Where computation meets the physical world.
Power grids, roads, and hospitals now run on networks, sensors, and software. The Center for Smart Cyber-Physical Systems brings UMass Lowell researchers in networking, security, distributed computing, hardware, and AI together with domain experts to keep that infrastructure secure, resilient, and working under attack, failure, and disaster.
A center built around the systems a smart society runs on
Power grids, roads, and hospitals now depend on fast networks connected to instrumentation, control systems, and IoT devices. SCyPS develops practical, high-impact ways to make those heterogeneous distributed systems more reliable, scalable, secure, and private.
Seven years in sixty seconds
Transcript
October 2019 to September 2026 Seven years in sixty seconds. The Center for Smart Cyber-Physical Systems at UMass Lowell Peer-reviewed papers, year by year: 2019: 4, 2020: 21, 2021: 22, 2022: 23, 2023: 37, 2024: 38, 2025: 44, 2026: 26. 2019 counts October to December, from the center's founding; 2026 counts through September. Who works with whom, year by year: the collaboration graph grows from 2019 to 2026 to 19 people and 29 working pairs. Milestones: 2019: the center is founded by five faculty; 2021: Vinod Vokkarane becomes director; 2024: ONR post-disaster restoration award, and the DOE CyberCARED consortium; 2026: NSF instrumentation award for SUMMIT, a three-university grid testbed; 2026: BOND-AI, printed electronics with industry partners. By the numbers: 215 peer-reviewed papers since 2019; $6.2M UMass Lowell share of the awards the center led; 20 faculty in four colleges; 16 doctoral students today. Seven years in, and just getting started.. Sense. Communicate. Decide with people. Act. smartcyberphysical.org
The center serves as a hub for
- research on secure, resilient, and trustworthy cyber-physical systems, in four thrusts each with two co-leads;
- shared testbeds and instruments, including SUMMIT, open to collaborators;
- training the cyber-physical systems workforce, from doctoral students to co-ops;
- partnership with industry, agencies, and the community on problems they actually have; and
- open-source tools and technology transfer that put results into practice.
How the center is organized
A director and an executive committee, advised by an external board and an industry council. Four research thrusts, each with two co-leads, and the laboratories and testbeds that serve them.
Mission
The Center for Smart Cyber-Physical Systems (SCyPS) develops secure, resilient, and trustworthy cyber-physical systems for the infrastructure people depend on: the energy grid, transportation, health and human performance, and advanced manufacturing. Its faculty in engineering, computing, science, philosophy, and education take an interdisciplinary approach to the reliability, scalability, resource use, security, and privacy of these systems, and to the trust between people and the automation they work with.
The center carries UMass Lowell's mission into its field. The university exists to give students an excellent, affordable education, to meet the needs of the Commonwealth, and to advance sustainable technologies and communities through teaching, research, scholarship, and engagement. SCyPS does that by training the engineers and scientists who will build and defend critical infrastructure, by producing research the Commonwealth's utilities, agencies, and industries can use, and by working with industry, government, and community partners so that its results reach the people of Massachusetts and beyond.
Vision
The Center for Smart Cyber-Physical Systems (SCyPS) will establish itself as an internationally recognized center for research and education focused on innovation, evaluation, and optimization of hardware and software technologies for an advanced, smart society.
Goals
Research
The SCyPS Center will become the hub of research and innovation on smart cyber-physical systems addressing challenges in healthcare, transportation and energy. SCyPS brings together a unique multidisciplinary team of experts in networking, data security, high performance computing, advanced communications, robotics, digital health care, power and nuclear engineering, and smart and connected transportation to create an environment that fosters and encourages collaboration on research central to the safety, efficiency, performance, and innovation of smart cyber-physical systems.
Student Development and Training
The SCyPS Center focuses on the education and development of students and postdoctoral researchers, providing hands-on training and an immersive environment to meet the demand for a skilled, innovative workforce of tomorrow. PhD graduates and postdocs from SCyPS will experience professional growth opportunities and will be prepared to secure prominent positions in academic institutions and research labs in major companies.
Industry and Community Engagement
The SCyPS Center will work collaboratively with industry partners to share ideas and conduct high-impact research to meet the evolving needs of industry sectors. By cultivating a symbiotic relationship, industry members will have the opportunity to proactively contribute to the success and path of the center while gaining access to talented, skilled students as co-ops, interns and employees.
