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Registration Number SC170059

TAIBOM - Trusted AI Bill of Materials

159,065
2024-03-01 to 2025-03-31
Collaborative R&D
TAIBOM (Trusted AI Bill of Materials) addresses two fundamental challenges that impact the development and deployment of trustworthy AI systems. * **Versioning**: How do we refer to an AI system in a stable way. How do we produce an AI inventory of dependent components? How can we use these references to make statements about a systems trustworthiness or its legal standing? Fundamentally, when we make a claim of trustworthiness, how can be be sure what we are talking about, and how can we be sure its behaviour has not changed? * **Attestations**: How do we make attestations of trustworthiness about an AI. Whether these claims are about bias, security, right through to the strong legal contractual assertions: how do we make these claims in an interoperable way? How can we assemble the claims from the dependent parts (compositionality)? How to we reason about or validate these claims, factoring in context of use and subjectivity? An AI system is essentially a highly complex software system. It inherits the complexity of software system management. But this problem is made worse by the fact that the AI system behaviour is further determined by up to 1 trillion parameters (e.g. ChatGPT 4). The state of the art for "trustworthy software" development is the SBOM - Software Bill or Materials, recently enacted into US and EU law. SBOMs provide the tools to describe the complex dependencies of software components; but has not been designed for AI. TAIBOM builds on this work. CISA itself have stated that this is essential work to progress. It will take current industry best practice (CycloneDX/SPDX) and adapt and extend this work to make it fit for purpose to describe the full complexity of an AI system. This work will explicitly manifest the dependencies on training data, training TAIBOM creates a standardised ecosystem for describing the nuanced composition of AI systems (versioning), and making contextualised but precise claims about the trustworthiness (attestations) of the system, and its components. Our approach is dual strand: * Develop the commercial tools for managing AI system lifecycle * Develop/refine the interoperable, international, standards that ensure this technology is created in a broad ecosystem. This work builds on the existing state of the art in the standards space (SBOM and W3C Verifiable Credentials), and applies it to the complex AI system problem. The project is led by a consortium security and AI experts

Feasibility study of Generative AI in Automotive Cybersecurity Threat Modelling

3,980
2023-10-01 to 2024-03-31
Collaborative R&D
The transportation industry is experiencing a revolutionary transformation due to advancements in AECS (autonomous, electric, connected, and shared) technology. This has led to a wave of innovations in automotive-specific cybersecurity tooling. As vehicles become increasingly software-defined and connected, the risk of cyber-attacks rises exponentially, making automotive cybersecurity a critical challenge. Moreover, automotive cybersecurity is now regulated in the UNECE countries, adding further pressure on the industry to comply with the ISO/SAE 21434 standard, UNECE R155/R156 regulation. Failure to implement cybersecurity measures will result in the loosing access to market after July 2024\. The recently published ISO/SAE 21434 standard includes clauses 15 and 8, which describe the process and requirements for conducting threat and risk assessments (TARA) and managing vulnerabilities for automotive products. However, the standards do not promote or mandate specific cybersecurity tools for conducting risk assessments and vulnerability management. The current state of automotive cybersecurity tooling is manual, labour-intensive, costly, and lacks automation, resulting in slow, unmanaged risk assessments and threat modelling. With increasing digitisation and software-oriented vehicles, cybersecurity becomes crucial. The inadequacy of the current tooling demands a solution that meets regulatory standards while streamlining and automating cybersecurity risk assessments and threat modelling. Secure Elements innovation CRISKLE, is a cutting-edge software as a service (SaaS) platform for conducting threat and risk assessments, vulnerability management and threat modelling. CRISKLE automates requirements outlined in Clause 15 and Clause 8 of the ISO/SAE 21434 standard, integrating threat modelling scenarios from UNECE WP 29 Annex 5 and customised scenarios based on project needs. However, there is a need to generate and automate threat libraries/scenarios using Generative AI to enhance CRISKLE's intelligence to guide security professionals in conducting risk assessments and generating security controls based on the new threat models. By integrating Generative AI in CRISKLE, we aim to develop more effective cybersecurity threat models.This feasibility study presents an opportunity to explore the untapped potential of Generative AI in the transportation (automotive) cybersecurity industry, moving beyond traditional methods of generating threat models and security controls thereby improving and accelerating the effectiveness of CRISKLE. Through this feasibility study, we will collaborate with leading experts in Generative AI and automotive cybersecurity, leveraging our team's expertise in both domains. This study is a crucial step in positioning ourselves at the forefront of the transportation cybersecurity revolution paving the way for enhanced cybersecurity tooling solutions with integrated Generative AI capability to be made available to mass market.

