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Kyuin Lee

Assistant Professor @ University of Houston

Computer Information Systems and Cybersecurity

Department of Information Science Technology

Technology Division

Cullen College of Engineering

Address 13850 University Blvd, COT, Room 314, Sugar Land, TX 77019

Email klee48 [AT] cougarnet [DOT] uh [DOT] edu

LinkedIn   ▸ Google Scholar   University Web

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about
resumé

ABOUT

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Information Science Technology at University of Houston. 
I like to automate, design and implement various hardware / software systems to make our daily lives convenient and efficient. 

My main research interests revolve around designing and building usable, yet practical security solutions for mobile and Internet-of-Things (IoT) systems where people who sometimes have no or limited skills to operate computers can easily keep a secure connected environment. Among many challenges, I mainly focus on developing secure and usable device authentication (or pairing) mechanisms leveraging various environmental contexts to prove coexistence of devices that are spatially dispersed throughout our living environments (i.e., car, office and home).  
 

I have also actively worked on the projects related to the field of hardware security and secure V2P communication network systems. 

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EDUCATION

University of Wisconsin–Madison    Madison, WI​​ 
    Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering​                        ​                        ​                        ​                              Sep 2017–May 2022
        Advisor: Prof. Younghyun Kim

 

Carnegie Mellon University    Pittsburgh, PA
​    M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering                  ​                        ​                        ​                                       Sep 2016–May 2017
        Advisor: Prof. Anthony Rowe    
    B.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering                 ​                        ​                        ​                                        Sep 2010–May 2016​

RESEARCH

Zero-interaction authentication for mobile and IoT devices

We present a novel over-the-air device authentication scheme named AeroKey that achieves both high security and high usability by leveraging ubiquitously observable ambient electromagnetic radiation to autonomously generate spatiotemporally unique secret. We propose and implement essential techniques to overcome challenges such as poor time synchronization, lack of precision analog front-end, and inconsistent sampling rates.

AeroKey (Ubicomp '22)  [Webpage] 

Zero-interaction authentication for stationary IoT devices

We exploit spatiotemporal randomness in the 120 V powerline to serve as an evidence that the devices are located in the same place at the same time, which implies that they legitimately belong to the same user. We overcome challenges in realizing zero-interaction pairing and authentication on low-cost microcontroller units to facilitate seamless connectivity between mobile and IoT devices that are drawing power from residential power outlets.

VoltKey (Ubicomp '19)  [Webpage] 

Vibration-based pairing and communication for mobile devices

We utilize ubiquitously available vibration motor and an accelerometer, to transmit and receive pairing information. By simply keeping two devices in direct contact, the user can bootstrap a secure, high-bandwidth wireless connection without going through manual pairing procedures. The proposed method maximizes accuracy and effective data throughput with a vibration clock recovery technique to assure constant synchronization between the transceivers.

SyncVibe (ICCD '18)  [Webpage] 

Zero-interaction authentication for mobile devices

We investigate and utilize the use of vibration simultaneously measured by a vehicular computer (in-vehicle infotainment system) and a mobile phone in the same vehicle to subsequently establish a secure wireless connection (e.g., Bluetooth or Wi-Fi) between them. We design and implement integral techniques to overcome challenges in realizing ivPair on commercial mobile devices, such as lack of time synchronization and sampling frequency mismatch.

ivPair (WiSec '20)  [Webpage] 

Pedestrian mobility verification in vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P) network communication

V2P communication is a networking paradigm that involves direct communication between a vehicle and pedestrians within its vicinity. To identify legitimate road users against adversaries pretending to be one, we leverage the round-trip time (RTT) of wireless signal between vehicle and pedestrian’s devices, and verify only moving (mobile) nodes while rejecting stationary ones. Our analysis and real-world experiments show that this mechanism is simple, quick, and tolerant to noisy GPS and RTT measurements.

