Current research

Hardware Security

The Internet of Things (IoT) consists of numerous inter-connected resource-constrained devices such as sensors nodes and actuators, which are linked to the Internet. By 2020 it is anticipated that the IoT paradigm will include approximately 20 billion connected devices. The interconnection of such devices provides the ability to collect a huge amount of data for processing and analysis. A significant portion of the transacted data between IoT devices is private information, which must not in any way be eavesdropped on or tampered with. Such devices typically have limited area and energy resources, which makes the use of classic cryptography prohibitively expensive. Physically Unclonable Functions (PUFs) are a class of novel hardware security primitives that promise a paradigm shift in many security applications; their relatively simple architecture can answer many of the security challenges of energy-constrained IoT devices. I am working on developing hardware-based security solutions for resource-constrained IoT devices using physically Unclonable functions and hardware monitoring schemes.

Reliability and Fault Tolerance Techniques 

Aggressive technology scaling has aggravated a number of reliability problems, particularly the aging of CMOS devices. This is caused by several mechanisms, namely: Bias Temperature Instability (BTI) is usually considered as the primary reliability concern in modern technologies, it is characterized by a positive shift in the absolute value of the threshold voltage of MOS devices, which leads to an increase in the propagation delay of various components in System-on-Chips over time. If this performance degradation exceeds circuit time margins, it may lead to system failure, thus reducing its long-term reliability. Other reliability problems include crosstalk noise and radiation. I am working on developing a range of solutions enhance the resiliency of CMOS circuits against these various reliability problems. To reduce the impact of ageing; I am looking into the use of ageing prediction sensors, circuit-level mitigating techniques and ageing aware synthesis. My work also includes developing radiation hardened designs and enhancing the reliability of on chip communications 

Secure Hardware Design

I lead this master-level module, it cover security and trust from hardware prespectives.It also discusses the vulnerabilities of modern Systems on Chip design flow and how these can become legitimate security threats such as hardware trojans and physical attacks.

Cryptography

I lead this master-level module, it covers the mathematics, techniques, and applications of modern cryptography, it also covers the history of code making and code breaking, and draw lessons for the future from the mistakes and successes of the past.

Digital IC and Systems Design

I teach this third year module, it provides a coherent introduction to digital VLSI design in CMOS, and to give students a broad understanding of the main principles required for system-on-chip design. Advanced techniques such as timing analysis and asynchronous design are also introduced..

ELEC2221 Digital Systems and Signal Processing at University of Southampton Malaysia Campus

I have tought the digital design part on this second year course, it introduces techniques of designing robust, testable sequential digital systems, writing and debugging synthesisable modules in a hardware description language (SystemVerilog) and verifying the functionality of those modules by simulation. It provides practical experience in the design and diagnosis of sequential digital systems.

Embedded Systems Design and IoT Technologies: Kazakh-British Technical University

I led this master-level module, it covers the principels of Embedded Systems Design with particular focus on relevant computer architectures such as those by ARM and MIPS.

Introduction on Embedded Systems Security:  University of Kaiserslautern, Germany

I led this master-level module, it covers the the principles of designing secure embedded systems with reference to new emerging industrial design framework  such as ARM PSA and gives detailed information on emerging security premitives such as physically unclonable functions, it aslo covers a number of related topics including Hardware Trojan and IC-counterfiet. 

Hardware-based Security Solutions for the Internet of Things: IEEE Tutorial at Khalifa University, UAE

This tutorial discusses the design challenges of secure IoT systems and how to use hardware security to tackle those challenges, it also explains explain the design principles of Physically Unclonable Functions. 

Dr Basel Halak is the director of the embedded systems and IoT program at the University of Southampton, a visiting scholar at the Technical University of Kaiserslautern ,a visiting professor at the Kazakh-British Technical University, an industrial fellow of the royal academy of engineering , and a national teaching fellow of the Advance Higher Education(HE) Academy . Dr Halak's publications include over 80-refereed conference and journal papers, and authored three books, including the first textbook on Physically Unclonable Functions. His research expertise include evaluation of security of hardware devices, development of appropriate countermeasures, the development of mathematical formalisms of reliability issues in CMOS circuits (e.g. crosstalk, radiation, ageing), and the use of fault tolerance techniques to improve the robustness of electronics systems against such issues.. Dr Halak lectures on digital design, Secure Hardware and Cryptography, supervises a number of MSc and PhD students, and is the ECS Exchange Coordinators. He is also leading European Masters in Embedded Computing Systems (EMECS) , a two year course run in collaboration with Kaiserslautern University in Germany and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim (electronics and communication). Dr Halak serves on several technical program committees such as HOST, IEEE DATE, DAC, IVSW, ICCCA, ICCCS, MTV and EWME. He is an associate editor of IEEE access and an editor of the IET circuit devices and system journal. He is also a member of the hardware security-working group of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Prizes