Biography

Basics         

         

Name: A/Prof Frank T. H. den Hartog, PhD, MSc, SMIEEE
Job title: 
Associate Professor and Deputy Head of School (Teaching - Postgraduate) at UNSW Canberra
Email: frank.den.hartog (at) unsw.edu.au
www:  
Home Page, LinkedIn, ResearchGate, Twitter

I am accepting PhD students!

I am accepting PhD students! See here for the current projects available. I will update this list regularly, so stay tuned (besides: I'm open to any proposal regarding Secure IoT). But please be aware: UNSW requires that you and I first need to agree on interest and suitability. Also, UNSW Canberra requires that PhD students apply and qualify for a scholarship before being admitted. Therefore you should first check your eligibility before contacting me! This includes your English proficiency (see here)!

When you email me, attach the result of the eligibility assessment and English proficiency. If you are not likely to be competitive for a scholarship, or do not pass the English proficiency threshold, it is unlikely that I will reply to your email. Do NOT contact me before you have (nearly) finished your Honour's or Master's research thesis, as you will not be eligible for a scholarship before the thesis is finished and assessed. Count on ~ 6 months between applying and starting your PhD, partly depending on your visa status. 


Career and Education

2018-now Associate Professor at University of New South Wales (UNSW), Canberra (Australia). School of Engineering and Information Technology, UNSW Canberra Cyber. Secure Wireless Systems.
2017-2018 Lecturer/Tutor and Campus Visitor at Australian National University (ANU), Canberra (Australia). System Engineering and Engineering Innovation.
2016-now
Owner and Senior Scientist at DoVes Research, Canberra (Australia). Computer networks and telecommunications research and consultancy in Australia and overseas. DoVes Research is the agency of the Dutch Research Institute for Applied Science TNO in Australia and New Zealand.
2003-2016
Senior Research Scientist at TNO, Delft (The Netherlands). Knowledge Leader of the “Heterogeneous Consumer Networks” research field at the Technical Sciences expertise area of TNO. Contributor to the overall TNO strategy on ICT knowledge development. TNO is the Dutch Research Institute for Applied Science.
1998-2003
Applied Scientist at KPN Research, Leidschendam (The Netherlands). Home Networking, Residential Gateways, Short Range Wireless Technologies, L2-4 protocols, hybrid networks, interoperability, ADSL management. KPN is the Dutch incumbent telecom operator.
1992-1998 Scientist in training at the Molecular Physics group at Leiden University (The Netherlands). Spectral diffusion and energy transfer in doped organic glasses and photosynthetic PS II reaction center complexes (a low-temperature study by time-resolved spectral hole-burning). The work finds its application in optical amplification in glass fiber communication and in understanding fundamental processes in photosynthesis. Advisor: Prof. Dr S. Völker.
1991 Traineeship at Shell, Amsterdam (The Netherlands). Modeling of the effective elastic and thermal properties of two-phase composite materials. Advisor: Prof. Dr M.A.J. Michels. 
1990-1992 Graduation and masters project at the Elementary Processes in Gas discharges group at the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (The Netherlands). Electron- and H--densities in H2 RF discharges, IR Fourier Spectrometry of RF discharges. Advisors: Prof. Dr F.J. de Hoog and Prof. Dr G.M.W. Kroesen.
1998-now    I followed various management courses, such as Project Management, Personal Communication, Sales, Media Training, and Networking.

