Dr. Zheng O’Neill is leading a project to research, develop and demonstrate a real-time platform to improve the cybersecurity and energy efficiency of commercial gridinteractive efficient buildings (GEB).
The three-year Cyber Defense and Resilient System (CYDRES) project is funded by the United States Department of Energy’s Building Technologies Office and includes partners Raytheon Technologies Research Center, Drexel University, Arizona State University, Pacific Northwestern National Laboratory and Northwestern University.
O’Neill said current building automation systems are designed and operated with little consideration of cybersecurity challenges, leaving many building systems vulnerable to attack.
This is of special concern for GEBs, which are outfitted with next-generation sensors, controls, connectivity and communication technologies. If attacked, they could experience adverse consequences ranging from energy waste and occupant discomfort to equipment downtime and disruption of grid operations.
“The proposed CYDRES system will accurately identify cyber threats in real time and offer immediate defense against malicious network activity,” O’Neill said. “In addition, the fault detection, diagnostics, and prognosis and cyberresilient control scheme will enhance GEB tolerance to both cyber-related and physical faults while maximizing the potential energy savings and load flexibility and maintaining occupant satisfaction.”
A hardware-in-the-loop and a local testbed will be developed to help explore and demonstrate potential approaches to cybersecurity and energy efficiency both on and off the Texas A&M campus. By the project’s conclusion, O’Neill said she expects to see CYDRES effectively monitoring, detecting and responding to cyberattacks and physical system faults.
Featured Researcher
Dr. Zheng O’Neill
- Associate Professor
- J. Mike Walker ‘66 Faculty Fellow II