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For ¹û¶³´«Ã½Â鶹Éç College of Engineering doctoral student Andrew Miles, cybersecurity is about solving complex puzzles to identify bad data.

“People think cybersecurity is just computer programming, but it also involves a lot of critical thinking,” Miles said. “There is always a mind behind cybersecurity and cyber-attacks, which makes for an interesting puzzle to solve.”

Miles’ research focuses on power system resiliency – or the ability of a power system to handle everything from cyber-attacks to disturbances such as downed power lines and operation challenges presented by natural causes.

“Power systems are always evolving, and there is now a bridge between the cyber and physical world,” he said. “Much more of a power system, like those that run our electricity grids, have moved to a networked system instead of strictly being hardwired in electro-mechanical controls.”

Miles uses estimation techniques to determine the state of a power system. Having a better understanding of how a power system operates normally makes cyber-attacks – or bad data that could knock the system off course – easier to identify. By creating a mathematical model, this bad data can be removed to protect the system.

The Juneau, Alaska, native has spent his entire academic career with U of I, earning his bachelor's in electrical engineering in 2015 and his master's in 2017. He is now in the third year of his doctoral program, having returned to U of I after working in industry.

“With an excellent program and amazing professors, the College of Engineering has provided me with countless opportunities,” Miles said. “Its strong ties to industry leaders create a very enriched program where we can learn not just theory, but also practice application before we graduate.”

A current intern with global power systems protection leader Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories, Miles works alongside lead engineers to model and simulate power protection functions.