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 THE MAGAZINE FOR HIGH-TECH INNOVATORS

September/October 2023
Vol. 42 No. 5

THEME: CAREERS AND

GRADUATE EDUCATION

10 
Beyond the classroom: Open Project Space
at the University of California, Irvine
Lily Johnson and Alexandra Zhang Jiang

13 
Low-cost software-defined radio
for electrical engineering education
Samer Baher Safa Hanbali
ON THE COVER:
In this 40th Anniversary issue, we go

20  How to Market to Generation Z on Social Media

Rae Yule Kim
beyond the classroom to explore open-
space learning, marketing to Gen Z,
and we remember an industry great,
Ray Floyd.
©SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/VICGMYR

FEATURES DEPARTMENTS
& COLUMNS
23 
Blockchain perspectives, mining, and types:
An introductory tutorial 4 Editorial
Anshuman Kalla 7 Obituary
8 IEEE student activities

33 
It looks like me, but it isn’t me:
On the societal implications of deepfakes
Jennifer A. Fehring and Tamara Bonaci
MISSION STATEMENT: IEEE Potentials
is the magazine dedicated to undergraduate

39 
Protect your user! and graduate students and young profes-
sionals. IEEE Potentials explores career
Raymond E. Floyd strategies, the latest in research, and impor-
tant technical developments. Through its
articles, it also relates theories to practical
applications, highlights technology’s global
impact, and generates international forums
that foster the sharing of diverse ideas about
the profession.

WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/IEEE.POTENTIALS

@IEEE.POTENTIALS

@IEEEPOTENTIALS

WWW.LINKEDIN.COM/COMPANY/IEEE-POTENTIALS/ https://students.ieee.org/potentials-magazine/

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPOT.2023.3302038 I E E E P O T E N T I A LS September/October 20 2 3 ■ 1
IEEE POTENTIALS—THE MAGAZINE FOR HIGH-TECH INNOVATORS

Mary Ellen Randall, Director and Treasurer IEEE MEMBER & GEOGRAPHIC Amardeep Kaur, Region 5
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Canada President, Member and Geographic Gerardo Barbosa, Treasurer Simay Akar, Region 8
Activities Cecelia Jankowski, Secretary simay@ieee.org
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University, Ireland and Products Adriaan van Wijngaarden, Information Jennifer Chua Dela Cruz, Region 10
Yu Yuan, Director and Vice President, ­Management
Associate Editors jennycdc69@gmail.com
Standards Association Mini Thomas, Member Development
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EDITORIAL

IEEE Potentials
40th anniversary
by John Benedict Boggala

I
EEE Potentials, the bimonthly magazine published by magazine to reach a wider audience and provide students
IEEE for undergraduate and graduate students inter- with a more diverse range of information and resources.
ested in the fields of engineering, technology, and sci- During this decade, IEEE Potentials also introduced
ence, has a rich history spanning over 40 years. In new columns such as “Student Activities,” which fea-
this column, we will explore the evolution of IEEE Poten- tured articles on student-led initiatives and IEEE-
tials, its significant milestones, and its impact on the sponsored events, and “Industry Outlook,” which pro-
field of engineering and technology education. vided insights into the latest trends and developments
in various industries. Additionally, the magazine began
1980s: The founding of IEEE Potentials to feature articles written by leading experts in the field,
The idea for IEEE Potentials was conceived in the late 1970s providing students with access to cutting-edge research
by a group of IEEE student members who saw a need for a and knowledge.
publication that would specifically
cater to the needs and interests of During its early years, 2000s: Embracing
undergraduate and graduate stu- digital media
dents in engineering, technology, IEEE Potentials focused The advent of digital media in the
and science. After extensive plan- on providing students 2000s brought about significant
ning and coordination, the first with practical and changes in the way IEEE Potentials
issue of IEEE Potentials was pub- produced and distributed its con-
lished in January 1982. applicable knowledge tent. In addition to the print maga-
During its early years, IEEE Po- that would help them zine, the publication launched its
tentials focused on providing stu- advance in their digital edition, which allowed stu-
dents with practical and applicable dents to access articles and resourc-
knowledge that would help them academic and es online. This made the magazine
advance in their academic and pro- professional careers. more accessible to students around
fessional careers. The magazine’s the world and allowed for more
content featured technical articles, career advice, and interactive and engaging content.
information on IEEE student activities, events, and pro- The magazine also began to produce multimedia con-
grams. It quickly gained popularity among students and tent such as videos, podcasts, and webinars, providing
educators alike and became an important resource for students with a more dynamic and immersive learning
students looking to expand their knowledge and network experience. The new format also allowed for more tar-
in the field of engineering and technology. geted and personalized content, with articles and re-
sources tailored to the specific interests and needs of
1990s: Expansion and growth individual readers.
In the 1990s, IEEE Potentials expanded its focus beyond
traditional engineering fields to include a broader range of 2010s: Global expansion
topics such as computer science, information technology, The 2010s saw IEEE Potentials expand its reach and
and telecommunications. This expansion allowed the impact on a global scale. The publication began to fea-
ture articles written by students and educators from
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPOT.2023.3302668
around the world, providing a more diverse and inclusive
Date of current version: 6 September 2023 perspective on engineering and technology education.

4 ■ S e p t e mber /O ctober 2023 IEEE POTENTIALS

 Additionally, the magazine launched several initia-
tives to promote student involvement and engagement in
the field. These initiatives included the IEEE Potentials
Design Challenge, which challenged students to devel-
op innovative solutions to real-world problems, and the
IEEE Undergraduate Scholarship Program, which pro-
vided financial support to students pursuing degrees in
engineering, technology, and science.
During this time, IEEE Potentials introduced theme
issues to highlight particular topics, research areas,
or emerging topics of interest to students. In doing so,
the editorial board was able to plan issues in advance,
solicit content through calls for papers, and therefore
attract high-quality submissions from subject matter
experts in the field. After testing this in a few issues,
the magazine converged on publishing an average of
four themed issues per year, dedicating the September
issue to careers and graduate education, and having
one catch-all issue to feature other content received
throughout the year.
A journey
to discovering
your vocation
by Erivelton Nepomuceno
S
electing a career path presents unique chal-
lenges, w ith indiv idua ls required to weigh
options—should they follow their passion, or
should they seek the security explicitly provid-
ed by a different job? Addressing this dilemma forces
people into finding a middle ground between the
desire for a fulfilling work life and the achievement of
financial stability—a tough nut, considering today’s
professional environment. Discovering one’s true voca-
tion represents an essential component of finding the
perfect fit when it comes to choosing a career route
leading toward a satisf ying professional journey.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPOT.2023.3286757
Date of current version: 6 September 2023
IEEE POTENTIALS September/October 20 2 3
Today: Continuing to innovate and inspire
Today, IEEE Potentials continues to innovate and
inspire the next generation of engineers, technologists,
and scientists. The magazine remains committed to
providing students with the latest information and
resources to help them succeed in their academic and
professional pursuits.
In recent years, the publication has focused on emerg-
ing technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine
learning, and blockchain, providing students with in-
sights into the latest developments and trends in these
fields. The magazine has also continued to expand its
digital presence, with an enhanced website, social media
presence, and mobile app.
About the author
John Benedict Boggala (john.benedict@ieee.org) is with
an AL logistics startup called Locus.sh, and he previously
had stints with Amazon and ZoomInfo. He is an associate
editor for IEEE Potentials.
Doing so entails recognizing one’s purpose, pinpoint-
ing those things that give life meaning, and discover-
ing how we can best harness individual abilities fully.
Graduate education is valuable for people seeking pro-
fessional growth in this career journey. By earning de-
grees, people can deepen their knowledge and skills in
areas of interest to them. This offers opportunities for
personal and intellectual growth, increases competitive-
ness, and opens doors to a wider range of career oppor-
tunities. With specialist knowledge and qualifications,
graduates with advanced degrees often have a competi-
tive edge in their job. Awareness of the value of gradu-
ate studies allows people to align their passions with the
practical requirements of career success, treading a path
that combines personal satisfaction with professional
■ 5
f­ ulfillment. In any case, how could one be able to choose a
career or a graduation scheme—or even to keep one that
he/she has already chosen? There is no easy answer, but
some help could be offered if you see both choices under
the umbrella of vocation!
The criteria for determining one’s vocation, as described
in Julian Carron’s “One Voice of the Ideal,” include three
key elements. The first one involves studying our natural
inclinations, gifts, and desires. This self-reflection will al-
low us to recognize abilities and dispositions that guide
us toward our vocation. Second, discovering one’s voca-
tion requires accepting the inevitable circumstances and
conditions of life, without resisting or being resentful of
them. By accepting and integrating these realities, we
can find alignment with our calling and develop a sense
of purpose. For instance, at some point in my life, I had
considered becoming a basketball player. Very soon, I ac-
cepted that 1.72 m is far short of the required height for
that career. Finally, Carron emphasizes the importance of
recognizing the world’s social needs and aligning our call-
ing with the improvement of society. Societal challenges
are usually areas of opportunities, which could allow us
to use our talents to make a positive impact in the world.
These three criteria could be of some support for people
embarking on a journey to choose their work.
We want
to hear
from you!
IMAGE LICENSED BY GRAPHIC STOCK
6 ■ S e p t e mber /O ctober 2023 IEEE POTENTIALS
A final remark is related to our openness to signs. It is
essential to be attentive to facts and feedback that we re-
ceive from the world. Reality is a complex network of sys-
tems, where information can be explored in this journey.
These signals allow us to understand how we can best
serve a greater purpose that spans the various aspects
of our lives—social, cultural, and religious. By identify-
ing our unique combination of talents, experience, and
resources, we can recognize our true calling and use
them effectively to serve to the common good. Through
this process of self-discovery and a careful interpretation
of the signs, we may discover our vocation and fight—
through our job—for a more sustainable world.
Read more about it
• J. Carron, “The one voice of the ideal,” Communion and Lib-
eration Int. Mag., Rome, Italy, May 2010, pp. 1–6. [Online]. Avail-
able: https://english.clonline.org/archive/julian-carron/the
-one-voice-of-the-ideal
About the author
Erivelton Nepomuceno (erivelton.nepomuceno@mu.ie) is
with Maynooth University, Maynooth W23 F2H6, Ireland,
and is the student editor of IEEE Potentials.

Do you like what you’re reading?
Your feedback is important.
Let us know—
send the editor-in-chief an e-mail!

Remembering Ray Floyd,
former IEEE Potentials
corresponding editor
by Dario Schor
D
r. Raymond Floyd passed away
on 15 May 2023 in Cody, WY.
He was bor n 20 February
1937 in Lake Charles, LA.
Ray’s enduring contributions to
IEEE Potentials stand out in both
quality and volume, and they span
nearly two decades, which stand
as a testament to his unwavering
commitment to engineering and edu­
cation. He started by writing and
reviewing articles before joining the
editorial board as a corresponding
editor from 2015 to 2023. As one of
the most active volunteers for the
magazine, he authored 59 articles
(one in this issue on p. 39), focus­
ing on engineering management, communications,
ethics, and a variety of technical issues. He also
reviewed a record 266 articles, providing insightful
and constructive feedback to authors. In fact, he even
wrote an article titled “Reviewing can be education­
al,” explaining how to peer-review articles for IEEE
Potentials (Floyd, 2013).
His journey was one of continuous growth and
transformation. Floyd enjoyed a distinguished 26-year
tenure at IBM in Armonk, NY, as a senior engineer
contributing to NASA’s Apollo program. His relent­
less pursuit of knowledge led him to earn a Ph.D. after
his retirement in 1992. Subsequently, a serendipitous
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPOT.2023.3303040
Date of current version: 6 September 2023
IEEE POTENTIALS September/October 20 2 3
OBITUARY
encounter with an advertisement
seeking an educator brought him
to Northwest College, where he em­
braced his role as an instructor
with unwavering passion.
Ray Floyd’s legacy is one of curi­
osity, mentorship, and a steadfast
pursuit in the advancement of en­
gineering knowledge. Remembered
as a lifelong learner, he constantly
worked to inspire the next genera­
tion, leaving a lasting impact on his
family, friends, students, and IEEE
Potentials readers.
On behalf of IEEE Potentials and
the IEEE community at large, we wish
to thank Ray for his incredible contri­
butions to this magazine and to the field of engineering.
To read more about him, visit https://www.powelltribune.
com/stories/dr-raymond-floyd,85459 and https://www.
codyenter pr ise.com/news/people/article_d26f8eec
-a13b-11eb-8248-4357cbdff162.html.
Read more about it
• R. E. Floyd, “Reviewing Can Be Educational,” in
IEEE Potentials, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 26 –29, May-June
2013, doi: 10.1109/MPOT.2013.2240474.
About the author
Dario Schor (schor@ieee.org) is the editor in chief of
IEEE Potentials. Magellan Aerospace, Winnipeg, MB R3H
0S5, Canada.

