For this blog post, introduce yourself to the group. Answer the following questions and include any other information you would like to share about yourself.
- Tell us about yourself. Post a picture of yourself telling us your majors/minors and what interests you most about participating in the SHURE-Grid program.
- Tell us about the research problems you have chosen to address via the SHURE-Grid program (Problem B and the second team problem on which you have decided). Why are these problems integral to ensuring the security and protection of critical infrastructure systems?
Hi everyone, my name is Kimberly Chen and I am participating in the Shure-Grid research fellowship. This is a brand new program that Pitt is offering this summer in partnership with the Idaho National Laboratory. I will be a rising senior and I am in the business school. I am majoring in Business Information Systems and Finance with a certificate in business analytics. I chose the combination of these distinctions because I have a strong interest in working with data and technology. From the beginning when I saw the description for the Shure-Grid fellowship, my interest was peaked. I had always wanted to do research during my college career, but I never had the time to do it until this summer. This is a really interesting program because it deals with cybersecurity within the energy sector. When I graduate from college, I aspire to work in the tech industry so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to learn more about cybersecurity while simultaneously working alongside industry professionals. I am very new to cybersecurity, however I believe this is a field that holds much relevancy in todays technologically advanced world.
The main goal of this program is to create solutions concerning applying cyber informed engineering throughout the cyber security and power system operation design process. We are working in interdisciplinary teams of four to generate ideas, conduct research, and collect data. One of the problems we are trying to address is justifying the use of CIE to improve cybersecurity resilience for critical infrastructure this will lead to better security overall of systems
and further protection from cyber attacks that could lead to catastrophic failure. The goal of CIE is to incorporate cybersecurity measures into every part of the engineering process instead of waiting until the end. This will lead to better protection of their systems in addition to reducing the risk of cyber attacks. The issue is that most engineers and companies are more focused on creating technology than ensuring it is safe. The issue that my team is tackling is navigating various trade offs such as cost, time, resources, and effectiveness to create an optimal solution. Whenever a system or product is created, there will be tradeoffs depending on what your team values more. However engineers need a guide to aid them through this decision making process to justify why certain solutions are better than others. However, even with all the protections put in place, attackers could always find a vulnerability so systems and people should be adaptable to sudden changes and ensure their solutions are the best given the restraints they were dealing with.