The director, the students, and the alumni

Vinod M. Vokkarane

Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering; Director, Center for Smart Cyber-Physical Systems (SCyPS)

Vinod Vokkarane received his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2004, where his dissertation won the department's best dissertation award, and founded the laboratory that year at UMass Dartmouth. He moved it to UMass Lowell in 2013, was a visiting scientist at MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics from 2011 to 2014, and has been Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering since 2016. He co-founded the Center for Smart Cyber-Physical Systems in 2019 and has directed it since 2021. His work has moved from optical burst switching and advance reservation to today's multi-band, space-division optical networks and the cyber resilience of the power grid.

Research areas: Cyber-physical systems, smart grid cybersecurity and resilience, optical and 6G network optimization, AI/ML for networked systems

Honors and service

• ECE Department Teaching Award, UMass Lowell, 2018 and 2025
• IET Premium Award 2018, best paper in IET Wireless Sensor Systems
• Best Paper Awards: IEEE ANTS 2016, ONDM 2015, IEEE GLOBECOM 2005; Top Paper Award, ONDM 2016; Best Poster Award, IPDPS 2013 Ph.D. Forum
• Best Computer Science Ph.D. Dissertation Award, University of Texas at Dallas, 2004
• Scholar of the Year and Chancellor's Innovation in Teaching Award, UMass Dartmouth, 2010 to 2011
• TPC Co-Chair, IEEE HPSR 2028; technical program committees of IEEE GLOBECOM, ICC, ANTS, and ONDM

vinod_vokkarane@uml.edu, 978-934-3345, Ball Hall 409. Center profile.