PEDRO (CPSIoTSec '21)  [Webpage] 

AWARDS & HONORS

CPS (Cyber-Physical Systems) Rising Star, CPS-VO @ NSF

ECE Fall Dissertator Travel Award,  UW-Madison                    ​  

Student Research Grants Competition,  UW-Madison                        

Richard Newton Young Fellow Award,  Design Automation Conference

NSF Travel Grant,  International Conference on Computer Design

Best Demonstration Award in SIGDA University Demo,  Design Automation Conference

ECE Wisconsin Distinguished Graduate Fellowship,  UW-Madison

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Award,  Meeting of the Minds Research Symposium

2022

2021

2019

2019

2018

2018

2017

2017

TEACHING

  • University of Houston

    • CIS2337 Fundamentals of Information Security (Instructor)

  • University of Wisconsin–Madison

    • ECE 353 Introduction to Microprocessor Systems (Teaching assistant)

    • ECE 751 Embedded Computing Systems (Guest lecturer)

  • Carnegie Mellon University

    • 18-549 Embedded Systems Design (Teaching assistant)

    • 18-349 Real-Time Embedded Systems (Teaching assistant)

 

Fall 2022, Spring 2023

 

Spring 2019, 2020, 2022

Fall 2021

Spring 2017

Fall 2016

PUBLICATIONS

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Jakob Veselsky, Jack West, Isaac Ahlgren, Abhinav Goel, Wenxin Jiang, Kyuin Lee, Younghyun Kim, James Davis, George K. Thiruvathukal, and Neil Klingensmith, ''Establishing Trust in Vehicle-to-Vehicle Coordination: A Sensor Fusion Approach,'' To be appeared in Proceedings of the Workshop on Data-Driven and Intelligent Cyber-Physical Systems (DI-CPS), Virtual, 2022

[PDF]    [ACM link]

Kyuin Lee, Yucheng Yang, Omkar Prabhune, Aishwarya Lekshmi Chithra, Jack West, Kassem Fawaz, Neil Klingensmith, Suman Banerjee, and Younghyun Kim, "AeroKey: Using Ambient Electromagnetic Radiation for Secure and Usable Wireless Device Authentication," To be appeared in Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT), Vol. 6, No. 1, 2022 (Presented at the ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp) 2022)

[Webpage]    [PDF]    [ACM link]

Kyuin Lee, and Younghyun Kim, ''Balancing Security and Usability of Zero-interaction Pairing and Authentication for the Internet-of-Things,'' in Proceedings of the Workshop on CPS & IoT Security and Privacy (CPSIoTSec), pp.29–34, Virtual, 2021

[PDF]    [Presentation]    [ACM link] 

   

Yucheng Yang*, Kyuin Lee*, Younghyun Kim, and Kassem Fawaz, "PEDRO: Secure Pedestrian Mobility Verification in V2P Communication using COTS Mobile Devices," in Proceedings of the Workshop on CPS & IoT Security and Privacy (CPSIoTSec), pp.41–46, Virtual, 2021 (*Equal contribution by Yang and Lee)
[Webpage]    [PDF]    [Presentation]    [ACM link] 

Jack West, Kyuin Lee, Suman Banerjee, Younghyun Kim, George K. Thiruvathukal, and Neil Klingensmith, "Moonshine: An Online Randomness Distiller for Zero-Involvement Authentication," in Proceedings of ACM International Conference on Information Processing in Sensor Networks (IPSN), pp.93–105, Virtual, 2021

[PDF]    [Presentation]    [Video]    [ACM link] 
 

Kyuin Lee, Neil Klingensmith, Dong He, Suman Banerjee, and Younghyun Kim, "ivPair: Context-Based Fast Intra-Vehicle Device Pairing for Secure Wireless Connectivity," in Proceedings of ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks (WiSec), pp.25–30, Linz, Austria, 2020
🔎Patent pending

[Webpage]    [PDF]    [Presentation]    [Video]    [ACM link]   
 

Younghyun Kim, Joshua San Miguel, Setareh Behroozi, Tianen Chen, Kyuin Lee, Yongwoo Lee, Jingjie Li, and Di Wu, "Approximate Hardware Techniques for Energy-Quality Scaling Across the System," in Proceedings of IEIE/IEEE International Conference on Electronics, Information, and Communication (ICEIC), pp. 1–5, Barcelona, Spain, 2020