Sim4CAMSens

126,420
2023-09-01 to 2025-03-31
BEIS-Funded Programmes
**An exciting project focussed on developing and maturing the simulation, modelling and physical testing supply chain for UK-centric CAM perception sensor and systems developers.** Sim4CAMSens will build a UK supply chain that will advance the quality of modelling, simulation, test and characterisation capability in the UK to accelerate and de-risk the design, development, validation and usage of perception systems sensors and algorithms for automated driving functions. The project will create clear links between the tools, methodologies, standards and safety cases. With state-of-the-art modelling and simulation environments, Sim4CAMSens will deliver much needed synthetic training data of suitable quality for the training of AI systems used in autonomous vehicles. We are bringing together an expert, world-class consortium of partners to support the development of an emerging UK-based perception sensors and systems industry by accelerating the development of perception sensors for assisted and automated driving functions There is a nascent perception sensor design and development industry in the UK, with the potential to challenge global innovation with the right investment and coordination. In parallel, the UK has developed outstanding modelling, simulation and testing capabilities for automated vehicle systems through previous Innovate UK supported projects as well as continued industry investment. We see a major opportunity for the UK by bringing these two worlds together to create a globally competitive sensor design, development, modelling, simulation and testing supply chain. The supply chain will focus on the specific use case of the development and testing of three sensor technologies within the virtual and physical test framework: 1\. RADAR (Oxford RF, Claytex), 2\. Camera technology (rFpro), 3\. LiDAR development (CSAC, Claytex).

Spark their imagination; power their future

24,090
2023-09-01 to 2025-02-28
Collaborative R&D
**_SPARK THEIR IMAGINATION; POWER THEIR FUTURE_** CSA Catapult and UKESF will provide the opportunity for children at state-sector secondary schools in Wales to develop their interest in Electronics and Engineering. This is a bespoke, programme which has been created from a selection of UKESF's well-established and successful schools' projects and engagement activities, adapted for Wales. It will be delivered with the support of CS Connected. The aim of the programme is to engage more young Welsh people into Electronics and demystify the science of Semiconductors. This is a high-impact programme, built on solid foundations and designed specifically for Wales directly targeting the barriers learners face around social mobility and funding. It will deliver sustained engagement with pupils, teachers and schools to create an effective pipeline to encourage and support young Welsh people into Electronics and semiconductors. It will provide financial and practical support to ensure more young Welsh people pursue university study in Electronics and Engineering. In addition to the individual participants, it will also be investing in, and supporting, teachers at state secondary schools throughout Wales and providing their schools with re-usable classroom resources. This will allow teachers to deliver the secondary curriculum in a more engaging and interesting way and so will improve the learning experience for pupils. **Summary of Deliverables :** * "What are Semiconductors?" events in 2024\. * Industry familiarisation sessions and Career Forum events. * Classroom resources and Electronics projects and teacher training for all participating schools. * Access to online learning course for all participants. * Comprehensive package of support (including bursaries). **Specific Impacts include:** * Excite pupils about the opportunities a career in Electronics and Technology can offer, through the experience of an event at a university. * The programme will raise general awareness among school pupils (and their families) and teachers of the contribution made by Electronics and Technology in Wales. * The course would enable students from state-sector schools from across Wales, who are typically underrepresented in Higher Education, to experience university for a day. * State schools will receive re-useable sets of resources to support Computing and Physics classes. * Teachers from each school will receive virtual CPD training to support the use of the new classroom resources in their lessons. * Through their training, these teachers will increase their knowledge and understanding of Electronics. They will be able to better contextualise their subjects and raise awareness about engineering careers at their schools.

