts and durations of the MURIs have not yet been finalized.

Baras, Liu, Davis receive MIPS grants

ISR faculty are associated with three new Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) contract awards. The MIPS program provides matching funding for university-based research projects that help companies develop new products. MIPS projects deal with innovative technological or scientific concepts and have direct commercial applications.

Professor John Baras (ECE/ISR) is developing software that will enable first responders and emergency management organizations to seamlessly use wireless phones and devices during a catastrophic network outage, regardless of the phone services they are using. He is partnering with CI Technologies, LLC, Frederick, Md.

Professor K.J. Ray Liu (ECE/ISR) is partnering with Mobitrum Corp., Silver Spring, Md., to develop a software library for manufacturers of 802.11n wireless Internet equipment to use in easily programming wireless routers, switches and PC cards.

ISR-affiliated Professor Chris Davis (ECE/ISR) is working with MFX Technologies, Inc., College Park, Md., to develop algorithms and a searchable database of signatures for explosive and non-explosive liquids and solid chemicals. These will be coupled with MXF’s advanced X-ray technology to detect and identify explosives at checkpoints in bottles, containers and luggage.

Baras honored for IVA membership at special reception

ISR and ECE faculty, staff, students and friends honored Professor John S. Baras (ECE/ISR) with a special reception on Dec. 7, 2006. Earlier this year, Baras was elected as a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Science (IVA). IVA is the world’s oldest engineering academy. Its mission is to promote the engineering and economic sciences and the development of industry for the benefit of society. Baras was inducted at the Academy's annual meeting in Stockholm on Oct. 27, 2006.

Baras elected to Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Science

Professor John S. Baras (ECE/ISR) has been elected as a Foreign Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Science (IVA). IVA is the world’s oldest engineering academy. Its mission is to promote the engineering and economic sciences and the development of industry for the benefit of society. Dr. Baras also is invited to lecture to IVA on a topic of his choice. The induction ceremony will take place at the Academy's annual meeting in Stockholm on Oct. 27, 2006.

Baras, Gu, Jiang awarded patent for video codec

Professor John S. Baras (ECE/ISR) and ISR alumni Junfeng Gu and Yimin Jiang were issued U.S. Patent 7,006568 on Feb. 28, 2006 for 3D Wavelet-Based Video Codec with Human Perceptual Model,” a video encoding/decoding system. The system applies JND (Just Noticable Difference) measurement in quantizer design to improve the subjective quality of compressed video. The 3D wavelet decomposition helps to remove spatial and temporal redundancy and provides scalability of video quality. This scheme simplifies the conditional access sub-system and provides system reliability.

Three new MIPS contacts for ISR faculty

ISR faculty are associated with three new Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) contract awards. The MIPS program provides matching funding for university-based research projects that help companies develop new products.

ISR Assistant Research Scientist Nelson X. Liu and Professor John S. Baras (ECE/ISR) are working with CI Technologies of Frederick, Md. Liu and Baras are developing an alternative emergency wireless communication service for commercial users and first responders that enables cell phone carriers to switch calls to work over satellite links during emergencies, using CI Technologies' gateway protocol software. The project will utilize the unique expertise of the HyNET center in this area.

ISR-affiliated Professor Mark Shayman (ECE) is working with NetImmune, Inc. of Germantown, Md., to develop a high-speed prototype platform in a real network environment to detect and prevent Distributed Denial of Service and intrusion attacks. NetImmune's solution can identify a network attack within seconds to a few minutes; current systems can take more than a half hour. By detecting network attacks at early stages, NetImmune's technology can prevent substantial damage from occurring.

ISR-affiliated Professor Neil Goldsman (ECE) is working with TRX Systems, Inc., Lanham, Md., to develop a fire safe locator system that can centrally monitor the location, vital signs, and other situational information of first responders, both indoors and outdoors. ECE professors Gilmer Blankenship and Martin Peckerar are also involved.