[PDF]    [IEEE link]    
 

Kyuin Lee, Neil Klingensmith, Suman Banerjee, and Younghyun Kim, "VoltKey: Continuous Secret Key Generation based on Power Line Noise for Zero-Involvement Pairing and Authentication," in Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies (IMWUT), Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 93:1–93:26, 2019 (Presented at the ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (UbiComp) 2019)
🔎Patent pending

[Webpage]    [PDF]    [Presentation]    [ACM link]   

Kyuin Lee, Vijay Raghunathan, Anand Raghunathan, and Younghyun Kim, "SyncVibe: Fast and Secure Device Pairing through Physical Vibration on Commodity Smartphones," in Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Computer Design (ICCD), pp. 234–241, Orlando, FL, 2018

[Webpage]    [PDF]    [Presentation]    [IEEE link]       

DEMO, POSTER & FORUM

Jakob Veselsky, Jack West, Isaac Ahlgren, George K. Thiruvathukal, Neil Klingensmith, Abhinav Goel, Wenxin Jiang, James Davis, Kyuin Lee, and Younghyun Kim, "Establishing trust in vehicle-to-vehicle coordination: a sensor fusion approach," Poster Session @ International Workshop on Mobile Computing Systems and Applications (HotMobile), Tempe, AZ, 2022

[PDF]    [ACM link]   

 

Kyuin Lee, "Secure and Usable Zero-interaction Pairing and Authentication Methods for the Internet-of-Things," Ph.D. Forum @ Design Automation Conference (DAC), Virtual, 2021
[PDF]    [Presentation]

Kyuin Lee, "Secure Pairing Methods for Ubiquitous IoT Devices," Richard Newton Young Student @ Design Automation Conference (DAC), San Francisco, CA, 2018

[Presentation]
 

Yongwoo Lee, and Kyuin Lee, "CamPUF: Physically Unclonable Function based on CMOS Image Sensor Fixed Pattern Noise," SIGDA University Demonstration @ Design Automation Conference (DAC), San Francisco, CA, 2018
🏆Best Demonstration Award 

[PDF]    [Video]    

Kyuin Lee, and Shihan Wang, "Preventing Epidemics Via Sensing and Learning Mosquito Behaviors," Meeting of the Minds Research Symposium, Pittsburgh, PA, 2017

🏆Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Award

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PATENTS

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Kyuin Lee, Younghyun Kim, Suman Banerjee, and Neil Klingenmith, "Pairing Apparatus Using Secret Key Based on Power Line Noise," U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Application No. 17/217,630, 2021

Kyuin Lee, Younghyun Kim, Suman Banerjee, and Neil Klingenmith, "Context-based Pairing Apparatus and Method Thereof," U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Application No. 17/217,655, 2021

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

  • Present

    • Wisconsin Embedded Systems and Computing Lab  UW-Madison  ​
      Graduate Research Assistant, Prof. Younghyun Kim  [Website]

