Andrew Conrad will be speaking about critical subsystems for drone-based QKD.
Abstract:
The use of aerial drones is proliferating in our society, and the number of drone applications are expected to grow significantly over the next several years. In addition to performing simple tasks such as surveillance, situational awareness, photography/cinematography, and disaster relief, etc., drones are increasingly being trusted with more important and complex tasks, such as package delivery (including distributing COVID-19 vaccines) as well as transporting humans over short distances using "drone taxis." Although significant, new opportunities with drones exist, due to their unmanned system architecture, new attack vectors are unfortunately present which could be exploited by adversaries, e.g., command and control attacks, man-in-the-middle attacks, spoofing sensor inputs, etc. Quantum-based approaches can offer an improvement in security and sensitivity over traditional techniques to better secure current and future drone constellations in our skies. In this talk, progress towards demonstrating drone-based Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) will be presented. QKD offers the ability to send secure messages between two parties, where security is protected by the laws of physics. Critical subsystems for drone-based QKD will be discussed and characterized, including compact Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) QKD source, 3D-printed optical payloads, Pointing, Acquisition and Tracking (PAT), single-photon detectors, time taggers, and time synchronization. Current data will be presented, and future research directions, such as drone-based Quantum Position Verification (QPV) will be discussed.
Bio:
Mr. Conrad is a graduate student in Prof. Paul Kwiat's Quantum Information Group and is pursuing a PhD in Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research has specialized in drone-based Quantum Communications, with an emphasis on drone-based Quantum Key Distribution (QKD). Mr. Conrad recently was awarded a NDSEG Graduate Fellowship to study developing and demonstrating Quantum Positional Verification (QPV) protocols for reconfigurable drone networks. He holds a MS and BS both in Electrical Engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T). Mr. Conrad spent 9 years working as an Electrical Engineer in the Defense Industry, and is a licensed Professional Engineer (PE) in the state of Florida, and is an IEEE Senior Member.