Alumnus Wade Trappe promoted to full professor at Rutgers

Alumnus Wade Trappe has been promoted to full professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University. He is the associate director of the Wireless Information Network Laboratory (WINLAB).

At Maryland, Trappe earned his M.S. in 1999 and a Ph.D. in applied mathematics and scientific computing in 2002; he was affiliated with both ISR and the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, and was advised by Professor K.J. Ray Liu (ECE). He has become a nationally recognized authority in wireless network security.

Trappe's research focuses on securing wireless networks, and expanding the tools that may be used to secure emerging mobile systems. Traditionally, wireless network security has adapted best practices from cryptography-based security methods, similar to those employed in wired networks.

Trappe also works at the boundary of theory and systems development to re-examine security concepts in the context of wireless systems and their applications. Trappe's research exploits the properties of wireless channels and communications. He has pioneered authentication techniques employing forge-resistant signatures derived from a user’s wireless channel in order to combat spoofing; using multiple staggered authentication keys to preclude denial-of-service attacks in secure wireless multicasting; wireless signaling and routing protocols that provide contextual privacy for wireless sensors; and techniques for diagnosing and mitigating radio-interference-based denial of service attacks.

Trappe frequently works with the Army Research Office and DARPA. He is also recognized as an outstanding faculty mentor who has successfully supervised more than 14 Ph.D. students; two of whom--Wenyuan Xu and Yingying Chen--have received NSF CAREER Awards.

Published April 29, 2013