Biography:
Dr Srikanthan is a Professor at the College of Computing & Data Science at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore since 2005. He was the founding Director of the Centre for High Performance Embedded Systems (CHiPES), NTU from 1998 until 2014. He served as Chair of the School of Computer Science and Engineering between 2010-2016 and achieved an ambitious programme of far-reaching reforms to maximise operational efficiency and quality standards including the substantial restructuring of its two undergraduate curricula. He was responsible for 1800 students (UG and MSc), 80 faculty, 60 non-faculty, 180 research staff and 360 PhD students. Under his leadership, SCSE was ranked 4th in Computer Science by Best Global Universities and 2nd by Microsoft Academic Research for AI & Simulation. He served as the Executive Director of Cyber Security Research Centre@ NTU (CYSREN) from Feb 2016 until May 2024. In 2016, he secured S$46.5m from the National Research Foundation (NRF), Singapore
for the CREATE program on ‘Ultimate Public Transport Systems’ with the support of colleagues from NTU and TUM, Germany. He served as one its two Program Directors at NRF’s request to oversee this program. In Dec 2023, he secured another S$21M for the CREATE program on ‘Engineering the Security of Future Medical Devices and Systems’ as its lead PI with the support of colleagues from NTU and Imperial College, UK. Under his leadership, CYSREN made a Joint declaration with INTERPOL for the establishment of a Centre of Excellence in Dark-net & Cryptocurrencies and secured more than S$15M in external funding from major MNCs such as AIA, BAE and Desay Automotive SV.
His research interests include design methodologies for high-productivity embedded systems, architectural translations of compute-intensive algorithms, computer arithmetic and high-speed techniques for vision-enabled systems. He graduated 48 PhD & MEng students and published 490 papers in reputed conferences & journals. His pioneering efforts in low-cost roadway navigation led to a spin-off company in mobility intelligence.
He secured more than S$4.6M to grow the company and successfully exited the 120- strong company in 2017. He then co-founded another company in cyber security and secured S $10.5M in VC funding and continues to serve as its scientific advisor. In 2021, he was awarded the Public Service Public Administration Medal (Silver) by the Government of Singapore for outstanding contributions to education and research in Singapore. This followed several consecutive awards for outstanding performance at the School and Best Teacher of the Year Award in 2002
Cybersecurity of Infrastructure
The critical infrastructure sectors often rely on electronic systems, including Internet of Things (IoT) and operational technology (OT) devices and systems. This coupled with increased connectivity at corporate network edges and adoption of cloud services make securing technology infrastructure both more complex and more important than ever. The IT/OT convergence is also shaping new ways of working as businesses adapt to a shift in their organisational structure, and take on new challenges with compliance, cybersecurity, and data and technology management. As a result, many organizations have an expanding attack surface vulnerable to threats. Moreover, threats are also getting more and more complex, and IT security is only as good as the weakest link in the infrastructure. With cybersecurity threats on the rise, the industry is compelled to develop new levels of preparedness, and trends are showing that cybersecurity will once again be the top investment priority moving forward. This talk will discuss the major factors influencing the rapid growth in connected systems and in particular, the significance of IT and OT in convergence as technology evolves. It will introduce several in-house developed edge computing devices/systems for the fast-evolving connected systems infrastructure of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) and discuss the newly launched R&D program for engineering a secure connected systems infrastructure for healthcare. Ongoing research efforts and trends in software/hardware security for mitigating cyber threats in complex infrastructure will also be introduced.