One loop, four domains
Every system the center studies closes the same loop: physical processes are sensed at the edge, carried over optical and wireless transport, analysed by AI and high-performance computing, and controlled in real time. The research question is how to keep that loop fast, trustworthy, and recoverable when parts of it are attacked or fail.
Watch the loop in 40 seconds
Transcript
The grid, the road, the hospital, and the factory now run on data and AI. What keeps them safe when something goes wrong? It starts in the physical world: energy, transportation, health, manufacturing. Sensors measure what is happening, right now. A zero-trust network carries the data; every device and every command is verified. AI keeps a digital twin of the system, spots trouble early, and proposes what to do. People stay in the loop: they approve, override, or ask why. Approved commands travel back, and actuators act. The loop closes. Sense. Communicate. Decide with people. Act. Nothing is trusted by default.
Research thrusts
Four connected lines of work, each with two co-leads who are accountable for it. The four physical domains, energy, transportation, health and human performance, and manufacturing, run across all of them.
Resilient energy and infrastructure
Keeping the grid, nuclear plants, transportation systems, and civil infrastructure operating through attacks and disasters: attack-aware dispatch, false-data detection, observability-aware sensing and communication, joint power-and-communication restoration, and the SUMMIT federated testbed that ties three universities' hardware into one grid experiment.
Next-generation networks and trusted devices
The networks that carry cyber-physical traffic and the devices at their edge: multi-band and space-division optical transport, 6G, fault-tolerant distributed and edge computing, zero-trust architecture for operational technology, hardware security and attestation, and printed electronics that survive where silicon cannot.
Cyber-physical AI
The AI methods the other thrusts apply: digital twins, sensing and fusion, state estimation, learning across sites without moving data, high-performance computing with data integrity, and agentic control that is allowed to act on physical infrastructure only within limits people set. Machine awareness built to feed human decisions.
People in the loop
The center's emerging thrust: how people and AI share decisions in systems where a mistake has physical consequences. Trust between people and robots, the ethics of algorithms that act on infrastructure, decision-making under pressure, and the education and workforce research that trains the people who will run these systems.
Funded projects
Sponsored research led by center faculty, current awards first, then completed awards. Four new awards started in 2026, headed by the NSF MRI SUMMIT testbed.
SUMMIT: a three-site smart grid testbed you can attack, defend, and restore
NSF's Major Research Instrumentation program is funding a federated cyber-physical instrument that links real-time power system simulation, grid communication networks, and control and cybersecurity hardware across UMass Lowell, NYU, and West Virginia University. RTDS real-time digital simulators run high-fidelity models of the Northeast's backbone transmission grid fast enough to drive real controllers and network hardware in the loop, and a wide-area software-defined network ties the three sites together over the Internet. Researchers at any site will be able to run attack, defense, and restoration experiments on the shared testbed, and students will train on the same equipment utilities and vendors use.
Four paradigms
- Distributed hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation. Control, networking, and cybersecurity hardware closes the loop with real-time grid models running on RTDS simulators.
- Internet-in-the-loop simulation. The three sites exchange live simulation signals over a wide-area software-defined network across the public Internet.
- Heterogeneous distributed digital twins. Scoped in this phase to the RTDS simulators and the existing OPAL-RT simulator, relocated to UML North.
- Federated platform for HIL Simulation-as-a-Service. The central objective: a federation limited in this phase to the three partner universities, with WVU's existing testbed as the first instrument federated. National-scale federation is planned for Phase 2.
Phase 1 models the backbone transmission grid of the Northeast; distribution grids are future work. All power components, including generation, storage, and inverters, are modeled at high fidelity inside the RTDS simulators, so no power hardware is installed on site. Grid instances are small to medium scale for proof of concept while keeping every capability needed to scale to regional and national models. Physical asset monitoring and the electric vehicle course move to Phase 2.
Energy
SUMMIT: A Secure and Resilient Multi-site Smart Grid Testbed for Multidisciplinary Research and Training
A federated cyber-physical testbed that links RTDS real-time simulation of the Northeast transmission grid with control, networking, and cybersecurity hardware in the loop across three universities over a wide-area SDN, delivered as HIL Simulation-as-a-Service. A postdoctoral researcher will lead federation development.
PI Vinod Vokkarane; Co-PIs Orlando Arias and Lewis Tseng (UMass Lowell), Yuzhang Lin (NYU), and Anurag Srivastava (WVU); senior personnel Yan Luo, Seung Woo Son, and Christopher Niezrecki
Autonomy
ARPO-Sensor Fusion: Autonomous Robotic Planning and Optimization for Intelligence Sensor Fusion
Applied AI models that fuse multi-sensor intelligence feeds to plan and optimize autonomous robotic missions.
