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[ Research | News | Publications | People | CV ]

Daniel Holcomb
Associate Professor
Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Massachusetts Amherst

email:        [PGP]
phone:    413-545-6593
office:     309F Knowles Engineering Building

Research

My research is on building secure embedded systems that are also reliable and efficient. I lead a laboratory of talented researchers that pursue these goals working broadly across computer engineering topics such as formal verification, CAD, and VLSI design. Current projects are on designing secure hardware (low-power ASIC and FPGA), obfuscation and reverse engineering, interdomain routing, and supply chain security.

People

Current

  • Aleksa Deric (PhD)
  • Bharadwaj Madabhushi (PhD)
  • Thiago Costa de Paiva (PhD ECE/Physics)
  • Shahriar Hadayeghparast (PhD)
  • Arjun Suresh (PhD)
  • Peter Stanwicks (BS+MS)
  • Mohammad Waquas Usmani (MS)

Alumni

  • Xiang Li (PhD, first job Fermilab)
  • Shahrzad Keshavarz (PhD, first job Cadence Design Systems)
  • Siva Nishok Dhanuskodi (PhD + Postdoc)
  • Samuel Allen (BS+MS, first job Mitre)
  • Chethan Ramesh (MS, co-advise with Russell Tessier, first job Apple)
  • Harshavardhan Ramanna (MS, first job Qualcomm)
  • Mohammad Aftab Usmani (MS, first job Netronome)
  • Xiangyu Zhang (MS, first job Intel)
  • Shrikant Vyas (MS, co-advised with Russell Tessier, first job Altera)
  • Neev Kiran (MS, co-advise with Sunghoon Ivan Lee)
  • Omid Meh (BS, first job IBM)
  • Richard Hartnett (BS, Palo Alto Networks)
  • Thomas Baim (BS, BAE)

Selected Publications

see also: [Google scholar]

2022

A Deric, D Holcomb "Know Time to Die – Integrity Checking for Zero Trust Chiplet-based Systems Using Between-Die Delay PUFs", CHES 2022
X Li, R Tessier, D Holcomb, "Precise Fault Injection to Enable DFIA for Attacking AES in Remote FPGAs, FCCM 2022

2020

S N Dhanuskodi, X Li, D Holcomb "COUNTERFOIL: Verifying Provenance of Integrated Circuits using Intrinsic Package Fingerprints and Inexpensive Cameras", USENIX security 2020
S N Dhanuskodi, S Allen, D Holcomb, "Efficient Register Renaming Architectures for 8-bit AES Datapath at 0.55pJ/bit in 16nm FinFET", IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems, 2020.

2019

G Provelengios, D Holcomb, R Tessier "Characterizing Power Distribution Attacks in Multi-User FPGA Environments", International Conference on Field-Programmable Logic and Applications (FPL), 1-8, 2019. Winner of Stamatis Vassiliadis Best Paper Award
S N Dhanuskodi, D Holcomb "Enabling Microarchitectural Randomization in Serialized AES Implementations to Mitigate Side Channel Susceptibility", IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI (ISVLSI), 2019. Winner of Best Poster Award
G Provelengios, C Ramesh, S B Patil, K Eguro, R Tessier, D Holcomb "Characterization of Long Wire Data Leakage in Deep Submicron FPGAs", International Symposium on Field-Programmable Gate Arrays, 292-297, 2019.
N Dumpala, S B Patil, D Holcomb, R Tessier "Loop Unrolling for Energy Efficiency in Low-Cost Field-Programmable Gate Arrays", ACM Transactions on Reconfigurable Technology and Systems (TRETS) 11 (4), 26, 2019.