Management Experience

2020-now 
Director of Postgraduate Studies, and from 2022 onward Deputy Head of School (Teaching - Postgraduate) at UNSW Canberra School of Engineering and Information Technology.
2007-2016
Chair of the Technical Working Group (TWG) of the worldwide Home Gateway Initiative (HGI)  industrial standardization consortium. Deputy Chair from 2007-2012 (first of the Remote- and Device Management Work Group, then the Home Gateway and Network Architecture Group, and then the TWG), and Full Chair from 2012 onwards.
2014-2016 Work Package Leader of the European Horizon 2020 Wi-5 R&D Collaboration project of Liverpool JM University, TNO, Telefonica I+D, Airties, and University of Zaragoza.
2010-2015
Work Package Leader of the Dutch IOP Generic Communication MEANS collaboration project of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), Delft Universitiy of Technology (TU Delft), TNO, Abitana, Genexis, PANSA, and TI-WMC.
2010-2013 
Work Package Leader of the European FP7 FIRE STEER R&D Collaboration project of ADB, TNO, Bitnomica, University of Patras, University of Southampton, and University of Lancaster.
2010-2014 Work Package Leader, Eploitation Manager, member of the General Assembly, and member of the Technical Program Committee of the European FP7 FIGARO R&D Collaboration project of Technicolor, TNO, Philips, Telefonica, Home Automation Europe, Guavus, Martel, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Politecnico di Torino, Eurecom, and University of Waterloo.
2009-2011
Project Editor of the CENELEC SmartHouse Roadmap Project Team.
2004-2007 Project Leader of the Freeband Personal Network Pilot 2008 (PNP2008) R&D collaboration project of TNO, Philips, KPN, WMC, University of  Twente, and TU Delft.
2001-2004 
Project Leader of the Residential Gateway Environment R&D collaboration project of TNO, Philips, KPN, TU/e, and TU Delft.
2000-2001 Work Package Leader of the Networking Work Package of the KPN Research project “KPN HomeServices” home networking pilot in Rotterdam (The Netherlands).
2000-now 
Knowledge Leader of the Heterogeneous Consumer Networks research field of KPN Research and later TNO.
1981-2004 Chairman and Treasurer of the Christiaan Huygens scientific society of Leiden University, and of many social clubs and projects, mainly in the fields of sports and music.

Other positions

  • Post-graduate Assessment Coordinator at UNSW Canberra School of Engineering and Information Technology, 2019.
  • Section Editor "Telecommunications" of the Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy (2022 - now).
  • Member of the IEEE CCNC Steering Committee.
  • Member of the Organizing Committee of (14 in total):
  • Member of the Technical Program Committee of (38 in total):
    • IEEE INFOCOM 2019 Workshops - FlexNets 2019
    • 27th and 28th International Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference (ITNAC), 2017-2018.
    • IEEE Conference on Network Softwarization (NetSoft) 2016 and 2017
    • IEEE ICC 2015 and 2017
    • IEEE Region Ten Conference, 2017.
    • the 7th International Congress on Ultra Modern Telecommunications and Control System (ICUMT), Brno, 2015.
    • Symposium Woninginnovatie: Samen Bouwen over de Sectoren, Eindhoven, 2015.
    • the 1st - 6th International Workshop on Personalized Networks (Pernets), 2007-2012 (co-located with IEEE CCNC from 2009 onwards).
    • the 6th - 12th, 16th-19th IEEE International Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC), Las Vegas, 2009-2021.
    • the 1st - 4th, and 7th International Workshop on Energy-Efficiency in Wireless Networks & Wireless Networks for Energy Efficiency, 2010-2016 (co-located with IEEE ICC).
    • the ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Home Networks, New Delhi, 2010.
    • the 5th International Conference on Internet Multimedia Systems Architecture and Application (IMSAA), Bangalore, 2011. 
    • the IEEE Symposium on Industrial Electronics & Applications, Bandung, 2012.
    • the IEEE Symposium on Wireless Technology & Applications, Bandung, 2012.
    • the 2nd International Conference on Advances in Computing, Communications and Informatics (ICACCI), Mysore, 2013.
    • the TNO Ultrafast Broadband Seminar, 2015.
  • Reviewer of, among others:
    • Computers & Security (Elsevier)
    • IEEE Network Magazine 
    • IEEE Communications Magazine 
    • Sensors (MDPI)
    • Technovation (Elsevier)
    • Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy (TelSoc)
  • Chair of the Participation Council of the "Corbulo" Primary School in Zoeterwoude, the Netherlands (2014-2016).
  • Member of the Jury of the Dutch Smart Homes Award 2014 and 2015.
  • Chair of the Academic Advisory board of the Dutch ICT Innovation Platform “Domotica & Smart Living” (2010-2012).
  • Chair of the DECT & CAT-iq World 2012 Congress, Amsterdam.
  • Member of the IEEE Communications Society Multimedia Communications Technical Committee (IEEE MMTC).
  • Member of the Strategic Board of the TRANS knowledge center in 2008 and 2009.
  • Member of the program preparation committee of the Dutch IOP Generic Communications research program.

