Anthony D. Wood

Brief Biography

Anthony D. Wood is a Research Associate in the Computer Science Department at the University of Virginia. His research focuses on efficient, secure protocols for wireless sensor networks and their application to pervasive health care and environmental science. He has published over fourteen research papers and three book chapters, and received Best Paper, Best Presentation, and Outstanding Graduate Research Assistant awards. Until his recent graduation, Anthony studied under John A. Stankovic, BP America Professor, former chair of the department, and founder of the Real-Time Computing Laboratory, which specializes in systems building, real-time, and feedback control. Anthony earned his MCS in Computer Science at the University of Virginia, and a BS in Computer Science at Virginia Tech.

Education

• Ph.D. in Computer Science, December 2008
  University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
  Dissertation: “Adaptive Defenses for Physical- and Routing-Layer Denial-of-Service Attacks in Wireless Sensor Networks”
• M.C.S. in Computer Science, May 2003
  University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
  Project: “A Mapping Service for Jammed-Regions in Sensor Networks”
• B.S. in Computer Science, May 1998
  Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
  Summa Cum Laude, University Honors Program

Research Interests

Networks of small wireless sensor devices, such as those pictured at right, are my primary research area. They have all kinds of applications in scientific, environmental, medical, and military domains.

Why are they interesting? The devices envisioned, and to an ever-increasing extent realized (see WSN links), are small, communicate wirelessly, have limited power, may be cost-sensitive, and are cognizant of the physical world through their onboard sensors. Since each device has limited abilities, they are often deployed in large numbers and must cooperate to accomplish their mission. An infrastructure may not exist, so relationships are ad hoc. Mass-production variances, physical distress, and limited battery life all contribute to significant failure rates and require redundant deployment and periodic replenishment.

All these constraints mean that algorithms, architectures, operating systems, and protocols must be lightweight and efficient, taking advantage of the temporal, spatial, and event-driven properties of the network. When you add active attackers to the mix, things really become interesting.

In particular, I have produced results in the following topic areas for highly constrained embedded platforms (more details on the projects page):

• Adaptive security. Static security approaches often pay a tax on performance even in the common case—when no attackers are present. Also, secure versions of every WSN service will not all fit on a mote and operate together seamlessly. We are researching parametric protocols for important services that operate efficiently when no attackers are present, and which gradually enable defenses as attacks are suspected.
• Denial of service. Devices using wireless communication are vulnerable to denial of service attacks, including easy and efficient jamming. I have developed protocols for defeating jamming (DEEJAM) and for mapping its extent (JAM) using a distributed middleware.
• Secure routing. Routing messages across large networks efficiently and securely is a challenge when nodes may be easily compromised. I created a family of routing protocols (SIGF) that allow continued operation despite the presence of active attackers.
• Lightweight security. Requirements for size, lifetime, and capability dictate the use of lightweight mechanisms, such as hardware-accelerated secure link-layer protocols (AMSecure), and gateway-mediated secure query architectures.
• Improving healthcare. Sensors in body networks or placed in a person's residence can enable continuous, remote monitoring of health conditions. Adverse events (like falls or forgotten medication) and long-term decline in activities can be proactively detected. We built AlarmNet as a testbed to explore these and other research issues.
• Efficient network protocols. Communication is expensive for sensor devices, so it must be managed carefully. We created a query protocol for real-time extraction of streaming sensor data (in AlarmNet and LUSTER), and a middleware for maintaining mobile communication endpoints around events.

Other research topics in which I am interested include:

• Multi-frequency / channel communication in wireless networks
• Real-time querying and routing
• Sensor data and query management
• Lightweight and non-cryptographic security mechanisms
• Team formation and loose group semantics
• Energy-efficient protocols and active power management
• Ad hoc and mesh routing algorithms
• Trust formation in ad hoc deployments
• Application interfaces and programming paradigms
• Optimal placement of nodes or services
• Exploiting knowledge of geographic location and other physical properties
• Providing guarantees with failures and mobility
• Security at very large scale
• Aggregate behavior from local interactions

What else? Network protocols, embedded systems, general security, privacy, VoIP, image processing, and a few other things.

Publications

More detailed information including abstracts can be found on the publications page. A more formal presentation is available for download in my curriculum vitae.

