I. Proposer's Previous Accomplishments
Portland State University is in the midst of a transformation from
a local educational institution to a first-class research university
and the Department of Computer Science is a leader in this transformation.
Graduate students and faculty have the opportunity to make a difference
in the success and direction of the department and its research programs.
The cooperation engendered by this atmosphere is bringing the Department
of Computer Science to the forefront of graduate research and education.
Jim Binkley/Mobile-IP
In the last few years, Jim Binkley has performed research in mobile
and ad hoc routing, and information retrieval and filtering. At
Intel, he was involved in porting, enhancing and deploying the
Columbia University mobile network protocol in a radio-based
environment (WAVELAN). The system included sites both in Oregon
and California. He is active in the IETF Mobile-IP working
group. Mr. Binkley is the author of a white paper on ad hoc mobile
networking issues which has served as a vehicle for discussion within
the working group.
Jim Binkley/Rama: Towards an Architecture for an Internet Agent
This ongoing PSU project led by Jim Binkley, emphasizes research in
information retrieval and filtering. The project involves the design
and development of an open architecture for an Internet information
filtering and retrieval system. Rama is an active system that is easy
to use and searches for information from different Internet
information services in a relatively transparent way. The most
important information source currently is USENIX news. Rama's most
innovative feature is its ability to search the Internet asynchronously
and deliver search results to the user via e-mail. Preliminary field
trials (with a small user base) have given us valuable network and
system performance analysis, as well as some clues towards Quality of
Service enhancements and optimal filter and search methods. A paper
on Rama has recently been accepted for publication by the Journal
for Intelligent Information Retrieval in September 1995 (JIIR).
John McHugh/Secure Gigabit Communications
PSU, through John McHugh, is a contractor for this ARPA funded project
to address new security challenges produced by emerging broadband public
networks and distributed computing architectures. It will result in
the development of a proof of concept key agile ATM crypto system using
DES and RSA. The system will support full duplex secure communications
at 622 Mbps. Up to 65,000 simultaneous connections, each having a
unique cryptographic key, can be active for each cryptographic unit.
PSU is performing covert channel analysis to uncover security holes
unique to ATM.
John McHugh/Process Models for Trusted Systems Development
As an investigator on TRW's ARPA funded Advanced Computing Systems project,
John McHugh was instrumental in developing the ACS process model for
trusted systems development. This is a variation on the Spiral model
of Barry Boehm which recognizes specific risks associated with trusted
system development and defines risk mitigators such as formal modeling
and analysis to deal with them. The model has been applied successfully
to the development of high assurance X window systems and the the analysis
of the BMC3 architecture for the Ballistic Missile Defense system.
Tom Schubert/Formal Verification of Hardware Devices
Tom Schubert has investigated the formal verification of
hardware devices (MMU units and the microcoded Viper Microprocessor). He
has developed a framework to formally specify and verify the correctness
of the communication between the hardware devices that make up a computer
system. The methodology (formalized within the HOL theorem proving
system) allows a hardware system to be decomposed into a set of
independently verified devices and provides a logic to specify and reason
about the composed, aggregate system behavior. Dr.Schubert is also
involved in the modeling and verification of security protocols.
Sarah Mocas/Cryptographic Protocol Security
Sarah Mocas's previous work has focused on
showing lower bounds for standard complexity classes
and the examination of complexity theoretic assumption for
cryptography. Her current work in complexity theory
examines the structure and relationship of
both deterministic and nondeterministic function classes,
primarily focusing on classes
under certain models which use restricted resources.
She has also defined and studied probabilistic models for function classes.
Most resently, she has been working on formal models for verifying the
security of cryptographic protocols and specifically the reliability
of escrow protocols.
back to Proposal Outline
Email to Jim Binkley:
jrb@cs.pdx.edu