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Date:  Fri, March 27, 2026
Time:  10:30am
Location:  Holmes Hall 287
Speaker:  Dr. Sang Kim, Iowa State University

*Rescheduled due to campus closure on 3/13 and moved to H287

(hosted by Prof. Anders Host-Madsen, College of Engineering, ECE Department)

ECE Graduate Students: This will count towards your seminar credit.

Abstract

Next-generation wireless systems will rely on multi-hop relays, low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellite links, and dense device-to-device connectivity. While these technologies expand coverage and capacity, they also increase the risk of detection, interception, and message manipulation. This talk presents a unified framework for communication that is both covert and verifiable, even in the presence of capable adversaries. We begin with the foundations of covert communication. The discussion covers the squareroot law, practical covert coding methods, and techniques that exploit channel uncertainty and jamming dynamics to avoid detection. Next, we address authentication in networks that include untrusted relays. A superposed-tag architecture is introduced to ensure message integrity while maintaining a low probability of detection (LPD). The talk concludes with a discussion of emerging opportunities for combining covert communication and authentication in future 6G wireless architectures. 

Biography

Sang W. Kim is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Iowa State University. He previously held academic and industry positions including Professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in Daejon, South Korea (1987-2003); Visiting Associate Professor at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena (1996-1997); and Technical Consultant with the Wireless Systems Research Department at AT&T Labs in Middletown, New Jersey (2001-2002). He earned his B.S. in Electronic Engineering from Yonsei University, Seoul, in 1981; his M.S. in Electrical Engineering from KAIST in 1983; and his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1987.

Dr. Kim’s research interests lie in wireless communications and security. He has received multiple honors for his contributions, including the Best Paper Award at the IEEE International Symposium on Spread Spectrum Techniques and Applications (ISSSTA), Parsippany, NJ in 2000, the Best Paper Award at the IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad hoc and Sensor Systems (MASS), Washington DC, in 2005, and the Best Poster Award at the IEEE Conference on Sensor, Mesh, and Ad Hoc Communications and Networks (SECON), San Diego, CA in 2007. He served as Associate Editor for IEEE Communications Letters (2000–2006) and IEEE Communications Surveys and Tutorials (2013– 2023). He was also Technical Program Committee Co-Chair of the IEEE GLOBECOM Communication Theory Symposium in 2013 and Publications Chair for IEEE WCNC in 2017.