Athina P. Petropulu is Distinguished Professor at the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Department at Rutgers, having served as chair of the department during 2010-2016.  Prior to joining Rutgers, she was a Professor of ECE at Drexel University (1992-2010). She held Visiting Scholar appointments at SUPELEC, Universite’ Paris Sud, Princeton University and University of Southern California. Dr. Petropulu’s research interests span the area of statistical signal processing, wireless communications, signal processing in networking, physical layer security, and radar signal processing.

Dr. Petropulu is Fellow of IEEE and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and recipient of the 1995 Presidential Faculty Fellow Award given by the US National Science Foundation and the White House. She has played key roles in her professional society, namely, she was 2022-2023 President of the IEEE Signal Processing Society, Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing (2009-2011)  and  General Chair of the 2005 IEEE ICASSP.

She was Distinguished Lecturer for the Signal Processing Society and the IEEE Aerospace & Electronics Systems Society. She is co-recipient of the 2005 IEEE Signal Processing Magazine Best Paper Award, the 2020 IEEE Signal Processing Society Young Author Best Paper Award (B. Li), the 2021 IEEE Signal Processing Society Young Author Best Paper Award (F. Liu), the 2021 Barry Carlton Best Paper Award by IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society, the 2023 Stephen O. Rice Prize Best Paper Award by the IEEE Communications Society and the 2024 IEEE Signal Processing Society Donald G. Fink Overview Paper Award.

Abstract: Physical Layer Security for Integrated Sending and Communication Systems

The talk considers integrated sending and communication  (ISAC) systems) that use the same hardware platform and the same waveform for simultaneously probing the surroundings and communicating with other equipment. Such systems offer high spectral, hardware and power efficiency, and as such are prime candidates for 6G wireless systems. Before the ISAC promise is realized, several issues need to be addressed. One of those issues is security. By embedding communication information in the probing waveform, ISAC systems are vulnerable to eavesdropping by the targets. In this talk we will present a novel physical layer security (PLS) system design for optimizing the communication secrecy rate while maintaining sufficient power in the target echoes to ensure high target sensing performance. We will also present a novel Directional Modulation approach for achieving PLS via Time Modulated arrays, via which, the DFRC system is designed to deliver the signal intact to the legitimate destination and scrambled in all other directions. We will also examine the possibility of the target/eavesdropper defying the proposed security measures and investigate additional protection measures.