ARES - Consolider

X ARES Meeting

The 10th edition of the ARES plenary meeting was held in Barcelona on May 7-8. All ARES groups presented their current projects, research lines and the advances achieved and the technology broker outlined the new events in which we are currently working and our transfer strategy. We also invited former ARES researchers which showed their current work in companies like Deep Mind, Metropolis Lab, Nestlé or NTENT and institutions like University of Skövde (Sweden), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Universitat de Lleida or the Institut Mines-Telecom (France).

During the meeting, the Center for Cybersecurity Research of Catalonia (CYBERCAT) was also presented. Three of the groups of the ARES Consolider Network are part of this new research center, created for improving and promoting the research in cybersecurity and information privacy carried out in Catalonia.

9th ARES Plenary Meeting

The 9th edition of the ARES plenary meeting was held in Torremolinos, Màlaga, on May 8-9. All ARES groups presented their current projects, research lines and the advances achieved and the technology broker outlined the new events in which we are currently working and our transfer strategy. The parallel meetings were very useful for exchanging ideas and collaborating in the ongoing research lines. We also carried out the IP meeting where we decided to ask for an one-year extension of the ARES Network mainly due to delays in the organization of some transfer events.

9th ARES Plenary Meeting

The 9th edition of the ARES plenary meeting will be held in Torremolinos, Màlaga, on May 8-9. We plan to focus in technology brokerage and Horizon 2020 projects as well as presenting the current reasearch lines of every researcher.

New edition of the ARES Plenary Meetings

Thanks to a grant of the Spanish Government we are organizing a new edition of the ARES plenary meetings. The 8th edition will be held in Cardona (Barcelona), on May 17-18, 2016. As in previous meetings, the ARES network groups are going to present their research lines and some of the advances achieved.

ARES Consolider Network

The Ministry of Economy and competitiviness of the Spanish Government has given us a grant in order to create and develop a research network in Security and Privacy. 5 of the 6 former teams of the ARES Consolider project have set up the "Red de Excelencia Consolider ARES" with the objetive of encouraging the cooperation between the researchers of the groups and consolidating some of the results of the Consolider project.

ARES Project it's over

The main advances obtained from ARES have been related to the creation of technologies that conciliate security, privacy and functionality in information technologies. In this respect we the following significant contributions and we identify the PhD theses that collect them:

• Protocols for secure and private communication in networks for critical information infrastructures: wireless sensor networks (PhD theses of Javier Hernandez-UPC, Rodrigo Román-UMA, Alexandre Viejo-URV, Cristina Alcaraz-UMA, Ruben Ríos-UMA), ad-hoc networks (PhD thesis of H. Rifà-UOC) and cognitive radio networks (Olga León-UPC).
• Protocols for secure and private communications in vehicular ad hoc networks (PhD theses of Lei Zhang-URV and Carlos Hernández UPC). Cryptographic protocols have been designed which allow announcement messages to be securely transmitted in a vehicular ad hoc network in such a way that rogue vehicles cannot transmit false messages (they are prevented a priori and/or they are tracked a posteriori). At the same time, the protocols are efficient enough to withstand dense traffic conditions.
• Anonymization methods for privacy in statistical databases. A variety of new anonymization methods to reduce disclosure risk in statistical databases have been produced (PhD theses of Jordi Nin-CSIC, Sergio Martínez-URV, Sara Hajian-URV, Jordi Soria-URV, Jordi Marés-CSIC and Daniel Abril-CSIC).
• Anti-discrimination methods in data mining. We have broken new ground in creating methods to protect against discrimination in data mining. Indeed, an increasing number of automated decision-making systems are being trained on large data sets from making decisions based on discriminatory attributes (like race, gender, etc.). Our papers in this are have received a great number of citations (PhD thesis of Sara Hajian-URV).
• Protection of user profiles in database/web search queries. Methods have been developed to allow databases users to preserve the privacy of their interests when submitting queries to a database/search engine (PhD theses of Klara Stokes-URV, Arnau Erola-URV, Javier Parra-UPC and Cristina Romero-URV).
• Graph models of access control and security (PhD theses of Isaac Agudo-UMA, Ismael González-URV and Albert Vico-URV).
• Security and privacy in P2P systems (PhD theses of Joan Arnedo-UOC, Diego Suárez-UPC and Amna Qureshi-UOC).
• Security and privacy in electronic commerce. Ticketing systems that are secure and anonymous have been developed (PhD thesis of Arnau Vives-URV, PhD thesis of Andre Pere Isern Deyà-UIB and PhD thesis of Gerard Draper Gil).
• Technologies for secure and private RFID communication. Here the problem was to create protocols for secure and private identification of RFID tags that are computationally lightweight without compromising on security and/or privacy (PhD theses of Rolando Trujillo-URV, Joan Melià-UOC and Pablo Najera-UMA).
• Watermarking and fingerprinting for copyright protection (PhD theses of Mehdi Mehdi Fallahpour-UOC, José Moreira-UPC, Amna Qureshi-UOC, Jordi Serra-UOC)
• Contributions related to cryptography. These relate to basic research on cryptographic and coding primitives. In the case of cryptography, topics covered include secret sharing (Alexandre Ruiz-UPC), credentials (PhD thesis of Maria Francisca Hinarejos-UPC) and advanced signature schemes (PhD thesis of Lei Zhang-URV).

