A more than $10 million vote of confidence supports the tenet that global science requires contributions from a wide range of thinkers and practitioners.
Last fall, the new Global Center for Clean Energy and Equitable Transportation Solutions secured matching funds from the National Science Foundation and United Kingdom counterpart U.K. Research and Innovation. This week the CLEETS team will play an active role in the UN General Assembly Science Summit.
Along with researchers at the University of Birmingham, Cardiff University, and other collaborators in the U.K. and the United States, CLEETS features experts from Discovery Partners Institute, University of Illinois Chicago, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, all part of the University of Illinois System. Leading the way in addressing global climate challenges, the U of I System ensures faculty and students experience international collaborations to help better society while also creating a climate- and world-focused workforce.
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'Solutions are local'
CLEETS aims to speed up the creation of fair, useful, and safe-from-cyber-attacks clean energy transportation by engaging government, the private sector, and communities in research, education, and problem-solving.
“Climate change is a global problem, but its solutions are local,” said Ashish Sharma, climate and urban sustainability lead at DPI and global center director.
“Through these joint awards, we will test and quantify the anticipated impact of policy change scenarios to reduce carbon emissions from road transportation while also supporting economic opportunity, workforce resilience, and public health.”
First up, electric vehicles
The first official CLEETS output focuses on cybersecurity in a booming tech sector: electric vehicles. Two of the CLEETS co-principal investigators presented their “OCPPStorm: A Comprehensive Fuzzing Tool for OCPP Implementations” at the Network and Distributed System Security Symposium early in 2024.
“Widespread EV adoption is important for combating air pollution and climate change in both the CLEETS-focused Great Lakes megaregion and West Midlands and South Wales in the U.K.,” said Rigel Gjomemo, DPI research scientist and UIC computer science research associate professor.
“However, cybersecurity risks often accompany the adoption of new technology. And those risks linger until the technology matures.”
The threat is real.
“The data exchange between a vehicle and charging station is vulnerable to cyberattacks, offering the chance for cybercriminals to steal drivers’ personal data and cause excessive loads on the power grid that supplies the charging stations,” said Omer Rana, Cardiff University professor of performance engineering who specializes in distributed systems and machine learning.
Stronger cybersecurity
Enter the CLEETS team’s creation, OCPPStorm. It identifies cyber weaknesses in the widely used Open Charge Point Protocol. OCPP enables the connection between charging stations and service providers for essential functions such as starting charging sessions and monitoring energy usage.
OCPPStorm requires minimal expertise and overhead for charging station companies’ and utilities’ use.
Improved charging station security can help gain consumer confidence in EVs.
“Charging station security is essential as vehicle manufacturers add EVs to their fleets and offer more affordable options to consumers and industry,” Rana said.
The possibilities
For CLEETS, that’s the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
“Collaborating internationally through one research center offers opportunities for researchers to bring together ideas, cultures, and industry expectations,” said Venkat Venkatakrishnan, UIC computer science professor and DPI director of research. “Combining complementary skills and datasets enhances research and positively impacts both countries.
“It’s highly rewarding for researchers and students to co-create solutions like OCPPStorm through this center. What we end up creating is more than just the sum of the parts.”
The research team is preparing to partner with a charging company to test the OCPPStorm tool.
