The New Mexico State University College of Engineering is a collaborating partner in a research team led by the University of Houston on a research project funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.
The grant, titled “Analysis Capabilities for Competition, Crisis, and Armed Conflict Combat,” or AC4, has University of Massachusetts, Amherst and University of Missouri, Columbia as the other collaborators. This initiative aims to enhance the DOD’s decision-making capabilities to maintain a strategic edge in combat.
NMSU will undertake three distinct projects in this collaboration, spearheaded by Satyajayant “Jay” Misra, principal investigator and College of Engineering associate dean of research, and Huiping Cao, co-principal investigator and computer science professor.
“In this project, NMSU is leading cutting-edge cybersecurity and quantum research efforts to identify the opportunities and challenges with these new technologies for the DOD and help design resilient frameworks for using and evaluating them,” said Misra, electrical and computer engineering and computer science professor.
The first project focuses on bolstering computer network security through federated learning, a machine learning technique that trains models in a distributed manner without sharing actual data. The FL approach has the building blocks that can be leveraged for data privacy preservation and data security.
This project aims to develop robust strategies to ensure FL’s effectiveness in handling diverse data types and adapting to the dynamic nature of computer networks. This work builds on previous research by Cao and Misra, who have already developed a machine learning system to detect network attacks.
“Despite the success of machine learning techniques in many areas, the application of such techniques in building network intrusion detection systems is still at its infancy and has its unique challenges,” Cao said.
The new project will address limitations identified in earlier studies, such as processing imbalanced and streaming data, and enabling continuous network changes.
The second project aims to create resilient and intelligent battlefield networks capable of operating under adverse conditions and potential attacks. This endeavor will integrate technologies such as 5G, 6G and optical communication to facilitate rapid and secure data sharing, enabling swift decision-making for soldiers.
Misra and Cao will investigate the interoperability of these technologies to maintain network robustness. Additionally, they will explore advanced security measures, such as “zero trust” frameworks, which consider every network component as a potential threat until verified safe.
The third project explores the potential of quantum technology in DOD applications. Quantum computing, communication and sensing offer numerous opportunities for faster and more efficient decision-making. The NMSU team will develop frameworks and tools to assess the effectiveness of different quantum technologies, aiding the DOD in understanding their potential applications and necessary improvements for military use.
These three projects are set to span the next three to five years. Upon completion, the deliverables from the NMSU team are expected to provide the DOD with valuable insights into the practical application of these technologies in the field. The annual funding of the grant is $1.2 million per year.
“We are excited about this opportunity to carry forward NMSU’s partnership with the DOD to build the technologies of the future that will continue to maintain United States’ defense advantage,” Misra said.