PI Vinod Vokkarane; performed at UMLARC
Printed electronics
BOND-AI: A Standardized Reliability Qualification Methodology for High-Temperature Printed Interfaces and Bond Joints, Enabled by Physics-Informed AI, on a 500 °C-Capable Alumina Platform
Printed interfaces and bond joints that must survive 500 °C are qualified today one sample at a time. BOND-AI builds a standard qualification method and uses physics-informed AI to predict reliability, so fewer parts need to be destroyed to prove a process.
PI Alkim Akyurtlu (Director, RURI and PERC); Co-PIs Vinod Vokkarane, Oshadha Ranasingha, and Scott Stapleton; with Applied Nanotech, Bayflex Solutions, RAGE Systems, and RTX
Autonomy
ARPO: Autonomous Robotic Planning and Optimization
Planning and optimization methods for autonomous robotic systems operating over contested tactical networks.
PI Vinod Vokkarane; UMLARC and UMass Lowell
Energy
Unified Post-Disaster Restoration Planning for Cyber-Physical Power Distribution Systems
Joint restoration of the power and communication layers of a distribution grid after a disaster, including networked microgrid formation and communication-aware state recovery.
PI Vinod Vokkarane; Co-PIs Orlando Arias (UMass Lowell), Yuzhang Lin (NYU)
Energy
CyberCARED: Northeast University Cybersecurity Center for Advanced and Resilient Energy Delivery
A regional university center on cybersecurity for energy delivery systems, combining research with workforce training.
Consortium director Junbo Zhao (Dartmouth College); UMass Lowell PI Vinod Vokkarane; multi-university consortium
Energy
Massachusetts Advanced Nuclear and Fusion Energy Roadmaps
A statewide assessment, commissioned by Gov. Healey, of what Massachusetts would need to lead in advanced nuclear and fusion energy: stakeholder engagement across utilities, regulators, industry, labor, and communities, a public discussion series, and recommendations on workforce, regional coordination, and research capacity.
Lead: Sukesh Aghara, with UMass Lowell's Rist Institute for Sustainability and Energy
Nuclear
Intercontinental Nuclear Institute (INI)
An IAEA-funded international training program in nuclear technology, security, and safeguards for early-career professionals, run with partner institutions.
Co-director: Sukesh Aghara
Transportation
Advanced Technologies and Data Analytics for Safe, Smart, and Efficient Transportation (ASSET)
Advanced technologies and data analytics for safer and more efficient transportation in Massachusetts.
PI Yuanchang Xie
Transportation
A Railroad Trespassing Detection and Dynamic Warning System Based on Artificial Intelligence and Edge Computing
AI and edge computing to detect railroad trespassing and warn in real time.
PI Yuanchang Xie
Transportation
Moving Towards a Smart, Connected, and Interoperable Traffic Monitoring System by Retrofitting Existing Infrastructure
Retrofitting existing infrastructure into a connected, interoperable traffic monitoring system.
UMass Lowell PI Yuanchang Xie
Transportation
Calibration of Safety Performance Functions for Highway Ramp Terminals in Massachusetts
Safety performance functions calibrated for Massachusetts ramp terminals.
PI Yuanchang Xie
Transportation
Current Status of Transportation Data Analytics and a Pilot Case Study Using Artificial Intelligence
The state of transportation data analytics across New England, with an AI pilot study.
PI Yuanchang Xie
Transportation
Multisource Data Fusion for Accurate Traffic Incident Detection
Fusing data sources to detect traffic incidents accurately.
Co-PI Yuanchang Xie
Transportation
Developing Massachusetts-Specific Trip Generation Models for Land Use Projects
Trip generation models built for Massachusetts land use projects.
PI Yuanchang Xie
Transportation
Uncovering the Root Causes of Truck Rollover Crashes on Ramps
Root causes of truck rollover crashes on highway ramps.
PI Yuanchang Xie
Transportation
A UAS Network for Transportation Emergency Response
Unmanned aircraft systems networked for transportation emergency response.
Co-PI Yuanchang Xie
Transportation
Drone-Based Infrared Wireless Sensor Network for Multimodal Underground Situational Awareness
Drone-carried infrared sensor networks for situational awareness underground.
Co-PI Yuanchang Xie
Transportation
Maine Advanced Signal Control and Connected Vehicle System for Safe, Efficient and Equitable Rural Transportation (MAST)
Advanced signal control and connected vehicle systems for rural transportation in Maine.
