Research Highlight–Hamid Aina

Hello CSS Community!

My name is Hamid Aina. I am a junior pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science with a minor in Mathematics. This past summer, I worked as an undergraduate researcher at Bowie State University in Bowie, MD.  My research work at Bowie State University has provided me with technical experience in the area of cybersecurity for ICS systems.

The research experience lasted ten weeks, and it spanned from May 28th to July 31st. This was a full-time position where I, and two other researchers, worked on classifying different types of semantic attacks on ICS systems to define the requirement specifications for ICS systems that are resilient to such attacks. Our methodology consisted of four phases, where each researcher contributed to various aspects.

I began by reviewing existing ICS models of preventing semantic attacks to understand the inner workings of these models and the specific types of semantic attacks that they were designed to defend against. This allowed me to create a set of ICS models that were successful at defending against semantic attacks. Next, I examined the characteristics of multiple semantic attacks to gain insight into what specific vulnerabilities these attacks exploited in their target systems, and catalog similarities between the semantic attacks that I identified. Then, I compared the features of the semantic attack prevention models that were identified during the literature review to understand the specific features that contributed to preventing an attack. Once done, we were able to identify similarities within the models. Finally, after comparing the features of our set of models, we were able to identify and define the features and requirement specifications for an ideal ICS model.

This experience was instrumental to my development as a professional and my desire to be a software developer.  I was challenged to think as a researcher and not a student. This research opportunity taught me how to approach problems where there may be no direct solution. I believe this experience gave me the necessary technical skills to be more competitive in the job market as I plan to apply the knowledge I’ve gained in my classes and in my future career.

CSS Scholar, Hamid Aina