Theodorakopoulos and Baras win best paper award

Grad student George Theodorakopoulos and his faculty advisor Professor John Baras (ECE/ISR) won the best paper award at the ACM Workshop on Wireless Security for their work, "Trust Evaluation in Ad-Hoc Networks." The paper presents a novel application of a mathematical framework (semiring theory) to the evaluation of trust evidence between network users. The award was given on October 1 2006 at the workshop in Philadelphia.

Liu, Milner, Baras participating in MIPS awards

The Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program has announced its latest round of contract awards, and ISR-related faculty are associated with three of them.

Professor K.J. Ray Liu (ECE/ISR) will be working with InTank, Inc., of Laurel, Md., on the new MIPS project, "Ultrasonic Nondestructive Inspection of Tanks." This project will develop an effective and efficient ultrasonic testing system for use in robots that inspect commercial storage tanks such as gasoline, fuel oil, and chemicals.

ISR Senior Research Scientist Stuart Milner will be working on a MIPS communications project with LumenLink, Inc., of Rockville, Md. The project will develop actively tracked optical wireless links for "bursty," high-data-rate communications between moving platforms.

Professor John Baras (ECE/ISR) will be working on a Phase II MIPS project with Hughes Network Systems on "Broadband Internet Applications over Satellite," which will develop new and innovative Internet applications exploiting the increased bandwidth of forthcoming high-data-rate satellite constellations for HNS's DIRECWAY product.

Baras receives ARL Certificate of Appreciation

Professor John Baras (ECE/ISR) recently received the United States Army Research Laboratory Certificate of Appreciation for his outstanding support of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) 2nd Annual Collaborative Technology Alliances Conference this spring. The certificate reads, "Your personal efforts and contributions helped make the conference an overwhelming success." The certificate was signed by ARL Director John M. Miller.

Ephremides, Baras, La, Ulukus awarded wireless networks grant

The design, planning, control and management of high performance networks require a much more integrated approach than the conventional layered approach, where each layer is designed and optimized independently from the others.

Professor Anthony Ephremides (ECE/ISR); Professor John S. Baras (ECE/ISR); Assistant Professor Richard La (ECE/ISR); and Assistant Professor Sennur Ulukus (ECE/ISR) have received a three-year, $1.5 million National Science Foundation Information Technology Research (ITR) grant to develop "Vertical Protocol Integration In Ad-hoc Wireless Networks." Dr. Ephremides is the Principal Investigator for the project.

The project seeks to exploit inter-layer dependencies in network protocols for improved network performance. In particular, the researchers will focus on ad-hoc wireless networks, in which these interdependencies are more pronounced and in which the network will benefit significantly by crosslayer designs.

The main focus is on the interaction between the physical layer, the MAC layer, and the routing/transport layers. The researchers take into account the nature of the wireless medium by detailed modeling of the transmission parameters and of the detector structure and consider both TDMA(scheduled) and CDMA media-access control mechanisms. The researchers couple these with the flow and route assignment problems and, furthermore, consider how the transport protocol interacts with route selection and bandwidth allocation.

In addition, the researchers address the role of network control and management in ad-hoc wireless networks and exploit its interaction with the aforementioned layers. Finally, the researchers consider the interaction of signal compression with rate and quality control and are mindful of the energy consumption repercussions of the joint protocol design.

Baras, Berenstein, Ephremides, Liu and Papadopoulos win DoD URI

Five ISR faculty are members of a team that has won a $4 million, five-year University Research Initiative (URI) award from the Department of Defense (DoD). The team includes Professor John S. Baras (ECE/ISR), the Principal Investigator; Professor Carlos Berenstein (Math/ISR); Professor Anthony Ephremides (ECE/ISR); Professor K.J. Ray Liu (ECE/ISR); and Assistant Professor Haralabos Papadopoulos (ECE/ISR). Professor Virgil Gligor (ECE) is also a member.

The team's submission, "Distributed Immune Systems for Wireless Networks Information Assurance," is one of only 20 successful proposals the DoD selected for funding during fiscal year 2001. The team participated in a targeted competition in the Critical Infrastructure Protection and High Confidence, Adaptable Software (CIP/SW) Research Program of the URI BAA. The team will be working with the Army Research Office.