As it can be seen, many ARES groups have worked and collaborated in the same topics, which clearly illustrates the added value of the project.

Among the above technologies, the ones related to vehicles and smart mobility have been disseminated to Abertis Telecom, a multinational infrastructure company based in Barcelona. Specifically, the patent on privacy-preserving toll collection has been adapted to privacy-preserving parking fee collection for high-occupancy vehicles and a prototype has been built by the URV group under contract that was presented in Abertis’s stand at the Mobile World Congress 2014. Also, the vehicular technologies developed have been further pursued within the FP7 project “Inter-Trust” (2012-2015), in which the URV group are partners. Furthermore, a generalization of the patent has been at the root of a Google Faculty Research Award earned by Prof. Josep Domingo-Ferrer (the ARES coordinator).

On the other hand, the anonymization technologies have been transferred in some consulting projects with Eurostat (Statistical Office of the European Commission) and they have been further pursued in the FP7 project “Data without Boundaries” (2011-2015) in which the URV and the CSIC group participate as partners. Furthermore, they are at the core of URV’s contribution to the new H2020 project “CLARUS” on cloud privacy (2015-2017), coordinated by the URV group.

Secure and private ticketing techniques have been disseminated to several public transportation companies and we expect to sign a technology transfer contract soon.

Finally, the URV group has created a spin-off company called STAITEC (http://www.staitec.com ) that transfers some of the group technologies.

ARES Final Plenary Meeting

The final ARES Meeting was held in Ronda, Málaga, on May 19-20. All ARES groups presented their research lines and the advances achieved. The project will be over on next September, but the ARES groups intend to keep the collaboration between them.

ARES Final Plenary Meeting will be held in Ronda, Màlaga

Final ARES Meeting will be held in Ronda, Málaga, on May 19-20. We will focus in technology brokerage and Horizon 2020 projects.

CISCO Spain Challenge 2013

ARES Project collaborates as an academic partner in this entrepreneurship initiative focused on the topic 'Internet of Everything'. You can find more information here.

II ARES Industry Day

The second edition of ARES Industry Day took placeat the UPC premises in Barcelona.

We showcased practical results of seven I+D technologies developed within the ARES Project. In many cases, the results were presented by using a demonstrator prototype.

In this occasion, we invited some external speakers from companies and institutions such as Abertis Telecom, Fundació Pere Tarrés and Dinube. Each representative made a speech to the audience, so more interaction between academia and industry was reached.

The meeting was an information point for companies and organizations of the following fields of activity: ICT security, infrastructure and mobility management, distribution and marketing of digital content, electronic payment systems, critical infrastructure protection and automotive industry, among others.

More than 50 participants, including representatives of more than 15 companies, attended the meeting. Among the companies, we can highlight: FCC, Banc Sabadell, SABA, Abertis Telecom, Fundación Inlea and Dinube and others.

Second extension for ARES project

On May 31th, 2013, we requested a second extension of ARES (up to Sep. 9th, 2014) which was officially granted on October 15th, 2013. In our request, we motivated the need for the extension based on the following ground:

• Consolidation of the transfer actions started during 2012 and 2013.
• Use of CONSOLIDER brand to participate in the first call of Horizon 2020.
• Use of CONSOLIDER brand to try to establish a Spanish node in the Knowledge Innovation Community (KIC) that the European Institute of Technology is launching about "Smart Secure Societies"

ARES Final Plenary Meeting

Final ARES Meeting will be held in Monestir de Poblet, Catalonia, on May 20-21. You can find more information here.