UMass Lowell PI Yuanchang Xie
Transportation
Railroad Grade Crossing Profile Data Collection and Modeling
Collecting and modeling grade crossing profiles across the Commonwealth to support safety analysis.
PI Yuanchang Xie
Transportation
Smart Work Zone Control and Performance Evaluation Based on Trajectory Data
Work zone control and performance evaluation driven by vehicle trajectory data.
PI Yuanchang Xie
Transportation
Artificial Intelligence Framework for Crosswalk Detection across Massachusetts
Statewide crosswalk inventory and condition assessment from aerial imagery using deep learning.
UMass Lowell PI Yuanchang Xie
Distributed systems
Planning Federated AI-Ready Cyberinfrastructure for Advanced Microscopy and Imaging: A Teach-Explore-Design Framework for Community-Driven Infrastructure
Planning a federated, AI-ready cyberinfrastructure for advanced microscopy and imaging, designed with the community that will use it.
PI Lewis Tseng; Co-PIs Hsien-Yuan Hsu (UMass Lowell) and Yu-Tsun Shao (University of Southern California)
Distributed systems
Towards Fault-tolerant Edge Computing for Cyber-Physical Systems: Distributed Primitives for Coordination under Cyber Attacks
Coordination primitives that keep an edge cluster correct and fast enough for a control loop while under attack.
PI Lewis Tseng
HPC
Improving Data Integrity for HPC Datasets using Sparsity Profile
Detecting and correcting corruption in high-performance computing datasets using their sparsity structure.
PI Seung Woo Son; Co-PI Orlando Arias
Energy
Software-Defined Cyber-Physical Microgrids (SDCPM) for Agile Adaptation to High-Impact, Low-Probability Disturbances
Software-defined control of cyber-physical microgrids so they can reconfigure quickly around rare, high-impact disturbances. Submitted through the Center for Energy Innovation; all of the work was done in this center.
PI Vinod Vokkarane
Networks
Flexible Spectrum Allocation in Next-Generation Optical Networks
Spectrum allocation algorithms for elastic optical networks, the line of work that led to the FUSION simulator.
PI Vinod Vokkarane
Energy
Resilient Sensing and Communication Architecture for Naval Energy Infrastructure Monitoring
Cross-domain design of sensing and communication for resilient monitoring of naval energy infrastructure. Submitted through the Center for Energy Innovation; all of the work was done in this center.
PI Vinod Vokkarane; Co-PI Yuzhang Lin
Networks
Open-Source Research: Friendly Fedora and Podman
Industry support for open-source systems research in the center, including the Friendly Fedora and Podman projects and the FUSION optical network simulation framework. Since 2020 Red Hat has also sponsored a senior capstone team each year on Friendly Fedora, advised directly by a Red Hat director or manager, to make Fedora Linux friendlier for university and academic use: the teams have integrated academia-focused open-source tools into the current release, including large language model and container tools, and in the last two years have contributed new development on Podman.
PI Vinod Vokkarane
Energy
Resilient Smart Grids
Industry-sponsored work on resilient operation of smart distribution grids.
PI Vinod Vokkarane
NSF
Phase II IUCRC at University of Massachusetts Lowell: Center for Wind Energy Science, Technology and Research (WindSTAR)
From the NSF Awards database, verified as a UMass Lowell award with a center member as PI.
PI Christopher Niezrecki; Co-PIs Murat Inalpolat, Scott E Stapleton, Marianna Maiaru, Christopher Hansen
NSF
Center: IUCRC Phase III University of Massachusetts Lowell: Center for Wind Energy Science, Technology, and Research (WindSTAR)
From the NSF Awards database, verified as a UMass Lowell award with a center member as PI.
PI Christopher Niezrecki; Co-PIs Margaret SobkowiczKline, Murat Inalpolat, Scott E Stapleton, Alessandro Sabato
NSF
CCSS: Collaborative Research: Intelligent Full-Duplex Cognitive Radio Networks for Pervasive Heterogeneous Wireless Networking
From the NSF Awards database, verified as a UMass Lowell award with a center member as PI.
PI Chunxiao Chigan
NSF
ERI: Enabling tunable electronic device fabrication on flexible substrates using Barium Strontium Titanate (BST) printable ink development
From the NSF Awards database, verified as a UMass Lowell award with a center member as PI.
