My name is Aidan and I have already written a SHURE-GRID blog detailing my original goal of being on this research team. The first use case being studied was a Ukraine power grid attack back in 2015. In short, Russian hackers attacked the power grid by inserting malware into emails which compromised the system. My team and I analyzed the attack and proposed countermeasures to prevent a similar attack from happening in the same way again. A second use case was just analyzed recently, which involved wind farms and turbines. The attacker constructed a similar attack, but it was a byproduct, as the focus of this attack was on military communications. However, the turbines used similar communication technology. Those are the two use cases that were studied throughout the summer. My group’s knowledge, but specifically my knowledge, has greatly increased from studying these attacks. I have learned a great deal about power grid systems and how they operate internally. Studying different attack scenarios has shown me that many systems are vulnerable to attacks and need to be reinforced to prevent further attacks from happening.

The values gained from this fellowship overall have been quite beneficial. I have gained a lot of knowledge on the technologies mentioned above and have gained experience in presenting with my group. Working in my group has helped me with cooperation and dividing workloads among ourselves. Having to present weekly has increased my speaking skills considerably to where I am more comfortable discussing topics with individuals or groups of people. I feel that these experiences will help me significantly in my career path as a computer engineer. My future work will possibly involve group work and presenting our findings to shareholders and executives. Even if my future career paths don’t involve directly consulting with employees or employers, these are still invaluable skills that everyone can use.

The fellowship closing soon has led to some reflections on what the future holds for me. Currently, my plan is to join the workforce after graduation in about a year. If any research opportunities arise, then I could participate in those while either working a job or finding one. My main goals currently are to find a job that involves technology like IT and evolve into a more engineering-focused position. Firstly, though, I need to finish all my classes in a year to progress into my career goals for the near future.