Cyber Research Center

Ongoing Research

To be updated

Senior Design Projects

To be updated

Augmented Reality: Fortress West Point

In collaboration with D/Hist, develop an augmented reality application for mobile devices to portray West Point in the American Revolution. Utilize the device GPS and compass sensors as well as image processing techniques to augment their display with 2D graphics and 3D models of West Point in the American Revolution, enabling the users to visualize history with their own eyes.

Departments and Sponsors Involved:  

  • D/EECS
  • D/HIST
Black Knight II

Package and prepare for NASA testing the 2U Microsat under development from AY15-AY17 for launch on or about AY18. 1U of the microsat is the C2 and power module while the other 1U of the microsat is the scientific experiment in thermal monitoring of the spacecraft. A ground station will also be engineered to track and communicate with the microsat.

Departments and Sponsors Involved:

  • D/EECS
  • D/SE
Constant Vigilance: An Attack Defend CTF Tool Suite

In support of the Academic Cyber Exercise (the renamed Cyber Defense Exercise) and C3T, CV will strive to develop a suite of tools to be used in Attack-Defend CTFs. Tools would include a launching platform that will use team developed exploits to attack the other competitor’s systems at a regularly scheduled interval. Additionally, network attack chaff would be produced to provide deception tactics. Another tool would be a network traffic analyzer that tracks the status of flags being captured by the team compared to flags being stolen from the team. Additionally, this system would allow the team to analyze exploits being sent by competitors to either patch that vulnerability or to replay the attack against other teams. Technologies such as network traffic generators and analyzers would be used. Additional skills would include the ability to create a system with well established and documented standards for creating custom exploits to include in the launcher.

Departments and Sponsors Involved:

  • D/EECS
  • NSA Fellow
CRASE: Cyber Range as a Service and Environment

In support of the Academic Cyber Exercise (the renamed NSA Cyber Defense Exercise) and C3T, the CRASE will look to build a platform to deploy short-lived cyber ranges into a cloud environment. These ranges will consist of vulnerable servers and hosts in a controlled environment that must be enumerated, scanned, and exploited in order to recover sensitive documents or flags. This platform could be used in a club or team capacity for training, in a classroom environment for education, or used to test and validate automated tools and systems. Virtual machine technologies like vSphere, Docker, SaltStack, Ansible and OpenStack will be investigated and used for prototyping. Additionally, software defined networking and RESTful APIs would be explored for use in this project.

Departments and Sponsors Involved:

  • D/EECS
  • NSA Fellow
Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition

The Intelligent Ground Vehicle Competition (IGVC) is an opportunity to represent West Point and compete against other universities at an international robotics competition. IGVC involves designing a ground robot capable of autonomously navigating around an obstacle-laden path, traveling to GPS waypoints, and detecting colored flags. You will integrate state-of-the-art hardware and develop algorithms for implementing intelligent robot behavior. The ground vehicle that will be used in the competition is a so-called GVR-Bot, a Packbot 510 chassis that has been retrofitted by the Army for interoperability with Robot Operating System (ROS). In addition to allowing you to work with industrial-quality sensors and a military-grade robot that you may see out in the field, it will also help prepare you for one of the fastest growing tech fields, Robotics! See http://www.igvc.org/ for more information about the competition.

Departments and Sponsors Involved:

Last-mile Optical COmmunications (LOCO)

Develop a free-space optical communications platform for last-mile links. Project members will be expected to build a duplex, end-to-end communications link that utilizes 'eye-safe' optical components. The platform should exhibit the capability to transmit over a 1Gbit/s bi-directional link and interface directly with a computer network interface card. The IT major will manage the platform at Layer 3 and above. The EE majors will design and build the Layer 2 and below electro-optical interfaces and optical channels.

Departments and Sponsors Involved:

​NetGrok

What is your phone doing on the network right now? It should be an easy question to answer, but even experts struggle. So help build NetGrok, a real-time, continuous network visualizer that tells you what companies your devices are talking to (Google, Amazon, random Russian web server) and what the conversation is about (social media, entertainment, software, etc). NetGrok aims to be a widget that anyone could use to watch their network like they watch the weather: An up-to-date snapshot where the new and interesting activities are conspicuous.

Departments and Sponsors Involved:

  • D/EECS
  • NSA Fellow
Deep Learning / Parallel Computing

Collaborate with the Engineering Research & Development Center to build a high-performance tool that enables parallel computing and application of Deep Learning to facial recognition. Gain experience with processing Big Data using Java/Scala/Python.

Departments and Sponsors Involved:

  • D/EECS
  • D/SE
  • ERDC
Point du Hoc Augmented Reality Staff Ride

In collaboration with D/Hist, continue development a virtual environment that provides users with an interactive cinematic video experience depicting the Battle of Normandy. Intended for classroom use and to be viewed with Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard, this immersive experience will integrate virtual educational features with actual 360-video footage, pushing the state-of-the-art for virtual reality development. A new goal for this year\'s project is networking capability to allow instructors to direct or guide their students using the application.

Departments and Sponsors Involved:

  • D/EECS
  • D/HIST
Raspberry Pi+Arduino Surveillance System

Work with ARDEC and US Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) to create a surveillance system using Raspberry Pis and Arduinos that can perform surveillance and sabotage missions with field-expedient capabilities. Such a system can, for example, provide users with surveillance capabilities that record photos/video/audio when a given trigger is tripped. The recorded file(s) will be transmitted back to the user.

Departments and Sponsors Involved:

  • D/EECS
  • ARDEC
RedHawk-4

Redhawk IV will continue geolocation efforts with miniaturized antennas that can be placed on an aerial or ground unmanned platform. Cadets will incorporate smaller form factor computers, such as the Raspberry PI or Beagle Bone, into the new mobile RF collection devices. Software development for the RF collection will continue using the Redhawk Software Defined Radio Framework. EE cadets will develop a platform that extends beyond pseudo-Doppler with directional antennas. CS cadets will expand on the algorithm that goes from a static perspective of the RF Landscape into one that can handle the new mobile RF collection platforms.

Departments and Sponsors Involved:

  • D/EECS
  • CERDEC
Real-Time Smart Grid

Primary objectives are to refine the user interface/Wide area controller (IT), integrate cyber monitoring tools (IT), develop and integrate parallel computing data analysis techniques using Apache Spark (CS), and design, build, test a remote controlled fault generator for the power grid emulator (EE) and integrate a three phase synchronous generator in the power grid emulator (EE).

Departments and Sponsors Involved:

  • D/EECS
  • ONR
  • ARDEC
Swarms

Design, build, and test a robotic swarm using unmanned systems to perform intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. Design choices in vehicle configuration, processing, power, communications, payloads, software, and user interface should maximize mission duration, minimize search time, and provide air and ground samples in a post-incident wide-area search.

Departments and Sponsors Involved: