Wireless Networking and Security Laboratory

( WiNetS )

Location: Atwater Kent 018

Phone number: 508-831-5649

Mission

The mission of the Wireless Networking and Security Lab (WiNetS) at ECE, WPI is to explore the novel concepts and ideas related to the protocols and systems of wireless and mobile networking, and to design scalable architecture and efficient and secure protocols for the next generation wireless networks. Our current research interests are

• Security in wireless mesh/sensor networks
• Energy efficient routing, cooperative communication in wireless sensor/ad hoc networks
• Intelligent transportation system

People

Faculty: Prof. Wenjing Lou

Current students:

Shucheng Yu,  Ph.D student

Zhenyu Yang,  Ph.D student

Ming Li,  Ph.D student

Ning Cao,  Ph.D student (co-advised with Prof. Kui Ren, IIT)

Hanfei Zhao,  Ph.D student (co-advised with Prof. Kui Ren, IIT)

        Graduated students:

Kui Ren, Ph.D, May 2007
    Dissertation: Communication Security in Wireless Sensor Networks
    Initial employment: Assistant Professor, ECE Department, Illinois Institute of Technology

Kai Zeng, Ph.D, October 2008
    Dissertation: Opportunistic Routing in Multihop Wireless Networks: Capacity, Energy Efficiency, and Security
    Initial employment: Postdoc research fellow, CS Department, UC Davis

News

• March 2009: Prof. Lou has been awarded the 2009 WPI Sigma Xi Outstanding Junior Faculty Researcher Award.
• February 2009: Prof. Lou was awarded Tenure, along with promotion to Associate Professor (see WPI announcement and ECE annoucement).
• July 2008: Kai Zeng successfully defended his Ph.D dissertation (7/21/2008).
• May 2008: Prof. Lou has been elected to IEEE senior member.
• May 2008: Shucheng Yu received the second place award for his work on RFID security and Privacy at the annual ECE department Graduate Research Poster Competition.
• April 2008: Kai Zeng is awarded the 2008 WPI Sigma Xi Outstanding Ph.D Dissertation Award.
• December 2007: Prof. Lou received the prestigious NSF CAREER award of FY2008. (see WPI News Release)
• August 2007: Our paper "On throughput efficiency of geographic opportunistic routing in multihop wireless networks", co-authored by Kai Zeng, Wenjing Lou, Jie Yang, and D. Richard Brown III, received the "best paper runner-up" award in QShine 2007, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, August 14-17, 2007.
• April 20, 2007: Kui Ren has successfully passed his Ph.D dissertation defense.
• March 2007: Kai Zeng will participate in an internship at Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) this summer.
• March 2007: Kui Ren has accepted an offer for a tenure track assistant professor position from the ECE department, Illinois Institute of Technology.
• January 2007: Prof. Lou starts to serve as an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications.
• August 2006: Our paper "On broadcast authentication in wireless sensor networks", co-authored by Kui Ren, Kai Zeng, Wenjing Lou, and Patrick J. Moran, received the "best paper award" in the International Conference on Wireless Algorithms, Systems, and Applications (WASA 2006), Xi'an, China, August 15-18, 2006.
• June 2006: Dr. Lou was selected as the Joseph Samuel Satin Distinguished Fellow for the 2006-07 academic year in recognition of her outstanding accomplishments and promise for future contributions in both teaching and scholarship.
• May 2006: Kui received the first place award for his doctoral research on security in wireless sensor networks at the annual ECE department Graduate Research Competition.

Projects

New Approaches for Secure and Dependable Distributed Data Storage and Access Control in Mission-Critical Wireless Sensor Networks, PI, Sponsored by National Science Foundation. 9/1/2008~8/31/2011.

CAREER: Opportunistic Routing in Multihop and Multirate Wireless Networks, PI, Sponsored by National Science Foundation. 9/1/2008~8/31/2013.

Broadcast/Multicast Security in Multi-User Wireless Sensor Networks, PI, Sponsored by National Science Foundation. 8/1/2007~7/31/2010. Co-PI: Prof. Berk Sunar

UPASS : An Attack-Resilient Security Architecture for Wireless Mesh Networks, PI, Sponsored by National Science Foundation. 9/15/2006~8/31/2009.

Power-aware / Energy-efficient Routing and Security in Wireless Sensor Networks, PI, Sponsored by AirSprite Technologies, Inc. 1/1/2006~12/31/2006

Securing Wireless Sensor Networks with Location Based Keys, PI, Sponsored by Research Development Council, WPI. 7/1/2005~6/30/2006

Performance Optimization and Cross-Layer Design of Multipath Routing in Wireless Ad Hoc Networks, PI, Sponsored by Research Development Council, WPI. 7/1/2004~6/30/2005

Publications

Sponsors

National Science Foundation

AirSprite Technologies, Inc.

To Prospective Students

I am constantly looking for students at Ph.D level.

The successful candidates are expected to carry out research in an area related to one of the following two:

• Security in wireless ad hoc/sensor/mesh networks
• Routing in multihop wireless networks

If you are interested, please send your PS, resume, transcripts, TOEFL and GRE scores, and everything that you believe will help your application to me in one email. Prior research experience is a plus but is not absolutely necessary. I am more interested in working with students who are self-motivated, responsible, brilliant, with solid background, and have curiosity and determination to explore the path to develop himself/herself into an outstanding researcher.

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