IEEE Future Directions
Technology Policy & Ethics: March 2020
Current Trends and Future Directions in Security of FPGA Applications with Focus on Thin Clients
Cameron Collins, University of Wisconsin – Green Bay and Ankur Chattopadhyay, Northern Kentucky University
Recent high-profile security flaws in conventional desktop and server processors have brought increased interest and attention to the risks posed by proprietary hardware and the closely guarded, obfuscated firmware that tends to accompany it.1 Adoption of open-source hardware and firmware could potentially address this issue. However, bringing any hardware based intellectual property (IP) to production through traditional methods may affect people plus organizations and may involve legal implications within the product’s supply chain.2 Additionally, a large attack surface poses a problem. Field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) can prospectively address this concern, as they can be programmed and functionally verified directly by organizations which use them.
Cyber-Physical Forest Protection Systems, Part 2
Emad Roshandel, Research and Development Department, Eram Sanat Mooj Gostar Company, Shiraz, Iran and Mohammad Khosravi, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Shiraz University of Technology, Shiraz, Iran
As was discussed in the first part of this article, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) can play a crucial role in the protection of forests. Different factors of a high-performance WSN like communication networks, power supplies, and installation methods of sensors were discussed in the first part of the article. In this second part, power supplies of sensor nodes and their energization are significantly considered as our topic for more discussion.
The Faustian Bargain – The Promise of AI and the Destruction of Jobs, Part 2
Frank Groom, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana
In the blossoming days of globalization some of the lower level “white-collar” work was outsourced to India and other southeastern Asian countries, but the difficulty of the 12 hour time zone difference, language differences, and cultural requirements of the work caused some of that work to return as pointed out recently by Ben Casselman in the New York Times.1
While all this business evolution has been occurring, the world of information technology has exploded with ideas, experience, tools, and techniques. Venture capitalists have seen the potential and have funded the nation’s technologists to “think big”- the self-driving car, the electric car, space shuttles for everyone, even drones for delivery, automated trucking for intercity and national transport. And the mimicking of the brain’s facial recognition process has empowered the utilization of artificial intelligence (AI) facial recognition screening.
