Planning IUCRC University of Southern California for Networked Embedded Smart and Trusted Things (NESTT)

University Of Southern California, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

The University of Southern California plans to work together with Arizona State University, University of Arizona, Southern Illinois University and University of Connecticut to form a new NSF Industry University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) for Networked Embedded, Smart and Trusted Things (NESTT). The vision of the NESTT center is to contribute to the development of an equitable, safe and secure connected world, focusing on creating holistic Internet of things (IoT) solutions by integrating technology disciplines with expertise in other areas such as law, business, and humanities. This planning grant's objective is to organize workshops and a planning meeting with industry partners to form the research agenda for NESTT and to explore industry commitment to the proposed center. At these workshops and the planning meeting, USC faculty will present and discuss their research pertaining to IoT, spanning a range of technology horizontals, including networking, distributed edge and cloud computing, blockchain, formal methods, machine learning, data analytics and security, as well as application verticals, including transportation, energy, smart buildings, and smart cities, and interdisciplinary collaborations with non-engineering experts from business, policy, and education. The proposed NESTT center aims to undertake cutting edge fundamental and applied research that will lower the barriers to the adoption of IoT technologies through holistic multidisciplinary design and innovation in diverse domains such as smart cities, transportation, and energy. These research activities would lead to broader economic, societal and environmental benefits and contribute to new scientific discoveries. The planning effort will also seek effective ways for the proposed center to broaden the participation of underrepresented students in STEM disciplines. Information about the NESTT IUCRC planning meeting and associated workshops will be posted online at USC under the auspices of the USC Viterbi Center for Cyber-Physical Systems and the Internet of Things (website: http://cci.usc.edu/). This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.