University of Cyprus
University of Cyprus Tuition: 6500 eur

MSc in Intelligent Critical Infrastructure Systems

Information

Department
Department of Economics
Additional Information

Program Objectives

The main objective of the MSc in Intelligent Critical Infrastructure Systems (CIS) program is to teach highly innovative methods, tools, and technologies for the monitoring, control, management, and security of CIS for a competent workforce that will be recruited by local and regional authorities and international companies seeking to make CIS more reliable, safe, resilient, efficient, and sustainable. In addition, the program is designed to transfer knowledge on the research and innovation challenges faced by modern CIS and cultivate student interest in pursuing a career path in research and innovation. Doing so, it is expected to contribute to the transformation of the research and innovation culture of Cyprus and the Mediterranean-Middle East region. The program is open to students from different technical backgrounds, spanning the different areas of science and engineering.

The program is intended to:

  • Provide the theoretical basis for the monitoring, control, management, and security of intelligent critical infrastructure systems, with associated modelling, simulation, and design methods and algorithms.
  • Produce graduates equipped to pursue careers that involve design, modelling, analysis, control and optimization, as well as business aspects of critical infrastructure systems.
  • Offer students from a broad engineering and science background the opportunity to acquire ICT knowledge of intelligent critical infrastructure systems.
  • Provide a solid background that will enable graduates to further continue their studies towards a PhD degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering on the topic of Intelligent CIS.

The program will result in students developing an understanding of the knowledge and a critical awareness of Intelligent CIS. Students will graduate with relevant and up-to-date knowledge that will allow them to find employment in the CIS industry or continue their studies at the PhD level.

Program Learning Outcomes

When graduating from the program, students will have acquired the skills to:

  • Deal with particular CIS challenges, understand the specific technical and management features, and the specific risks and security issues related to the considered CIS.
  • Apply innovative ICT techniques to address monitoring, control, management, and security of CIS at the technical, managerial, and policy level.
  • Conduct both theoretical and applied research contributing to the transformation of the research and innovation culture of Cyprus.
Program's Webpage

Program

The program involves 8 compulsory courses (60 ECTS in total), a final year MSc Thesis (30 ECTS), and graduate –level seminars and workshops (2 ECTS).

Courses have been designed following an integrated and holistic approach, to provide students with knowledge, skills, competencies and experiences relevant to the topic of the MSc program, as categorized below:

  • Theory (T): provide specific theoretical and methodological skills necessary to understand how to monitor, control, and optimize CIS.
  • Tools (O): ICT approaches for addressing the problems in monitoring, control, management, and security of CIS, focusing on knowledge and skills necessary to introduce intelligence in CIS.
  • Applications (A): address specific current tasks and challenges in intelligent CIS based on realistic use cases in the applications of power systems, intelligent transportation systems, smart water networks, and telecommunication networks. The topics of modeling, simulation, and management are examined in relevance to the specific uses cases. Additional challenges include topics in fault detection and isolation, reliability and availability, fault tolerance, Internet of Things (IoT), and Cyber Physical System integration (s/w and h/w), etc.
  • Transferable Skills (S): including project management and technology transfer for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (including IPR management), communication skills, and ICT skills.
  • Practical/Research Experience (P): includes the final year project which constitutes a significant piece of research that will be submitted as a dissertation (MSc Thesis). The project enables students to carry out research to deepen their scientific and practical knowledge and skills. Can be carried out in collaboration with industry.

Courses by semester

The structure of the program is summarized in the table below, on a semester basis. The type of each course is indicated by T-Theory, O-Tools, A-Application, S-Transferable Skills, and P-Project leading to MSc Thesis.

First Semester (30 ECTS)

  • (T) ECE 801 – Monitoring and Estimation (7 ECTS)
  • (T) ECE 802 – Optimization of CIS (7 ECTS)
  • (O) ECE 803 – Security of CIS (7 ECTS)
  • (A) ECE 807 – CIS Applications I – Fundamentals 
    (9 ECTS)

Second Semester (30 ECTS)

  • (T) ECE 804 – Industrial Control (7 ECTS)
  • (O) ECE 805 – Machine Learning (7 ECTS)
  • (S) ECE 806 – Innovation and Entrepreneurship 
    (7 ECTS)
  • (A) ECE 808 – CIS Applications II – Advanced 
    (9 ECTS)

Third Semester (30 ECTS)

  • (P) ECE 809/810 – MSc Thesis for Intelligent CIS I & II (30 ECTS)
  • (S) ECE 811 – MSc Seminars & Workshop (2 ECTS)

Integration of CIS Model representation & Use Cases to Coursework

A significant feature of the program is the integration of CIS model representation and use cases to coursework. Specifically, mathematical models representing CIS at different abstraction layers and realistic use cases for intelligent CIS will be used throughout the various courses in order to:

  • Provide students with realistic examples on how to model, simulate, monitor, control, manage and optimize such systems
  • Examine possible commonalities/differences/interdependencies among various CIS domains
  • Better illustrate various concepts

Models and use cases from electric power and renewable energy systems, smart water systems, and intelligent transportation systems are considered in a stand-alone manner, or in a high-level integrated simulation platform developed at KIOS CoE. Models and use cases for CIS cybersecurity and telecommunication networks used in CIS systems are examined in a horizontal dimension across one or more CIS, allowing to better understand how such timely and important topics must be integrated in intelligent critical infrastructures.

The two application courses of the MSc program revisit these models and use cases focusing on current and future challenges in CIS systems, such as energy efficiency, safety, security, reliability, fault detection, big data processing, h/w & s/w design integration in IoT, etc.