2018

H Jiang, C Li, R Zhang, P Yan, P Lin, Y Li, JJ Yang, D Holcomb, Q Xia "A provable key destruction scheme based on memristive crossbar arrays", Nature Electronics 1 (10), 2018.
M Usmani, S Keshavarz, E Matthews, L Shannon, R Tessier, D Holcomb, "Efficient PUF-Based Key Generation in FPGAs using Per-Device Configuration", IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems, 27 (2), 364-375, 2018.
S Keshavarz, C Yu, S Ghandali, X Xu, D Holcomb "Survey on Applications of Formal Methods in Reverse Engineering and Intellectual Property Protection", Journal of Hardware and Systems Security 2 (3), 214-224, 2018.
X Xu, S Keshavarz, D Forte, M Tehranipoor, D Holcomb "Bimodal Oscillation as a Mechanism for Autonomous Majority Voting in PUFs", IEEE Transactions on Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) Systems, 26 (11), 2431-2442. 2018
C Ramesh, SB Patil, SN Dhanuskodi, G Provelengios, S Pillement, D Holcomb, R Tessier "FPGA Side Channel Attacks without Physical Access", 2018 IEEE 26th Annual International Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines (FCCM), 45-52, 2018.
S Keshavarz, F Schellenberg, B Richter, C Paar, D Holcomb "SAT-based Reverse Engineering of Gate-Level Schematics using Fault Injection and Probing", IEEE International Symposium on Hardware Oriented Security and Trust (HOST), 215-220, 2018. Winner of Best Poster Award
A Shanmugam, M Usmani, A Mayberry, DL Perkins, DE Holcomb "Imaging systems and algorithms to analyze biological samples in real-time using mobile phone microscopy", PloS one, 2018.
R Zhang, H Jiang, Z Wang, P Lin, Y Zhuo, D Holcomb, D Zhang, JJ Yang, Q Xia "Nanoscale Diffusive Memristor Crossbars as Physical Unclonable Functions", Nanoscale, 2018.

2017

S Keshavarz, D Holcomb "Threshold-based obfuscated keys with quantifiable security against invasive readout", 2017 IEEE/ACM International Conference on Computer-Aided Design (ICCAD), 2017.
SN Dhanuskodi, D Holcomb "An improved clocking methodology for energy efficient low area AES architectures using register renaming", IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Low Power Electronics and Design (ISLPED'17), 2017.
SN Dhanuskodi, D Holcomb "Techniques to reduce switching and leakage energy in unrolled block ciphers", IEEE Transactions on Computers, 2017.
D Holcomb "Nanoscale CMOS Memory-based Security Primitive Design", Security Opportunities in Nano Devices and Emerging Technologies, M. Tehranipoor, D. Forte, G. Rose, S. Bhunia (Eds.), Publisher: CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, 2017.
V C Patil, A Vijayakumar, D E Holcomb, S Kundu "Improving reliability of weak PUFs via circuit techniques to enhance mismatch", International Symposium on Hardware Oriented Security and Trust (HOST), 146-150, 2017.
N K Dumpala, S B Patil, D Holcomb, R Tessier "Energy efficient loop unrolling for low-cost FPGAs", IEEE 25th Annual International Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines (FCCM), 117-120, 2017.
S Keshavarz, D Holcomb "Privacy Leakages in Approximate Computation", IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems (ISCAS'17), 2017.
S Keshavarz, C Paar, D Holcomb "Design automation for obfuscated circuits with multiple viable functions", In Proceedings of Design Automation and Test in Europe (DATE '17)., March, 2017.
C Yu, D Holcomb, M Ciesielski "Reverse engineering of irreducible polynomials in GF (2 m) arithmetic", In Proceedings of Design Automation and Test in Europe (DATE '17)., March, 2017.
C Yu, X Zhang, D Liu, M Ciesielski, D Holcomb "Incremental SAT-based Reverse Engineering of Camouflaged Logic Circuits", IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, January, 2017.

