EDU: Developing Security Education Materials for Future Advanced Manufacturing Engineering Workforce

The cyber security of advanced manufacturing systems (AMS) has raised significant interest amongst both the general public and researchers. However, corresponding education programs fall behind in many aspects. Limited curriculum or hands-on learning resources are available for security education in AMS, especially exercises that cover the complete manufacturing cycle. This project will try to bridge the gap by developing an experiment platform dedicated to security education for AMS, and designing a suite of course modules and hands-on projects upon it. The research achievements will provide a new method to train qualified workforce to fill tens of thousands of open positions in this traditional yet fast evolving industry and improve the sustainability and security of future cyber-physical systems. Minority and under-represented students will benefit from the project. Two community colleges have shown a great interest in and support for this project.

The team will develop an experiment platform for AMS by implementing new modules for equipment reservation, command transmission, and sensing data collection upon the Remote Automation Management Project (RAMP) system. This platform covers both cyber and physical systems underpinning modern manufacturing operations. Three course modules and four hands-on projects on infrastructure and data security in AMS will then be developed for knowledge learning and skill training. Special efforts have been planned for the evaluation and dissemination of the proposed experiment platform and educational materials. Rigorous evaluation plans will be carried out by experienced evaluators to assess the objectives and achievements of each phase of the project. The new instructional materials will be implemented in four courses at UNC Charlotte. Through collaborations with local community colleges, the NSF STARS Alliance, NSF REU site, and NSF SFS Scholarship program, the researchers will reach out to both high school and undergraduate students through summer camps and presentations.