■ 7
IEEE STUDENT ACTIVITIES

What I learned as an
engineering project
manager
by Sherwin Razmy

A
fter I graduated with a degree in engineering, I hear is, “We are over budget”; if that happens, they
worked for several years in the U.S. Navy, then will find another project manager.
returned to school for my master’s of business 2) They are organized. Organization seems like an obvi-
administration (MBA) and my doctorate in law ous characteristic of a star project manager, but it
(JD). One should separate oneself by earning a graduate manifests itself in a variety of ways, including in an
degree. An MBA goes hand in hand with an engineering ability to stay focused on the big picture and to pri-
bachelor’s for anyone who will be working for an engi- oritize competing responsibilities. In most projects,
neering corporation. More than anything, know busi- there are so many things that have to get done that it
ness management in order to be successful. Managing is hard to stay on top of everything and in control of
people is the key to success in a business. everything, Being able to prioritize work for your
Being a project manager is more than learning a team is a critical aspect of what a project manager
book of formulas. One must work well with others, and has to do. Just like in the navy, your organizational
­communication is the key to ef- skills will help separate you from
fective management. Players must Since many project team your colleagues.
come together as a team in order 3) They know how to lead. Lao Tzu
to accomplish a task. Successful members do not report once said, “The leader is best
project managers do not simply directly to the project when people are hardly aware of
delegate orders and take all of the manager, the project his existence, not so good when
credit. A good project manager ac- people praise his government,
knowledges everybody, at all levels. manager has to find ways less good when people stand in
Once a project manager has the to motivate workers over fear worse when people are con-
respect of his employees, they will whom they have no direct temptuous, fail to honor people
go the extra mile to help them out. and they fail to honor you, but
However, if a project manager does influence and who can of a good leader who speaks
not care and lays off employees at make or break a project. little, when his work is done, his
the first sign of trouble, they will aim is f­ulfilled, the people say,
not be loyal. Below are six attributes I find essential for we did it ourselves.” Project managers have to inter-
excellent project managers. act with and influence a variety of stakeholders,
1) They possess the gift of foresight. Good project man- including their project teams and project sponsors.
agers are able to anticipate and head off problems that Since many project team members do not report
can jeopardize deadlines, budgets, and user accep- directly to the project manager, the project manager
tance. An MBA will prepare you for these challenges has to find ways to motivate workers over whom they
because you will learn how to balance the books and have no direct influence and who can make or break
stay on budget. A good project manager is efficient a project. Project managers also need to be able to
and communicates with the higher ups that every- inspire the confidence of stakeholders and sponsors
thing is squared away. The last thing they want to in the event the budget or timeline needs to be rene-
gotiated or additional resources are needed to com-
plete the project.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPOT.2014.2379751
4) They are good communicators. Successful project
Date of current version: 6 September 2023 managers effectively use e-mail, meetings, and status

8 ■ S e p t e mber /O ctober 2023 IEEE POTENTIALS

 reports to communicate their ideas, get decisions
made, and resolve problems, says Kondo. They also
understand that they need to discuss their project in
the context of whatever is most important to their
audience, she adds.
5) They are pragmatic. Sometimes project managers can
be too analytical. They analyze things to death before
they move ahead. Good project managers focus on
getting work done with the resources available to
them. Good project managers also utilize their
employees’ strengths.
6) They are empathetic. “Project managers rely on others
to be successful.” Project managers cannot effectively
influence others if they do not understand what moti-
vates their stakeholders. They need to learn the stake-
holders’ concerns about a project, take those concerns
seriously, and address them.
No matter what field you decide to pick, remember
that a good project manager, just like a good command-
ing officer, democratically involves their employees in
the process. When employees feel empowered, they will
exceed expectations set by management. Above all else,
remain humble. When I was seventeen years old, I start-
ed out as an undesignated deck seaman. I worked hard
and learned Persian so I became a CT. While I was in the
navy, I took classes online at Pasadena City College. My
commanding officer was so proud that I got promoted to
CT2 and I got accepted to the University of California,
Berkley’s mechanical engineering program, he gave me
an early out chit, and I waived my fourth and final year.
Two years later, I went to OCS and became a crypto,
and after my service, I continued my academic career.
After receiving my MBA from Marshall School of Busin
ess at the University of Southern California, I got admit-
ted to Stanford Law School. While I was at law school, I
received my PE, and today I am an engineering project
manager for a big-three engineering firm based in Pasa-
dena, CA. I remember the days when I washed dishes in
the scullery for twelve hours a day, seven days a week on
a U.S. destroyer (USS Pinckney DDG91), and you should
never forget where you came from, as well. That is what
transforms a good engineering project manager into an
excellent engineering project manager.
About the author
Sherwin Razmy (sherwin_razmy@yahoo.com) was an
engineering project manager for Parsons, Pasadena,
CA USA at the time of the writing of this article.

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IEEE POTENTIALS September/October 20 2 3 ■ 9
©STUTTERSTOCK.COM/RFECT
Careers and Graduate Education

Beyond the classroom

Open Project Space at the University of California, Irvine

Lily Johnson and Alexandra Zhang Jiang

T
he IEEE Student Branch
f rom t he Un i ver sit y of
California, Irvine (IEEE@
UCI) launched the Open
Project Space (OPS) pro-
gram to provide engineering stu-
dents w it h t he oppor tu n it y to
practice valuable skills and theo-
ries learned in the classroom.
OPS is a year-long extracurricular
program founded at the University
of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in
2010 by Leo Szeto. Through lectures,
workshops, and projects, OPS aims
to create an interactive environ-
ment where students learn funda-
mental embedded systems concepts,
develop troubleshooting techniques,
compare communication protocols,
and design their first printed circuit
board (PCB).

With the help of IEEE at UCLA,
the program was first piloted by
John Yu and Samuel Deans at UCI
in fall 2020, trialing four projects
with 30 students. As per pandemic
restrictions, the necessary hardware
was shipped, and lectures were given
over Zoom. However, participation
declined, and it was arduous to pro-
vide hardware troubleshooting help
due to the virtual format. For exam-
ple, even though a Discord channel
was created for OPS members, it was
rarely used, and students preferred
sending an e-mail. Nonetheless, the
pilot program raised expectations
for the full in-person version of OPS
at UCI: 20 out of 30 members com-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPOT.2023.3241448
Date of current version: 6 September 2023
pleted the program, and a couple
students continued their journey in
IEEE as officers.
The next iteration, headed by of-
ficers Lily Johnson and Alexandra
Zhang Jiang, was offered to 60 stu-
dents during the 2021–2022 academ-
ic year. Since the program doubled
its capacity, IEEE@UCI also doubled
efforts to reach out to students by
advertising at the Anteater Involve-
ment Fair at the b ­eginning of the
year, sending invitations through
the engineering newsletter, and pro-
©SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/EVGDEMIDOVA
moting in electrical engineering and
computer science (EECS) classes.
More than 200 students applied,
exceeding expectations, and prov-
ing the demand for the program
within UCI.
The new OPS version from UCI
(https://ieee.ics.uci.edu/ops.html) di-
verges from UCLA’s template program
(https://openproject.space/projects/)
to adjust to the tool sets of UCI stu-
dents and the school’s branding.
One of IEEE@UCI’s biggest limita-
tions is the small workspace area, so,

10 ■ S e p t e mber /O ctober 2023 IEEE POTENTIALS 0278-6648/23©2023IEEE

unlike UCLA’s method of checking
projects in person or the pilot pro-
gram’s e-mail submissions, the year-
long version at UCI hosted a Canvas
page to handle collecting and grad-
ing student projects. The Canvas
page also provided a platform for re-
sources and recorded lectures. Ad-
ditionally, the order of content was
cha nged to align w ith the road
map of EECS classes, lecture slides
were edited for better readability,
and a simple but professional theme
was designed.
The first meeting of the year
kicked off with a lecture about elec-
trical engineering basics, followed
by a hands-on workshop where stu-
dents used the IEEE lab’s soldering
irons (Fig. 1) to complete the first
simple project of soldering an LED
and a resistor to a perf board.
Lectures and projects ranged
from learning the basics, such as
the difference between a cathode
and anode, to using microcontrollers
to implement more complex proj-
ects, like an infrared distance sen-
sor. One of the favorites among the
students was the iPoduino, where
students programmed an Arduino to
make a buzzer play different songs
of their choosing. The spring term
ended with the capstone project of a
remote-control (RC) car, consisting of
an Arduino car and a custom remote
PCB integrating an inertial measure-
FIG1 Alexandra Zhang Jiang leading the first soldering workshop of the year.
IEEE POTENTIALS September/October 20 2 3 ■ 11
One of the favorites among the students was the
iPoduino, where students programmed an
Arduino to make a buzzer play different songs
of their choosing.
ment unit. Students looked forward and ask questions, creating a stress-
to designing their first PCB and ho- free learning environment. The pro-
listically implementing the topics gram functioned purely as an extra-
and tools they learned from previous curricular, not affecting their grade
projects (Fig. 2). point average if they were unable to
As the program came to a close, complete projects.
students had much positive feed- However, many challenges and
back. Third-year and transfer stu- critiques came with executing the
dents, who had two years of virtual program at full scale for the first
classes, were delighted to finally ap- time. Toward the middle of the sec-
ply topics learned in the classroom ond quarter, participation declined.
through hands-on projects. First- This was attributed to the rapid in-
and second-year students were ex- crease in difficulty toward the end
cited to get a head start on their of the program, particularly with
engineering path. One student com- the projects exploring communica-
mented, “I thought this was a great tion protocols through a red light/
experience to have, and I learned green light game between Ardui-
some topics here . . . that were hard nos. Many students agreed with
to understand in an actual UCI lec- this feedback: “The radio version of
ture!” Overall, students found the red light/green light gave me a lot
program enriching and complemen- of issues that I [couldn’t] really un-
tary to their classes as well as inspir- derstand compared to those from
ing for personal projects. Another previous projects.” The nRF24 radio
student stated, “Of all the projects modules and the associated library
I’ve participated [in], no matter the were difficult to use and required
difficulty, I always came out of it feel- extensive debugging. This level of
ing I achieved and learned something debugging was discouraging and
new and valuable. . . .” No matter the time-­consuming for students who
difficulty of the projects, students were newly introduced to these top-
were incentivized to make mistakes ics. The OPS leads also found that
FIG2 OPS students soldering the PCBs
that they designed for the RC car project.
FIG3 Students received their hardware kits during the first 2022–2023 OPS meeting.
managing the entire program was
too much for two people and were
not always able to address student
inquiries promptly due to the sheer
volume of requests for help.
For the 2022–2023 year, OPS has
enrolled 100 students. The program’s
curriculum and projects have been
revamped extensively to tackle stu-
dent feedback. To address the diffi-
culty spike, easier projects, such as
debugging a faulty perf board circuit,
were removed, and more substantial,
intermediate projects were added in
the middle of the program where stu-
dents felt that the difficulty increased
too quickly. One of the new projects
includes building an H-bridge circuit
with p-channel and n-channel tran-
sistors to drive a dc motor with an
12 ■ S e p t e mber /O ctober 2023
Arduino. Additionally, the red light/
green light series was replaced with a
weather station project to align with
embedded systems interests. Students
will utilize the same communication
protocols and microcontrollers used
in red light/green light, but, unlike
red light/green light, which relies on
software algorithms, the weather sta-
tion will focus on teaching how to use
electronics components, such as tem-
perature and humidity sensors, and
an LCD screen.
Under the new OPS leads, the
leadership team has expanded to
include OPS technicians, who will
assist with buying and distribut-
ing parts, organizing lab hours, and
helping students with questions and
debugging (Fig. 3).
IEEE POTENTIALS
We are excited to start the third it-
eration of OPS! IEEE@UCI would like
to extend a huge thank you to Leo
Szeto, founder of the OPS program at
UCLA; Ryeder Geyer, IEEE at UCLA’s
external officer; and IEEE at UCLA
liaisons as well as any others who
had a part in making this program
a success.
About the authors
Lily Johnson (lilyaj@uci.edu) is the
president of t he IEEE Student
Branch at the University of Califor-
nia, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697 USA.
Alexandra Zhang Jiang
(azhangji@uci.edu) is the vice presi-
dent of the IEEE Student Branch at
the University of California, Irvine,
Irvine, CA 92697 USA. 
©STUTTERSTOCK.COM/RFECT
Careers and Graduate Education
Low-cost software-
defined radio for electrical
engineering education
P
rototype wireless commu-
nication systems can be
designed using discrete
components, e.g., a low-
noise amplifier (LNA), a
power amplifier (PA), mixers, filters,
frequency synthesizers, an analog-
to-digital converter (ADC), a digital-
to-analog converter (DAC), etc. Dif-
ferent circuit boards have to be
designed, fabricated, assembled,
tested, and connected with wires.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPOT.2022.3223788
Date of current version: 6 September 2023
0278-6648/23©2023IEEE IEEE POTENTIALS September/October 20 2 3 ■ 13
Consequently, iterating on these
prototypes will increase the overall
cost, size, power consumption, and
complexity of the system. In con-
trast, software-defined radios (SDRs)
integrate multiple functional blocks
on a single microchip to reduce the
cost, size, and power consumption.
Furthermore, SDRs combine both
digital processing and analog radio
frequency (RF) to offer more flexibili-
ty to be reconfigured and controlled.
Therefore, SDRs achieve more fre-
quency- and bandwidth-flexible RF
design, which enables the seamless
Samer Baher Safa Hanbali
©SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/ITANA
transmission and reception of data.
In addition, the ease of use and
reduced expense of SDRs permit
students to own the portal equipment.
This increases student engage-
ment through hands-on experien-
tial learning.
Introduction
SDR is a new trend in wireless com-
munications in which the system
parameters are mostly defined and
reconfigured by software. There are
two approaches for SDR. In the first
approach, the computer performs
most of the digital signal process- various software environments, ■■tunable bandwidth from 200 kHz
ing, and the field-programmable e.g., Python, GNU Radio, MATLAB, to 20 MHz (AD9363) or 200 kHz
gate array (FPGA) does few tasks. In Analog Device’s IIO Oscilloscope, to 56 MHz (AD9364)
the second, the FPGA performs and Airspy’s SDR#. The Commu- ■■12-bit ADC and DAC
most of the digital processing, and nications Toolbox from the Math- ■■ADC and DAC sampling rate of
the computer displays the results Works provides M ATLAB func- up to 61.44 million samples per
and does few tasks. It is easier to tions for transmitter and receiver second
implement advanced algorithms blocks for the ADALM-PLUTO. IIO ■■output power of up to 7 dBm.
using the first approach than when Oscilloscope is an application that Figure 1 shows a block diagram
the second one is used. On the controls the ADALM-PLUTO trans- of ADALM-PLUTO based on the
other hand, the second approach mit and receive channels. SDR# AD936x transceiver that is respon-
needs a lower data transfer rate is a freeware software package sible for receiving and transmitting
between the FPGA and the comput- that controls the ADALM-PLUTO re- the RF data. AD936x has a zero-in-
er than former. ceiver and demodulates amplitude- termediate-frequency architecture.
Many developers have used GNU modulation/frequency-modulation This results in a low component
Radio software and Universal Soft- (FM)/double-sideband/single-side- count, low cost, and low power con-
wa re R adio Per iphera l (USR P). band signals. sumption. The receive subsystem in-
GNU Radio is a free open source cludes an LNA in from the antenna,
software development tool kit. This Overview of ADALM-PLUTO a mixer, filters, and an ADC. The
tool kit has a growing list of func- ADALM-PLUTO is an easy-to-use transmit subsystem contains a DAC,
tions, and it can be used with dif- SDR module. Its core component is filters, a mixer, and a small PA out
ferent SDR hardware. The popu- RF transceiver AD9363 or AD9364, to the antenna. The external ampli-
lar RTL-SDR USB radio stick is which is based on a direct-conver- fiers, the PA and LNA, can be used
cheaper than USRP, but it oper- sion receiver/transmitter. Here are when further amplification is re-
ates only as a receiver. In contrast, the main specifications of ADALM- quired. Besides the RF transceiver,
A DA LM-PLU T O (PlutoSDR) has PLUTO: ADALM-PLUTO includes a Xilinx
full transceiver implementation at ■■tuning range from 325 MHz to Zynq-7010 FPGA with an ARM Cor-
an affordable cost. Furthermore, 3.8 GHz (AD9363) or 70 MHz to tex-A9 CPU, DDR3 random-access
ADALM-PLUTO is supported by 6 GHz (AD9364) memory, Flash memory, and USB 2.0
controller. The ADALM-PLUTO mod-
ule is connected to the laptop v i a
USB and is controlled using the
SDR software, e.g., MATLAB. The
software allows you to control the
Xilinx ADALM-PLUTO parameters, such
Mixer
Filter

