#2 Portrait - Elsa Lopez Perez - PEPR Future Networks

#2 Portrait – Elsa Lopez Perez

Publié le

10 juillet 2025

Science in Focus

The Poster Winners

for the HISEC Project

______________________

LOPEZ PEREZ
Elsa

AIO leading research team

Inria
Paris

Advisor: Mališa Vučinić (Inria)

During the annual PEPR Future Networks Days at Enseirb-MATMECA in Bordeaux, PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from the projects presented their research work to the community. A best poster competition was held, awarding one winner per targeted project. This series, « Science in Focus – The Poster Winners, » aims to highlight the work of the winning doctoral students.

Discover the second portrait of our « Science in Focus – The Poster Winners » series: Elsa Lopez Perez from HISEC project

Academic and personal journey

I studied a double degree in Mathematics and Physics in the University of Valladolid, in Spain. After the bachelor, I wanted to focus on something a bit more hands-on, so I did a European master, EIT digital master, in Data science and Artificial Intelligence. I discovered the research world thorough my two internships and I decided to start my PhD journey in the field of IoT security.

Thesis and research project

My thesis is entitled « Backwards-compatible Next-Generation Security for the Internet of Things infrastructure ». What this means is that I work on improving the security of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, like smart thermostats, health trackers, or connected sensors, and, instead of building everything from scratch, I make sure the new security works with old systems already in use. That way, we don’t have to throw away or replace millions of existing devices.

The scientific and societal stacks can be summarized as:

Contributing to standardization.
Designing secure protocols that are lightweight to run on small, low-powered IoT devices.
Ensuring backwards compatibility with existing infrastructure to provide a practical an efficient adoption.

PEPR and you!

What the PEPR environment and the exchanges with the communities during the 2025 days have brought you?

Participating in the PEPR Environment and the 2025 community days has been an enriching experience, both scientifically and personally. I had the opportunity to interact and collaborate with researchers from various fields and disciplines, giving me a more complete vision of the IoT ecosystem. In addition, engaging with the community also challenged me to explain my research in more accessible terms, which improved how I communicate and defend the relevance of my work.

Vision and future

What are your expectations for after your postdoc?

I have not yet decided whether I would like to continue in the research world or give it a try in the industry. Nevertheless, I still have more than one year to think about it (not a lot of time but I am a very indecisive person).

Finally, what would you say to future doctoral candidates?

If I could give an advice for the doctoral candidates to come, it would be to not be scared of jumping into new topics and enjoy the learning process, with both its highs and lows. And also, surround yourself with a good team, that would make the way much more enjoyable!