Prof. Kevin Fu Addresses Technical Debt of Medical Device Security at NAE Symposium

September 28, 2015

The symposium focused on Cybersecurity and Privacy, Engineering the Search for Earth-like Exoplanets, Optical and Mechanical Metamaterials, and Forecasting Natural Disasters.

Kevin Fu Enlarge

Prof. Kevin Fu was selected to speak at the 2015 US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, which was hosted by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). The event took place September 9-11 at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center in Irvine, California.

The NAE invites roughly 100 of the top engineers under the age of 45 from around the country to participate in its Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, a two-and-a-half day event focused on cutting-edge research in four areas: Cybersecurity and Privacy, Engineering the Search for Earth-like Exoplanets, Optical and Mechanical Metamaterials, and Forecasting Natural Disasters.

Prof. Fu’s presentation, “On the Technical Debt of Medical Device Security”, focused on how a number of innovations including computer networking, wireless communication, wireless power, and the Internet, combined with electronic health records and re-engineering of clinical workflow have enabled innovative therapeutics and diagnostics, but at the cost of technical debt for information security and privacy.

Once a medical device is compromised, its behavior becomes unpredictable. The device may deliver incorrect diagnostic information to clinicians, it may become unavailable to deliver patient care during repair, and in extreme cases may contribute to patient harm. Fu believes that in order to give patients the confidence to use emerging medical devices, manufacturers need to address the cybersecurity risks during the initial requirements of engineering and design time, then continue post-market surveillance thru the product lifecycle.

The goal of the Frontiers of Engineering program is to bring together engineers from all engineering disciplines and from industry, universities, and federal labs to facilitate cross-disciplinary exchange and promote the transfer of new techniques and approaches across fields in order to sustain and build US innovative capacity.

Prof. Kevin Fu was one of only 15 speakers who presented at the symposium.