First IFIP Workshop on Intelligent Vehicle Dependability and Security

Two faculty from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science were among the organizers of The First IFIP Workshop on Intelligent Vehicle Dependability and Security (IVDS).

Held January 29-February 1, 2021, the workshop was an activity undertaken by the IVDS Project of IFIP Working Group 10.4 on Dependable Computing and Fault Tolerance. 

“The project was formed to help industry move toward the development of intelligent vehicle control systems that can measure up to the standards of safety and security that have been established in other industries, such as aircraft,” said co-organizer Dr. Carl Landwehr. The workshop was the culmination of more than six months of planning.

This first workshop provided an opportunity for debate about the following hypothesis: Level 3 autonomous vehicles cannot be made acceptably safe with current technology and practices. In Level 3 automation, explains Landwehr, automated operation is enabled, but a human driver must be present and able to take control of the vehicle at any time, specifically in the case of an emergency due to system failure.

Attended by more than 60 people, the successful program included talks by experts from industry and academia encompassing a wide range of related topics. The sessions focused on Human-Autonomous Systems Interaction, Autonomous Vehicle Industry Perspectives, and Verification and Validation. The talks are available for viewing.

The WG has held meetings or workshops on various topics twice a year since its formation in 1980 until blocked by COVID-19 last summer. This was its first virtual meeting.

John Meyer, professor emeritus of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a founding member of IFIP WG 10.4, got the ball rolling for the IVDS Project in 2018. Meyer’s specialty is the evaluation and validation of highly dependable and secure systems.

Carl Landwehr is a Lecturer in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and collaborates with the Cyber Security and Privacy Research Institute at George Washington University. He recently taught the course, “Cybersecurity for Future Leaders” at U-M, and presented the distinguished lecture, “A Tale of Cybersecurity, with Applications to Automobiles.”

Other organizers of the IVDS workshop included the chair Jaynarayan Lala (Raytheon), Charles Weinstock (Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University), and Homa Alemzadeh (University of Virginia).