Filter
DAC
FIR

PA

as the bandwidth, gain, center fre-

quency, etc. The second USB is used
Linux Kernel

Interface
USB 2.0

ADI
Drivers

to provide external power during a

DMA
libiio

AD9363 standalone mode. A Linux system

runs the onboard Flash memory of
Mixer
Filter

Filter
ADC

LNA

ADALM-PLUTO. The libiio USB class

FIR

Zynq is used for transferring in-phase and

quadrature components from/to the
RF device to the host computer.
(a) In this article, we used the Hard-
ware Support Package for ADALM-
PLUTO from MathWorks because it
provides transmitter and receiver
Simulink blocks and MATLAB func-
tions to control ADALM-PLUTO
in the Communications Toolbox
through the USB port using libiio
drivers that support both Windows
and Linux. In addition, the Com-
munications Toolbox extends the
(b) tuning range of ADALM-PLUTO
based on AD9363 from 70 MHz
FIG1 (a) A block diagram of ADALM-PLUTO (b) A photo of ADALM-PLUTO. to 6 GHz and the bandwidth from

14 ■ S e p t e mber /O ctober 2023 IEEE POTENTIALS

20 MHz to 56 MHz using the AD9364
­configuration rather than the default
AD9363 configuration.
Comparison of SDR modules
A comparison of SDR modules is
summarized in Table 1. It is clear that
ADALM-PLUTO has the best specifi-
cations at the lowest cost: it has both
transmit and receive channels, a wide
frequency range, a wide bandwidth,
high ADC/DAC resolution, and a low
noise figure. In addition, ADALM-
PLUTO is supported by many popular
software platforms, e.g., MATLAB,
GNU Radio, and Python. On the other
hand, ADALM-PLUTO has several
shortcomings as follows:
■■It has a low output power level.
In addition, there is a degrada-
tion in the transmitted power
when the center frequency is
increased.
■■The frequency accuracy of the
local oscillator is low, and it
equals 25 ppm.
■■The small temperature range is
from 10 to 40 °C.
■■There is no RF shielding inside
ADALM-PLUTO. That means that
placing a strong transmitter close
to it (like your cellphone) may
impact the results for any fre-
quency that the ADALM-PLUTO
is tuned to.
■■The data transfer rate is limited
by the speed of the USB.
ADALM-PLUTO for laboratory
assignments
ADALM-PLUTO becomes a viable
instructional tool for digital commu-
nications or radar classes because
of its portability, affordability, and
transceiver capabilities. For the lab-
oratory assignment, one ADALM-
PLUTO configured as a transmitter
is placed in a prominent position in
the front of the laboratory. The RF
signal transmitted from this radio
serves as the source signal for the
students’ ADALM-PLUTOs config-
ured as receivers.
Some lab experiments require
loopback as shown in Fig. 1, where
the waveform is both transmitted
and received by the same ADALM-
PLUTO, which is a common strategy
IEEE POTENTIALS September/October 20 2 3 ■ 15
for algorithm debugging and gen-
eral hardware debugging. A loop-
back cable can be used instead of
two antennas to avoid interference
between students’ ADALM-PLUTOs.
The gain of both the LNA and PA
should be reduced to the minimum
value to prevent clipping or satura-
tion at the receiver.
During the laboratory sessions,
each student uses one A DA LM-
PLUTO connected to a PC/laptop
that has MATLAB/Simulink with
the Communications Toolbox. Stu-
dents can experiment with radar or
wireless communication as well as
transmit and receive actual signals
by working with actual SDR hard-
ware. Furthermore, ADALM-PLUTO
can be used as a data source for
downstream spectrum analysis be-
cause the radio’s frequency can be
changed to tune the radio to a band
where a signal of interest is pres-
ent to make measurements on the
received signal. Therefore, ADALM-
PLUTO can be used as an inexpen-
sive spectrum analyzer.
SDR for a radar lab
There are many applications for
radar systems, including aerospace
control, self-driving cars, imaging,
traffic monitoring, space debris
tracking, and more. This makes
them a n exciting field of study
for students.
A radar system consists of two
subsystems that operate indepen-
dently. The first subsystem is the
TABLE 1. A comparison of SDR modules.
DEVICE RTL-SDR
Cost (USD) 20
Tx and Rx channels 1 Rx only
Frequency 24–1,766
range (MHz)
ADC/DAC 8 12
Resolution (b)
Maximum 3.2
bandwidth (MHz)
Rx noise figure (dB) 3 <3.5
Tx power (dBm) — 7
Data interface USB 2.0
Rx; receiver; Tx: transmitter.
transmitter, which generates a pulse
and radiates it out into free space to-
ward objects through an antenna.
The second subsystem is the receiver,
which receives the pulse reflected off
the object through the antenna. Then,
it converts the analog waveform into
a digital waveform so that the signal
can be processed and translated to
graphical data to be shown on the ra-
dar operator’s display.
System-defined radar is a new re-
search trend where the radar system
performs waveform diversity and op-
erates in different modes by only re-
configuring the radar software. This
enables radar systems to show mul-
tifunction capabilities (i.e., synthetic
aperture radar, weather radar, and
surveillance radar), especially where
size, power, and weight are limited,
as in aerospace.
Some works used ADALM-PLUTO
in the implementation of short-range
FM continuous-waveform (FMCW)
radar using two directional anten-
nas to focus the radar on a specific
area of interest. Other works used
ADALM-PLUTO to jam an FMCW
radar. However, the transmit power
limitation was the main concern of
using ADALM-PLUTO.
It is well known that high-resolu-
tion radar systems, e.g., automotive
radar, level-measurement radar, and
imaging radar, operate at higher fre-
quencies than those of ADALM-PLU-
TO. In addition, these radar systems
require a bandwidth higher than
that of ADALM-PLUTO to achieve
ADALM-PLUTO HackRF ONE USRP B200
149 380 777
1 Tx and 1 Rx 1 Tx and 1 Rx 1 Tx and 1 Rx
70–6,000 1–6,000 70–6,000
8 12
20–56 20 56
<10 <8
5–10 10
USB 2.0 USB 2.0 USB 3.0
 The common types of radar signals are FM minimum peak sidelobe codes. Bark-
er codes have the common property
waveforms and phase-coded waveforms, which that all sidelobes have a value of 1/N.
have different properties. Unfortunately, there are only seven
known Barker codes that have a
high-range resolution. Therefore, Overview of radar waveforms maximum code length that equals
ADALM-PLUTO cannot be used to The library of GNU Radio has many 13. Frank code and P1- through P4-
simulate these radar systems, but it signal sources. Most of these sourc- coded signals are well-known codes
can be used for lab assignments that es are dedicated to communication that belong to polyphase waveforms.
include the simulation of basic radar systems. Radar waveforms are dif- Frank, P1, and P2 codes exhibit low-
signal processing, e.g., radar wave- ferent from waveforms used by er PSL than those of P3 and P4 codes
form generation, radar-matched communication systems. The MAT- by 3 dB. However, P3 and P4 codes
filter, radar detection, Doppler pro- LAB Phased-Array System Toolbox are more Doppler tolerant than the
cessing, etc. can be used to generate many radar Frank, P1, and P2 codes.
waveforms for different applications. It is worth mentioning that the
Software-defined radar advantages The common types of radar signals MATLAB Phased-Array System Tool-
■■For multipurpose radar, the pro- are FM waveforms and phase-coded box does not support the generation
cessing algorithm is implemented waveforms, which have different of some radar signals, e.g., PRN codes,
in software. It can easily be properties. FM waveforms are ob- NLFM, and Costas-coded waveforms.
changed during radar operation, tained by modulating the frequency of Therefore, these signals can be gen-
so it is possible to switch between the radar pulse. There are several FM erated based on their equations.
different operation modes or waveforms. These include linear FM
adapt the probe signal. (LFM), nonlinear FM (NLFM), Cos- Simulation results
■■There are fast development and tas-coded waveforms, and stepped In the following simulation, MAT-
flexibility in controlling different FM waveforms. The LFM waveform L A B w ith the Communications
design parameters, e.g., the fre- is commonly used in radar systems Toolbox and one ADALM-PLUTO
quency, bandwidth, and gain. due to its high Doppler tolerance. It with two antennas are used. The
■■There are reductions in cost, is well known that the peak sidelobe radar waveform is both transmitted
size, weight, and power con- level (PSL) of the compressed LFM and received by the same ADALM-
sumption. pulse equals –13.2 dB. PLUTO. Then, the received waveform
In a phase-coded waveform, the is correlated with the transmitted
Software-defined radar shortcomings long signal of duration T is divided waveform to simulate radar wave-
■■Wideband or multiband anten- into N small signals called chips, form generation and radar-matched
nas are required for multifunc- each of width tc = T ∕ N. Phase-cod- filter. Figure 2(a) and (b) shows the
tion software-defined radars. ed waveforms are characterized by real and imaginary parts of the
■■Ve r y - h i g h - s p e e d A D C s a r e the phase modulation applied to LFM waveform (bandwidth = 5 MHz,
required to digitize wide band- each chip. There are binary phase and pulse duration = 100 μs) that is
width signals. codes and polyphase codes. Com- transmitted and received by the
■■There are a high sampling rate mon types of binary phase-coded same ADALM-PLUTO, and then the
and huge data flow to be pro- waveforms are Barker codes, pseu-
­ received signal is correlated with
cessed. dorandom noise (PRN) codes, and the transmitted signal, as shown in
Fig. 3. One can figure out that the

0.5 0.5
0
Normalized Amplitude (dB)

–10
Amplitude (V)

Amplitude (V)

X 95
0 0 –20 Y –13.88

–30

–40
–0.5 –0.5
0 200 400 600 800 1,000 0 200 400 600 800 1,000 –50
Samples Samples 0 50 100 150 200
(a) (b) Samples

FIG2 (a) The real part of the received LFM waveform. (b) The imaginary part of the FIG3 The PSL of the LFM waveform at
received LFM waveform. the matched filter output.

16 ■ S e p t e mber /O ctober 2023 IEEE POTENTIALS

PSL equals –13.8 dB. This value is Obviously, the signal-to-noise ra-
approximately equal to the theoreti- tio (SNR) is high at the receiver out-
cal value. We repeat the previous put of ADALM-PLUTO because the
si mulat ion aga i n for study i ng transmit and receive antennas are
phase-coded radar signals, e.g., a about 12 mm from one another.
Barker code when N = 13. Figure 4
shows Barker code (+1 + 1 +1 + 1 +1 SDR for a wireless
–1 –1 + 1 +1 –1 + 1 –1 + 1); as shown communications lab
in Fig. 5, the PSL equals –21.4 dB. Every sector of today’s society is
This value is approximately equal to entirely dependent on connectivity.
the theoretical value. The wireless digital data revolution
has made our life better, e.g., radio
broadcasting, T V broadcasting,
0.6 mobile phones, GPS, Wi-Fi, etc. Sev-
eral generations of digital mobile
0.4 phones, e.g., 2G, 3G, 4G, etc. have
appeared on the market. Wi-Fi has
Amplitude (V)
0.2
delivered high-speed Internet all
0 around the world. Many smart-
phones can receive various signals
–0.2 from different frequency bands, e.g.,
GSM (900 MHZ), Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz),
–0.4
GPS (1,575.42 MHz), etc.
–0.6 S D R i s a r a d i o c o m m u n i c a-
0 20 40 60 tion system that uses software for
Samples
modulating and demodulating ra-
FIG4 The received Barker code.
dio signals. During the laboratory
sessions, students interact w ith
real-world wireless signals over the
air in real time to bridge the gap
0
between the undergraduate com-
Normalized Amplitude (dB)
–5 munication systems education and
–10 the industrial demands by using an
affordable ADALM-PLUTO and SDR
–15 X 43 software to simulate some examples
–20 Y –21.4 as follows:
■■T ransmit and receive different
–25
analog modulation schemes:
–30 These experiments are interesting
–35 for students because they trans-
0 20 40 60 80 100 mit and receive audio over
Samples
FM radio.
FIG5 The PSL of Barker code at the ■■Transmit and receive different digi-
matched filer output. tal modulation schemes: Examples
Center ADALM-PLUTO
1e6 99.7 Data
Frequency Receiver
Center
Frequency (MHz)
ADALM-PLUTO Radio
Receiver
FIG6 The FM receiver using ADALM-PLUTO and Simulink.
IEEE POTENTIALS September/October 20 2 3 ■ 17
include quadrature phase-shift
keying, orthogonal frequency-divi-
sion multiplexing, etc. Students
can transmit and receive images
to understand the principles of
digital communications.
■■Low-cost spectrum monitoring
within the frequency range from
70 MHz to 6 GHz: In this exper-
iment, students will be curi-
ous to explore the surrounding
RF signals and observe their
spectrum.
Simulation results
In the following simulation, MAT-
L A B w ith the Communications
Toolbox and one ADALM-PLUTO
with two antennas are used.
FM radio signals are transmit-
ted in a frequency range between
88 and 108 MHz, which allows
them to propagate miles across the
country. We can build an FM re-
ceiver using Simulink and ADALM-
PLUTO’s receiver block, as shown
in Fig. 6. This allows you to lis-
ten to the radio stations through
laptop speakers.
We can design a basic FM trans-
mitter using ADALM-PLUTO’s trans-
mitter block in Simulink. This
transmitter can switch the broad-
cast from different sources, e.g., an
audio file, a microphone, or a tone
signal, as shown in Fig. 7. The trans-
mitted audio can be listened to using
the FM tuner app on a smartphone.
The transmitted signal can be re-
ceived for a short distance because
the transmission power of ADALM-
PLUTO is low.
The Wireless Local Area Net-
work Toolbox has an interesting
FM
Broadcast
 guitartune.wav Audio
A: 44,100 Hz,
Original
16 bit, Mono
Data

From Multimedia File

FM Data
Broadcast
ADALM-PLUTO
Transmitter

1e6 99.7 Center Frequency

DSP Center
Signal Source Frequency (MHz)
Selector

FIG7 FM transmitter using ADALM-PLUTO and Simulink.

example for students where im-

Transmitted Image Received Image Will Appear Here... age transmission and reception are
done by using one ADALM-PLUTO
at a carrier fr equency equal to
2.4 GHz. Of course, we can change
the carrier frequency due to the
flexibility of SDR. The baseband
signal is upconverted for RF trans-
mission over the air using ADALM-
PLUTO. Then, the received signal
is captur ed and d o w n s a m p l e d
(a) (b) to the baseband using the same
ADALM-PLUTO and is decoded to
FIG8 An example of the (a) transmitted image and (b) received image. recover the transmitted informa-
tion. Figure 8(a) and (b) shows the
transmitted image and the received
20
image, respectively. As mentioned,
0 the SNR is high at the receiver out-
(dBm)

–20 put of ADALM-PLUTO because the

–40 transmit and receive antennas are
–60 close to each other. The ADALM-
–80 PLUTO is used as a data source for
2.39 2.395 2.4 2.405 2.41 downstream spectrum analysis,
Frequency (GHz) as shown in Fig. 9 and therefore
(a) there is no need to use an expen-
sive spectrum analyzer.
–80 –60 –40 –20 0 20
Time History (ms) →

dBm ADALM-PLUTO as a low-cost

0 spectrum analyzer
To demonstrate using ADALM-PLU-
–5 TO as a low-cost spectrum analyzer
with stand-alone software instead of
2.39 2.395 2.4 2.405 2.41 using MATLAB, the spectrum of the
Frequency (GHz) previous received image will be cap-
(b) tured again by using ADALM-PLU-
TO’s receiver with SATSAGEN free-
FIG9 The (a) spectrum and (b) waterfall of the received image. ware software, as shown in Fig. 10.