PI Oshadha Ranasingha
NSF
CAREER: Environmental Fate and Ecosystem Impacts of Drugs of Abuse in Receiving Waters
From the NSF Awards database, verified as a UMass Lowell award with a center member as PI.
PI Sheree Pagsuyoin
Sensing
BioSPACE: Biosensing Surveillance of Pathogens in Aquaculture and Coastal Environments
Partnership for Innovation project on sensing and surveillance of pathogens in aquaculture and coastal waters.
PI Yan Luo; Co-PIs Sheree Pagsuyoin, Frederic Chain, J. Jayapalan
Health
Unsupervised Deep PCCT Reconstruction for Human Extremity Imaging
Deep learning reconstruction for photon-counting CT imaging of human extremities.
PI Hengyong Yu; Co-PIs Yan Luo, Yu Cao
Health
AI-based Cardiac CT
Artificial intelligence methods for cardiac computed tomography.
PI Hengyong Yu; Co-PIs Yan Luo, Yu Cao
Energy
A Novel Structural Health Monitoring System for Offshore Wind Turbines
Structural health monitoring for offshore wind turbines.
PI Murat Inalpolat; Co-PIs Christopher Niezrecki, Yan Luo
Health
Disease Surveillance with Multi-modal Sensor Network and Data Analytics
Disease surveillance built on a multi-modal sensor network and data analytics.
PI Sheree Pagsuyoin; Co-PIs Yan Luo, Frederic Chain
Sensing
MRI: Development of a Calibration System for Stereophotogrammetry to Enable Large-Scale Measurement and Monitoring
Instrument development for calibrating stereophotogrammetry in large-scale structural measurement.
PI Alessandro Sabato; Co-PIs Christopher Niezrecki, Yan Luo, Kshitij Jerath
Energy
Development of an Acoustics-based Automated Offshore Wind Turbine Blade Structural Health Monitoring System
Acoustic sensing to monitor offshore wind turbine blades automatically.
PI Murat Inalpolat; Co-PIs Christopher Niezrecki, Yan Luo
Awards led by center faculty before the center was formed
These began before the center's founding in October 2019. They are listed for the record and are not counted in the center's funding.
Transportation
Recalibration of Safety Performance Functions for Urban Intersections in Massachusetts
Safety performance functions recalibrated for urban intersections in Massachusetts.
PI Yuanchang Xie
Transportation
Collecting Model Inventory of Roadway Elements (MIRE) Fundamental Data Elements for Intersections in Massachusetts
MIRE fundamental data elements collected for Massachusetts intersections.
PI Yuanchang Xie
Transportation
Collaborative Research: Understanding the Impacts of Automated Vehicles on Traffic Flow Using Empirical Data
Empirical study of how automated vehicles change traffic flow in mixed traffic.
Co-PI Yuanchang Xie
Transportation
Ethical Algorithms in Autonomous Vehicles
The ethics of decision algorithms in autonomous vehicles, joining the center's transportation and ethics work.
PI Nicholas Evans; Co-PI Yuanchang Xie; with Heidi Furey
HPC
Reliable and Efficient Data Encoding for Extreme-Scale Simulation and Analysis
Encoding schemes that keep simulation data usable and verifiable at extreme scale.
PI Seung Woo Son
Health
Collaborative Research: A Low-Cost, Digital Biosensing Platform with Single Protein Biomarker Sensitivity
A low-cost biosensing platform sensitive to single protein biomarkers.
PI Hongwei Sun; Co-PI Yan Luo
Health
CICI: RSARC: SECTOR: Building a Secure and Compliant Cyberinfrastructure for Translational Research
Secure, regulation-compliant cyberinfrastructure for translational health research.
PI Yan Luo; Co-PIs Yu Cao, Peilong Li, Silvia Corvera, Jomol Mathew
Health
CICI: Secure Data Architecture: STREAMS: Secure Transport and Research Architecture for Monitoring Stroke Recovery
Secure data transport and architecture for monitoring stroke recovery.
PI Yan Luo; Co-PIs Yu Cao, Xinwen Fu, Martin Margala
Networks
IRNC: AMI: Collaborative Research: Software-Defined and Privacy-Preserving Network Measurement Instrument and Services for Understanding Data-Driven Science Discovery
Network measurement instrument and services for international research networks, with the University of Kentucky, UMass Boston, and UTEP.
Lead PI Yan Luo
Networks
Network Cyberinfrastructure for Biomedical Informatics Innovation
Campus cyberinfrastructure to move and analyze large biomedical data sets at UMass Lowell.
