Gor Piliposyan - STEM for Britain 2022 Finalist
We are happy to announce that EEE PhD student, Gor Piliposyan, has been selected as a finalist for STEM for Britain 2022, in the Engineering category.
Gor will present his work to Parliamentarians and subject judges on 07 March 2022.
STEM for Britain is a major scientific poster competition and exhibition which has been held in Parliament since 1997, and is organised by the Parliamentary & Scientific Committee. Its aim is to give members of both Houses of Parliament an insight into the outstanding research work being undertaken in UK universities by early-career researchers.
We spoke to Gor to find out about his research, and his involvement in STEM for Britain 2022:
Hi Gor, can you tell us a bit about your research please?
"Hi, I am a PhD student in the department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics supervised by Dr. Saqib Khursheed. My research is on detecting malicious inclusions, called Hardware Trojans (HT), on Printed Circuit Boards (PCB) which are essential parts of electronic devices used across multiple industries. In recent years companies often outsource the production of PCBs in order to decrease manufacturing costs, reduce the time-to-market, and mitigate market supply shortages. This production mode inherently introduces security risks by granting third parties access to the manufacturing lifecycle, thus giving rise to the possible introduction of malicious alterations or inclusions, such as Hardware Trojans. These can give an adversary unauthorized access to the hardware and initiate retrieval or corruption of classified information.
In my research we proposed a power analysis method for detecting such HT components. Then we applied Machine Learning algorithms to detect stealthier HTs, powered from legitimate chips on the PCB. The simulation results have been validated through real-life measurements and experiments carried out on the prototype PCB. The results show a high level of consistency between simulation and experimental results.
With a heavier emphasis on artificial intelligence in the next stage, my research can potentially play a significant role in further improving the level of electronic security, thereby reducing the potential harm from HTs to society."
How did you get involved in STEM for Britain 2022?
"Every year STEM for Britain announces a competition for PhD students and early-career researchers in different categories including Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Chemistry, Engineering, Mathematics and Physics. The announcement came through the university e-mail. I participated and was selected as a finalist in the Engineering category."
What will you be presenting about in parliament?
"With the other finalists I have been invited to the UK Parliament to present my above research to Parliamentarians and subject judges."
Congratualtions to Gor for making the final, and best of luck!