John Baras noted, "This is indeed great news and will allow us to work on the exciting ideas we put together for wireless information assurance." His assessment was shared by ISR Director Gary Rubloff, who said, "This is clearly a very timely topic. Its success will be a major contribution and very visible."

About the 2001 URI program

The DoD awarded 20 grants totaling $9.3 million in fiscal 2001 to 16 academic institutions to conduct research in 13 topic areas. The URI program is designed to enhance universities' capabilities to perform science and engineering research and related education in science and engineering areas critical to national defense.

The targeted competition for both critical information protection (CIP) and high confidence, adaptable software is in addition to the fiscal 2001 URI competitions in the areas of multidisciplinary research, nanotechnology, and high-energy laser technology. Subject to the successful completion of negotiation between DoD and the academic institutions, the 20 awards will provide long-term support for research, graduate students, and the purchase of equipment supporting specific science and engineering research themes in the fields related to CIP and software.

The competition drew 115 white papers, from which 74 proposals were received. After a thorough evaluation by technical expert teams, 20 of these proposals were selected for funding. Department of Defense announcement

Faculty participating in three different MURI awards

ISR faculty are participating in three of the Department of Defense's (DoD) 48 Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative program (MURI) grants announced for fiscal 2001. The grants total $26.8 million in 2001 and up to $46 million per year starting in fiscal 2002.

MURI grants support multidisciplinary research in basic science and engineering that represent exceptional opportunities for future DoD applications and technology options. The awards provide long-term support for research, graduate students, and the purchase of equipment. The three projects involving ISR and other University of Maryland faculty are the result of rigorous competition over many months. The competition drew 416 white papers, from which 158 full proposals were received. After evaluation by the DoD, 48 of these proposals were found to be suitable for funding. A complete list of 2001 MURI projects is available from the DoD in MS Excel and Adobe PDF formats.

The three 2001 MURI projects are:

Communicating Networked Control Systems
This Army Research Office project will develop mathematical foundations to support the integration of control and communications technologies. Boston University is the prime institution. In addition to the University of Maryland, other participants include Harvard University and the University of Illinois (Urbana).

ISR investigators include Principal Investigator Professor P.S. Krishnaprasad (ECE/ISR), Professor John S. Baras (ECE/ISR), Professor Prakash Narayan (ECE/ISR), Professor Roger W. Brockett (Harvard University) and Assistant Professor Gregory Walsh (ME/ISR). Former ISR student, Assistant Professor Dimitrios Hritsu-Varsakelis (ME) is also one of the investigators.

Others on the team are: from Boston University: John Baillieul (Aerospace and Mechanical), Thomas Bifano (Manufacturing), Yannis Paschalides (Electrical and Computer Eng). From the University of Illinois: P.R. Kumar (Electrical and Computer Eng).

Hybrid Smart Materials and Adaptive Structures
This Office of Naval Research project is aimed at identifying and enhancing the design and performance characterization of new classes of hybrid smart materials and developing enhancements to the use of such materials in macro-structures capable of both actuation and sensing. The University of Maryland is the prime institution, with participation from the University of Minnesota, the University of Rhode Island and California State at Northridge.

ISR-affiliated Professor Ramamoorthy Ramesh (MNE) is one of the investigators. Other University of Maryland faculty participating include Principal Investigator Professor Manfred Wuttig (MNE), Professor Amr Baz (ME), Professor Inderjit Chopra (AE), Professor Abhijit Dasgupta (ME), Assistant Professor Peter Kofinas (MNE), Associate Professor Darryll Pines (AE), Professor Alexander Roytburd (MNE), Associate Professor Lourdes Salamanca-Riba (MNE), Assistant Professor Ichiro Takeuchi (MNE), and Associate Professor Norman Wereley (AE). Senior research scientists are James Cullen (MNE). Graduate assistants are Tanya Shields (ME), D. Viehland, Ruonian Wu and R. James.

The Effects of Radiofrequency Pulses on Electronic Circuits and Systems
This Air Force Office of Scientific Research project will investigate the threats and opportunities associated with the introduction of microwave pulse energy into modern and future electronics. The University of Maryland is the prime institution, with participation from Boise State University.