Virtual Reality Semiconductor Fabrication Training Facility

21,326
2023-08-01 to 2025-01-31
Collaborative R&D
Semiwise, led by their CEO Prof. Asen Asenov, together with the National Microelectronics Institute (NMI) and Pragmatic Semiconductors are proposing an innovative training facility which will propel the UK to the forefront of semiconductor education. The facility will be a virtual reality semiconductor fab, equipped with the latest key equipment in semiconductor manufacture. The fab will be like a computer game for semiconductor professionals. Each piece of equipment will be paired with extensive training materials which have been compiled and constructed by Prof. Asenov throughout his long and successful career as an academic at the University of Glasgow. The VR fab will enable its users to experience working in a fab, a privilege reserved only for a few people in the world, and give them vital knowledge in semiconductor manufacturing and process operation. The VR fab will be able to simulate actual manufacture through the use of world-leading process simulation tools and open up semiconductor manufacturing knowledge to the UK and its institutions. This method of education is similar to the way pilots are prepared and trained to fly expensive jets. Due to the large cost of training in a physical fab, this virtual reality model will act as a simulator for future semiconductor experts. In order to reduce the high cost of building an equipment simulator we will use well-established process and device TCAD simulation tools, which can fully simulate the operation of individual pieces of equipment and the complete manufacturing process. To this end will integrate the world-leading Synopsys TCAD into the VR environment to allow users as close to reality experience as possible. This facility will serve as a training ground for all of the UK and help boost the UK's position in the semiconductor world. Additionally, such an intuitive training facility can help spark interest in the semiconductor field and inspire future generations of engineers and scientists to pursue a career in semiconductors. Our partners NMI and Pragmatic as well as the members of the Industry Advisory Board will ensure that the developments meet the industry standards and expectations. Therefore, the VR fab will provide a competitive advantage to UK semiconductor manufacturers. This will enable the industry to fill the widening skills gap in the workforce and satisfy its recruitment needs in the future.

ResAuto

99,941
2023-06-01 to 2024-11-30
Collaborative R&D
The automotive sector faces a growing cyber resilience problem with connected embedded electronics. The problem is exacerbated as vehicles are deployed which draw from shared software libraries delivered across diverse component supply ecosystems delivering ever more complex functionality in safety critical operations. Analysis and demonstration of the efficacy and cost of a CHERI-based solution will be of significant impact on the future design and development of automotive systems and beyond. Using key industry data points and Morello cards RESAuto will demonstrate the potential advantages of CHERI-based solutions in complex interconnected systems which are subject to international regulatory and legal controls with conflicting through-life objectives of safety, privacy and access to data (competition law). This approach will allow numeric corroboration of potential impacts of a CHERI-based solution. RESAuto is using an Automotive Braking System integrated with a real-time monitoring and compliance system as its exemplar for this demonstration. This test environment, including its effectiveness and cost data, is available to RESAuto and supported by the industry. Braking systems include power critical sensors, Al and approximate computing, control and actuators, complex distributed algorithms, timing criticality across technologies including CMOS and Silicon-Carbide and the ability to test quantitively across this integrated architecture. This will allow analysis of the safety goals when using DSbD artefacts, including the CHERI architecture, software toolchain support and Morello card. It will allow impact analysis, including what (business) changes to structural engineering processes are required to achieve these. The automotive industry is the largest consumer of CMOS worldwide and its requirements vertically integrated through tiered supply chains. If the DSbD outcomes, demonstrated through use of the Morello card, can be shown to have a positive impact on the costs of achieving the legal and compliance obligations in a way that is anticipated to be more acceptable to the marketplace, then the industry is positioned to rapidly force the transformation of its CMOS supply-chain. RESAuto members have been involved with Discribe, participating in workshops and interviews both as individual institutions and on behalf of the bodies that we represent including Automotive Electronics Innovation Network (AESIN), Techworks, NMI, UK and Global Automotive councils. If selected, AESIN will co­ organise, with Discribe, bi-annual open working groups.

Virtual Manufacturing Based Power Electronics Design and Manufacturing Training Courses