2016

X Xu, DE Holcomb "Reliable PUF design using failure patterns from time-controlled power gating", Defect and Fault Tolerance in VLSI and Nanotechnology Systems (DFT), 2016.
X Xu, DE Holcomb "A clockless sequential PUF with autonomous majority voting", Great Lakes Symposium on VLSI, 2016.
SN Dhanuskodi, D Holcomb "Energy Optimization of Unrolled Block Ciphers using Combinational Checkpointing", RFIDSec 2016: 12th Workshop on RFID and IoT Security, 2016.
A Vijayakumar, VC Patil, DE Holcomb, C Paar, S Kundu "Physical Design Obfuscation of Hardware: A Comprehensive Investigation of Device-and Logic-Level Techniques", IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, 2016.
S Ghandali, GT Becker, D Holcomb, C Paar "A Design Methodology for Stealthy Parametric Trojans and Its Application to Bug Attacks", Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems (CHES'16), 2016.
SN Dhanuskodi, S Keshavarz, D Holcomb "LLPA: Logic State Based Leakage Power Analysis", 2016 IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on VLSI (ISVLSI), 2016.
X Xu, W Burleson, DE Holcomb "Using Statistical Models to Improve the Reliability of Delay-Based PUFs", VLSI (ISVLSI), 2016 IEEE Computer Society Annual Symposium on, 2016.
S Vyas, NK Dumpala, R Tessier, DE Holcomb "Improving the Efficiency of PUF-Based Key Generation in FPGAs using Variation-Aware Placement", 26th International Conference on Field-Programmable Logic and Applications (FPL), 2016.
J Hester, N Tobias, A Rahmati, L Sitanayah, DE Holcomb, K Fu, W Burleson, J Sorber "Persistent Clocks for Batteryless Sensing Devices", ACM Transactions on Embedded Computing Systems (TECS), 2016.
Liu D, Yu C, Zhang X, and Holcomb DE "Oracle-Guided Incremental SAT Solving to Reverse Engineer Camouflaged Logic Circuits", In Proceedings of Design Automation and Test in Europe (DATE '16)., March, 2016.

2015

Rahmati A, Hicks M, Holcomb DE, and Fu K, "Probable Cause: The Deanonymizing Effects of Approximate DRAM", in ISCA'15: Proceedings of the 42nd Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture, June 2015.
Xu X, Rührmair U, Holcomb DE, and Burleson WP, "Security Evaluation and Enhancement of Bistable Ring PUFs", In RFIDSec'15: Proceedings of the 11th international conference on Radio Frequency Identification: security and privacy issues., June, 2015.
Xu X, Rahmati A, Holcomb DE, Fu K and Burleson W, "Reliable Physical Unclonable Functions using Data Retention Voltage of SRAM Cells", IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, June 2015, Vol. 34(6), pp. 903-914.

2014

Holcomb DE and Fu K, "Bitline PUF: Building Native Challenge-Response PUF Capability into Any SRAM", In Cryptographic Hardware and Embedded Systems (CHES 2014)., September, 2014. Vol. 8731, pp. 510-526.
Rührmair U and Holcomb DE, "PUFs at a Glance", In Proceedings of Design Automation and Test in Europe (DATE '14)., March, 2014.
Holcomb DE and Seshia SA, "Compositional Performance Verification of Network-on-Chip Designs", Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, IEEE Transactions on. Vol. 33(9), pp. 1370-1383.
Holcomb DE and Fu K, "QBF-Based Synthesis of Optimal Word-Splitting in Approximate Multi-Level Storage Cells", In Workshop on Approximate Computing Across the System Stack (WACAS). Salt Lake City, UT, March, 2014.
Rahmati A, Hicks M, Holcomb DE and Fu K, "Refreshing Thoughts on DRAM: Power Saving vs. Data Integrity", In Workshop on Approximate Computing Across the System Stack (WACAS). Salt Lake City, UT, March, 2014.

2013

Jha S, Talalay M, Holcomb D, Ogras U, Kishinevsky M, Klinglesmith M, De Gruijl R and Choi S, "Automated Design Space Exploration for SoC Interconnects", Intel Design Technology and Tools Conference.

2012

Holcomb DE, Gotmanov A, Kishinevsky M and Seshia SA, "Compositional Performance Verification of NoC Designs", In Proceedings of the 10th ACM/IEEE International Conference on Formal Methods and Models for Codesign (MEMOCODE)., July, 2012. , pp. 1-10.
Holcomb DE, Rahmati A, Salajegheh M, Burleson WP and Fu K, "DRV-Fingerprinting: using data retention voltage of SRAM cells for chip identification", In RFIDSec'12: Proceedings of the 8th international conference on Radio Frequency Identification: security and privacy issues., July, 2012. Springer-Verlag.
Rahmati A, Salajegheh M, Holcomb D, Sorber J, Burleson WP and Fu K, "TARDIS: Time and Remanence Decay in SRAM to Implement Secure Protocols on Embedded Devices without Clocks", In Proceedings of the 21st USENIX Security Symposium. Bellevue, WA, August, 2012.