ISR-affiliated Professor Neil Goldsman (ECE) is one of the investigators. Other University of Maryland faculty participating include Principal Investigator Victor Granatstein (ECE), Professor Ed Ott (ECE/Physics), Professor Tom Antonsen (ECE), Associate Professor Patrick O’Shea (IPR), Yuval Carmel (IPR), John Rodgers (IPR), Professor John Melngailis (ECE), Assistant Professor Bruce Jacob (ECE), Associate Professor Agis Iliadis (ECE), Assistant Professor Omar Ramahi (ME), and Associate Professor Steve Anlage (Physics).

ISR awarded grant for combined research and curriculum development in systems engineering

ISR has been awarded a National Science Foundation grant for Combined Research and Curriculum Development in Systems Engineering. The three-year, $500,000 award began Sept. 1, 2000.

ISR faculty team for this project includes Principal Investigator Professor John S. Baras (ECE/ISR), Co-Principal Investigator Associate Professor Mark Austin (CEE/ISR), Professor Michael O. Ball (Robert H. Smith School of Business/ISR), Assistant Professor Jeffrey Herrmann (ME/ISR), and Assistant Professor Linda C. Schmidt (ME). This team will work in partnership with General Electric, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and John Wiley & Sons, Inc., a New York-based publishing company.

The team will develop, widely disseminate, and evaluate an information-centric systems engineering curriculum. The curriculum will include three graduate level courses (ENSE 621: System Model Building and Analysis; ENSE 622: System Requirements, Design and Trade-Off Analysis; and ENSE 623: System Validation and Verification), graduate systems certificate courses and industry short courses.

The strategy throughout these courses will be to enable multi-disciplinary development and communication through appropriate information abstractions and representations. Students will employ sophisticated algorithmic, mathematical and quantitative methods implementable in modern software environments.

The development and delivery of the courses will be enhanced with four concurrent research projects designed to produce technical knowledge directly applicable to systems engineering education. The projects are:

• Function/architecture co-design of smart structures
• Design and planning of broadband communication networks
• Heterogeneous data for system design processes
• Enterprise models and financial/cost issues in systems engineering.

The project will fully explore and capitalize on the unique capabilities of web-based instructional material to be presented in a hierarchical manner in interconnected layers of increasing depth and sophistication of coverage. Various courses of self-study can be organized, visiting different materials according to the student's desired depth and sophistication, in a consistent manner.

The project will result in a "program of education in systems synthesis." This systematic program will serve an emerging national need in engineering education, and be critical to the sustained competitiveness of industry.

Shamma, Horiuchi, Baras, Krishnaprasad, Moss awarded acoustic sensors contract

Professor Shihab Shamma (ECE/ISR), Assistant Professor Timothy Horiuchi (ECE/ISR), Professor John S. Baras (ECE/ISR), Professor P.S. Krishnaprasad and Professor Cynthia Moss (Psychology/ISR), are part of a $ 2.2 million, three-year Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract for "Intelligent and Noise-Robust Interfaces for MEMS Acoustic Sensors." The goal of this contract is to formulate, design, and implement signal processing systems and technology that can adapt, control and utilize the noisy MEMS sensor signals.

The University of Maryland faculty are part of a research group that includes Johns Hopkins University, the University of Sydney (Australia), and Signal Systems Corp. (Severna Park, MD). The project is part of DARPA's Air-Coupled Acoustic Microsensor Technology program.

Project details
Air-coupled acoustic MEMS offer exciting opportunities for a wide range of applications for robust sound detection, analysis, and recognition in noisy environments. The most important advance these sensors offer is the potential for fabricating and utilizing miniature, low-power, and intelligent sensor elements and arrays. In particular, MEMS make it possible for the first time to conceive of applications which employ arrays of interacting micro-sensors, creating in effect spatially distributed sensory fields. To achieve this potential, however, it is essential that these sensors be coupled to signal conditioning and processing circuitry that can tolerate their inherent noise and environmental sensitivity without sacrificing the unique advantages of compactness and efficiency.

