2011 Edition - Electrical Engineering and Computer Science - The ...

New FacultyExperts in Data Privacy, Wireless Comms Join EECSEECS Assistant Professor FengjunLi is developing cryptographytechniques that enableorganizationsto sharedata whilemaintaininguser privacy.As electronicmedicalrecords,smart grids,and othermassivesystemscollect andstore unprecedented personal data in thename of greater efficiency, reliability, andcost savings, how will individual privacybe protected?For example, a smart grid collects dataevery few minutes. The information allowsenergy producers and users to make moreinformed decisions, but it also showswhen a customer gets up, does laundry,goes online, leaves the house, and so on.Patterns emerge, such as when the houseis vacant, that pose additional securityconcerns.Dr. Li has developed an innovative innetworkaggregation approach to datacollection. Instead of sending data directlyto collector devices, smart meters formmulti-hop routes via other smart meters.Nodes along the way aggregate thereceived data with its own and forwardthe results to collector devices. Dataaggregation spreads the operationsand the computational efforts originallyat collector devices into sets of nodes,www.eecs.ku.edugreatly reducing network traffic. Theapproach cuts the network load by morethan 60 percent. For additional security,Dr. Li employs homomorphic encryption.Household data are protected not onlyat intermediate nodes but also at thecollector devices.This fall she taught Advanced Topics inInformation Security (EECS 700). Thegraduate-level course covered securityconcepts, cryptography primitives,authentication, and other emergingtopics. She will teach Network Security(EECS 712) this spring.Dr. Li received her Ph.D. in InformationSciences and Technology from thePennsylvania State University in 2010.EECS Assistant Professor Lingjia Liu isdeveloping technologies that will enablefuture wireless networks to support heavytraffic, while providing reliable and secureservice fortime-sensitiveand dataintensiveapplications,such asstreamingvideo andwebconferencing.His researchfocuses oninter-cell interference mitigation anddelay-sensitive and energy-efficientwireless communication. Dr. Liu's workaims to increase the overall spectralefficiency to support more users andapplications. From smartphones andcomputer tablets to Blu-ray playersand e-book readers, millions of devicesare gobbling up the radio frequencyspectrum. Greater efficiency is needed.This fall Dr. Liu taught WirelessCommunication Systems (EECS 865)with EECS Distinguished Professor SamShanmugan. In the spring, he will teachEstimation and Detection Theory (EECS965). The course will introduce students tofundamental concepts in statistical signalprocessing along with their applicationsto electrical and computer engineering.Dr. Liu has made numerous technicalcontributions to major wireless standards,including 3GPP LTE/LTE-Advanced andIEEE 802.16m. He has conducted federallyfunded basic research and industryresearch, giving him experience insolving problems that have theoreticalsignificance and practical importance.Prior to joining KU, Dr. Liu spent morethan three years in the StandardsResearch Laboratory of SamsungTelecommunications America. Hereceived the Global Samsung Best PaperAward in 2008 and 2010, respectively.In 2011, the National Engineers WeekFoundation selected Dr. Liu as one of itsNew Faces of Engineering and SAMSUNGTelecommunications America honoredhim with an Individual Gold Medal.He received his Ph.D. in Electrical &Computer Engineering from Texas A&MUniversity in 2006. •