Since 2013, Mamadou H. Diallo has worked as a scientist at the Naval Information Warfare Center Pacific (NIWC Pacific), focusing on science and technology activities in the area of cybersecurity. Diallo, who received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from UCI’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences (ICS), was recently recognized for his outstanding contributions in the area of Cyber and Science & Technology (C/S&T) with an NIWC Pacific Galileo Award.
“To be considered for this award is a great honor and privilege,” says Diallo, an S&T manager. “It’s an excellent morale-booster that will encourage me to continue doing my best work.” That work spans various areas, including security, privacy, and trust in cloud and autonomic computing, big data and the Internet of Things (IoT); identity and access management (IdAM); secure computing and security requirements; trust management in decentralized applications; dependability in software architecture; and privacy policy languages.
“In addition to researching, developing and demonstrating cybersecurity systems and applications, my research team has produced multiple publications in conferences, journals, books and magazines,” says Diallo. “My team has also produced three U.S. patent awards and multiple patent applications.”
His team has collaborated extensively with researchers from academia, including from UCI. In particular, his team has worked with ICS researchers leading the TIPPERS (Testbed for IoT-based Privacy-Preserving PERvasive Spaces) project. “I have led my team in collaborating with Professor Sharad Mehrotra’s research team in an effort to transition the TIPPERS system into the Navy.” The system aims to protect the privacy of individuals and enterprises in an increasingly interconnected world, and Diallo, working closely with the TIPPERS development team, successfully demonstrated the system on a U.S. Navy destroyer as part of the Trident Warrior 2019 experimentation. “Currently, we are working toward a second demonstration of TIPPERS in a U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship (Landing Helicopter Dock – LHD) as part of the Trident Warrior 2020,” notes Diallo. “Parallel to this activity, we are currently investigating how TIPPERS can be used for COVID-19 contact tracing for the Navy.”
Mehrotra is grateful for Diallo’s “unparalleled perseverance, dedication and vision” in supporting the technology transition. “It has been an absolute pleasure working with Dr. Mamadou Diallo and his team at NIWC over the past four years as we transitioned the TIPPERS smart space platform, developed as a part of the DARPA Brandeis Program, to the US Navy,” says Mehrotra. He looks forward to continuing the partnership.
Diallo is similarly thankful for Mehrotra, who served as his ICS adviser, and for the education he received at UCI. “The scientific knowledge and work ethic I learned during my time at UCI are truly guiding me in my research activities at NIWC Pacific.”
— Shani Murray