35,659
2022-10-01 to 2025-03-31
Collaborative R&D
The aim of this project is to develop and deliver industry driven and compatible innovative courses and training programs meeting in full the needs of the UK power electronics industry and PEMD community. The innovative approach involves virtual power electronics device technology, design and manufacturing based on the Synopsys Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) and Design-Technology Co-Optimisation (DTCO) tools in both lectures and laboratories. The leading organisation Semiwise will be in charge of the course development and delivery. The interactions with the power electronics industry and the marketing of the courses in the UK will be handled by the National Microelectronics Institute (NMI). Key power electronic manufacturers, members of NMI, will contribute to the course's development advising on the syllabus and making sure that the content represents the actual technologies and devices of interest. Synopsys, a key partner of this proposal will share their worldwide experience in modelling and simulation of power electronic devices and will provide access to the required tools. The tools are adopted by most of the world leading semiconductor manufacturers. The course will tackle the lack of semiconductors trained staff in the UK and will enable the growth of the UK power electronics industry. The mixed mode delivery will include face-to-face training, zoom-based delivery and on demand web-based distant learning. The face-to-face courses at manufacturers sites will be supplemented by Zoom based delivery and web-based training. The courses will cover silicon (Si), silicon carbide (SiC), and gallium nitride (GaN) all of interest to UK PEMD players including: * Design of power electronic devices. * Processes and equipment used in the manufacturing of the devices. * Complete manufacturing flows for several types of power electronics devices. Different flavour of the courses will target different audiences promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion within PEMD technology training, manufacturing, and research. These include: * New recruits by the power electronics manufacturers. * Existing staff of the power electronic manufacturers in need for up-skilling and re-training. * Power electronics conversion courses for graduates increasing their employment prospect and increasing the employment pool for the power electronics manufacturers. Due to the innovative course design and delivery concepts based on virtual manufacturing, and the key role of Synopsys we expect that the developed courses will become world leading power electronics course and Semiwise will become world leading power electronics training provider. Thus, this project will enable the growth of the UK power electronics industry increasing its competitiveness internationally.

Secure Networking by Design (SNbD)

214,095
2022-06-01 to 2024-05-31
Collaborative R&D
According to a recent industry report routers account for over 75% of infected devices An infected router is more dangerous than infected IOT devices, phones or PCs. A router is both an intermediary for almost all networking traffic and a line of defence from external attack (firewall); a compromised router therefore has the potential to both open the floodgates to new attacks and act as a jump off point for secondary attacks. Because the router essentially controls the network, it has insidious ability to mount man in the middle attacks on entire portfolios of devices. A review of disclosed vulnerabilities show that the list of current and historical memory related vulnerabilities in routing components is enormous. And inevitably the most dangerous vulnerability is the one not yet publicly disclosed. The Secure Networking by Design (SNbD) project directly addresses this threat. Building on recent advances in router security (ManySecured), the SNbD project will to harden router and networking protections. Building on CHERI/Morello SNbD will use the memory protection and secure compartmentalisation features to improve the security offered by routers. By taking a modular approach SNbD, will ensure that the individual modules that are upgraded in this endeavour are available to other operating systems and applications, guaranteeing maximum ecosystem impact. SNbD will operate in a "working in open" fashion, and openly accept third party contributions. From the outset, SNbD will be designed to be a self sustaining, collaborative initiative, with a long lasting legacy. SNbD directly addresses, the most significant, and hyper scaling security threat; the ability to infect and cross infect internet connected devices. The security protections the CHERI/Morello architecture offers, are more relevant to this domain than any other. SNbD is a collaboration between NquiringMinds, University of Oxford and the Techworks; organisations which both individually and collectively have an exemplary track record of delivering positive security impact at scale.

ResiCAV - Resilient CAV

14,377
2020-01-01 to 2020-03-31
Feasibility Studies
CAVs and the infrastructure within which they operate form a highly complex super-system. In addition to operating reliably and safely, this system must be resilient in the face of cyber threats. International automotive cybersecurity standards (ISO/SAE 21434) and regulations (UNECE) are under development, which will specify requirements for cybersecurity throughout the vehicle lifecycle. However, while methods for cybersecurity engineering during development are maturing, rigorous methods to enable CAVs to be resilient in operation are at a much lower level of maturity. There is significant risk of catastrophic failure moving from CAV demonstrations to mass deployment if new methods are not developed to detect, understand and react to emerging threats. ResiCAV will respond to this challenge, building on the partners' preliminary groundwork to inform new operational requirements for resilience, assess their feasibility and identify further work to develop and operationalise them. ResiCAV will: explore the feasibility of the draft AESIN/UK Auto Council Cyber Resilience (CyRes) methodology by taking tools and techniques applied to static analysis of systems and applying them dynamically for real time monitoring/response and numerising and measuring the detect, monitor, act process so resilience will meet legal requirements expected of CAV systems; develop requirements for a cybersecurity operations centre and end-to-end monitoring/response processes and extending the application of AI and data visualisation techniques. These will be aligned with emerging requirements in international standards and will be specified to supplement elements of the new operating methodology as they mature; create specifications for new cybersecurity test facilities, including links, extensions and upgrades to existing UK CAV testbeds to support the development, verification and operationalisation of CyRes; specify requirements for a Cybersecurity Centre of Excellence and distributed ecosystem to leverage UK capabilities in CyRes and validate and deliver the operations methodology. This will build on work already supported by Innovate UK and will include recommendations for the adaptation of assurance and certification schemes such as 5StarS and UNECE regulations to operational CyRes. ResiCAV combines cross-sector expertise from automotive, cybersecurity, network operations, high performance computing, electronics hardware, and AI providing a solid intellectual foundation to address the technical and economic feasibility of achieving globally significant CyRes for CAVs throughout their operational lifetime.