Major Papers

• Anthony D. Wood and John A. Stankovic, “Online Coding for Reliable Data Transfer in Lossy Wireless Sensor Networks,” in The 5th IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems (DCOSS '09), Marina Del Rey, CA, June 2009.
• A. Wood, J. Stankovic, G. Virone, L. Selavo, Z. He, Q. Cao, T. Doan, Y. Wu, L. Fang, R. Stoleru, “Context-Aware Wireless Sensor Networks for Assisted-Living and Residential Monitoring,” IEEE Network, 22(4):26–33, July—August 2008. (invited paper)
• Anthony D. Wood, Leo Selavo, John A. Stankovic, “SenQ: An Embedded Query System for Streaming Data in Heterogeneous Interactive Wireless Sensor Networks,” in The 4th IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing in Sensor Systems (DCOSS), Santorini Island, Greece, June 2008. (short paper)
• L. Selavo, A. Wood, Q. Cao, T. Sookoor, H. Liu, A. Srinivasan, Y. Wu, W. Kang, J. Stankovic, D. Young, J. Porter, “LUSTER: Wireless Sensor Network for Environmental Research,” in The 5th ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SenSys), Sydney, Australia, Nov. 2007.
• Anthony D. Wood, John A. Stankovic, Gang Zhou, “DEEJAM: Defeating Energy-Efficient Jamming in IEEE 802.15.4-based Wireless Networks,” in The 4th Annual IEEE Communications Society Conference on Sensor, Mesh and Ad Hoc Communications and Networks (SECON), San Diego, CA, June 2007.
• Anthony D. Wood, Lei Fang, John A. Stankovic, Tian He, “SIGF: A Family of Configurable, Secure Routing Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks,” The Fourth ACM Workshop on Security of Ad Hoc and Sensor Networks (SASN 2006), Alexandria, VA, October, 2006. (Best paper award)
• T. Abdelzaher, B. Blum, Q. Cao, Y. Chen, D. Evans, J. George, S. George, L. Gu, T. He, S. Krishnamurthy, L. Luo, S. Son, J. Stankovic, R. Stoleru, A. Wood, "EnviroTrack: Towards an Environmental Computing Paradigm for Distributed Sensor Networks," IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing Systems (ICDCS), Tokyo, Japan, March 2004.
• Anthony D. Wood, John A. Stankovic, Sang H. Son, "JAM: A Jammed-Area Mapping Service for Sensor Networks," In Real-Time Systems Symposium (RTSS), Cancun, Mexico, 2003.
• B. Blum, P. Nagaraddi, A. Wood, T. Abdelzaher, S. Son, J. Stankovic, "An Entity Maintenance and Connection Service for Sensor Networks," In The First International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services (MobiSys), San Francisco, CA, May 2003.
• Anthony Wood, John A. Stankovic, “Denial of Service in Sensor Networks,” IEEE Computer, 35(10):54-62, October 2002.

Other Refereed Proceedings

• Gilles Virone, Thao Doan, Anthony Wood, John Stankovic, “Dynamic Privacy in Assisted Living and Home Health Care,” at the Joint Workshop On High Confidence Medical Devices, Software, and Systems (HCMDSS) and Medical Device Plug-and-Play (MD PnP) Interoperability, June 2007. (short paper)
• G. Virone, A. Wood, L. Selavo, Q. Cao, L. Fang, T. Doan, Z. He, R. Stoleru, S. Lin, and J.A. Stankovic, "An Assisted Living Oriented Information System Based on a Residential Wireless Sensor Network," at Transdisciplinary Conference on Distributed Diagnosis and Home Healthcare (D2H2), Arlington, VA, April 2-4, 2006.
• J. A. Stankovic, Q. Cao, T. Doan, L. Fang, Z. He, R. Kiran, S. Lin, S. Son, R. Stoleru, A. Wood, "Wireless Sensor Networks for In-Home Healthcare: Potential and Challenges", in High Confidence Medical Device Software and Systems (HCMDSS) Workshop, Philadelphia, PA, June 2-3, 2005 (position paper).
• T. Abdelzaher, J. Stankovic, S. Son, B. Blum, T. He, A. Wood, Chenyang Lu, “A Communication Architecture and Programming Abstractions for Real-Time Embedded Sensor Networks,” In 1st International Workshop on Data Distribution in Real-Time Systems (DDRTS at ICDCS), Providence, RI, May 2003.
• David Larochelle, Karl Scheidt, Kevin Sullivan, Yuan Wei, Joel Winstead, Anthony Wood, "Join Point Encapsulation," In Workshop on Software-engineering Properties of Languages for Aspect Technologies (SPLAT) at AOSD 2003, Boston, MA, March 2003.

Book Chapters

• Anthony D. Wood, John A. Stankovic, “Security of Distributed, Ubiquitous, and Embedded Computing Platforms,” to appear in Wiley Handbook of Science and Technology for Homeland Security, John G. Voeller, ed, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ, 2009. (invited chapter)
• Anthony D. Wood, John A. Stankovic, "A Taxonomy for Denial-of-Service Attacks in Wireless Sensor Networks", Handbook of Sensor Networks: Compact Wireless and Wired Sensing Systems, CRC Press, 2004 (invited chapter).
• T. Abdelzaher, J. Stankovic, S. Son, B. Blum, T. He, A. Wood, Chenyang Lu, "Communication Architecture and Programming Abstractions for Real-Time Embedded Sensor Networks," Handbook of Sensor Networks: Compact Wireless and Wired Sensing Systems, CRC Press, 2004 (invited chapter).

