Bio

B.S. ​University of Virginia, 1977M.S. ​University of Virginia, 1978Ph.D. ​Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1984

"My research has been used in controllers and medical devices. My teaching focuses on developing deep understanding and encouraging creativity."

Ronald Dean Williams, Associate Professor Emeritus

I received the BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Virginia in 1977 and 1978, respectively. I received the Ph.D. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984. After one year as a member of the technical staff at MITRE corporation, I joined the UVA faculty in the department of electrical engineering. Since then I have dedicated most of my professional career to UVA where I have taught and performed research in digital systems with a focus on embedded computing. I have been recognized with several awards for teaching including an All-University Teaching Award. My research has been in the area of embedded computing with applications in control, signal processing, energy management, biomedical instrumentation, and industrial cyber security. I currently serve as an associate editor for the IEEE Internet of Things Journal.

Awards

  • The Harold S. Morton Jr. Award for Teaching 2015-2016
  • The IEEE HKN Faculty Award 2014-2015
  • The IEEE Third Millennium Medal 2000
  • All-University Teaching Award 1990-91

Research Interests

  • Signal and Image Processing
  • Cybersecurity
  • Autonomy and Controls/Control Systems
  • Embedded Systems

Selected Publications

  • "Chapter 6 - Frequency Domain Circuit Analysis" in Circuits published by zyBooks 2017. R. Williams
  • “Taxonomies of attacks and vulnerabilities in computer systems,” IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, v. 10, n. 1, 2008, p 6-19. Igure, V., and R. Williams
  • “Security Issues in SCADA Networks,” Computers & Security, v. 25, n 7, October 2006, p 498-506. Igure, V., S. Laughter, and R Williams
  • "An On-Chip Signal Suppression Counter-measure to Power Analysis Attacks," IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, Vol. 1, No. 3, p. 179-189, July-September 2004. Ratanpal, G., Williams, R., and Blalock, T.
  • “Incorporating Studio Techniques with a Breadth-First Approach in Electrical and Computer Engineering Education,” Proceedings of the 2016 ASEE Conference. Powell, H.C., M. Brandt-Pearce, R.D. Williams, L. Harriott, & R. Weikle
  • Lessons Learned from Conducting Large Scale Fault Injection Experiments on Safety Critical Digital I&C Systems, 9th International Topical Meeting on Nuclear Plant Instrumentation, Control, and Human Machine Interface Technologies (NPIC&HMIT 2015), C.R.Elks, B.W.Johnson, R.D. Williams, N.George, M. Reynolds. February 23–26, 2015
  • “A Less-Is_More Architecture (LIMA) for and Future Internet,” Proceedings of the Global Internet Symposium 2012. Li, J., M. Veeraraghavan, M. Reisslein, M. Manley, R. Williams, P. Amer and J. Leighton
  • “Design of a High Performance FPGA Based Fault Injector for Real-Time Safety-Critical Systems,” Proceedings of the 22nd IEEE International Conference on Application-specific Systems, Architectures, and Processors, September 2011. Miklo, M., C. Elks, & R. Williams