Teaching experience 

 2018-now Convenor of the following courses at UNSW:
- ZEIT 2104 "Computers and Security" 
- ZEIT 8020 "Cyber Offence: Threats and Opportunities"
- ZEIT 8030 "Big Data and Decision Analytics for Security"
 1992-now Primary or Joint Supervisor of 7 master students, 5 interns, and 3 PhD students:
Antonio Madureira received his PhD at 12 December 2011 from Delft University of Technology on his thesis "Value of Digital Information Networks: a Holonic Framework"
Archi Delphinanto received his PhD at 15 February 2012 from Eindhoven University of Technology on his thesis "Network and Service Monitoring in Heterogeneous Home Networks"
 2017-2018 Tutor of 60 students in Systems Engineering "TechLauncher" and Engineering Innovation courses at the ANU
2011, 2013, 2015
IEEE Tutorial Presenter at the 8th, 10th and 12th International IEEE Consumer Communications and Networking Conference (CCNC). Title: "Consumer Networking Standardization: trends and research opportunities" (2011), "Advances in Home Networking Standardization" (2013), and "Advances in IoT standardization" (2015).
2007-2016    Guest Lecturer at Delft University of Technology in the lecture series “Enterprise Networks”. Title: “Network Standardization: Principles and Examples”.
2006-2010
Guest Lecturer at Hogeschool van Amsterdam Title: “Future developments in home networking”.
2003-2011 
Guest Lecturer at Leiden University in the lecture series “Physics and Society” Title: “Modern data communication: fighting the laws of nature?”
2003         Guest Lecturer at the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven in the lecture series “Communication nodes and networks”. Titles: “Local Area Networks” and “Internet and IP”.
2002-2007   Guest Lecturer at the Delft University of Technology in the lecture series “Telematica”. Title: “Technologies for home networking and applications”.
2002          Guest Lecturer at the Delft University of Technology in the TWAIO education program “Intelligent Product Design”. Title: “Infrastructures and Standards”.
2001-2005   Guest Lecturer at the University of Hasselt (Belgium), in the lecture series “Telecommunication and Telematics”. Title: “Home Networking”.
2000-2001 Lecturer at the KPN “Research Academy”. Title: “Home Networking”.
1992-1996 Assistant Lecturer at Leiden University. Title: “Digital Signal Processing”.
1985-1996
Tutor Physics and Mathematics.
1991 Followed course on Didactics at Technische Universiteit Eindhoven

Academic and industrial achievements

My field of R&D is Complex Networked Systems Research and Analysis, currently focusing on Security of Wireless Systems. This includes novel architectures, security by design, business models, business requirements, user requirements, standardization (and its economic impact), protocol design, and application design. I am particularly challenged by trying to bridge the worlds of research, standardization and exploitation in this field. Key fields of investigation include:

  • Internet of Things (IoT) and Cyber Physical Systems (CPS)
  • Smart Home Networking
  • Network Function Virtualization (NFV), Software-Defined Networking (SDN), and Device Abstraction
  • Heterogeneous Networking
  • Residential Gateways
  • Remote Management
  • Network Diagnostics
  • Standardization

In my position as the Chair of the Technical Working Group of the Home Gateway Initiative industry body, I co-defined the technology choices for most residential gateways that can be found in nearly 500 million homes today. My most significant contributions to residential gateway technology include:

  • Remote residential gateway management data models and architecture improvements
  • Home gateway anomaly detection module definitions for residential gateways, including topology discovery and key performance measurement techniques for home networks
  • Resource optimization mechanisms in residential gateways (and similar devices in the home) in order to guarantee end-to-end Quality-of-Service and gateway robustness
  • Technology that enables residential gateways to communicate securely with smart energy meters

I am a technical consultant to industry parties regarding essential patents on residential gateways.

In 2013, I co-delivered the world’s first empirical proof of Metcalfe’s law. Until then, Metcalfe’s law (“the economic value of a network increases with the square of its number of nodes”) was never scientifically proven, but large telecommunication companies used it (and often incorrectly) already for decades to estimate the value of mergers.

In 2011, I co-created a breakthrough in active wireless network probing by solving issues caused by probe packet contention in shared media such as Wifi, which was awarded with the Connected Home Global Summit 2011 Industry Award for "Best Innovation in Software Modularity and Applications for Home Gateways".

In 2000, I was responsible for the wireless home network architecture in the 2-year “KPN HomeServices” research project, including the just invented WiFi technology. The project was worldwide the first in its kind to confront real consumers with a novel tablet device with touch screen, which we networked and programmed. Part of the work can be found back in the ITU-T H.610 recommendation, and in ~ 1 Billion consumer tablet devices that have been sold until today.