18 ■ S e p t e mber /O ctober 2023 IEEE POTENTIALS


FIG10 ADALM-PLUTO as a low-cost spectrum analyzer.
Clearly, one can figure out that the
spectrum is the same in both Figs. 9
and 10. This demonstrates using
ADALM-PLUTO as an a f fordable
and portable spectrum analyzer
for students.
Conclusion
As we can see, the ADALM-PLUTO
has its pros a nd cons. It is a n
affordable, portable, and tunable
SDR t r a n s cei ver. I n add it ion,
A DA LM-PLUTO is supported by
many popular software platforms,
e.g., M ATL A B, GNU R adio, and
P ython. These permit transmit-
ting and receiving various modu-
lation schemes. This makes such
hardware very attractive for elec-
trical engineering education, e.g.,
digital communications and radar
systems courses. However, t he
main limitations of ADALM-PLU-
TO are that the center frequency
is only up to 6 GHz, the transmis-
sion power level is low, and the
bandwidth is only up to 56 MHz.
T hese lim itat ions do not a llow
ADALM-PLUTO to be used for lab
assignments that include the sim-
ulation of high-resolution radar
systems, e.g., automotive radar,
le vel-me a su rement r ada r, a nd
imaging radar.
IEEE POTENTIALS September/October 20 2 3 ■ 19
Acknowledgment
I would like to thank the anony-
mous reviewers in IEEE Potentials
for their valuable comments on this
article. I also want to thank my fan-
tastic colleague Hatem Najdi for his
continuous support.
Read more about it
• E. Grayver, Implementing Soft-
ware Defined Radio. New York, NY,
USA: Springer-Verlag, 2012.
• “Hands-on workshop: Software-
defined radio.” Analog Devices. Ac-
cessed: Sep. 15, 2022. [Online]. Avail-
able:https://wiki.analog.com/_media/
richardsonmathworksseminars.pdf
• “ADALM-PLUTO Radio Sup-
port from Communications Toolbox.”
MathWorks. Accessed: Sep. 15, 2022.
[Online]. Available: https://www.
mathworks.com/hardware-support/
adalm-pluto-radio.html
• A. M. Wyglinski, R. Getz, T.
Collins, and D. Pu, Software-De-
fined Radio for Engineers. Norwood,
MA, USA: Artech House, 2018.
• W. L. Melvin and J. Scheer, Prin-
ciples of Modern Radar: Radar Ap-
plications, vol. 3. Edison, NJ, USA:
­SciTech, 2014.
• S. Kaya, A. C. Yapici, B. Tib-
ikoglu, and S. O. Yazici, “Imple-
mentation of FMCW radar by using
SDR,” in Proc. IEEE 13th Int. Conf.
Elect. Electron. Eng. (ELECO), 2021,
pp. 234–238, doi: 10.23919/ELE
CO54474.2021.9677650.
• G. de Peralta, “Coffee can ra-
dar: Detection and jamming,” B.Sc.
dissertation, Worcester Polytechnic
Inst., Worcester, MA, USA, 2017.
• T. Debatty, “Software defined
RADAR a state of the art,” in Proc.
IEEE 2nd Int. Workshop Cogn. Inf.
Process., 2010, pp. 253–255, doi:
10.1109/CIP.2010.5604241.
• S. B. S. Hanbali, “A review of
radar signals in terms of Doppler
tolerance, time-sidelobe level, and
immunity against jamming,” Int. J.
Microw. Wireless Technol., vol. 10,
no. 10, pp. 1134–1142, Dec. 2018,
doi: 10.1017/S1759078718001174.
• “Phased array system toolbox.”
MathWorks. Accessed: Sep. 15,
2022. [Online]. Available: https://
w w w.mathworks.com/products/
phased-array.html
• M. Rice and M. McLernon,
“Teaching communications with
SDRs: Making it real for students,”
IEEE Commun. Mag., vol. 57, no. 11,
pp. 14–19, Nov. 2019, doi: 10.1109/
MCOM.001.1900185.
• “Image transmission and re-
ception using 802.11 waveform
and SDR.” MathWorks. Accessed:
Sep. 15, 2022. [Online]. Available:
ht t p s://w w w.m at h w or k s.c o m/
help//supportpkg/plutoradio/ug/
transmission-and-reception-of-an
-image-using-wlan-system-toolbox
-and-a-single-pluto-radio.html
About the author
Samer Baher Safa Hanbali (samer.
hanbali@hiast.edu.sy) earned his
B.Sc. degree in electronic engineering
from Damascus University, Syria, in
2000; his M.Sc. degree in advanced
electronic engineering from FH Joan-
neum University, Austria, in 2011;
and his Ph.D. degree in telecommu-
nications from the Higher Institute
for Applied Sciences and Technology
(HIAST), Damascus, Syria, in 2017.
He is a researcher in the Department
of Communication Engineering,
HIAST, H837 Damascus, Syria.
©STUTTERSTOCK.COM/RFECT
Careers and Graduate Education

How to Market to
Generation Z
on Social Media
Rae Yule Kim

S
ocia l med ia ca n be a n
effective medium to reach
Generation Z (Gen Z) and
advertise science, technol-
o g y, e n g i n e e r i n g , a n d
mathematics (STEM) programs.
Creating viral content on social
media is all about starting a trend
a nd at t ract i n g user-generated
content. One successful content
can nudge millions of user-gener-
ated content and generate billions
of views.
Social media has transformed
how we communicate with each oth-
er. Before social media, our commu-
nication medium was limited to only
people we knew. One viral content
on social media spreads to billions
of people. Social media can be an ef-
fective medium to reach out to Gen
Zers and inform them about the im-
portance of STEM skills.
The number of students enrolled
in STEM programs has been in de-
cline since the 1980s (Athanasia et
al., 2022). Only 11% of the U.S. popu-
lation has a STEM degree, while more
than 30% of jobs available in urban ©SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/MYPOKCIK

areas are in STEM fields (Athanasia

et al., 2022). Furthermore, STEM jobs
are projected to grow by 10.5% over
the next eight years (Vaughn Col-
lege, 2022). Student success in STEM
programs is key to maintaining the
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPOT.2023.3267901
Date of current version: 6 September 2023
global competitiveness of the technol-
ogy industry. In addition to student
success, it is important that STEM
departments engage with students
and spark an interest in pursuing a
STEM education as well as careers in
science and technology fields.
With Millennials, we have ob­­
served a decline in interest in STEM
education and student performance.
The U.S. ranks 52nd in the world
for science education performance
and 27th in terms of the proportion
of students pursuing a t­er tia r y

20 ■ S e p t e mber /O ctober 2023 IEEE POTENTIALS

­d eg ree i n S T EM f ields (Godfrey,
2015). However, student sentiment
toward STEM education and ca-
reers seems to have shifted with
Gen Z. Gen Z indicates people who
were born after 1997. Members of
Gen Z, growing up during the fi-
nancial crisis, tend to be more re-
alistic compared to Millennials and
value economic security (Francis
and Hoefel, 2018). For this reason,
Gen Z chooses STEM as a top career
choice (Vaughn College, 2022). This
is a positive trend for STEM depart-
ments since student sentiment on
STEM education is improved among
the younger generation.
Social media is often the best
marketing medium to engage this
young generation. Members of Gen
Z are often called “digital natives.”
About 90% of Gen Zers learn about
new products via social media, and
among them, 70% use social media
for more than 2 h on average every
day (Novelli and CONE, 2019). For
this reason, response rates or con-
version rates for social media mar-
keting tend to be higher for Gen Z
compared to older generations (No-
velli and CONE, 2019). However,
there is still the question of how to
engage Gen Z on social media.
One characteristic that distin-
guishes the interaction style of
members of Gen Z from older gen-
erations is that they not only con-
sume but cocreate content: 86% of
Gen Zers seek to post sponsored
content for financial returns, and
54% aspire to be social media in-
fluencers (Locke, 2019). Their mo-
tive for consuming social media is
different than that for traditional
media. Gen Z utilizes social me-
dia to create content more than to
consume content. While traditional
media often works one way, and
people mostly are just receivers of
marketing communication, Gen Z
is on social media to react, cocre-
ate, and galvanize a new trend.
Interpersonal interactivity is the
characteristic that distinguishes
social media from traditional me-
dia outlets. In interpersonal inter-
actions, self-expression plays a key
role. Interpersonal dynamics on
IEEE POTENTIALS September/October 20 2 3 ■ 21
social media also operate based on
self-expression (Special and Bar-
ber, 2012). A previous study sur-
veyed college students and found
that people who engaged in more
self-expression tended to receive a
higher number of likes on Facebook
and reported a higher level of sat-
isfaction from using social media.
Predictably, one reason why people
like and share content on social
media is that they want to disclose
themselves. Likewise, one reason
why members of Gen Z create us-
er-generated content is that they
want to exploit the opportunity to
express themselves.
Viral content on social media
means content that triggers many
reactions and user-generated con-
tent from others. To trigger a viral
trend, it is important to align your
content with Gen Z’s wants and
needs. Gen Z is attracted to content
that helps them express themselves.
Here are some ways to appeal to Gen
Z and trigger user-generated content
from them.
Choose the right platform
The three most popula r socia l
media platforms for Gen Z are Tik-
Tok, YouTube, a nd I nst a g ra m
(Markerly, 2022). Although Face-
book is a popular platform for
reaching tens of millions of mem-
bers of older generations, it is large-
ly seen by Gen Z as a platform for
their parents and grandparents
(Press-Reynolds, 2021).
Tik Tok is currently the most
used socia l media plat for m by
young people from ages 14 to 25
(Markerly, 2022). One feature that
distinguishes TikTok from other so-
cial media platforms is the hashtag
challenge. You can upload content
that invites other people to create
their content as a response. One
well-known example of a hashtag
challenge is the Ice Bucket Chal-
lenge, where many social media us-
ers post videos of themselves pour-
ing buckets of ice on their heads
to increase awareness of a disease
called amyotrophic lateral sclero-
sis (ALS). This hashtag challenge
nudged thousands of user-generat-
ed content and approximately 205
million impressions. TikTok users
best respond to relatable, fun, and
exciting content.
YouTube has the second-highest
number of monthly users. YouTube
is also considered the second largest
search engine next to Google. You-
Tube offers a short video format, re-
ferred to as YouTube Shorts. YouTube
is the best channel if you seek to de-
liver informative content. Also, keep
it short and touch people’s emotions
to go viral on YouTube Shorts.
Instagram is often considered to
have originated the influencer cul-
ture (Markerly, 2022). Although Ins-
tagram provides a short video format,
Reels, it is widely a picture-based
platform. Therefore, it is important
that your image is well composed.
Particularly, Instagram content
tends to be more polished compared
to TikTok content, which tends to
be authentic and raw. To better en-
gage students on Instagram, appeal
to personal stories. Instagram us-
ers tend to best react to content that
has a story and is personal to them.
Write about how studying until late
during the exam season makes peo-
ple feel with a nicely edited photo of
the library.
Support a cause
One unique characteristic of Gen Z
is that they are highly engaged
w it h socia l a nd env ironmenta l
causes. A Deloitte survey indicates
that the environment is the top
concer n for Gen Z, followed by
unemploy ment and health care
( D e l o i t t e , 2 0 2 2 ). C r e a t i n g a
hashtag challenge and/or a Twitter
thread about an environmental
initiative on the university campus
can be a good idea to appeal to
Gen Z. The hashtag challenge #cli-
matechange invites people to post
content about globa l wa r ming.
Tens of thousands of people took
the challenge, and user-­generated
content created about 4.3 ­billion
impressions. The ­M assachusetts
Institute of Technology Office of
Sustainability runs its own Twit-
ter account, and it is followed by
3,428 people.
Team up with
influencers
About 87% of Gen
Zers subscribe to
at least one influ-
encer (Mor ning
Consult, 2019).
STEM influencers
can motivate stu-
dents to think of
p otent i a l S T EM
career paths and
provide real-world
insights that help
students prepare
themselves better
for the industr y.
Particularly, STEM
i n f luencer s c a n
help inspire stu-
dent s f r om u nder r epr e s ente d
groups in science and technology
fields. Although Black and Hispanic
individuals make up 11% and 16%
of the U.S. workforce, respectively,
each accounts for 6% of the STEM
workforce. A recent study found that
the gender wage gap in Europe has
increased with the Fourth Industri-
al Revolution due to the underrepre-
sentation of women in better-paying
occupations in technology fields
(Bernadin, 2021). Teaming up with
STEM inf luencers and business
moguls, particularly for those from
an underrepresented background in
the science and technology indus-
tries, can help students have posi-
tive role models and be inspired to
pursue education and careers in
STEM fields.
Marketing to Gen Z
on social media
Social media is the most effective
medium for reaching out to Gen Z
about STEM programs because
most Gen Zers learn about new
things on social media. To market
effectively on social media, create a
tr end, not an advertisement,
because marketing on social media
is not one-way communication. To
nudge a viral trend, 1) choose the
right platform depending on the
purpose of the marketing, 2) create
cause-related content, and 3) part-
ner with influencers.
22 ■ S e p t e mber /O ctober 2023
Read more about it
• G. Athanasia. “The U.S. should
strengthen STEM education to remain
globally competitive.” CSIS. Ac-
cessed: Jan. 23, 2023. [Online]. Avail-
able: https://www.csis.org/blogs/
perspectives-innovation/us-should
-strengthen-stem-education-remain
-globally-competitive
• “Why gen Z students are choos-
ing STEM as a top career choice.”
Vaughn College. Accessed: Jan. 23,
2023. [Online]. Available: https://
w w w.vaughn.edu/blog/why-gen-
z-students-are-choosing-stem-as-a-top
-career-choice/
• N. Godfrey, “Millennials are
failing because we are failing them:
The STEM gap,” Forbes, 2015. Access­­
ed: Jan. 23, 2023. [Online]. Available:
ht t ps://w w w.forbes.com/sites/
nealegodfrey/2015/04/19/millennials
-are-failing-because-we-are-failing
-them-the-stem-gap/?sh=e70c4d32f62c
• T. Francis and F. Hoefel, “‘True
gen’: Generation Z and its implications
for companies,” McKinsey and Com-
pany, New York, NY, USA, 2018. Ac-
cessed: Jan. 23, 2023. [Online]. Avail-
able: https://w w w.mckinsey.com/
i ndust r ies/consu mer-pack a ged
- g o o d s/o u r - i n s i g h t s/t r ue - ge n
-generation-z-and-its-implications-for
-companies
• “2019 gen Z purpose study,” Por-
ter Novelli, New York, NY, USA, 2019.
­Accessed: Jan. 23, 2023. [Online]. Avail-
able: https://www.porternovelli.com/
IEEE POTENTIALS
findings/2019-gen-z-purpose-study
-undivided/
• T. Locke, “86% of young people
say they want to post social media
content for money,” CNBC, 2019. Ac­­ces­­
sed: Jan. 23, 2023. [Online]. Available:
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/08/
study-young-people-want-to-be-paid
-influencers.html
• W. P. Special and K. T. Li-Barber,
“Self-disclosure and student satisfac-
tion with Facebook,” Comput. Human
Behav., vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 624–630, Mar.
2012, doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2011.11.008.
• “Understanding the difference in
social media platforms.” Markerly. Ac-
cessed: Jan. 23, 2023. [Online]. Avail-
able: https://markerly.com/blog/
understa nding-the-difference-in
-social-media-platforms/
• K. Press-Reynolds, ­“ Facebook
wants to attract young people, but
Gen Z teens say it’s a ‘boomer social
network’ made for old people,” Insider,
2021. Accessed: Jan. 23, 2023. [On-
line]. Available: https://www.insider.
com/facebook-gen-z-teens-boomer
-social-network-leaks-2021-10
• “Global 2022 gen Z and millennial
survey,” Deloitte, New York, NY, USA,
2022. Accessed: Jan. 23, 2023. [Online].
Available: https://www2.deloitte.com/
content/dam/Deloitte/at/Documents/
human-capital/at-gen-z-millennial
-survey-2022.pdf
• “The influencer report,” Morning
Consult, Washington, DC, USA, 2019.
Accessed: Jan. 23, 2023. [Online]. Avail-
able: https://morningconsult.com/
influencer-report-engaging-gen-z-and
-millennials/
• J. Bernadin, “Six STEM influenc-
ers helping to bridge the gap for blacks,
Hispanics, and women,” Forbes, 2021.
Accessed: Jan. 23, 2023. [Online]. Avail-
able: https://www.forbes.com/sites/
forbestechcouncil/2021/07/30/six-stem
-influencers-helping-to-bridge-the-gap
-for-blacks-hispanics-and-women/?
sh=37cd6c461248
About the author
Rae Yule Kim (rae.yule@gmail.com)
earned his Ph.D. degree in market-
ing from Rutgers University. He is
an assistant professor of marketing
at Montclair State University, Mont-
clair, NJ 07043 USA.
 Blockchain perspectives,
mining, and types
An introductory tutorial

