Benjamin Andrew Cyr
https://benjamin-cyr.com
bencyr@umich.edu | 256-348-3042

RESEARCH VISION
To build and inspire life-enhancing technologies that will remain secure and trustworthy evenunder threats that most would never consider.

EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN | Ph.D. in Computer Science
Expected May 2023 | Ann Arbor, MI • Advisor: Dr. Kevin Fu

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN | MSE in Computer Science
May 2020 | Ann Arbor, MI • GPA: 4.0 / 4.0

AUBURN UNIVERSITY | BS in Electrical Engineering (Computer Engineering Option)
Dec 2017 | Auburn, AL • GPA: 3.98 / 4.0RESEARCH EXPERIENCESPQR LAB – UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN | Cyber-Physical Security Research
June 2018 – Now | Ann Arbor, MI | Advisor: Dr. Kevin Fu• Investigated light-based signal injection on microphones in voice-controllable systems.
• Defined adversarial capabilities of laser spoofing attacks on LiDAR sensors used in autonomous vehicles.

AUBURN UNIVERSITY | Hardware Security Research
January 2018 – May 2018 | Auburn, AL | Advisor: Dr. Ujjwal Guin
• Proposed a new theoretical defense through software obfuscation to prevent cloning in low-cost embedded systems.
• Reproduced a firmware extraction attack on an STM32 Microcontroller

AUBURN UNIVERSITY | Networking Optimization ResearchAugust 2017 – May 2018 | Auburn, AL | Advisor: Dr. Yin Sun• Developed MATLAB simulations for optimizing the age of information in real-time networks.
• Researched the effects of information age on control system networks.

HOCHSCHULE MANNHEIM | Embedded Systems Research
May 2017 – July 2017 | Mannheim, Germany | Advisor: Prof. Dr. Walter Götzmann• Developed a system to measure and display data from an electronic bike using an AVR microcontroller.
• Worked on experimental hardware and interfacing with a mobile application.

AUBURN UNIVERSITY | Image Processing ResearchAugust 2016 – May 2017 | Auburn, AL | Advisor: Dr. Stanley Reeves• Development of system for real-time image-processing using Xilinx Zynq-7000 SoC.
• Designed user interface to test the image-processing system.

INDUSTRY EXPERIENCESANDIA NATIONAL LABS | Cyber Security Engineering
May 2022 – August 2022 | Albuquerque, NM• Improved the performance of tools designed to automatically perform malware detection and firmware analysis.
• Developed scripts to compile information from Ghidra analysis.

MOTIONAL INC. | Cyber Security Engineering
May 2021 – August 2021 | Pittsburgh, PA• Performed penetration tests on sensors used in autonomous vehicle prototypes.
• Developed plans for system-level penetration testing of autonomous vehicles.

ADTRAN INC. | Network Driver Development
May 2016 – August 2016 | Huntsville, AL• Software development of custom network driver on proprietary ADTRAN equipment.
• Interfaced with the Linux Kernel and a custom FPGA networking accelerator.

ADTRAN INC. | Design Verification Testing
August 2015 – December 2015 | Huntsville, AL• Wrote automated tests to check functionality of software releases on ADTRAN Management and Switch Modules.
• Member of an Agile Team.

ADTRAN INC. | System Design and Verification TestingJanuary 2015 – May 2015 | Huntsville, AL• Performed routine tests of ADTRAN and Cisco devices using custom CLI and proprietary GUIs.
• Gained detailed knowledge of custom networking management and hardware.

SCIENCE APPLICATIONS INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION (SAIC) | Network Administration
May 2014 – August 2014 | Huntsville, AL• Maintained devices and accounts on a private network of computers used to simulate and test vehicle software.
• Provided technical support to engineers developing the vehicle software.

OTHER ENGINEERING EXPERIENCE
AUBURN UNIVERSITY SMALL SATELLITE PROGRAM (AUSSP) | Electrical Power System MemberJanuary 2014 – May 2018 | Auburn, AL• Member of Electrical Power System Team in student-managed CubeSat program.
• Managed and taught a team of younger students to build and test embedded systems.

PUBLICATIONS
WHY LASERS INJECT PERCEIVED SOUND INTO MEMS MICROPHONES: INDICATIONS AND
CONTRAINDICATIONS OF PHOTOACOUSTIC AND PHOTOELECTRIC EFFECTSIEEE SENSORS 2021 | Acceptance Rate: 59%
Benjamin Cyr, Takeshi Sugawara, and Kevin Fu
https://spqr.eecs.umich.edu/papers/cyr_why_lasers_inject_sensors2021.pdf

LIGHT COMMANDS: LASER-BASED AUDIO INJECTION ATTACKS ON VOICE-CONTROLLABLESYSTEMS
Usenix Security 2020 | Acceptance Rate: 16.1%
Takeshi Sugawara, Benjamin Cyr, Sara Rampazzi, Daniel Genkin, and Kevin Fu
https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity20/presentation/sugawara