CyberStone: Collaborative Secure IOT Gateway

496,400
2019-12-01 to 2022-11-30
Collaborative R&D
Public description Objective CyberStone will develop a secure, intelligent, collaborative IOT gateway to address the IOT cyber security challenge. Its key components are Secure: the gateway will embody security best practice. This encompasses secure boot, secure storage, software component attestation, network segmentation, managed IOT updates, remote management of router capabilities, roots of trust and secure device and user identities. Intelligent: CyberStone will by dynamic. Using secure edge based processing it will analyse IOT device behaviours and dynamical infer risk using a mix of strategies from statistics to full blown AI. The processing will include cloud based security services, that complement the local analytics Collaborative: the IOT risk is shared across players. A collaborative ecosystem of information sharing is needed to both detect and mitigate risks. CyberStone will define collaborative information sharing protocols, IOT fingerprinting techniques and technical integration layers to make wide scale deployment and impact possible Why the gateway Why address the issue at the gateway? For both deep technical and entirely pragmatic purposes securing the IOT endpoint is impossible. The horse has already bolted. The IOT gateway is an essential component of most IOT deployments, but provides a unique management node, to monitor, analyse, and mitigate risk across heterogeneous IOT devices and networks. Equally, any deep IOT security endpoint innovation will require an IOT gateway innovation to be practically deployable The team CyberStone is an active collaboration between: NquiringMinds - a leading UK AI and Cyber SME, Cisco - one of the worlds foremost router and gateway suppliers, The Internet of Things Security Foundation - a UK based trade association, with international reach, focusing entirely on IOT security and University of Oxford Cyber Security Centre , one of the UKs leading academic cyber centres of excellence

ESCAPE - End-to-end Supply Chain development for Automotive Power Electronics

29,516
2019-10-01 to 2023-06-30
BIS-Funded Programmes
Public description Most vehicles run on fossil fuels like petrol or diesel. Their exhaust gases are responsible for most of the carbon dioxide (associated with global warming) and particulate emissions (that can cause athsma) in the UK at present. Making these vehicles electrically driven moves all emissions away from the tailpipe of the vehicle, and if renewable energy is used to charge the vehicle, can completely eliminate the emissions associated with transportation and mobility as well as reducing the UK's dependency on imported fossil fuels. This applies to all modes of transport including automotive, off-highway, rail, marine and aviation. At its core, an electric drivetrain is very simple, with an electric motor providing the tractive power generated from energy stored in a battery. To convert the DC voltage of the battery to the AC voltage required for the motor, power electronics, in the form of an inverter, are required. Further power electronics are also required for use in high power DC/DC converters and rapid chargers. Until recently, the switching devices used for these applications have been based on standard silicon technology. Silicon Carbide is expected to replace the use of silicon in future applications, due to its superior switching speed and efficiency. This also includes in non-transport applications including electrical grid interfaces and renewable energy systems. At present, this technology cannot be made in the UK and is imported, rather than building in the UK and exporting. The aim of this project is to kick-start the manufacture of these high value components, and their resulting systems in the UK. This will protect skilled manufacturing jobs in the UK and provide significant export potential for the associated vehicles and components. The timing for this innovation is perfect, with massive demand expansion predicted over the coming decades as electric cars become mainstream. The opportunity is for the UK to be at the forefront of this revolution. The focus of ESCAPE is to bring together industrial leaders and pioneers from across the supply chain to work as a single coherent team to deliver this vision. We aim to break down many of the barriers that slow down the development cycle time and to capture the full value in the UK. ESCAPE will be supported by academics and engineers who are expert in the area building on over 25 years of research to date.

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