SaTC: EDU: Collaborative: An Educational Initiative on Cybersecurity in Additive Manufacturing

Cuny New York City College Of Technology, Brooklyn NY

Investigators

Abstract

Additive manufacturing (AM), widely known as 3D printing, is the process of making three dimensional objects from a digital file. AM is enabling product innovation in a wide range of fields including automobiles, aircraft, spacecraft, toys, consumer products, food and medical implants and devices. A 3D printer is now located on the International Space Station to print parts on demand. Such high-value parts are designed by making extensive use of design, simulation and analysis tools, including high-performance computing, and make use of cloud-based resources throughout the process chain. In this project, New York University (NYU) is partnering with New York City College of Technology (City Tech) to educate students and to engage a wide range of stakeholders as the project builds capacity in the emerging field of AM security. The project will first develop an introductory graduate level course on AM security to be taught at both schools. This course will be part of a new Master of Science program and a new certificate program, both in AM. An on-line version of the course will also be offered. Complementing the course, the project will organize the HACK3D hackathon to build the security mindset of students for approaching digital manufacturing. In addition, the project will start an annual workshop and undergraduate summer research program in innovative research on the cybersecurity of digital manufacturing. The educational framework in this project will be first of its kind to address the security challenge in AM field by a collaborative team of a mechanical engineer and a computer science cybersecurity expert. The NYU team has pioneered the AM attack taxonomy and design-based security scheme that are the core areas of this project. The security scheme requires a collaborative approach because innovative design features are embedded in the 3D solid models and extensively tested for possible breaches according to the proposed taxonomy of threats. The interdisciplinary framework by this project enables the creation of a cross-disciplinary course on cybersecurity in AM. The associated educational and continuing resources will prepare many undergraduates and graduate students as well as working professionals in cybersecurity in AM. 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.