ADVERSARIAL SENSOR ATTACK ON LIDAR-BASED PERCEPTION IN AUTONOMOUS DRIVINGACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS) 2019 | Acceptance Rate: 16%
Yulong Cao, Chaowei Xiao, Benjamin Cyr, Yimeng Zhou, Won Park, Sara Rampazzi, Qi Alfred Chen, Kevin Fu, Z. MorleyMao
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3319535.3339815

LOW-COST AND SECURE FIRMWARE OBFUSCATION METHOD FOR PROTECTING ELECTRONICSYSTEMS FROM CLONINGIEEE Internet of Things Journal 2019 Vol. 6 Issue 2Benjamin Cyr, Jubayer Mahmod, Ujjwal Guin
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/8598922

SAMPLING FOR DATA FRESHNESS OPTIMIZATION: NON-LINEAR AGE FUNCTIONSIEEE Journal of Communications and Networks 2019 Vol. 21 Issue 3Yin Sun and Benjamin Cyrhttps://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8764465

INFORMATION AGING THROUGH QUEUES: A MUTUAL INFORMATION PERSPECTIVE

IEEE SPAWC 2018 | Acceptance Rate 54%
Yin Sun and Benjamin Cyr
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8764465

PRESENTATIONS
WHY LASERS INJECT PERCEIVED SOUND INTO MEMS MICROPHONES: INDICATIONS AND
CONTRAINDICATIONS OF PHOTOACOUSTIC AND PHOTOELECTRIC EFFECTS
Paper Presentation | IEEE SENSORS | November 2021
https://2021.ieee-sensorsconference.org/BREAKOUT SESSION: AI AND AUTONOMOUS SYSTEMS SECURITY
Lightning Talk | SPQR DEI Embedded Security Workshop | August 2020
https://spqrlab1.github.io/securityworkshop.html

LIGHT COMMANDS: LASER-BASED AUDIO INJECTION ATTACKS ON VOICE-CONTROLLABLESYSTEMS
Paper Presentation | Usenix Security | August 2020
https://www.usenix.org/conference/usenixsecurity20/presentation/sugawara

LIGHT COMMANDS: LASER-BASED AUDIO INJECTION ATTACKS ON VOICE-CONTROLLABLESYSTEMS
Invited Talk | Institute of Defense Analysis (IDA) | August 2020

BREAKING INTO A SMART HOME WITH A LASER - SMARTER EVERY DAY 229
Invited Video Collaboration | Smarter Every Day | December 2019https://youtu.be/ozIKwGt38LQ

LOW-COST AND SECURE FIRMWARE OBFUSCATION METHOD FOR PROTECTING ELECTRONICSYSTEMS FROM CLONING
Poster Presentation | SEC Academic Conference | April 2018
http://ocm.auburn.edu/sec/index.html

TEACHING EXPERIENCEADVANCED EMBEDDED SYSTEMS | Graduate Student Instructor
August 2021 – December 2021 | Ann Arbor, MI• Lab instructor for students learning advanced topics in embedded systems.
• Provided instruction and assistance to students developing senior-level design projects.

INTRODUCTION TO EMBEDDED SYSTEM DESIGN | Graduate Student Instructor
January 2021 – May 2021 | Ann Arbor, MI• Met with students as a remote lab instructor to ensure proper understanding of embedded systems concepts.
• Provided remote assistance and preparation for students in projects, homework, and exams.

INTRODUCTION TO EMBEDDED SYSTEM DESIGN | Lab Design
May 2020 – August 2020 | Ann Arbor, MI• Designed and wrote lab documents for a undergraduate embedded systems course.
• Course had to be converted and improved so that the labs could be completed remotely.

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH ADVISEESTANVI DESHMUKH
May 2020 – August 2020
Investigating the physics of light signal injection into MEMS devices.
https://tddeshm.github.io/research/

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENTSLUMIERE EDUCATION | Research Mentor
May 2021 - August 2021
Mentor to five students interested in getting involved in undergraduate research. The three-month program included
selecting a topic in computer science, performing research and analysis, and writing a paper on findings.
https://www.lumiere-education.com/

SPQR DEI EMBEDDED SECURITY WORKSHOP | Volunteer Organizer
August 2020
An organizer for the the virtual Embedded Security Workshop. Responsible for managing breakout sessions andhandling workshop emails and questions.
https://spqrlab1.github.io/securityworkshop.html

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CSEG STUDENT ORGANIZATION | SPQR Lab Liaison
January 2019 – Now
Representative from the SPQR Lab in CSEG-hosted events in welcoming incoming students and ensuring strong
student connections in the Computer Science and Engineering Department.
https://cseg-michigan.github.io/

AWARDS AND HONORS
2021 BEST PAPER AWARD | Journal of Communications and Networks
For the publication ”Sampling for Data Freshness Optimization: Non-linear Age Functions”