ABU DHABI: Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, an independent, research-driven graduate-level university focused on advanced energy and sustainable technologies, today announced a research paper co-authored by one of its students has won the 'Best Paper Award' at the Pacific Asia Workshop on Intelligence and Security Informatics (PAISI) 2012 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The first-ever paper by Mustafa Amir Faisal, a Computing and Information Science student at Masdar Institute, was selected the winner from among a total of 16 research papers that were presented at PAISI 2012. Mustafa's paper won the award for its research innovation, potential significance, rigorousness of research methods, clear presentation, and relevance to the PAISI audience.

PAISI is one of the leading academic events in intelligence and security informatics in the Asia-Pacific region. The PAISI proceedings are published in the prestigious Lecture Notes in Computer Science series by academic publishing company Springer Verlag. Around 80% of PAISI's participants are from academia and 20% from industry.

In his paper titled 'Securing advanced metering infrastructure using intrusion detection system with data stream mining', Mustafa proposes a general framework for intrusion detection in advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) in smart gird and the use of state-of-the-art data stream mining techniques to detect anomalous events, which mean possible intrusion attempts, in the AMI system.

Other contributors to the paper include Dr. Zeyar Aung, Assistant Professor, Masdar Institute, Prof. John Williams, Professor of Information Engineering at MIT's Engineering Systems Division and Director of Auto-ID Lab, and Dr. Abel Sanchez, Executive Director of MIT's Geospatial Data Center and a Lead Scientist/Software Architect of Auto-ID Lab.

Dr. Scott Kennedy, Associate Dean for Research, Masdar Institute, said: "Students and the faculty continue to mark their excellence by winning awards at international forums. The award for Mustafa Amir Faisal is another strong indicator for the profound levels of research work conducted and guided at Masdar Institute. In academia, the best paper awards in conferences and workshops are regarded as distinguished achievements. Winning such an award reiterates the fact that Masdar Institute's research endeavors are well respected by the international research community, thereby bringing more acclaim to the Abu Dhabi-based institution." PAISI 2012 best paper award is based on the overall quality of the research work. The general criteria include novelty of research contribution, potential impact of research, soundness/correctness of methods and data, clarity of presentation, and relevance to the PAISI audience.

Dr. Zeyar Aung said: "To win the best paper award for one's first publication is quite a rare achievement. This award can help boost Mustafa's future research and academic career. Mustafa's paper is significant for intrusion detection system (IDS) for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) because smart grids have become a global trend nowadays and AMIs are being deployed in many countries at a rapid pace. And IDS is very important for AMI security because it serves as the second line of defense, after the first line of defense mechanisms such as authentication, authorization, and access control, are compromised." Mustafa Amir Faisal said: "This is truly a momentous occasion for me as this is my first-ever research paper. But I have to thank my guides and co-authors for their contribution that has turned the paper a true winner among other presentations at PAISI 2012. Masdar Institute has directed me along the right path for my future and I am grateful to the institution, the MIT faculty and my peers. I believe the PAISI 2012 award has given me the right momentum to proceed further in my research work." Established as an on-going collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Masdar Institute integrates theory and practice to incubate a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, working to develop the critical thinkers and leaders of tomorrow. With its world-class faculty and top-tier students, the Institute is committed to finding solutions to the challenges of clean energy and climate change through education and research.

WAM/MMYS