This National Science Foundation (NSF) Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Federal Grant Program (CFDA 47.070) award of $399,977 provides funding to North Carolina State University for a 3-year project to develop innovative security and privacy solutions for emerging Metaverse ecosystems.
The key research objectives include: 1) Developing defense mechanisms to protect digital mapping and synchronization against adversarial attacks, 2) Creating privacy-preserving distributed training methods for collaborative machine learning in virtual reality, and 3) Introducing novel privacy controls for virtual reality end-users. The project aims to establish a secure, resilient, and privacy-enhanced digital world experience, with broader impacts spanning applications like digital twin networks, manufacturing, and medical data processing. The grant integrates research insights into computer security and privacy curricula and supports STEM outreach activities to advance participation of underrepresented minorities.