Anshuman Kalla

©SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/DIRENKO KATERYNA

T
oday, the world of informa-
tion systems and business
processes is experiencing a
shift in its status quo. Sys-
tems designed and operated
in a centralized manner are now get-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPOT.2023.3246230
Date of current version: 6 September 2023
ting decentralized, either completely
or partly, thanks to blockchain
technology—specifically, distribut-
ed ledger technology (DLT), which is
enabling this paradigm shift.
Introduction
Blockchain technology came into
existence through the inception of
the Bitcoin cryptocurrency in 2008.
As a matter of fact, it was after the
success of Bitcoin that researchers
and practitioners around the globe
identified blockchain technology as
the underlying technology driving
Bitcoin. As time passed, techno-
crats started realizing that the
potential of blockchain technology

0278-6648/23©2023IEEE IEEE POTENTIALS September/October 20 2 3 ■ 23
 To ensure the security of a distributed ledger in
such a network, DLT exhaustively uses
cryptographic techniques.
goes beyond the fintech sector.
Notably, blockchain can resolve
many issues associated with the
use of centralized systems in vari-
ous sectors, such as health care,
manufacturing, industrial supply
chain, file sharing, identity man-
agement, and telecommunications.
For instance, ensuring privacy
and tight access control of electronic
health-care records (EHRs) in the
health-care ecosystem is of utmost
importance. In other words, only au-
thorized entities should be enabled
to share and access EHRs. Moreover,
irrespective of security attacks or
accidental faults, the availability of
health-care services should be guar-
anteed to various stakeholders, such
as patients, doctors, laboratories,
hospitals, and medical institutes.
While all such stringent service re-
quirements are improbable with a
centralized health-care management
system, blockchain-enabled decen-
tralized and secure health care has
the potential to fulfill them efficient-
Pros
No Need for Multiple
Infrastructure Facilities
Easy Monitoring,
Maintenance, and
Controllability
High Physical Security
Since Housed at a Fixed
Location
Established Legal
Frameworks for Auditing
and Compliance
FIG1 The centralized system—pros and cons.
24 ■ S e p t e mber /O ctober 2023 IEEE POTENTIALS
ly. Before we dive into DLT and block-
chain technology, perhaps it would
be interesting to look at the benefits
and, more importantly, the issues
associated with centralized informa-
tion systems.
Centralized systems—Benefits
and issues
Traditionally, the design and the
modus operandi of information sys-
tems have been centralized in
nature—the reason being that cen-
tralized systems offer numerous
advantages, such as ease of monitor-
ing and maintenance, higher con-
trollability, increased protection from
physical attacks, and no need for
multiple infrastructure facilities
since all of the resources and
database(s) are housed at a pre-
defined and fixed location. Moreover,
centralized systems have matured
over the years, and well-established
legal frameworks support them. Fig-
ure 1 depicts advantages and disad-
vantages of a centralized system.
Actor
Nevertheless, the recent past has
revealed many issues that underlie
a centralized system. For instance,
a centralized system may invoke nu-
merous third-party services to per-
form its functions. Each of these
third-party intermediaries performs
its dedicated set of tasks, which in-
creases the overall delay and the cost
that users have to bear. Moreover,
users are generally unaware of the
involved third-party intermediaries.
Another critical issue with central-
ized systems is the single point of
failure. Given the intrinsic central-
ity of such systems, any accidental
or attack-driven failure can lead to
a complete breakdown or compro-
mised services. Some of the secu-
rity-related issues with centralized
information systems are as follows:
■■Lack of transparency and data
ownership: Once users upload
their data to a centralized sys-
tem, they may not know what
happens with their data. They
tend to lose complete ownership
of their personal data in a cen-
tralized system.
■■Data alterations: A compromised
system can lead to malicious
alterations to users’ data. The
centralized database makes it
Cons
Presence of Third-Party
Intermediaries
Prone to Single Point of
Failure
Loss of Data Ownership
Once Data are Uploaded
Nontransparent System
Possibility of Data
Manipulations
Threat to Data Privacy
and User’s Privacy
 difficult to identify and track
such manipulations.
■■Access rights and privacy leaks:
Access rights could be secretly
given to an unauthorized entity.
Illegitimate read access can
result in confidentiality breach-
es and (data, user, and location)
privacy leaks.
DLT
DLT aims at secure storage of a dis-
tributed ledger and decentralized gov-
ernance. A ledger is a book of records
(i.e., a database), which, if built and
maintained by a digital system, is
called a digital ledger. Organizations
and businesses that provide services
involving (or incurring) economic val-
ues and perform transactions with
digital assets need to maintain a digi-
tal ledger. When a digital ledger is
shared with multiple entities (also
known as nodes) in a system, it is
referred to as a shared ledger. A dis-
tributed ledger is a type of shared
ledger. In the distributed ledger para-
digm, a digital ledger is shared with
multiple nodes such that each node
stores an identical copy of the digital
ledger. Nodes are connected to form a
network of nodes. The peculiarities of
such a network of nodes are as fol-
lows: 1) any node in the network can
add new transactions to the distrib-
uted ledger, and 2) the network is
expected to have malicious or com-
promised nodes.
To ensure the security of a dis-
tributed ledger in such a network,
DLT exhaustively uses cryptograph-
ic techniques. If a new transaction
added by a node is legitimate, all of
the other nodes in the network must
also update their local copies of the
ledger with the same transaction.
This process ensures global synchro-
nization of the distributed ledger and
decentralized governance. On the
other hand, if the new transaction is
illegal, then DLT needs a mechanism
to reject this transaction from getting
updated at all of the other nodes. This
mechanism is called a consensus
mechanism, and using it, the nodes
establish an agreement before adding
a new transaction in the distributed
ledger. Once a transaction is written
IEEE POTENTIALS September/October 20 2 3 ■ 25
to a distributed ledger, it is crypto-
graphically sealed. This means the
transactions committed to a distrib-
uted ledger cannot be deleted or mod-
ified. Therefore, a distributed ledger is
immutable (or tamper resistant), and
its size keeps growing with time. Fig-
ure 2 shows the fundamental compo-
nents of DLT and its types.
Blockchain—Different
perspectives
The last decade has witnessed sig-
nificant growth in the applicability
of blockchain technology in various
domains. Despite its popularity,
there is no single standardized defi-
nition of blockchain to date. There-
fore, this section aims to answer the
fundamental question: W hat is
blockcha in? To develop a fir m
understanding, in what follows, we
explain blockchain from three per-
spectives (see Fig. 3).
DLT perspective
First a nd foremost, blockcha in
is the most popular type of DLT
Distributed Network of
Ledger
Nodes
Underlying Components
DLT
Different Types
Blockchain DAG Hashgraph
FIG2 DLT components and types.
Mix of Technologies
Typical D
ata Stru
Blockchain
FIG3 Viewing blockchain from three perspectives.
among others, and it has received
all-around attention from industry
and academia. At the core of block-
chain lies a distributed ledger that
is shared and synchronized with all
of the nodes in the system. It is
important to note that, although
sometimes the two terms DLT and
blockchain are used interchange-
ably, they are not the same. DLT is
a broad class, and blockchain is
one prominent member of t his
class. Examples of the other mem-
bers are directed acyclic graphs
(DAG), hashgraph, holochain, and
tangle (see Fig. 2).
Technology perspective
Second, from the technological per-
spective, blockchain is a technology
that is a unique, powerful, and prof-
itable amalgamation of underlying
pr inciples a nd technologies. It
exhaustively uses cr yptographic
concepts and principles, such as
asymmetric cryptography, hashing,
digital signature, and Merkle trees.
Peer-to-peer (P2P) technology is
Consensus
Cryptography Mechanism
Holochain Tangle
DLT
Type of
cture
 Blockchain is the most popular type of DLT among
others, and it has received all-around attention
from industry and academia.
used to connect nodes to create a
blockcha in net work. Moreover,
blockchain is governed by a consen-
sus mechanism that allows nodes
in the blockchain network to agree
on the current state of the distribut-
ed ledger. In some use cases, such
as Bitcoin cryptocurrency, economic
models are used to incentivize the
participating nodes, thereby ensur-
ing ma ximum decentralization.
Therefore, in essence, blockchain is
a technology that is driven by a
gamut of underlying technologies.
Data structure perspective
Third, from the data structure
viewpoint, blockchain represents
how transactions are grouped and
how the overall database is struc-
tured. Blockchain follows a specific
data structure to create and update
the distributed ledger. A set of
transactions appearing in a given
time w indow are validated and
clubbed in a data unit called a
block. Each block contains a finite
number of legitimate transactions.
Every block is timestamped, and
its cr yptographic hash value is
computed. A newly created block is
logically chained with the most
recent block in the ledger. The
chaining happens by inserting the
hash va lue of t he most recent
block’s header in the newly created
block (explained in detail in the
next section). As the blocks are cre-
ated, they are chronologically and
cr yptographically connected. In
essence, the data structure used
for the ledger is a chain of blocks,
and so the name is blockchain.
Transaction processing
and block mining
Now that we know blockchain fol-
lows a typical data structure to
build a distributed ledger, it is time
to ponder the following questions:
■■How is a new block mined in the
blockchain?
26 ■ S e p t e mber /O ctober 2023
■■How does the newly mined block
get added to the distributed led-
ger in the blockchain?
■■How are miners incentivized to
contribute their resources to
update and maintain the block-
chain?
Note that the pertinence of these
questions, their precise answers,
and the actual block mining pro-
cess depends on numerous factors,
such as the type of blockchain and
the consensus mechanism used.
For a first-hand understanding of
the process involving creating, min-
ing, disseminating, verifying, and
adding a new block, we consider the
Bitcoin blockchain, which uses the
proof-of-work (PoW ) consensus
mechanism. A typical block struc-
ture used for the Bitcoin blockchain
is shown in Fig. 4. A block compris-
es two parts: the header and body.
The block header contains a set of
fields, whereas the body consists of
transactions and optionally smart
contract(s).
Users of a blockchain-based sys-
tem are connected to a blockchain
network. A blockchain network com-
prises nodes connected in a P2P
fashion. Depending on the type of
blockchain, the platform used, and
the specific use case, a node may re-
fer to a miner, validator, orderer, or
relay node. To understand the min-
ing process, in this section, the term
node refers to a miner. Moreover,
both the terms node and miner are
used interchangeably. As the name
suggests, the job of a miner is to
mine a new block. Depending on the
settings, miners are equipped with
high-end computing and storage
facilities if mining is chosen to be
computationally intensive. This typi-
cally is the case when the consensus
mechanism used is PoW.
The entire process of block min-
ing is roughly divided into six steps,
as depicted in Fig. 5. These are ex-
plained in the following sections.
IEEE POTENTIALS
Step 1
Let us assume that a user Alice
wants to send x bitcoin to a user
Bob. Step 1 is to create a transac-
tion that reflects Alice’s intention.
Alice performs this by using an
appropriate wallet and logging in to
her account. Blockchain employs
public key cryptography to assign
each user a pair of public and pri-
vate keys. An account identifier (or
number) is usually derived from a
user’s public key. To send x bitcoin
to Bob, Alice selects Bob’s account
and enters the value x to transfer.
Alice triggers the transaction by
clicking the pay or finish button,
and the transaction is digitally
signed using her private key.
Step 2
In this step, the transaction created
in step 1 is broadcasted to all of the
nodes in the blockchain P2P net-
work. To do so, Alice’s wallet sends
out the transaction to the nodes to
which it is directly connected. At
any given time, a large number of
nodes can participate in a block-
chain network. However, any given
user is directly connected to very
few nodes.
Every node receiving the transac-
tion performs a set of tasks. First, it
validates the sender (i.e., Alice) by
checking its digital signature. Sec-
ond, it confirms the existence of the
recipient (i.e., Bob) by looking up his
address. Third, it verifies the feasi-
bility of the transaction by ensuring
Alice has x bitcoin with her. Fourth,
it adds the verified transaction to the
pool of unconfirmed transactions.
The transaction pool or memory pool
(mempool) at each node holds all of
the unconfirmed transactions that
occur in a given time window. Final-
ly, each node sends the transaction
to all of the other connected nodes.
Eventually, the transaction is broad-
casted, and all of the nodes receive
that transaction.
Step 3
The next step is the mining of the
new block. Mining is a process in
which miners compete to create a
new block. The mining process
starts with the active miners inde-
pendently selecting a set of uncon-
fir med tra nsactions from their
respective mempools. The selected