Training activity on Spin Off and Start Up creation

In relation to workshops on Spin Off and Start Up creation, ARES Project will organize a training activity in co-operation with the company Innovative Hub, linked to Universitat Rovira and Virgili. This activity aims at identifying, promoting and giving support to the entrepreneurship initiatives with technological origin and basis that may arise among people in the ARES team.

The first module of the training activity will be held on July, 19th at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya

5th ARES plenary meeting

The annual general meeting of ARES was held in Sant Hilari Sacalm, Girona, Catalonia, on May 14-16. Work carried out during the year was presented by each group to the rest of project groups and all ARES researchers exchanged information on their current work. The meeting focused on technology brokerage.

One-year extension for ARES project

On April 20, a one-year extension was officially granted. We motivated the need for the extension on the following grounds:

• Need to further develop the VANET demonstrator
• Need to refine other ARES demonstrators into real prototypes
• Opportunity to create spin-off companies
• Participation in a new ICT security cluster

A Technology Transfer Portal has been released

One of the most important tasks done by the technology broker in his first two years has been to prepare supporting material for the commercial action. These elements include both presentation materials in leaflet, folder and technological-tab form and a technology portal whose objective is to show how our technologies can add value to specific sectors. The address of our portal is http://spaas-transfer.com.

Demonstrator video (with robots)

A demonstrator video has been published here

ARES Industry Day

Next November 30th, will be held an ARES Industry Day in the Museum of the History of Catalonia.

The ARES Industry Day is a day of scientific and technical disclosure aimed at companies and organizations interested in learning about the latest research in the field of security and privacy of information.

During the day results from five selected research projects in the field of security and private information will be presented. In most cases results will be presented as a prototype demonstrator.

The conference wants to be a meeting point for businesses and organizations of the following areas of activity: ICT security, infrastructure management and mobility, distribution and marketing of digital content, electronic payment systems, protection of critical infrastructure and automotive...

You can find more information here (in Spanish)

4th ARES plenary meeting

The annual general meeting of ARES was held in Nerja, Màlaga, on May 16-17. Work carried out during the year was presented by each group to the rest of project groups and all ARES researchers exchanged information on their current work. We hope that synergy between groups grow with this meeting.

ARES Project appears in 'BTV Notícies'

Today, the ARES project has appeared in the news website 'BTV Notícies'. [Article]

Preliminary demonstrator video

A preliminary demonstrator video has been published here

ARES project to be reviewed next January

Next January 27, there will be a Panel Review of the ARES project, organized by the Ministry of Science and Innovation in Madrid. This review is conducted on all CONSOLIDER projects which have completed their third year. We are doing a number of preparations for that review, including a video on the ARES achievements and the incipient demonstrator.

The demonstrator implementation has started

The ARES team is now starting the demonstrator implementation for the field trial. As explained in the ARES proposal, the skeleton of the demonstrator will be a vehicular network. Due to reasons of cost and convenience, vehicles will be mobile robots instead of cars, which will allow a manageable testing area and a longer experimentation period. On this platform, several ARES technologies will be demonstrated (VANET protocols, electronic tickets for e-payment, sensor networks, anonymization of mobility data, etc.). Preparing this prototype is requiring a tight cooperation between the six ARES groups.

ARES has participed in Summer Course "El programa CONSOLIDER y el periodismo científico"

This summer course gathered a selection of six CONSOLIDER projects, from different domains and several scientific journalists. ARES was one of the selected projects. The ARES co-ordinator, together with the ARES technology broker, delivered a talk entitled "¿Privacidad, seguridad o funcionalidad? Soluciones para tenerlo todo" ("Privacy, security or functionality? How to get it all").

ARES has participed in MICINN-DST Spain-India Workshop

This was an event jointly organized by the Indian Department of Science and Technology (DST) and MICINN, hosted by the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. Six Indian researchers and six Spanish researchers on ICT made presentations on their research and exchanged ideas with a view to preparing joint research projects. Josep Domingo-Ferrer, the ARES coordinator gave a presentation entitled "Advanced research on information security and privacy: the CONSOLIDER ARES project".

