Hugh C Williams

Bio: Hugh C Williams is an academic researcher. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 40 citations.

Robust and Optimal Control

Abstract: This paper will very briefly review the history of the relationship between modern optimal control and robust control. The latter is commonly viewed as having arisen in reaction to certain perceived inadequacies of the former. More recently, the distinction has effectively disappeared. Once-controversial notions of robust control have become thoroughly mainstream, and optimal control methods permeate robust control theory. This has been especially true in H-infinity theory, the primary focus of this paper.

A survey of security issues in wireless sensor networks

Abstract: Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are used in many applications in military, ecological, and health-related areas These applications often include the monitoring of sensitive information such as enemy movement on the battlefield or the location of personnel in a building Security is therefore important in WSNs However, WSNs suffer from many constraints, including low computation capability, small memory, limited energy resources, susceptibility to physical capture, and the use of insecure wireless communication channels These constraints make security in WSNs a challenge In this article we present a survey of security issues in WSNs First we outline the constraints, security requirements, and attacks with their corresponding countermeasures in WSNs We then present a holistic view of security issues These issues are classified into five categories: cryptography, key management, secure routing, secure data aggregation, and intrusion detection Along the way we highlight the advantages and disadvantages of various WSN security protocols and further compare and evaluate these protocols based on each of these five categories We also point out the open research issues in each subarea and conclude with possible future research directions on security in WSNs

Measurement and analysis of brain deformation during neurosurgery

Abstract: Recent studies have shown that the surface of the brain is deformed by up to 20 mm after the skull is opened during neurosurgery, which could lead to substantial error in commercial image-guided surgery systems. We quantitatively analyze the intraoperative brain deformation of 24 subjects to investigate whether simple rules can describe or predict the deformation. Interventional magnetic resonance images acquired at the start and end of the procedure are registered nonrigidly to obtain deformation values throughout the brain. Deformation patterns are investigated quantitatively with respect to the location an magnitude of deformation, and to the distribution and principal direction of the displacements. We also measure the volume change of the lateral ventricles by manual segmentation. Our study indicates that brain shift occurs predominantly in the hemisphere ipsi-lateral to the craniotomy, and that there is more brain deformation during resection procedures than during biopsy or functional procedures. However, the brain deformation patterns are extremely complex in this group of subjects. This paper quantitatively demonstrates that brain deformation occurs not only at the surface, but also in deeper brain structure, and that the principal direction of displacement does not always correspond with the direction of gravity. Therefore, simple computational algorithms that utilize limited intraoperative information (e.g., brain surface shift) will not always accurately predict brain deformation at the lesion.

Implementing public-key infrastructure for sensor networks

Abstract: We present a critical evaluation of the first known implementation of elliptic curve cryptography over F2p for sensor networks based on the 8-bit, 7.3828-MHz MICA2 mote. We offer, along the way, a primer for those interested in the field of cryptography for sensor networks. We discuss, in particular, the decisions underlying our design and alternatives thereto. And we elaborate on the methodologies underlying our evaluation.Through instrumentation of UC Berkeley's TinySec module, we argue that, although symmetric cryptography has been tractable in this domain for some time, there has remained a need, unfulfilled until recently, for an efficient, secure mechanism for distribution of secret keys among nodes. Although public-key infrastructure has been thought impractical, we show, through analysis of our original implementation for TinyOS of point multiplication on elliptic curves, that public-key infrastructure is indeed viable for TinySec keys' distribution, even on the MICA2. We demonstrate that public keys can be generated within 34 seconds and that shared secrets can be distributed among nodes in a sensor network within the same time, using just over 1 kilobyte of SRAM and 34 kilobytes of ROM. We demonstrate that communication costs are minimal, with only 2 packets required for transmission of a public key among nodes. We make available all of our source code for other researchers to download and use. And we discuss recent results based on our work that corroborate and improve upon our conclusions.

Establishing and protecting digital identity in federation systems

Abstract: We develop solutions for the security and privacy of user identity information in a federation. By federation we mean a group of organizations or service providers which have built trust among each other and enable sharing of user identity information amongst themselves. We first propose a flexible approach to establish a single sign-on (SSO) ID in the federation. Then we show how a user can leverage this SSO ID to establish certified and un-certified user identity attributes without the dependence on PKI for user authentication. This makes the process more usable and privacy preserving. Our major contribution in this paper is a novel solution for protection against identity theft of these identity attributes. We provide protocols based on cryptographic techniques, namely zero knowledge proofs and distributed hash tables. We show how we can preserve privacy of the user identity without jeopardizing security. We formally prove correctness and provide complexity results for our protocols. The complexity results show that our approach is efficient. In the paper we also show that the protocol is robust enough even in case semi-trusted "honest-yet curious" service providers thus preventing against insider threat. In our analysis we give the desired properties of the cryptographic tools used and identify open problems. We believe that the approach represents a precursor to new and innovative cryptographic techniques which can provide solutions for the security and privacy problems in federated identity management.