Latest Block
transactions form the body of a new
block (under creation). Moreover,
these transactions are hashed to
create a Merkle tree.
In simple words, a Merkle tree
is an inverted tree of cryptographic
hash values. The leaf nodes of the
Merkle tree are labeled with the

Ty
Timestamp (4 B)
hash values of the selected transac-

Nonce (4 B)
tions. To compute a label for a node

Ty–1

Optional State for Supporting

Previous Block Hash (32 B)
at any higher level, the hash values

Merkle Root Hash (32 B)

of the child nodes are concatenated

Smart Contracts
and again hashed. This process of

Transactions

n Block
concatenating hash values of child

T4
nodes and computing a new hash
continues until we get one hash

T3
Version (4 B)

value at the root level, called the

nbits (4 B)

Merkle root hash. The Merkle root

T2
hash forms one of the fields in the
block header (see Fig. 4). The ad-

T1
vantage of using the Merkle tree is
that it provides a compact and se-
cure representation of all of the
selected transactions.
of Header of
Hash Value

n – 1 Block

Next, the hash value of the most

recent block in the ledger is insert-
ed in the previous block hash field
of the new block under creation.
The timestamp field is provided
with the Unix epoch time when the
Tx
Timestamp (4 B)

mining starts.
Nonce (4 B)

Assuming the PoW consensus al-

Tx–1

Optional State for Supporting

Previous Block Hash (32 B)

gorithm, the competitive challenge

Merkle Root Hash (32 B)

for miners is to solve a computation-

Smart Contracts

ally intensive puzzle. The aim of this

Transactions

FIG4 The block structure. B represents size of the field in bytes.

n – 1 Block

puzzle is to find a hash for the new

T4

block’s header, provided that the

hash value is smaller than a given
Bytes)

T3
B)

value, called the target. Interestingly,

nbits (4 B)
(4(4

the value of the target is dynamically

Version

T2

determined from the current difficul-

Version

ty. The difficulty is the relative level

T1

of computation required to solve the

puzzle to mine a new block. Difficul-
ty equal to one indicates the level of
computation needed to mine the first
Header

Block Body

block (know as the genesis block). In

Genesis Block

that sense, a difficulty of five means

that the computation required to
mine a new block is five times more
than that of the genesis block.
The higher the difficulty level, the
smaller the target value. A smaller
target value means a higher n ­ umber

IEEE POTENTIALS September/October 20 2 3 ■ 27
 The advantage of using the Merkle tree is that it change the nonce field—this is to say
that a miner tries a random number
provides a compact and secure representation of for the nonce field and computes the
all of the selected transactions. hash value of the block’s header. If
the computed hash value is smaller
than the target, the mining process is
of zeros for leading bits in the target active number of miners and the finished. Otherwise, the process con-
value. Furthermore, the nbits field block generation rate. The adjust- tinues with a different random num-
holds a compact representation of the ment keeps the block generation ber assigned to the nonce field. The
target value used for mining a block. time almost the same irrespective process is computationally intensive
In summary, the current dif- of the change in the collective min- because it uses brute force to search
ficulty level determines the target ing power (known as the hash rate) for a magic number for the nonce
value, which determines the value of the blockchain network. field that produces the desired block
for the nbits field. The difficulty To achieve a block hash value hash. The miner that solves this puz-
level is adjusted according to the smaller than the target value, miners zle earliest is the winning miner.

Validate and Authentic Add to Flood to

Verify Transaction Transaction Mempool Other Nodes

Alice Wallet Wallet Bob

Encryption Using Wallet Bob

Bob Hashing
{}
Private Key Alice’s
Bob Wallet
Transaction
Digitally Signed
Transaction

Step 1 Step 2

The node that finds

func( )
Selects Set of Find Merkle Root Hash Keep Changing Nonce to the block hash
Transactions Taking Hash Values of Find Block Header’s Hash earliest is the winner.
From Mempool Transactions as Leaf Nodes Value Smaller than Target

Node Miner

New
Coins
Reward for
Wallet Bob
Alice Wallet Mining
New Block

The Newly Mined Block by

the Winning Miner Transaction
Step 3 Fees

Check the Append the Valid New Flood the New

Validity of the Block to the Local Copy Valid Block to
New Block of Distributed Ledger Other Nodes

Bob
Wallet Bob Alice Wallet Wallet
Alice Wallet

Steps 4 and 5 Step 6

FIG5 Various steps for creating, mining, verifying, and appending a new block.

28 ■ S e p t e mber /O ctober 2023 IEEE POTENTIALS

 It is worth noting that heavy com-
putation and huge energy consump-
tion are specific requirements of the
Bitcoin blockchain because it uses
the PoW consensus mechanism.
Examples of some of the lightweight
consensus algorithms that are ener-
gy efficient are proof of stake (PoS),
proof of authority, and practical Byz-
antine fault tolerance (PBFT).
Step 4
This step is about broadcasting the
newly mined block to all of the
other nodes in the network. Every
node performs a set of validations
upon receiving a new block. These
va l idat ions i nclude va l idat i ng
transactions in the block; correct-
ness of the header fields, such the
as prev ious block hash; nbits;
Merkle root hash; and recomputa-
tion of the block header’s hash
value with the provided nonce value
(to ensure that it meets the current
difficulty level).
Step 5
Once all (or at least the majority of)
the nodes validate and append the
newly received block to their local
copy of the ledger, the blockchain is
said to have reached a consensus.
At this point, the transactions in
t he newly appended block a re
declared to be confirmed.
Step 6
Logically, the last step is minting
ne w bit c oi n s a nd d i sbu r si n g
rewards to the winning miner. As
soon as a new block is committed,
the blockchain system experiences
a supply of new bitcoins. These
coins and the transaction fees
(received from the users of the
confirmed transactions in the new
block) get credited to the account of
the winning miner. Currently (i.e.,
in 2022), the Bitcoin system creates
6.25 new bitcoins when a new block
is mined.
Although this explanation is based
on the Bitcoin blockchain, the step-
wise illustration gives a decent un-
derstanding of how transactions
are generally processed and block
mining happens. Today, there exist
IEEE POTENTIALS September/October 20 2 3 ■ 29
It is a myth that all of the consensus algorithms
in blockchain are always computation
intensive and energy hungry.
several consensus algorithms other
than PoW, such as PoS, delegated
PoS (dPoS), proof of activity, proof of
elapsed time, PBFT, federated Byz-
antine fault tolerance, stellar con-
sensus protocol, Reliable, Replicat-
ed, Redundant, and Fault-Tolerant
(RAFT), and ripple.
Moreover, various classifications
have been proposed to categorize
these consensus algorithms. One
of the classifications is proof-based
and voting-based consensus algo-
rithms. Proof-based consensus is
(generally) used when a large num-
ber of nodes participate in the block-
chain P2P network, and one of the
nodes has to prove itself worthy of
adding a new block. Such consen-
sus algorithms are better suited for
public blockchains, and PoW, PoS,
DPoS, and proof of activity.
Voting-based consensus requires
nodes to communicate to cast their
votes (i.e., opinions about a proposed
new block and transactions within
it), and then a majority of nodes
should collectively decide to add the
new block. Such a consensus is vi-
able when a limited number of nodes
participate. It is therefore suitable for
private or consortium types of block-
chains. Examples of voting-based al-
gorithms are PBFT, RAFT, and ripple.
Furthermore, it is a myth that all
of the consensus algorithms in block-
chain are always computation inten-
sive and energy hungry. Authentica-
tion-based consensus is yet another
class of consensus algorithms that are
lightweight and suitable for resource-
constrained devices like the Internet
of Things. PUFchain and AEchain
are examples of such a type of con-
sensus algorithm. (For more details,
check the “Read More About It” list at
the end).
Types of blockchain
In this section, some of the ques-
tions that will be answered are as
follows: What are the different types
of blockchain? What are the distinc-
tive characteristics of different
blockchains? Blockchains have
been classified in different ways
depending on numerous factors,
such as read, write, and commit
permission settings; server hosting;
conditions to join a blockchain net-
work; and storing data (on or off
the blockchain).
Blockchains are classified into
four basic types: public, private,
permissionless, and permissioned.
These are distinguished based on the
permissions to perform read, write,
and commit operations as well as the
type of servers used. An entity with
read permission can see all of the
transactions stored in the distrib-
uted ledger. Write permission allows
an entity to create and broadcast
transactions to the other nodes in
the blockchain network. The commit
right allows a node to append a new
block and confirm all of the transac-
tions within that block. Commit and
write are often used interchangeably
because the write operation includes
the sense of commit.
Public and private blockchains
Any entity can join the network in a
public blockchain and perform the
read operations. Moreover, public
servers are usually used for hosting
public blockchains. On the con-
trary, entities in private blockchains
need permission to join and perform
read operations. Accordingly, pri-
vate servers are used to host private
blockchains and to enforce restric-
tions. An entity could be a user or
miner willing to join a network. In
essence, the read permission and
the type of server hosting govern
the difference between public and
private blockchains.
Permissionless and
permissioned blockchains
T h e d i s t i n c t i o n b e t w e e n p e r-
m i s sion less a nd per m issioned
 Blockchains have been classified in different ways possible operations. In other
words, an approved node does not
depending on numerous factors such as read, write require any additional permission
and commit permission settings, server hosting, to write and commit new trans-
conditions to join a blockchain network, and actions. It is worth noting that, if
multiple organizations or compa-
storing data (on or off-blockchain). nies work together to set up a
private permissionless block-
­ lockchains is based on the write
b implies minimum data privacy. chain, it is referred to as consor-
and commit permissions. Permis- Thanks to pseudonymity, the tium blockchain. Only the mem-
sionless blockchain denotes a set- loss of privacy is somewhat cov- ber entities of a consortium are
ting where all of the participating ered. Cryptocurrencies like Bit- allowed to join and operate. A
entities (by default) can perform coin and Ethereum fall under gover nmental land registry
write and commit operations. How- this category. (cadastral) service is an intrigu-
ever, write and commit permissions ■■Public permissioned blockchain, ing scenario in which this type of
are granted to only a few of the by default, grants access to any blockchain applies.
total nodes participating in a per- entity to join and read the dis- ■■Private permissioned blockchain
missioned blockchain. tributed ledger. However, only a is where entities need exclusive
few selected nodes can write and permission to join the network
Four different combinations commit new transactions, which and perform any operations (i.e.,
of blockchains brings in the element of centrali- read, write, and commit). Usual-
Blockchains can be further classi- ty. Supply chain management is ly, write and commit operations
fied by combining these four basic a suitable use case scenario for are exclusively retained by the
types of blockchain. These types are this type of blockchain. In the vetted node(s) of a single enter-
depicted in Fig. 6 and discussed as supply chain, only a few autho- prise or organization. Such
follows: rized entities can update the led- blockchains are appropriate for
■■Public permissionless blockchain ger, and others are allowed to scenarios where privacy is of par-
is a completely open and unre- read the updates. amount importance. However,
stricted paradigm. Any entity can ■■Private permissionless block- privacy is achieved at the cost of
freely join the network and chain exercises an approval- centralized control.
requires no permission to read, based entry mechanism for an
write, and commit operations. entity to join the network. Once Conclusion and discussion
Such blockchains provide maxi- an entity becomes a part of the Blockchain has emerged as a prom-
mum transparency, which system, it can perform all of the ising technology. It is ­envisioned to

Blockchain
Based on Type of Server Hosting, Based on Write and
Joining Restrictions, and Reading Rights Commit Permissions

Public Private Permissionless Permissioned

Public Permissionless Public Permissioned Private Permissionless Private Permissioned

Decentrality in Increasing Order

Transparency in Increasing Order
Privacy in Increasing Order
Element of Centrality in Increasing Order
From Open to Closed System
From Public Servers to Private Server Hosting

FIG6 Types of blockchains and their characteristics.

30 ■ S e p t e mber /O ctober 2023 IEEE POTENTIALS

 Futuristic Blockchain- and Smart Contract-Enabled Use Cases and Applications Existing Blockchain- and Smart Contract-Enabled Use Cases and Applications

Decentralized and Secure Network Decentralized and Secure

Slice Broker and Slice Management Electronic Medical Records

Secure Physical and Virtual Replica P2P Energy Trading in

Dynamic Spectrum Sharing and Tracking and Auditing of Counterfeit Trustless Environment
for Health Care, Aviation, and More Incentive Mechanisms Medical Equipment
6G
Decentralized Maintenance and Decentralized and Dynamic
Secure and Privacy-Compliant Mobile Smart Health Care
Repairing Using Digital Twins Transparent and Resilient Energy Management
Roaming and Load Sharing Networks
Digital Twins Pharmaceutical Supply Chain
Energy Democratic Generation and
Strict Access Control, Proof of Digital Open and Trustless Ecosystem for Privacy-Protected Patient Markets
IDs, and Compliance With Policies Infrastructure Sharing Distribution of Renewable Energy
Monitoring and Health Care Analytics

Traceability and Tracking of Cargo

Trustless and Distributed Decision
and Marine Transportation
Making for Cobots Trustless and
Auditable Consensus-
Enabling Secure Federated Based Validation Auditing and Compliance of
Learning For Cloud Manufacturing Imports and Exports
func( ) Miner func( )
Industry 5.0
Pseudonymity Miner Miner Food and
Privacy-Protected and Tight Access- Resilient Food Supply Chain and
func( )
Shipping
Controlled Data Sharing Resolving Bycatch Issues
func( ) BaaS MaaS
Consensus Blockchain
Public/Private
Algorithm Ecosystem
Mining Pools func( )
Miner Cloud Mining
Decentralized
func( )
Nonrepudiation
Miner func( )

Connected, Privacy-Compliant and Miner Automatic and Transparent

Resilient Public Services and Utilities Immutability Insurance and Claim Management
Miner

Secure and Privacy-Protected Chronological Fast and Secure Cross-Broder

Advanced Health Care and Telesurgery Automation Payments and Remittance
and Append Only
Smart Cities
Finance Trustworthy and Auditable Asset
Decentralized and Privacy-Compliant
Public Data Collection and Access and Fund Management

Automated, Secure, and Decentralized Land Registry

Privacy-Intact Parking System Management System

Provable Product Quality, Green NEWS

Authentic and Provenance-
$ Smart Contract-Based Insurance Transparent and Auditable
Production, and Manufacturing Ensured News Dissemination
Renewal and Claim Settlement E-Voting System

Seamless Integration of Distributed Educational Certificate and Decentralized and Traceable

Secure AI for Accident Avoidance Intelligent Governance
Processes With Access Control Degree Management Social Networking
Circular and Fault Tracing Autonomous
Economy Vehicles
Media and
Trackable Cyclic Processes and Ride Sharing, Energy Trading, and Privacy-Protected and Secure Verified Advertising and Trustless
Advertisement
Sustainable Supply Chain Secure Profiling of Drivers Data Management and Digital ID Trading of Ad Space

Challenges Related To Blockchain

and Smart Contracts Based System

Security
Interoperability of Legal Frameworks
Throughput Storage Vulnerabilities of Selection of Which
Different Blockchain and Standardization
Scalability Scalability Blockchain and Type of Blockchain
Platforms of Blockchains
Smart Contracts

IEEE POTENTIALS September/October 20 2 3 ■ 31

FIG7 Blockchain- and smart contract-enabled existing and futuristic use cases and challenges. AI: artificial intelligence; BaaS: blockchain as a service; ID: identification; Maas: mining as a service.

