Modern IoT devices promise to improve our daily lives by recording and analyzing the health and status of our daily lives. This will be achieved through the use of thousands of sensors continually recording and mapping temperature, vibration, luminescence, acceleration, velocity, humidity, heartbeat, oxygen content, color, and mood of the human existence. And thus the promise of 5G is that the world as we know it will soon change. That change will be short lived however, if one cannot protect and monetize the information collected. Thus our “revolution” will be short lived without a means to prevent others from stealing and making use our data. The team is here to answer that call. For this senior design project, the team will implement a Microsoft Azure Zero Trust (see figure 1) connection between the latest Nordic Semi nRF9160 LTE-M / nB-IoT microcontroller for IoT data collection and a network server of your choice. Azure Zero Trust is a recent addition to Nordic Semi microcontrollers that paves the way for their use as IoT processing units in factories, laboratories, warehouses, logistics, and service industries. There are only a few implementations of Zero Trust IoT on the market today, yet there are many promises that this technology will be brought to market within the year.
Key requirements for this effort are as follows: Successfully program, install, and test Azure Zero Trust and the System in Package (SiP) physical Trust solution required to operate a secure Nordic nRF9160 IoT device connected to an LTE server. Document your attempts to break into the device using an external wireless and wired network connection in order to demonstrate the effectiveness, or lack thereof of Azure Zero Trust when implemented for IoT. Also test the effective protection against backdoor intrusions such as wired taps through analog or digital IC connections capture sensor data input to the microcontroller. Furthermore, document the IoT device’s power requirements (in mWh) necessary to implement these trust schemes. Examine the potential to corrupt the Zero Trust protection through power input irregularities. Finally, demonstrate the trusted connection by recording data from IoT sensors connected to the microcontroller on the server.
Financial Manager / Embedded Hardware Lead
Noah is a senior computer engineering student at Georgia Tech, with expertise in the areas of embedded systems and software engineering. He plans to employ his skillset in the aerospace and defense industry as an entry-level software engineer at Lockheed Martin following graduation.
Implementation Testing, Embedded Software Lead
Zixuan (Harry) is a computer engineering student with a passion for Computer Architecture. His coursework includes Advanced Computer Architecture, IC Fabrication and VLSI Design. He plans to utilize his skillset in the IC design industry as a G2 Verification Engineer with ARM following graduation.
Azure IoT Software Lead / Group Leader
James is a computer engineering student with a passion for Quantum Computing. His coursework includes quantum computing, compilers, distributed and cloud systems and hardware, machine learning, and project management.
Expo Coordinator, Hardware Security Testing Lead
Aaron is a computer engineering student with a passion for computer security. His coursework includes classes in malware reverse engineering and analysis, computer security, and cryptography. He will be pursing a Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech upon graduation.
Webmaster / Networking Lead
Jayla is a computer engineering student with a passion for computer security and software engineering. Her coursework includes classes in malware analysis, computer security, and computer communications. She is currently working as a software engineer at Home Depot.
