The School of Computer Science at the University of Windsor is pleased to present…
Engineering Operational Resilience in Safety-Critical Transportation Systems
Colloquium Presentation by: Uzair Syed (Transit Sentinel)
Date: Friday, 2 October 2026
Time: 10:00 – 11:00 am
Location: Erie Hall, room 3123
Abstract:
Modern transportation systems such as light rail, EV charging depots, signalling are at once IT systems and operational-technology (OT) environments, and the two are secured on opposite logics: IT prizes patching and confidentiality, OT prizes uptime and safety. That divide is where cyber risk assessment gets hard. Much of the installed base is legacy equipment never designed to be connected, now exposed, and constrained by safety-critical requirements that forbid the quick fixes IT would reach for. Drawing on real-world deployments across rail, transit, and eMobility, this talk examines how the IT/OT divide, legacy exposure, safety constraints, and emerging threats collide in practice and how cybersecurity is actually delivered in environments that cannot simply be taken offline.
Keywords: critical infrastructure, cybersecurity, OT security, transit and mobility
Biography:
Uzair Syed is a cyber and physical security practitioner specializing in the convergence of cyber, physical, and safety security for rail, transit, and critical infrastructure systems. He is a co-founder of Transit Sentinel, a consultancy delivering unified cyber-physical security assessments across the transportation sector, and has led governance, threat and risk assessment, and security assurance work on major light-rail and transit projects. His experience spans IT and OT security, physical security, and safety convergence in complex operational environments, with prior work including engagements with renowned organizations. His current focus is on machine-assisted approaches to producing defensible, standards-aligned security assessments for operational technology.