PI Vinod Vokkarane; Co-PIs Yan Luo and Yu Cao
FUSION
Open-source benchmarking and simulation framework for reproducible optical network research (routing, spectrum and space assignment, QoT models). Described in JOCN, Sept. 2026.
Containerized grid co-simulation testbed
Docker-packaged HELICS, GridLAB-D, and ns-3 federation for cyber-physical power studies on the IEEE 123-bus feeder, with DNP3 traffic between control center and devices.
SUMMIT (in development)
Three-site federated smart grid testbed built around RTDS real-time simulators and a wide-area SDN, funded by the NSF MRI award and opening in 2026-2027 to collaborators as HIL Simulation-as-a-Service.
Sponsors and partners
The agencies, companies, and institutions that have funded the center's research and that of its faculty.
Federal sponsors
State, international, and industry sponsors
Partner institutions
This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2511635. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Research at the center is also supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Office of Naval Research, the U.S. Army, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, Red Hat, and Navia Energy.
People
20 faculty from three colleges, doctoral students in the director's group, and the graduates who have gone on to faculty positions and industry research.
Publications
224 peer-reviewed papers from the director and center faculty since 2019, 92 of them in journals. The newest are below; the full list is searchable and filterable on its own page, and the insights page reads the whole record together: research clusters, who works with whom, what the work builds on, and reach.
News
What has happened in the last few months, generated from the center's own record of papers, awards, and milestones.
- January 2027 issueJournal
2 papers in Accident Analysis & Prevention
Yuanchang Xie published 2 papers in Accident Analysis & Prevention: Balancing adversariality and naturalness in autonomous vehicle testing scenario generation via multi-objective reinforcement learning; Toward explainable traffic crash liability analysis via neural-symbolic multimodal reasoning: Integrating visual perception with legal knowledge graphs.
- January 2027 issueJournal
On the impact of pulse shaping for optical fiber networks
Vinod M. Vokkarane published in Optical Fiber Technology.
- December 2026 issueJournal
A Self-Supervised Contrastive Learning-Based Method for Portable Executable Malware Classification
Yan Luo published in IEEE Access.
- December 2026 issueChapter
The Cobra Effect in Trust Repair: Unintended Consequences of Rebuilding Trust in Human-Robot Collaboration
Paul Robinette published in Lecture Notes in Computer Science.
Work with us
The center is growing with the SUMMIT testbed, and there is room for students, postdocs, and partners.
Students and postdocs
Ph.D. and M.S. students in the center work on real instruments and real data: the federated smart grid testbed, multi-band optical network simulation, fault-tolerant edge systems, and hardware security. A postdoctoral research associate position on SUMMIT is open in Fall 2026 (application). Prospective students should write to a faculty member whose work matches their interests and copy the director, Vinod_Vokkarane@uml.edu.
Industry and agency partners
- Run attack, defense, and restoration experiments on the SUMMIT testbed once it opens to collaborators.
- Sponsor targeted research and gain early access to results and open-source tools such as FUSION.
- Recruit co-ops, interns, and graduates trained on cyber-physical infrastructure.
- Join proposals to NSF, DOE, DoD, and state programs as a partner site or end user.
Sponsor a senior capstone team for $25K
For $25,000 a company or agency gets a team of four to six UMass Lowell seniors in computer, electrical, mechanical, or plastics engineering for their full senior year, working a problem you define under a faculty coach and your own project liaison. Each student puts in 10 to 12 hours a week for two semesters, and you receive a problem clarification report, a solution proposal, a project update, and a final report and presentation, with weekly progress memos in between.
Through the center, the project comes with a cyber-physical focus: smart grid security, connected transportation, optical and 6G networks, edge computing, or hardware security, with access to the center's testbeds and faculty. Past sponsors of the college's capstone program include Raytheon, Analog Devices, BAE Systems, New Balance, and Entegris. The fee supports the students and the program; it is not a contract for deliverables, and arrangements for sensitive data or delayed publication are made before the project starts.
Sponsor a team Write to the director to scope a project
Sponsorship is arranged with the Francis College of Engineering; the director will introduce you to the capstone program office. Teams form in the spring for the following academic year, so a project proposed by April is staffed in September.
Support the Center for Smart Cyber-Physical Systems
Contribute to research and workforce development that keeps power, transportation, and health infrastructure secure and resilient. Your gift to the center supports the SUMMIT testbed, student travel and summer research positions, and the students whose careers will run the systems a smart society depends on.
Donate to the Center