According to the International Energy Agency, sales of electric vehicles (EVs) reached 6.6 million in 2021; and by the end of that year, the amount of EVs on the road reached 16.5 million — triple the amount in 2018.
With technology improving and the impacts of climate change becoming more acute, the popularity of EVs is continuing to increase. But the rise of EVs comes with the need for more charging stations, which can bring the threat of cyberattacks. Just one hacking attack could have serious implications.
Faculty members at the University of Memphis, however, are looking to help solve this issue — and they’ve been given ample funding to do it.
According to a press release, U of M has been awarded a two-year, $498,083 grant to conduct research for a project titled, “Cyber Resilient 5G-Enabled Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure.” Its principal investigator is Mohd Hasan Ali, Ph.D., an associate professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; while its co-principal investigator is Dipankar Dasgupta, Ph.D., the Hill Professor in Cybersecurity. Funded by the National Centers of Academic Excellence in Cybersecurity, the project is affiliated with U of M’s Center for Information Assurance, located inside the FedEx Institute of Technology.
The automation of charging station operation and management requires remote centralized control, like supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA), that can communicate with the charging stations quickly. The team at U of M believes 5G technology could be an effective tool to provide this timely communication, and it’s looking to develop a secure, trustworthy approach for a 5G-enabled charging station and its charging system.
This involves multiple objectives: analyzing the negative impacts of cyberattacks on charging stations; detecting cyberattacks on 5G-connected stations; and exploring mitigation solutions for them. The team is expected to design and develop charging station-related cybersecurity research, and its work could have significant impacts on industry, academia, and the wider society. Its research outcomes could help manufacturers design secure and resilient 5G-enabled charging stations, while affecting the design of electrical engineering and computer science college courses related to EVs and cybersecurity. It could also help ensure safe and reliable charging infrastructure, in both home and work environments.
Projects like these are crucial for U of M as it looks to keep its status as a top-tier research university. In December 2021, the U of M gained R1 status from the Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education, a highly coveted designation that local leaders say can be an economic boon for not just the school but the entire city.
Once R1 status is gained, however, it must be retained — Carnegie releases new rankings every three years — and a key part of that is research expenditures. Fortunately for U of M, its faculty members brought in an array of grants in September. Here are some examples:
- Gary Emmert, Ph.D., was awarded $1,242,933 from the Memphis and Shelby Crime Commission, and $44,179 from the U.S. Geological Survey
- Shahram Pezeshk, Ph.D., was awarded $1,000,000 from the Tennessee Department of Transportation
- Christos Papadopoulos, Ph.D. awarded $871,098 from the National Science Foundation
- Laura Casey, Ph.D., was awarded $861,072 from the Tennessee Department of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
- Jennifer Mandel, Ph.D., was awarded $811,531 from the National Science Foundation
- Brian Waldron, Ph.D., was awarded $598,000 from the Tennessee Department of Agriculture
According to MBJ research, U of M is the third largest research institution in the Memphis area, behind St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. In FY 2021, it tallied $70 million in research expenditures, and earned $50.3 million in research grants and contracts.
