Overview of research areas

The research areas have grown out of the department's longtime collaboration with developers and users of industrial control systems, in particular within electricity distribution and transmission. At the outset, in the 1980's, the department's research focused on the requirements and design of SCADA systems for power system management. The PSMIX research area, concerned with the application of information technology in the power system domain, has cultivated the domain-specific aspects of that early research at the department. The System Architecture research area, considering the architecture of information systems as well as on their business environment, has instead cultivated the industry-generic aspects, thus extending the scope to other systems than SCADA, and to other companies than electric utilities. The research area on Management of Technology focuses on the process aspects of system development, with an interest in project and quality management. Finally, the Cyber Security area, started about a decade ago as a response to the increased public disquiet over potential cyber attacks on SCADA systems, is the most recent addition to the ICS research palette. All research areas are interconnected. The methods, models and algorithms developed in the Systems Architecture area are often employed in the other areas. Much of the knowledge developed in the PSMIX area is also core to the Cyber Security area. And the electricity industry is often the target for applications and case studies of all research areas.

The links to the left on this webpage provide more information on each area.