The fundamental challenge that we address in this proposal, one that is critical to any real application of MEMS sensors, is how to formulate, design, and implement signal processing systems and technology that can adapt, control, and utilize the noisy MEMS sensor signals.

More specifically, we will focus our technology transition efforts on developing a smart microphone, suitable for outdoor acoustic surveillance on robotic vehicles. This smart microphone will incorporate MEMS sensors for acoustic sensing, wind noise flow turbulence sensing, platform vibration sensing, and a VLSI-based (analog very large scale integration) adaptive noise-reduction circuitry.

These intelligent and noise robust interface capabilities will enable a new class of small, effective air-coupled surveillance sensors. These sensor interfaces and noise reduction circuits will be small enough to be mounted on future robots. Our interfaces will consume less power than current systems. By including silicon cochlea based detection, classification and localization processing, these sensors can perform end-to-end acoustic surveillance. The resulting smart microphone technology will be very power efficient, enabling a networked array of autonomous sensors that can be air-dropped, integrated onto miniaturized robots, or deployed by hand.

We envision such a sensory processing system to be fully integrated with sophisticated capabilities beyond the passive sound reception of typical microphones. Smart MEMS sensors may possess a wide range of intelligent capabilities depending on the specific application, e.g., they may simply extract and transmit elementary acoustic features (sound loudness, pitch, or location), or learn and perform high-level decisions and recognition.

To achieve these goals, we propose to develop and utilize novel technologies that can perform these functions robustly, inexpensively, and at extremely low power. An equally important innovation will be the formulation of algorithms that are intrinsically matched to the characteristic strengths and weaknesses of the technology. These theoretical and technological innovations are fully intertwined in our proposed research program, and we believe that both approaches must be developed simultaneously so as to achieve truly functional and well-integrated smart sensory systems that exploit the exciting potential of acoustic MEMS sensors.

The fundamental innovative thrust of our work focuses on the development of biomimetic auditory interfaces and algorithms, and their implementations an analog or hybrid analog-digital VLSI circuits.

Baras, Poovendran win integrated security services contract

Professor John S. Baras (ECE/ISR), Professor Virgil Gligor (ECE) and Assistant Research Scientist Radha Poovendran (ISR) have been awarded a $2 million, three-year Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract for "Integrated Security Services for Dynamic Coalition Management." The goal is to realize the vision of an integrated access control, authentication, and secure group-communication architecture to support dynamic coalitions consisting of varied members with diverse interests and multiple administrative domains.

The contract has been awarded under DARPA's program on Information Assurance and Survivability, Dynamic Coalitions section. The project is for the period March 13, 2000, to March 14, 2003, and the total contract award funds are $2,051,463. The project's goal will be achieved by providing an integrated set of security policies and services for different system platforms, network infrastructures, and group-communication applications, and by demonstrating new, practical security technologies.

Currently, this goal has not been attainable because of:

1. the inability to represent, negotiate, and enforce a consistent security policy across multiple system platforms and public-key infrastructures (PKI);
2. the lack of secure group-communication services and products, particularly efficient key-management, and security policies that enable large-scale management of group access rights within tight time constraints; and
3. the absence of visual tools for human-readable security policy definition and enforcement.

The University of Maryland team believes that the ability to create coalitions with diverse and rapidly changing membership is an important enabler for a multitude of applications in national defense, business and commerce. To address the dynamic coalition problem, our team will analyze fundamental properties of, and provide tools and servers for, security policy representation, negotiation, and enforcement in different system platforms, PKI, and group-communication applications, including large-scale, frequent distribution, review, and revocation of certificates and access rights. Our team will also analyze fundamental properties of secure group-communication including scalable key generation, efficient and robust re-keying, for frequent coalition member joins and departures. We will develop a test-bed for the integration, demonstration, and evaluation of our research results and products.

The University of Maryland team brings significant experience and expertise in definition and system representation of security policies, in secure group-communication research, and in efficient distribution and revocation policies in PKI. It also brings direct experience with commercial security products and standards, and a strong, cost-effective, project management plan. An excellent cross-disciplinary research infrastructure will support the project.