The H2020 project CARAMEL kicks off in Barcelona

21/10/2019

The i2CAT Foundation coordinates this European Commission funded project that targets smart mobility.

 

The CARAMEL (Artificial Intelligence-based Cybersecurity for Connected and Automated Vehicles) project, an H2020 initiative coordinated by the i2CAT Foundation, celebrated its kick off meeting on October 1st at the Catalan center’s headquarters in Barcelona. CARAMEL addresses the cybersecurity challenge of the next generation mobility, contributing to the long-term vision of safer roads with zero fatality.

Three departments of i2CAT (Software Networks, Mobile Wireless Internet and Distributed Artificial Intelligence) are engaged in this 30-month project, which has received close to € 4.9 million contribution from the European Commission.

Dr. Pouria Sayyad Khodashenas, H2020 CARAMEL project coordinator, stated at the meeting that: “A long-term vision of safer roads with zero fatality is not only a European priority, but also a global objective that has concrete targets in the Sustainable Development Goals agenda brought by the U.N. and defined by governments all over the world. With the emergence of new types of mobility in the form of cooperative, connected, autonomous and electric vehicles, prevention and mitigation of cybersecurity threats related to them are becoming more vital on the realization of this vision. We expect to position Europe in the leading seat in this arena, boosting the European innovation capacity and creating new job opportunities.” 

CARAMEL considers the cybersecurity related issues of the Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM) ecosystem, taking into account three novel types of mobility: i) autonomous cars, ii) connected vehicles empowered by next generation communication systems, and iii) electromobility. The project applies a proactive method based on AI and ML techniques to mitigate cybersecurity originated safety risks on roads. Considering the entire supply chain, CARAMEL aims to introduce innovative anti-hacking intrusion detection/ prevention systems for the European automotive industry.

CARAMEL pilot demonstrations will take place at the Test Area in Baden-Württemberg in Germany and at GreenFlux R&D laboratory in the Netherlands, where real-world scenarios will be performed with prototype vehicles and smart chargers under the safety offered by a controlled environment.

Mr. Peter Hofmann from T-Systems/Telekom security in Germany, with 20 years of experience in the areas of mobile security, automotive security and integration of hardware security in applications will be the technical manager of the project. Dr. Ioannis Giannoulakis, co-founder and principal analyst in Eight Bells Ltd., an SME located in Nicosia, Cyprus, will play the role of CARAMEL exploitation and innovation manager.

CARAMEL, in line with the European Union prioritize cybersecurity public private partnership (cPPP), brings together 15 organizations from 8 European countries with complementary expertise and skills. CARAMEL partners are: Austria: AVL; Cyprus: The University of Cyprus, 8BELLS, Sidroco; Germany: Altran, Panasonic Automotive, T-Systems; Greece: The University of Patras; Netherlands: GreenFlux, Cyberlens; Portugal: Ubiwhere; Spain: i2CAT, Ficosa, Atos; UK: 0 Infinity.

More details about CARAMEL can be found on www.h2020caramel.eu.

CARAMEL has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 833611.