Collaborative Research: SaTC: EDU: A Scalable Platform for Remote Hardware Security Education

Hands-on training helps students bridge theoretical knowledge with practical application in cybersecurity. While remote platforms offer excellent opportunities for learning software security, no comparable resources exist for hardware security education. Key topics in hardware security require access to physical development boards, creating a significant barrier for learners without these resources. In this interdisciplinary project, a remote platform will be designed to provide open access to physical hardware for beginners to advanced-level hardware security experiments. By providing a scalable, accessible, and innovative educational resource, this tool will advance hardware security education, support the development of skilled practitioners in this field, and respond to national security needs. The remote platform will consist of an array of hardware security development boards, comprising microcontrollers, Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), built-in power side-channel measurement and fault injection hardware. The software will include a user-friendly front-end based on JupyterLab and an open-source backend for C and FPGA development. The project will also develop extensions for collecting important educational benchmarks and usage statistics, enabling the evaluation of pedagogical strategies for remote hardware labs. Students will design and conduct complex hardware security experiments on remote physical boards using Python to control the hardware and analyze outputs. By combining innovative hardware tools with scalable software solutions, the platform will enhance both the accessibility and effectiveness of hardware security education and foster advancements with teaching and learning in the field. This project is supported by the Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) program, which funds proposals that address cybersecurity and privacy, and in this case, cybersecurity education. The SaTC program aligns with the Federal Cybersecurity Research and Development Strategic Plan and the National Privacy Research Strategy to protect and preserve the growing social and economic benefits of cyber systems while ensuring security and privacy. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.