      • Investigating and developing series of secure and usable device authentication (or pairing) methods leveraging various environmental contexts to prove coexistence of mobile and IoT devices.
      • Proposed SyncVibe, fast and convenient device pairing protocol to transmit and receive pairing information utilizing vibration motor and accelerometer.
        • ​Designed and implemented clock recovery technique to maximize data transmission accuracy and throughput under timing jitter of Android OS.
        • Developed automated testing scripts to capture and analyze vibration waveform representing various bit patterns.
        • Implemented the prototype using commercial off-the-shelf smartphone and microcontroller (MCU) to evaluate it under various environments and transmission media.
      • Proposed ivPair, usable in-vehicle device pairing protocol, to derive secure pairing pin using simultaneously measured vibration within the vehicle.
        • ​Designed and implemented signal alignment technique to solve sampling frequency mismatch between commercial mobile devices.
        • Implemented pin extraction method to extract identical pins from varying locations within the vehicle.
        • Evaluated the prototype built with accelerometer and MCU on different vehicle and road types.
      • ​Proposed IoT device authentication method named VoltKey, which leverages spatiotemporal randomness in the 120 V power line to authenticate devices connected to identical power line.
        • ​Designed and implemented key extraction and sampling rate estimation algorithm to extract identical random bits from predictable power line waveform.
        • Implemented custom  hardware prototype capable of noise measurement, key extraction, and supplying power to existing IoT devices.
        • Evaluated the prototype on real-world environment within home, office, and lab under different attack scenarios.
      • ​Proposed mobile and IoT device authentication method named AeroKey, which uses randomness in the ambient electromagnetic radiation (EMR) to authenticate proximate devices.
        • ​Designed and implemented key extraction algorithm to extract identical keys from noisy EMR measurements using commercial MCU. 
        • Evaluated the performance of the prototype within home, and lab environment under varying attack scenarios.
      • ​Proposed pedestrian mobility verification mechanism named PEDRO, where only moving pedestrians can be admitted to the vehicular ad hoc network.
        • ​Implemented simulation framework to derive optimal round-trip time of wireless signal that results in robust security against different attack scenarios.
        • Evaluated the performance of PEDRO in real-world road settings to verify the simulation results.
      • ​Provided solutions to address current limitations of zero-interaction authentication works such as proximity control and predictability of the generated keys.
  • 2016 - 2017​

    • Wireless Sensing and Embedded Systems Lab  CMU 
      Masters Researcher, Prof. Anthony Rowe  [Website]

      • Designed and implemented battery-operated IoT hardware prototype capable of transmitting object distance measurement through LoRa wide area network.

      • Interfaced laser ranging breakout board with ARM Cortex-M3 processor through custom developed printed circuit board.

      • Implemented energy efficient firmware on TI-RTOS to periodically measure distance between any outdoor objects.

      • Utilized MQTT and protocol buffers to publish messages on LoRa network.

    • System Level Design Group  CMU  
      ​Masters Researcher, Prof. Radu Marculescu  [Website]

      • Connected Raspberry Pi to LoRa network for large-scale mosquito sensing across campus.

      • Implemented energy efficient k-nearest neighbors algorithm in C to classify mosquito species using measured wingbeat sound.

      • Implemented 3D simulation framework in Python to visualize and analyze mosquito population distribution on campus.

      • Connected millions of Twitter posts to Mongo database and deployed interactive web application for scalable social network analysis.

  • 2015​​​

    • Computational Biology Lab  CMU 
      Undergraduate Researcher​, Prof. Natasa Miskov-Zivanov

      • ​Implemented an algorithm in C to compute probability of cancer cell signaling.

      • Built interactive cell signal simulating web application in Python based Django framework.

INDUSTRY EXPERIENCE

  • 2016

    • Samsung Research America  Mountain view, CA
      Software Engineering Internship, KNOX development team

      • Implemented flexible inter-component control and data flow graphing tool to track data dependencies within Android applications.

      • Reverse engineered and decompiled 50+ system level Android applications without access to the source code.

      • Performed dynamic and static analysis on applications of Galaxy Note 7 to detect unauthorized permission vulnerabilities.

  • 2011

    • Samsung Data System  Seoul, Korea     
      Software Engineering Internship, Mobile Solutions team

      • Introduced and implemented auto-focusing and edge-detection algorithms in Java for camera module on smartphone.

      • Analyzed noise characteristics of the compressed image using error level analysis method.

      • Converted edge-detection code from Java to C and C++ for device simulation framework.

  • 2010​​

    • LG Electronics  Seoul, Korea
      ​Software Engineering Internship, R&D Security team

      • Handled minor security incidents and digital investigation cases.

      • Implemented and presented innovative ideas to create a secure environment for highly confidential R&D projects.

SKILLS

  • Programming Languages

    • C,  C++, Java, Python, Verilog, Scala, SQL

  • Hardware​

    • ARM Cortex-M series, AVR series, Raspberry Pi series​

  • Application Software​

    • MATLAB, EAGLE, Altium, ModelSim, SPICE, Quartus, Bantam​, Android Studio

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