Aravind Machiry, assistant professor in the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, has received an National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Program(CAREER) award for his proposed work titled “Securing Deeply Embedded Software.”

Machiry’s research seeks to transform the landscape of Deeply Embedded Software (DES) security and development by introducing a comprehensive set of modular techniques. The project will develop novel solutions to tackle inherent challenges in DES, including diverse hardware and software environments, resource limitations and legacy code. It also creates a method for hosting DES on Linux platforms and an approach for dynamic analysis of these rehosted applications through under-constrained random testing.

The challenges in securing deeply embedded software.

Additionally, it aims to create cost-effective memory safety improvements using pointer annotations, supported by necessary tools to automate annotation, and promote the integration of the RUST programming language in DES development, facilitated by interactive type-matching techniques for seamless interaction with legacy systems and techniques for optimized utilization of existing RUST libraries or crates.

“The project will provide valuable training for graduate students, enable novel pedagogical approaches and material suitable for embedded systems and programming-related courses,” said Machiry. “It will also provide new computational thinking assessments and tutorials to broaden the participation of K-12 and undergraduate students in the broader community. I am honored to receive the award that will support these efforts.”