University of Colorado at Boulder : Tom Lookabaugh

Policy Lab Projects and Ideas

Policy Lab performs targeted technical and economic experiments and evaluations intended to illuminate critical telecommunications and information technology policy issues. I am co-director of the Lab and involved in a number of its projects; see the lab's site for current projects and status. Policy Lab is a research project of the Silicon Flatirons Telecommunications Program, where I am an affiliated faculty member.

High intensity current projects include...

Analog Hole Limits of DRM

See the work in progress page.

Projects in this genre that pre-date the formation of Policy Lab include...

Security, Organization, and Economics

Information security has practical economic ramifications both at the institutional level and a the individual level. For example, information system security conflicts with the flexibility expected by knowledge workers. Effective security system design will increasingly need to embrace the interaction between policy, practice, and productivity. Status: in progress...waiting for funding.

• How Employees in High-Tech Firms Perceive Cyber Security (student capstone paper)
• Models for Security Behavior and Dynamic Security Policy Proposal

"Lock-in" is an economic concept in which switching costs from one supplier to another greatly decrease the likelihood of a customer switching from an incumbent supplier, even though they might prefer some other supplier if they were new to the market. Security technology can play a privileged role in lock-in. Status: mature.

• Security and Lock-In (presented at the Economics and Information Security Workshop, May, 2003).
• T. Lookabaugh and D. Sicker, “Security and Lock-In,” in Camp, L. Jean and Lewis, Stephen, eds., Economics of Information Security, Springer, 2004.

Broadband Demand

Cisco funded a multidisciplinary researhc project to evaluate the state of demand for broadband internet in 2003. Status: mature.

• Broadband Demand Project Report
• Broadband Demand and Wireless (student capstone paper, presented at International Symposium on Advanced Radio Technologies, March 4-7, 2003, Boulder, CO).

Video Projects and Ideas

Surveillance on Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

I am a member of the Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles; my particular interest is exploring video surveillance networking among cooperating aerial and ground units. Status: conceptual.

SCHOOL: Wide Field-of-View Imaging Sensor Networks

Small, wirelessly networked imaging sensor nodes equipped with fish-eye lenses could be deployed on an emergency or ad hoc basis to provide a comprehensive visual survey of an area of interest. Status: conceptual.

Selective Encryption

Selective encryption is the strategy of only encrypting part of a compressed file with the expectation that it will nonetheless be secure from eavesdropprers. Selective encryption relies on the fact that (1) some parts of compressed bit streams are more important to a good reconstruction than others and (2) good compression makes it hard to guess one part of a compressed bitstream (in encrypted) from other parts (that are in the clear). Status: mature.

• T. Lookabaugh and D. C. Sicker, “Selective Encryption for Consumer Applications,” IEEE Communications Magazine, v. 42, n. 5, May 2004, pp. 124-129.
• T. Lookabaugh, “Selective Encryption, Information Theory, and Compression,” Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers, Monterey, CA, 7-10 November, 2004.
• J. D. Gibson, A. Servetti, H. Dong, A. Gersho, T. Lookabaugh, J. C. De Martin, “Selective Encryption and Scalable Speech Coding for Voice Communications over Multi-Hop Wireless Links,” to appear in IEEE 2004 MILCOM, Monterery, CA, Oct 31 – Nov. 3, 2004.

Other Areas

Signal Processing and Composition

Developing signal processing to aid audio-video composition and performance. See the work in progress page.

Multimedia and Distance Learning

• D. C. Sicker, T. Lookabaugh, J. Santos, and F. Barnes, “Assessing the effectiveness of distance networking laboratory experiences,” IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Indianapolis, IN, Oct 19-22, 2005.
• T. Lookabaugh and D. C. Sicker, “Information Technology Mediated Education – Revolution not Evolution,” 34th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Savannah, GA, October 20-23, 2004.

Interdisciplinary Curricula

• F. S. Barnes, E. F. Fuchs, J. Tietjen, J. Silverstein, H-Y Ko, T. Lookabaugh, T. Brown, D. C. Sicker, “Integrated Utilities Engineering-Management MS Program,” 2004 IEEE Power Engineering Society General Meeting, Denver, CO, 6-10 June, 2004.

Security of VoIP

I am a member of the Computer and Communications Security Center at the University of Colorado. Security is a theme in several different research projects, and the focus of this paper on VoIP.

• D. C. Sicker and T. Lookabaugh, “VoIP Security: Not an Afterthought,” ACM Queue Magazine, September 2004.

Fixed Wireless Business

• A. Eftekhari, et al. “Feasibility of a Fixed Wireless Access Business,” International Symposium on Advanced Radio Technologies, 4-7 March, 2003, Boulder, Colorado USA.

Innovation by Acquisition

• T. Lookabaugh, “Innovation by Acquisition,” IEEE International Conference on Engineering Management, Cambridge, UK, August 2002.

...and a whole bunch more networking and computer science papers...