Short Abstracts

• Anthony D. Wood, John A. Stankovic, “Poster Abstract: Rateless Erasure Codes for Bulk Transfer in Asymmetric Wireless Sensor Networks,” at The 6th ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SenSys), Raleigh, NC, November 2008.
• Anthony D. Wood, John A. Stankovic, “Human in the Loop: Distributed Data Streams for Immersive Cyber-Physical Systems,” at RTSS Ph.D. Forum, December 2007. (Best presentation award)
• J. Stankovic, L. Selavo, A. Wood, “Learning Micro-Behaviors in Support of Cognitive Assistance,” Workshop on Intelligent Systems for Assisted Cognition, Rochester, NY, October 2007. (poster)
• Anthony D. Wood, John A. Stankovic, “Poster Abstract: AMSecure–Secure Link-Layer Communication in TinyOS for IEEE 802.15.4-based Wireless Sensor Networks,” at The 4th ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SenSys), Boulder, CO, November 2006.

Technical Reports

• Anthony D. Wood, Leo Selavo, John A. Stankovic, “SenQ: An Extensible Query System for Streaming Data in Heterogeneous Interactive Wireless Sensor Networks,” Technical Report CS-2008-1, Department of Computer Science, University of Virginia, 2008.
• A. Wood, G. Virone, T. Doan, Q. Cao, L. Selavo, Y. Wu, L. Fang, Z. He, S. Lin, J. Stankovic, “ALARM-NET: Wireless Sensor Networks for Assisted-Living and Residential Monitoring,” Technical Report CS-2006-11, Department of Computer Science, University of Virginia, 2006.

Teaching

I served as TA for David Evans in Fall 2001 for CS 588: Cryptology—Principles and Applications. In addition to learning a lot, I helped create exams and problem sets, held study sessions, and helped students in office hours.

In an eleven-week Teaching Skills Seminar at UVA, we developed teaching mantras, created and administered TA evaluations, and surveyed learning styles.

As part of my graduate education, I've given numerous presentations in seminars about state of the art research and led discussion of its strong and weak points. Other talks I've given are listed below.

Talks and Poster Presentations

• “Online Coding for Reliable Data Transfer in Lossy Wireless Sensor Networks,” at DCOSS, June 2009.
• “Wireless Sensor Networks for Home Health Care and Assisted Living,” at Making Central Virginia A Great Place To Age: Community / University Research Partnerships, April 2009. (Poster)
• “Human in the Loop: Distributed Data Streams for Immersive Cyber-Physical Systems,” at RTSS Ph.D. Forum, Dec. 2007. (Best Presentation Award)  [PDF]
• “Adaptive Defenses for Denial-of-Service Attacks in WSNs,” for ETRI visit to UVA, Nov. 2007.
• “Wireless Sensor Networks,” for SAIC visit to UVA, Aug. 2007.
• “DEEJAM: Defeating Energy-Efficient Jamming in IEEE 802.15.4-based Wireless Networks,” at SECON, June 2007.
• “Wireless Sensor Networks for Assisted-Living and Residential Monitoring,” at VCGS Graduate Student Research Forum, Feb. 2007. (Invited poster)
• “AMSecure—Secure Link-Layer Communication in TinyOS for IEEE 802.15.4-based Wireless Sensor Networks,” at SenSys, Nov. 2006. (Poster)
• “SIGF: A Family of Configurable, Secure Routing Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks,” at SASN, Oct. 2006.
• “Dust to Doctors: WSN for Medical Applications,” for Mitre visit to UVA, Oct. 2006.
• “JAM: A Jammed-Area Mapping Service for Sensor Networks,” at RTSS, 2003.

Professional Service

Refereeing

• ACM/IEEE IPSN 2008
• VLDB Journal 2007
• ACM TISSEC 2007
• IEEE TMC 2006,2007
• ACM TOSN 2004,2005,2006,2007,2009
• IEEE WCNC 2005
• DCOSS 2005
• IEEE SECON 2004
• IEEE ICC 2004
• ACM SenSys 2003

Committees

• Technical Program Committee, International Conference on Computer Communications and Networks (ICCCN 2009)
• Program Committee, Symposium for Graduate Research

Memberships

I am a member of the following professional or honorary organizations:

• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
• IEEE Computer Society
• Phi Beta Kappa, a national honor society
• Upsilon Pi Epsilon, an international honor society for the computing and information disciplines
• Golden Key International Honour Society

Conferences

I maintain a list of sensor network-related conferences and deadlines that I am interested in. If you know of a relevant conference, workshop, or journal issue not listed, please let me know! Deadlines are occasionally extended, so you should check the home page of the conference for a definitive date. Old conferences are also available.