3st ARES plenary meeting

The annual general meeting of ARES was held in Empúries, Catalonia, on May 17-18. Work carried out during the year was presented by each group to the rest of project groups. Newly hired personnel got acquainted with the rest of the team.

A technology broker joins ARES

During the fourth quarter of 2009, ARES took part in a competition opened by the FECYT (Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology) and won funding to pay the training and two years of salary of a technology broker. Dr. Josep M. Gastó, with background as entrepreneur, was selected for this job and joined ARES.

ARES appears in "La Vanguardia"

Today, the ARES project has appeared in the catalan newspaper "La Vanguardia". [PDF]

2st ARES plenary meeting

The Steering Committee organized an ARES plenary meeting in Formentera on May 25, 2009. All ARES groups presented their research lines and the advances achieved.

ARES presentation

Participation of Josep Domingo in a round table from the "Barcelona Digital Global Congress" presenting the ARES project. [link]

2nd ARES plenary meeting

The 2nd ARES plenary meeting will be held in Formentera on May 25. Again, all ARES researchers holding a Ph. D are called to share their knowledge.

ARES participates in Consolider meeting

Ares project participated, last Feb. 27, in the meeting "Consolider: source of ideas for innovation" held in Málaga, Spain. The meeting's goal was the promotion of research results transfer conducted through the Consolider Program to the productive sector.

Presentation ARES: [PDF]

4th Steering committee meeting

Fourth SC meeting held in Castelldefels (KISON/UOC premises) on January 14. Activity report submitted to the External Scientific Committee is commented. Discussed the state of the addendum to the agreement for the creation of a common fund. Design of first annual report to be sent to the Ministry on March 2009.

Activity Report submitted to External Scientific Committee

An activity report (Oct. 1, 2007 to Sep. 30, 2008) and the specific deliverables have been sent by the ARES Coordinator to the Chair of the External Scientific Committee (Prof. Samarati).

1st workshop INTERCONSOLIDER

The 1st workshop INTERCONSOLIDER between CONSOLIDER ARES and CONSOLIDER i-MATH was held at the CIEM headquarters (Castro Urdiales, Cantabria, Spain) in May 15 - 16, 2008.

Presentations:

• Mª Isabel González Vasco (i-MATH). [PDF]
• Josep Domingo-Ferrer (ARES). [PDF], [PDF]
• Maria Bras (ARES). [PDF]

Photograph:

• CIEM
• Lunch
  

1st ARES plenary meeting

The Steering Committee organized an ARES plenary meeting in Ciutat de Mallorca on April 25, 2008. All ARES researchers holding a Ph. D. were there, and some predoctoral students as well. The goal of the meeting was that the team members should know each other and each other's research interests. Since the team consists of six groups, many team members had never met before.

Photographs: [1], [2], [3]

3rd Steering committee meeting

Third SC meeting held in Ciutat de Mallorca (GIDET/UIB premises) on April 24. Discussion on the expected operation of the External Scientific Committee. Review of staff hiring, publications, productivity indicators and workplan fulfillment.

ARES External Scientific Committee

The steering committee of ARES has invited a few well-known international researchers on security to join the ARES External Scientific Committee. The committee is chaired by Prof. Pierangela Samarati (who is also appointed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation to the CONSOLIDER Scientific Committee). Committee members are as follows:

• Prof. Pierangela Samarati (Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy). Chair.
• Prof. Jean-Jacques Quisquater (Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium).
• Dr. Mark Elliot (Manchester University, UK)
• Dr. George Danezis (Microsoft Research, UK)
• Prof. Dr. Stefan Katzenbeisser (TU Darmstadt, Germany)
• Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jana Dittmann (Otto-von-Guericke Universität Magdeburg, Germany)
• Prof. Dr. Eiji Okamoto (University of Tsukuba, Japan).

2nd Steering committee meeting

Second SC meeting held in Castelldefels (KISON/UOC premises) on February 11. The flow of funds between the co-ordinating institution (URV) and the participating institutions is reviewed. The composition of the External Scientific Committee is approved. Information on the scientific progress of ARES is compiled in view of writing the initial report to be sent to the Ministry on March 2008.

1st Steering committee meeting

Kick-off SC meeting held at Universitat Rovira i Virgili (CRISES/URV premises) on September 13. The intergroup information flow is agreed upon, and a selection is made among the applicants to the first predoctoral and postdoctoral call.