Academics amongst top five finalists for UAE’s Cybersecurity Research Award

Cybersecurity academics from the University of Wolverhampton have been selected as top five finalists in an ongoing international competition at the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, UAE, to present their innovative research.

This competition is a $1.5 million UAE Cybersecurity Research Award (CRA) initiative focused on generating innovative ideas that will safeguard the world's smart cities against the cybersecurity threats of the near future.

Dr Gregory Epiphaniou and Dr Haider Al-Khateeb, of Wolverhampton Cyber Research Institute (WCRI), based at the University, travelled to compete in a rigorous selection process as part of the programme. The team which also includes Prof Prashant Pillai and Prof Amar Aggoun aims to stimulate the commercial exploitation of patented technology developed at the university.

“It is inevitable for Smart Cities to have a proliferation of cross-industry connected devices and our research offers a cost-effective solution to exchange data in a reliable and secure way”, said Dr Epiphaniou.

“The IMD Smart City Index 2019 ranked Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the first and second places in the MENA region, and 56th and 45th overall in the rankings that assessed a total of 102 cities around the world. Moving forward, we believe that our work can help smart cities to scale the data sharing capabilities with built-in fail-safe functionality and information assurance”, added Dr Al-Khateeb.

The initiative was launched during the University Pavilion event at HITB+ CyberWeek 2019. 30 teams from around the world were originally shortlisted for this competition from which 15 teams qualified to present their research during the event.

“We are extremely excited to reach the final stage of this competition. To be one of the top 5 teams from all over the world is a testament to the strong expertise the team from the Wolverhampton Cyber Research Institute has. The team is also helping in developing the new £9m Midlands Centre for Cyber Security in Hereford”, added Prof Pillai.

Picture caption from left to right: Dr Haider Al-Khateeb and Dr Gregory Epiphaniou.