2011

Brady BA, Holcomb D and Seshia SA, "Counterexample-guided smt-driven optimal buffer sizing", In Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition (DATE), 2011. , pp. 1-6.
Holcomb D, Brady B and Seshia S, "Abstraction-based performance verification of NoCs", In Proceedings of the 48th Design Automation Conference., June, 2011. , pp. 492-497.

2010

Lin L, Holcomb DE, Krishnappa DK, Shabadi P and Burleson W, "Low-power sub-threshold design of secure physical unclonable functions", Low-Power Electronics and Design (ISLPED), 2010 ACM/IEEE International Symposium on. , pp. 43-48.
Zaveri RA, Voss PB, Berkowitz CM, Fortner E, Zheng J, Zhang R, Valente RJ, Tanner RL, Holcomb D, Hartley TP and Baran L, "Overnight atmospheric transport and chemical processing of photochemically aged Houston urban and petrochemical industrial plume", Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres (1984--2012). Vol. 115(D23) Wiley Online Library.

2009

Holcomb DE, Burleson WP and Fu K, "Power-up SRAM State as an Identifying Fingerprint and Source of True Random Numbers", IEEE Transactions on Computers., September, 2009. Vol. 58(9), pp. 1198-1210.
Holcomb DE, Li W and Seshia SA, "Design as you see FIT: System-level soft error analysis of sequential circuits", In Design, Automation & Test in Europe Conference & Exhibition, 2009. DATE '09. , pp. 785-790.

2007

Holcomb DE, Burleson WP and Fu K, "Initial SRAM State as a Fingerprint and Source of True Random Numbers for RFID Tags", In Proceedings of the Conference on RFID Security., July, 2007.

2006

Riddle EE, Voss PB, Stohl A and Holcomb DE, "Trajectory model validation using newly developed altitude-controlled balloons during the International Consortium for Atmospheric Research on Transport and Transformations 2004 campaign", Journal of Geophysical Research.

News

  • New England Hardware Security Day is on April 5, 2024 at WPI!
  • Xiang Li defends his PhD dissertation. Congrats to Dr. Li!
  • Holcomb shares 2023 College of Engineering Outstanding Teaching Award
  • New England Hardware Security Day is on April 7, 2023 at Northeastern! Keynotes by Kevin Fu and Ran Canetti.
  • New England Hardware Security Day 2022 is on April 1, 2022 at UMass!
  • Siva Dhanuskodi wins 2020 UMass ECE dissertation prize. Congrats!
  • Siva Nishok Dhanuskodi defends his PhD dissertation. Congrats to Dr. Dhanuskodi!
  • Shahrzad Keshavarz defends her PhD dissertation. Congrats to Dr. Keshavarz!
  • George Provelengios wins best paper award at FPL 2019 for his work on FPGA power attacks. Congrats to George!

    FPGA voltage during power attack


  • Siva Dhanuskodi wins best poster award at ISVLSI 2019 for his AES design. Congrats to Siva!

    2018 Testchip


  • Program co-chair of ASHES 2019 Attacks and Solutions in Hardware Security
  • Hack@DAC 2019 system-on-chip security competition at DAC 2019 [writeup]
  • Provable key destruction work with Profs. Xia and Yang gets a writeup
  • Shahrzad Keshavarz wins best poster award at HOST 2018 for her work on SAT-based reverse engineering. Congrats to Shahrzad!

    SAT formulation of fault injection


  • Prof. Holcomb receives NSF CAREER award to research IC supply chain security
  • Program co-chair of ASHES 2018 Attacks and Solutions in Hardware Security
  • Hack@DAC 2018 system-on-chip security competition at DAC 2018
  • FOSTER NSF Foundations of Secure and Trusted Hardware Workshop
  • Prof. Holcomb wins prestigious 2016 ECE Faculty Best Hair award from IEEE student branch