Awards and other recognition

  • HGI Certificate of Appreciation "for excellence of leadership and contributions to HGI's Technical Working Group" (2016)
  • Best Vocabulary Award at the SEMANTICS 2016 conference in Leipzig
  • Honorable Mention of the demonstrator "Enabling new e-health business models by converging IP-based and non-IP-based home networks" at the 10th IEEE International Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC 2013) in Las Vegas
  • IEEE Senior Membership (2012)
  • Connected Home Global Summit 2011 Industry Award for "Best Innovation in Software Modularity and Applications for Home Gateways"
  • TNO Top Employee (2006)
  • Best Paper Award at the 44th FITCE Congress (FITCE2005) in Vienna

Most relevant publications

  1. Tim Booij, Irina Chiscop, Erik Meeuwissen, Nour Moustafa, Frank den Hartog, ToN_IoT: The Role of Heterogeneity and the Need for Standardization of Features and Attack Types in IoT Network Intrusion Datasets, IEEE Internet of Things 9 (2022) 1, pp 485-496.
  2. Maran van Heesch, Pascal Wissink, Ramtin Ranji, Mehdi Nobakht, Frank den Hartog, Combining cooperative with non-cooperative game theory to model Wi-Fi congestion in apartment blocks, IEEE Access 8 (2020) 64603-64616.
  3. Muna AL-Hawawreh, Frank den Hartog, Elena Sitnikova, Targeted Ransomware: A New Cyber Threat to Edge System of Brownfield Industrial Internet of Things, IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 6, 4 (August 2019), 7137.
  4. Faycal Bouhafs, Michael Mackay, Alessandro Raschella, Qi Shi, Frank den Hartog, Jose Saldana, Jose Ruiz, Julian Fernandez-Navajas, Ruben Munilla, Jose Almodovar, Niels van Adrichem, Wi-5: A programming architecture for unlicensed frequency bands, IEEE Commun. Mag. 56, 12 (December 2018) 178. 
  5. Laura Daniele, Frank den Hartog, Jasper Roes, Created in close interaction with the industry: the Smart Appliances REFerence (SAREF) ontology, Proc. of the 7th Workshop on Formal Ontologies meet Industry (FOMI 2015), Berlin.
  6. Antonio Madureira, Frank den Hartog, Harry Bouwman, Nico Baken, Empirical validation of Metcalfe's law: How Internet usage patterns have changed over time, Information Economics and Policy 25, 4 (December 2013), 246.
  7. A. Delphinanto, T. Koonen, and F. den Hartog, Real-time probing of available bandwidth in home networks, IEEE Commun. Mag. 49, 6 (June 2011), 134.
  8. Geerten van de Kaa, Frank den Hartog, Henk J. de Vries, Mapping Standards for Home Networking, Computer Standards & Interfaces, 31 (2009) 1175.
  9. F.T.H. den Hartog, J.R. Schmidt, A. de Vries, On the potential of Personal Networks for hospitals, International Journal of Medical Informatics, 75 (2006) 658.
  10. F.T.H. den Hartog, M. Balm, C.M. de Jong, J.J.B. Kwaaitaal, Convergence of Residential Gateway Technology, IEEE Commun. Mag. 42, 5 (May 2004) 138.
More publications: see here.

Current research interests

My current field of research is Security of Wireless Systems research and analysis. This includes novel architectures, security by design, business models, business requirements, user requirements, standardization (and its economic impact), protocol design, and application design. I am particularly challenged by trying to bridge the worlds of research, standardization and exploitation in this field. Key fields of investigation include:
  • Internet of Things (IoT) and Cyber Physical Systems (CPS)
  • Smart Home Networking
  • Network Function Virtualization (NFV), Software-Defined Networking (SDN), and Device Abstraction
  • Heterogeneous Networking
  • Network Diagnostics and Management
  • Standardization
Within these key fields, I focus on all aspects concerning security, reliability, and interoperability. 

Other

  • I acquired on average about $700,000 every year on external research funding for TNO.
  • Reviewer of research proposals for Dutch funding schemes and member of project User Committees.
  • Member of ACM SIGCOMM and TelSoc, and Senior Member of the Communications Society of IEEE.
  • H=20
  • My most excelling personal competences include analytical and didactic skills, a cooperative attitude, flexibility, fast learning, creativity, and perseverance.
  • Fluent in Dutch and English, and a good understanding of German.
  • Programming experience in C, Pascal, Fortran, Basic, Scratch, Python, and some assembly languages.
  • Proficient singer of Early Music.