 Continuous growth in the blockchain landscape has
proven to be beneficial for many existing use cases
and applications, such as smart health care,
education, public governance, and banking.
lead the future world of decentral-
ization and disintermediation. Its
salient features are immutability,
disintermediation of third parties,
enhanced security with nonrepu-
diation, transparency with pseud-
onymity, provenance, and audit-
ability (Fig. 7). In recent years,
blockcha i n ha s been e volv i n g
toward an extensive ecosystem.
Some of the exciting roles offered
by such a n ecosystem a re t he
blockchain infrastructure provid-
er, platform provider (i.e., Block-
chain as a service), decentralized
application provider, and mining
solutions like cloud mining and
mining as a service. Continuous
grow th in the blockchain land-
scape has proven to be beneficial
for many existing use cases and
applications, such as smart health
care, education, public governance,
and banking. Figure 7 provides a
panoramic v iew of the ex isting
real-life use cases and futuristic
intriguing applications.
Nevertheless, as with any other
evolving technology, blockchain also
suffers from various issues. These
include low scalability in terms of
throughput (transactions per unit
time) and storage capacity; the pos-
sibility of privacy leakage; the non-
existence of legal frameworks and
standard bodies; interoperability
among disparate blockchains; and
vulnerability to security attacks
targeting different aspects, like the
consensus mechanism, P2P net-
work, and smart contracts (espe-
cially given the rise of quantum
computing). Use case-specific ef-
forts are required to effectively miti-
gate these challenges to leverage the
maximum potential of blockchain
technology.
Read more about it
• S. Nakamoto, “Bitcoin: A peer-
to-peer electronic cash system,” De-
32 ■ S e p t e mber /O ctober 2023
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• G. Hileman and M. Rauchs,
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native Finance, vol. 33, pp. 33–113,
Sep. 2017.
• B. Carson, G. Romanelli, P.
Walsh, and A. Zhumaev, “Block-
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strategic business value,” McKinsey
Company, vol. 1, pp. 1–13, Jun.
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beyond%20the%20hype%20
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• T. Riasanow, F. Burckhardt,
D. Soto Setzke, M. Böhm, and H.
Krcmar, “The generic blockchain
ecosystem and its strategic impli-
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cat ion/325677489_T he_Gener ic
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5b1d66350f7e9b68b42bfd60/The
-Gener ic-Blockcha in-Ecosystem​
-and-its-Strategic-Implications.pdf
• H. Vranken, “Sustainability of
bitcoin and blockchains,” Current
Opinion Environmental Sustainabil-
ity, vol. 28, pp. 1–9, Oct. 2017, doi:
10.1016/j.cosust.2017.04.011.
• N. E. Ioini and C. Pahl, “A re-
view of distributed ledger technolo-
gies,” in Proc. OTM Confederated
Int. Conf. ‘Move Meaningful Internet
Syst.’, Cham: Springer, 2018, pp.
277–288.
• A. Verma et al., “Blockchain
for Industry 5.0: Vision, opportu-
nities, key enablers, a nd future
IEEE POTENTIALS
directions,” IEEE Access, vol. 10,
pp. 69,160–69,199, Jun. 2022, doi:
10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3186892.
• A. Upadhyay, S. Mukhuty, V.
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2021.126130.
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About the author
Anshuman Kalla (a nshuma n.
kalla@ieee.org) is a professor in the
Department of Computer Engineer-
ing, Chhotubhai Gopalbhai Patel
Institute of Technology, Uka Tarsa-
dia University, Gujarat 394350,
India. He is a Senior Member of
IEEE. For more information, please
visit https://sites.google.com/site/
kallanshuman/. 

D
eepfakes are images or
v ideos generated using
deep learning technology
to change the original
conditions of a piece of
media. Potential uses of this
technology range from satirical
content, depicting public figures
in comical scenarios; to generat­
ing audio to mimic a specific voice;
to inserting the face of an unknow­
ing indiv idua l into potent ia lly
embarrassing content, for example,
a pornographic scene. As deepfake
technologies, such as autoencod­
er s a nd generative adver sa r ia l
net works (GA Ns), become more
advanced and accessible, deepfakes
become easier to create and more
believable. This poses some serious
threats to individual and institu­
tional safety, as scenes can be
modified to alter public per­
ception. Although technol­
ogy to identify deepfakes
does exist, it is essential
that these methods pro­­
gress as rapidly as
deepfake technology
so that they remain
accurate. Additional­
ly, legal consequenc­
es for deepfakes are
limited, so continued
advocacy for increased
protection against false content
is crucial.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPOT.2022.3229823
Date of current version: 6 September 2023
0278-6648/23©2023IEEE IEEE POTENTIALS September/October 20 2 3 ■ 33
It looks like me,
but it isn’t me
On the societal implications of deepfakes
Jennifer A. Fehring and Tamara Bonaci
©SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/RROSELAVY
Introduction
What are deepfakes?
The term deepfake refers to an
image or an audio or a video signal
generated by a deep learning-based
technique that swaps the face,
speech, or actions (further referred
to as the likeness) of the original
subject w ith the likeness of
another. Popular examples of
deepfakes include a 2019 video
of P resident Oba ma swea r­
i n g during a public ser vice
announcement, a TikTok ac­­
count named deeptomcruise
with more than 1.7 million
followers created to specifical­
ly publish deepfake videos,
and a video of Mark Zuckerberg
announcing the deletion of Face­
book that garnered 72 million
v iews. The ter m deepfake first
appeared in 2017, when a Reddit
user named deepfakes began
publishing content to the
site depicting unknowing
celebr it ies in por no­
graphic movies using
a machine learning
algorithm they had
c r e ate d ( ht t p s://
w w w.b b c .c o.u k/
bitesize/articles/
z f k wc qt). O t her
potent ia lly ha r m­
ful deepfake content
includes hoaxes, fake
news, and financial fraud.
As a r e su lt , i nc r e a si n g
attention in general media
forensics has been dedicated to
detecting facial manipulation in
images and videos. Deepfake detec­
t ion is becom i ng i ncreasi ng ly
important as deepfakes become eas­
ier to create and more believable.
 Although technology to identify deepfakes does
exist, it is essential that these methods progress
as rapidly as deepfake technology so that they
Deepfake accessibility
In years prior, creating content
that believably replaced features
or components of a n image or
video with other features was pos­
sible, but it was labor intensive,
and it re­­quired special resources.
Computer-­generated imagery (CGI)
has seen great use in media and
dates back as far as the 1960s.
One of the first publicly available
examples of CGI used in popular
me d i a w a s a 49 - s a n i m at ion
c a l led Rendering of a Planned
Highway, wherein a car was dis­
played t ravel i ng up a pla n ned
highway at 110 km/h, created by
t he Swedish Roya l Inst itute of
Technology on the BESK comput­
er. This animation was broadcast
on national television on 9 Novem­
ber 1961 (Du Rietz, 2016).
Since then, CGI has made ap­
pearances in many feature films,
­including Avatar, which was the first
full-length movie made using perfor­
mance capture to create photorealis­
tic characters and worlds. Work for
Avatar started in 2006, and the film
was released in 2009; during this pe­
riod, replacing real-life scenes with
nonoriginal content was extremely
labor intensive. Nine hundred people
were employed to work on the film;
Microsoft created a new cloud com­
puting and digital asset manage­
ment system called Gaia to permit
the crew to keep track of and coordi­
nate all stages of digital processing.
A 10,000-ft2 server farm with 35,000
processor cores, and 3 PB of network
area storage was used to render the
data; this was considered one of the
top 500 supercomputers in the world
at the time.
Although a short deepfake may
not require the same amount of at­
tention and detail as a full-feature
film like Avatar, technology for cre­
ating fake but believable content has
progressed very rapidly in the past
34 ■ S e p t e mber /O ctober 2023
remain accurate.
decade. Where once it was neces­
sary to possess a highly specialized
set of technological skills, signifi­
cant financial resources, and spe­
cialized hardware and software, it
is now possible for an unskilled in­
dividual to create deepfakes on de­
vices as basic as a cellphone, using
apps like FakeApp and Zao, with as
little source material as a few self­
ies in different head positions and
facial expressions. (FakeApp “is a
program that lets you create masks
capable of swapping faces on videos
by means of the artificial intelligence
developed by a Reddit user.” It can be
accessed using the following link:
https://www.malavida.com/en/soft/
fakeapp/. Zao “is a free deepfake
face-swapping app that lets you re­
place the face of popular characters
in a video clip of a scene with your
own face.” It can be accessed us­
ing the following link: https://zao.
en.softonic.com/android.)
This type of accessibility will, no
doubt, lead to a rise in deepfake cre­
ation and distribution, as more and
more people gain access to easy and
believable deepfake generators. This
problem is only amplified by the rise
of social media, which makes the
dissemination of fake content easier
than it has ever been.
Deepfake believability
Currently, there exists limited re­­
search on the believability of deep­
fakes, especially the believability of
earlier deepfakes from the late
2010s, making it difficult to quanti­
fy how believability has increased.
However, a recent studies have
sought to determine how easy or
difficult it is to detect deepfakes.
One 2020 study asked 60 par­
ticipants to subjectively ­ e valuate
videos from a pool of 120 videos
that ranged from being a clear fake
to having a fakeness that was very
difficult to discern (Korshunovf and
IEEE POTENTIALS
Sebastien, 2020). These same vid­
eos were also evaluated for fakeness
using two different state-of-the-art
deepfake-detection algorithms based
on the Xception (https://keras.io/
api/applications/xception/) a nd
EfficientNet (https://ai.googleblog.
com/2019/05/efficientnet-improv­
ing-accuracy-a nd.html) models,
which were pretrained separately
on Google and Celeb-DF (https://
github.com/yuezunli/celeb-deep­
fakeforensics) deepfake databases.
When presented with high-quality
deepfakes, 75.5% of participants
were confused and could not con­
fidently determine whether the
video was fake or real. Obviously
fake deepfakes proved easy for par­
ticipants to detect; however, as the
deepfake quality increased, partici­
pants were more likely to incorrect­
ly assess the video as real, even in
situations where they felt certain of
their decision.
It is notable that these partici­
pants were primed to be looking for
fakes, and, even then, only 24.5%
of participants were able to confi­
dently identify high-quality deep­
fakes as fake. In this study, the two
algorithms tested were not as accu­
rate in assessing deepfakes as fake
when compared to human subjects;
however, the algorithms were better
at identifying fake videos that hu­
mans had confidently assessed as
being real.
In reality, most people are not on
the lookout for fake videos and may
be even more susceptible to believ­
ing fake content. In recent years,
humans have become more appre­
hensive of photos, as photo editing
has become the norm, and humans
are more wary of trusting photo­
graphs. Despite this increasing dis­
trust, overall, people do still place a
great deal of trust in photographic
evidence and even more trust in
videos displaying known faces and
voices. As deepfakes become more
believable and humans continue to
place trust in content that they can
see, hear, and easily associate with
known figures, deepfakes promise to
be a great source of misinformation.
This has had and will continue to
have serious ramifications for indi­ Deep learning is a branch of machine learning that
vidual safety and public perceptions.
focuses on deep neural networks—a computational
How are deepfakes made? counterpart of the network of neurons used
The term deepfakes derives from the to deliver and decipher information in the
technique employed to create them:
deep learning. Deep learning is a human brain.
branch of machine learning that
focuses on deep neural networks—a space of measurements requires a range of lip, jaw, and head move­
computational counterpart of the tiny fraction of the memory needed ments corresponding to the sounds
network of neurons used to deliver to store the original input image. made to generate words. A GAN
and decipher information in the From this latent space, a reconstruc­ takes original footage to train both
human brain. A neural network in tion is generated through the de­ models and sets up a competition
computer science uses nodes coder. If a network can generalize a between the two neural networks
instead of neurons, and each node face well enough, the face from one wherein each improves based on the
shares specific connections to thou­ network can pass a latent face to the output of the other. Continuous im­­
sands of other nodes. Typically, they decoder of another network, result­ provement to GANs has resulted in
are arranged in layers, and the way ing in the replacement of the second gradually more impressive feats,
in which the nodes are connected network’s face with the features and such as videos synthesized that real­
determines the type of network it is expressions of the face from the first istically depict humans speaking,
and its ultimate ability to perform (Zucconi, 2019). software that enables anyone with a
certain tasks. When the input or webcam to generate replicas of other
output of a neural network is an GANs people’s facial expressions, and “self-
image, typically, three nodes will Another popular and effective means re-enactment” videos ­ r ending a
exist for each pixel, each containing of creating deepfakes arises from speaker’s facial expressions in real
information on the amount of color GA Ns (Goodfellow et al., 2020), time (Rana and Sung, 2020).
(typically, the amount of red, blue, or which consist of two neural net­ The recent rise in deepfake qual­
green colors) contained in that pixel. works, one used to generate data ity and prevalence can be attributed
and the other used to distinguish to two factors: 1) publicly acces­
Autoencoders fake data from real data, thereby sible large-scale data sets, providing
An autoencoder is a special type of making it adversarial in nature. In source material from which deep­
neural network that aims to create video footage of humans speaking, fake algorithms can be trained, and
an output image matching the the subject will make a predictable 2) the continued advancement of deep
input. To avoid simply matching an
input node to an output node, which
would imply there has been no Input Data Encoded Data Reconstructed Data
learning, the autoencoder com­
presses image information prior to
reconstruction. Ultimately, this will
result in loss of some finer details in
the output. The recreation of an
image using an autoencoder occurs
in three steps: the 1) encoding
step, 2) latent space step, and
3) decoding step (Fig. 1). In the
encoding step, an image is taken in
with many thousands of pixels, and
they are compressed to a much
smaller measurement space (e.g.,
300 measurements), w ith each
relating to a particular facial char­
acteristic. This compressed version
of the original image is considered
an information bottleneck.
Encoder Latent Decoder
All possible combinations of mea­
Space
surements of facial characteristics
occupy space known as latent space. FIG1 An autoencoder takes in an input layer, which is compressed before the data are
Latent space consisting of a smaller decoded, to generate a reconstructed image.

