Worcester Polytechnic Institute & University of Massachusetts Amherst

This entry represents a collaborative research project between Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester, Massachusetts and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, funded through the Survival and Flourishing Fund's 2024 Flexible Hardware-Enabled Guarantees (FlexHEGs) grant round. The project received $233,000 in total funding, with WPI receiving two-thirds and UMass Amherst receiving one-third. The collaboration builds on existing research partnerships between hardware security faculty at both institutions. At WPI, the Electrical and Computer Engineering department houses advanced hardware security research capabilities, including NSF-funded infrared microscopes used for side-channel analysis, physically unclonable functions (PUFs), and tamper detection in semiconductor devices. Researchers at WPI have published on chiplet security vulnerabilities, demonstrating how emerging modular chip architectures can be susceptible to eavesdropping through contactless probing techniques. At UMass Amherst, the Electrical and Computer Engineering department contributes expertise in secure embedded systems design, supply chain security for integrated circuits, and formal verification of hardware. Researchers from both institutions have co-authored work on evaluating the vulnerability of chiplet-based systems to contactless probing techniques, published at the International Test Conference. The FlexHEGs program funds research into hardware mechanisms that could enable multilateral, privacy-preserving, and trustworthy verification of compliance with agreements regarding the development and use of advanced AI technology. The WPI-UMass collaboration contributes to this agenda by investigating physical-layer security mechanisms that could form the foundation of hardware-enabled AI governance systems.