TraCR Foundational Project: TraCR Collective Transportation Cybersecurity Testbeds
The National Center for Transportation Cybersecurity and Resiliency's (TraCR's) foundational project aims to develop technological tools, prototypes, testing platforms, and facilities to ensure the cybersecurity and cyber-resilience of multimodal transportation systems and related infrastructure. The project is led by Clemson University (Clemson) under the strategic direction of Dr. Ronnie Chowdhury (Lead PI), with coordination support from Dr. Sabbir Salek (Co-PI), and involves all eight other TraCR partner institutions organized into four subgroups. A structured project governance framework, including biweekly subgroup meetings, monthly full-team coordination meetings, quarterly progress reporting and advisory board engagement, ensures alignment with project milestones, integration across teams, and effective monitoring of technical progress and deliverables. Clemson collaborates with Benedict College (Benedict), South Carolina State University (SCSU), and the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) to advance a comprehensive, automated threat modeling capability for multimodal transportation systems. Building on the Transportation Cybersecurity and Resiliency Threat Modeling Framework (TraCR-TMF), the team conducts testbed-in-the-loop evaluations within Clemson’s real-world cybersecurity testbed, implementing digital-twin-based cybersecurity analysis of in-vehicle networks, and engaging state transportation agencies to assess operational transferability. Additionally, the team will work to integrate graph-based reasoning models into threat modeling, deploy supervised ModernBERT classifiers, and align with the MITRE Embedded Systems Threat Matrix to strengthen structured system-to-vulnerability mapping and improve threat coverage across transportation cyber-physical systems. The other partner institutions will develop additional real-world and virtual testing platforms to support cybersecurity experimentation for multimodal transportation. Florida International University (FIU) and the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa (UA) are jointly advancing the Open-Source Connected and Automated Mobility Co-Simulation (OpenCAMS) environment and related simulation platforms, integrating SUMO, CARLA, and network simulation tools, to evaluate privacy-aware multimodal large language models and post-quantum-secure C-V2X communications. Their efforts further include the development and validation of spoofing attack models targeting Basic Safety Message transmissions and multi-frequency GPS receivers, as well as investigations into backdoor-resilient perception systems and the security of vision-language models for intelligent transportation applications. Purdue University (Purdue) and the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) are advancing adversarial testing methodologies through integrated physical-virtual experimentation frameworks that combine miniature autonomous vehicle testbeds, CARLA/METS-R simulation coupling, and scenario-based vulnerability discovery. These activities include simulation-to-real validation of perception and traffic signal spoofing attacks, evaluation of V2X safety message vulnerabilities, cybersecurity analysis of shared micromobility Bluetooth pairing protocols, implementation of lightweight post-quantum cryptographic protections for vulnerable road user beacons, and closed-loop security assessments of traffic signal controller infrastructures, along with investigations of secure multimodal AI agents and memory-augmented reasoning architectures for autonomous robotic transportation systems. In addition, Morgan State University (MSU) is enhancing its connected vehicle cybersecurity experimentation capabilities by developing replay-attack models targeting C-V2X onboard units and evaluating mitigation strategies in its real-world testbed environment, in collaboration with Clemson. These efforts quantify communication-level impacts on safety-critical applications and support the development of deployable countermeasures to strengthen resilience against wireless attack vectors affecting connected transportation infrastructure.
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Active
- Funding: $3,018,434.00
-
Contract Numbers:
69A3552344812
69A3552348317
-
Sponsor Organizations:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
University Transportation Centers Program
Department of Transportation
Washington, DC United States 20590Clemson University
216 Lowry Hall
Clemson, SC, SC United States 29634Florida International University
10555 West Flagler Street
Miami, FL United States 33174 1600 Harden Street
Columbia, South Carolina United States 29204 1700 E. Cold Spring Lane
Baltimore, MD 21251, Maryland United States 21251 1040 South River Road
West Lafayette, IN United States 47907University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering
P.O. Box 870205
Tuscaloosa, AL United States 35487-0205South Carolina State University
300 College Street NE
Orangeburg, South Carolina United States 29117University of California, Santa Cruz
1156 High Street, Mail Stop SOE2
Santa Cruz, California United Kingdom 95064 800 W Campbell Rd
Richardson, Texas United States 75080 -
Managing Organizations:
National Center for Transportation Cybersecurity and Resiliency (TraCR)
Clemson University
Clemson, SC United States -
Project Managers:
Chowdhury, Mashrur
-
Performing Organizations:
Clemson University
216 Lowry Hall
Clemson, SC, SC United States 29634Florida International University
10555 West Flagler Street
Miami, FL United States 33174 1600 Harden Street
Columbia, South Carolina United States 29204 1700 E. Cold Spring Lane
Baltimore, MD 21251, Maryland United States 21251 1040 South River Road
West Lafayette, IN United States 47907University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
Department of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering
P.O. Box 870205
Tuscaloosa, AL United States 35487-0205South Carolina State University
300 College Street NE
Orangeburg, South Carolina United States 29117University of California, Santa Cruz
1156 High Street, Mail Stop SOE2
Santa Cruz, California United Kingdom 95064 800 W Campbell Rd
Richardson, Texas United States 75080 -
Principal Investigators:
Chowdhury, Mashrur
Salek, Sabbir
Iyangar, Balaji
Amini , Mohammadhadi
Uluagac, Selcuk
Rishe, Naphtali
Jeihani, Mansoureh
Mehryaar, Ehsan
Ukkusuri, Satish
Biswal, Biswajit
Sahoo, Jagruti
Mwakalonge, Judith
Rahman, Mizanur
Thuraisingham, Bhavani
Khan, Latifur
Cardenas, Alvaro
- Start Date: 20250601
- Expected Completion Date: 20260531
- Actual Completion Date: 0
- USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Autonomous vehicles; Computer security; Connected vehicles; Cyberattacks; Digital twins; Multimodal transportation; Risk assessment; Simulation; Test beds; Vehicle safety
- Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Research; Safety and Human Factors; Security and Emergencies; Transportation (General); Vehicles and Equipment;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01988516
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: National Center for Transportation Cybersecurity and Resiliency (TraCR)
- Contract Numbers: 69A3552344812, 69A3552348317
- Files: UTC, RIP
- Created Date: Apr 30 2026 12:19PM