IEEE POTENTIALS September/October 20 2 3 ■ 35
 Public trust in the news across the world is
declining, and the continued distribution of fake
news via deepfakes may potentially lead to greater
public distrust.
learning techniques, such as auto­ anyone poses a significant threat to
encoders and GANs, that have made individual and societal security and
deepfakes easier to create through privacy. One extremely troubling
the elimination of many manual ed­ fact about deepfakes is that most
iting steps (Ajder et al., 2019). Huge tend to be pornographic in nature.
amounts of publicly available foot­ According to a study in 2019 that
age of actors, politicians, and public assessed the content of 14,678
figures provide ample data for these deepfake videos available on the
models to work from and generate Internet, 96% of those were porno­
high-quality deepfakes. Additional graphic (Ajder et al., 2019). Of the
work in artificial intelligence can be 96% of deepfakes available depict­
used to synthesize high-quality audio, ing nonconsenting individuals in
mimicking the sound of human voices, pornographic situations, 90% of
which, when paired with video results, those individuals were women.
has the potential to create highly be­ The potential for harm in this
lievable clips of anyone who has pub­ scenario is obvious and can be
lished a significant amount of publicly evidenced by the struggles of one
­ mentality that anything is accept­
available content. This rapidly evolving then-18-year-old woman, who was
technology has led to a variety of pos­ nonconsensually placed into hun­
sible photo and video manipulations. dreds of explicit images and videos of
a porn actress (Melville, 2019). This
Societal and individual type of content being publicly avail­
threats of deepfakes able has put her reputation, career,
For many reasons, fake and believ­ and personal safety at risk, and any­
able content that can be created by one with enough publicly available
TABLE 1. Harmful uses for deepfakes and their impact at the
societal, organizational, and individual levels.
POTENTIAL AREAS OF IMPACT
REPUTATIONAL FINANCIAL
LEVEL DAMAGE ­REPERCUSSIONS MANIPULATION
Individuals • Defamation • Phishing-style • Targeted attacks
• Intimidation scams against politicians
• Abuse • Extortion
• Identity theft
Organizations • Deteriorate trust • Insurance fraud • Fake educational
• Damage brand • Stock-price materials
manipulation • Media
manipulation
• Political attacks
against a party or
interest group
• Fabricated court
evidence
Society • Potential for electoral manipulation/influence on political party
impressions by domestic or foreign bodies
• Deterioration of public trust in media and/or societal cohesion
and norms
• Deliberate fear mongering, inciting public tension/panic/­
conflict
36 ■ S e p t e mber /O ctober 2023 IEEE POTENTIALS
imagery of themselves could be put
into the same situation. Deepfakes
of nonconsenting individuals could
also be used as a means of coercion,
intimidation, or defamation. Legal
action against deepfake porn has
been taken in some states, such as
Virginia, which has prohibited ha­
rassment via the sharing of sexual
images (Brown, 2019); however, this
does not protect against all fake con­
tent, and Virginia is one of very few
states to enact such laws.
Additional concerns regarding
the potentially negative effects of
deepfakes arise in the form of fake
news and public deception. Public
trust in the news across the world
is declining, and the continued dis­
tribution of fake news via deepfakes
may potentially lead to greater pub­
lic distrust. As false news is shared
at an alarming rate online, a shared
able online has become increasingly
prevalent, and people have become
wary enough of news online that
they have started to avoid it alto­
gether to avoid uncertainty.
However, uncertainty does not
necessarily imply distrust, and many
have argued that some skepticism
when it comes to news may reduce
susceptibility to misinformation. One
study from 2020 sought to examine
whether a group of individuals would
express greater distrust in news
shared on social media after expo­
sure to a deepfake news clip when
compared to a group not exposed
to a deepfake. It was found that the
deepfake group did exhibit signifi­
cantly more distrust in news on so­
cial media (Vaccari and Chadwick,
2020). If the public begins to feel they
cannot trust the news, it will become
increasingly difficult to acquire what
is considered real and meaningful
information on political and social
events, leading to a poorly informed
public. Other harmful uses for deep­
fakes and their impact on society are
listed in Table 1.
Benefits of deepfakes
While there clearly are many mali­
cious uses for deepfakes, they do
not come without some benefits.
Medically, deepfakes have been
recognized as an up-and-coming
technology with a high therapeutic
a nd biomed ic a l i mpact. S ome
examples include (Jaiman, 2020)
the following:
■■Canetroller, a haptic cane con­
troller that assists the visually
impaired by simulating cane
interactions in a virtual environ­
ment
■■generating an individual’s vocal
likeness for individuals who have
lost their ability to speak, such
as those afflicted with amyo­
trophic lateral sclerosis
■■simulations for those who are too
ill to leave their bed or home
■■technologies such as VOCALiD,
which can be used to generate
text to voice for those with
speech and hearing difficulties.
These are all in addition to the
various uses that deepfakes have
in media and art, such as im­
provements to computer-generated
scenes in film, reaching a broader
audience by placing different people
in various scenes in video clips,
creating deepfakes for humorous
or satirical purposes, and various
art installments (Jaiman, 2020). Al­
though deepfakes do come with var­
ious risks, the technology already
exists and is publicly available, and
it offers some serious benefits to so­
ciety. To fully take advantage of this
rapidly evolving technology, it is es­
sential that we learn to live safely
with deepfakes.
Managing the risks
of deepfakes
Given t he ser ious de s t r uc t i v e
potential of deepfakes, measures
should be—and have been—taken
to mitigate the risks associated
with them. Significant effort has
been dedicated to designing algo­
rithms with the capability to detect
deepfakes. Additionally, legal mea­
sures have been taken to protect
people from the harm of deepfakes.
To combat the various negative
consequences, a proactive legal and
computational approach to detect­
ing and exposing deepfakes should
be employed.
IEEE POTENTIALS September/October 20 2 3 ■ 37
Although deepfakes do come with various risks, the
technology already exists and is publicly available,
and it offers some serious benefits to society.
Deepfake detection
As previously discussed, high-quality
deepfakes can easily deceive the
naked eye (Korshunovf and Sebas­
tien, 2020). As such, effort has been
dedicated both to developing algo­
rithms to detect deepfakes and to
increasing the availability of datasets
to researchers, so as to assist in cre­
ating these mechanisms.
The FaceForensics++ dataset,
partly developed by Google, contains
real and deepfake datasets to aid re­
searchers, and it is one of the stan­
dard datasets in the development of
deepfake-detection mechanisms.
Current approaches to deepfake
detection can broadly be categorized
as 1) deep learning-based approach­
es and 2) analytical approaches.
Facebook recently launched
a deepfake-detection chal­
lenge with prize money
of US$1 million to en­
courage research in the
field. Despite these ef­
forts, generally, deep­
fake-detection methods
achieve high accuracy de­
tecting deepfakes in a single
dataset but show significantly
lower accuracy on deepfakes utilizing
newer methods not introduced dur­
ing the training phase (Shahroz et al.,
2021). While existing algorithms are
not perfect at detecting deepfakes,
a study from April 2021 was able to
achieve 93.86% accuracy at detect­
ing deepfakes on a set of videos from
which the model was not trained
(Shahroz et al., 2021). With contin­
ued improvements in technology like
this, it will be possible to detect deep­
fakes with greater confidence. It is,
however, important that deepfake de­
tectors evolve with the newly emerg­
ing methods of creating deepfakes.
Advocating for increased
legal measures
One of the potentially most frighten­
ing aspects of deepfakes is that, in
many U.S. states and under many
conditions, there currently exist no
legal consequences for the creation
a nd dist r ibut ion of deepfa kes.
Social media only amplifies this
problem. As it stands, platforms,
such as Facebook and YouTube, are
not held liable for the content on
their sites, including deepfakes.
This issue has been of great recent
interest, as currently existing legis­
lation dictates that institutions,
such as bookstores, that knowingly
distribute books containing libelous
content but fail to act can be held
legally responsible, but distributor
liability for technology platforms
does not apply. To make matters
worse, the creation and distribution
of deepfakes is currently only
legally prohibited under
specific circumstances,
such as nonconsensual
pornography, and in
certain states, includ­
ing Virginia, Texas,
California, and New
York (Brown, 2019).
Ta ken toget her, t h is
information is extremely
concerning, as there exists
potential for anyone to create deep­
fakes of another individual without
their consent and distribute deep­
fake content on technology plat­
forms that do not face any legal
consequences for permitting such
material. Some additional measures
are currently being taken by the
U.S. government in the form of
advancing legislation to create a
task force to identify fake content
and verify its origins called the
Deepfake Task Force Act (Portman,
2021). Hopefully, as public aware­
ness of this issue grows, people
w ill become more war y of what
they trust online, verify the origins
of online content, and advocate
for increased legal measures to
protect against deepfake creation
and distribution.
 To combat the various negative consequences, a
proactive legal and computational approach
to detecting and exposing deepfakes
should be employed.
Conclusion
Deepfakes pose a serious threat to
individual safety, public opinion,
and political attitudes. A relatively
nascent technology, deepfakes only
first appeared in 2017 on the plat­
form Reddit, and, since then, this
technology has rapidly advanced,
leading to more realistic deepfakes
and more accessible means to cre­
ate them. Through the use of pub­
licly available algorithmic strate­
gies, such as autoencoders and
GA Ns, deepfake technology has
progressed at staggering rates, and
t hese te ch nolog ies h ave be en
employed in various deepfake gen­
erators. Wit h t h is tech nolog y,
unknowing victims can be depicted
in potentially harmful situations,
such as pornography; politicians
can be made to appear in scenes or
saying things that will have serious
consequences for the society at
large; and fake news can be created
and distributed to sway the public.
Conversely, various benefits arise
from deepfake technology, such as
advances in art, film, and medi­
cine. Overall, we should strive to
maximize the benefits and mini­
mize the harm posed by deepfakes
by taking a proactive approach to
identifying false content, verifying
the origins of online information,
and advocating for increased legal
measures to hold individuals and
platforms accountable for the cre­
ation and distribution of harmful
deepfake content.
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fakes-49f510056387#:~:text=A I%
2DGenerated ​ % 20 Sy nt het ic%20
Media%2C%20a ka,cr imina l%20
forensics%2C%20and%20artistic
%20expression
• S. Tariq, S. Lee, and S. Woo,
“One detector to rule them all:
Towards a general deepfake attack
detection framework,” in Proc. Web
Conf., Apr. 2021, pp. 3625–3637,
doi: 10.1145/3442381.3449809.
• R . P o r t m a n . 117 t h C O N ­
GR ESS (2021-2022). (2021, Aug.
4 ). S.2559 - Deepfake Task Force
Act. Congress.gov. [Online]. Avail­
able: https://w w w.congress.gov/
bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/
2559?q=%7B%22search%22%3A
%5B%22S.2559%22%5D%7D&s=1
&r=1
About the authors
Jennifer A. Fehring ( j.fehring@
northeastern.edu) earned her B.S.
degree from Carleton College in
Northfield Minnesota. She is cur­
rently a master’s degree student at
Khoury College of Computer Scienc­
es, Northeastern University, Boston,
MA USA. Her research interests are
primarily in privacy and security.
Tamara Bonaci (t.bonaci@
northeastern.edu) earned her B.S.
degree from the University of Zagreb
and her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees
from the University of Washington.
She is an assistant teaching profes­
sor at Khoury College of Computer
Sciences, Northeastern University,
Boston, MA USA, and an affiliate
assistant professor in the Depart­
ment of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, University of Washing­
ton, Seattle, WA, USA. Her research
interests include security, privacy,
and the societal impact of emerging
technologies, with a special interest
in biomedical technologies.
 Protect your user!

Raymond E. Floyd

I
n t he electronic environ- interesting challenge to the devel-
ment of today, the sophis- opers of the many software
tication of a user can- applications offered to the
not be anticipated to user community today.
be at any particu- For example, the owner
lar advanced level. As of a Brand X smartphone
a m at t er of f act , wishes to change some-
users ra nge from one’s home telephone
f i r st g r ader s, t o number but not the
i nd i v idua ls w it h mobile number in the
adva nced k nowl- contact list. Selecting
edge, to elders with the CONTACT icon
little or no technical brings the user to the
background. As a contact list. He or she
result, a much great- then pages to the par-
er burden is placed on ticular person’s number
software developers to to be changed. Selecting
ensure the product they that picture, or icon, pres-
release operates correctly ents the user with a page of
under any conceivable key contact information, including
entry from a user. Anything less the home and mobile telephone
can be a disaster for a product, or numbers as well as email and mail-
©SHUTTERSTOCK.COM/OLEKSANDRSHNURYK
set of products, due to customer ing addresses.
dissatisfaction and complaints. At the top of the display, the
Whether one is wandering a they need and ignore all of the oth- user can see two options: EDIT and
street in a city, sitting and enjoy- er things their device is capable of. MORE. From the user’s perspec-
ing a meal in a restaurant, or walk- In that respect, they don’t know if tive, neither fits—he or she wants to
ing the halls of a high school or their device performs correctly or CHANGE the home phone number.
college, there will be people intent not, as long as what they wish to do If the user selects EDIT, the screen
on some subject matter on their is done properly. looks the same, except now there is
smartphones, iPads, or other mod- the option to EXIT or SAVE, but the
ern devices. In many cases, they are The user’s perspective user hasn’t done anything. He or
oblivious to the world around them. B e yond t h at v a st nu mb er of she then selects the GO BACK but-
While the majority of these indi- advanced users is an equally large ton, returning to the first screen.
viduals understand the technology group of those who may have little or Now, the user taps MORE and
they are using, at the user level, it no technical knowledge. They are not arrives at a set of options ranging
is doubtful that their knowledge sophisticated to the point that they from DELETE to ???. He or she may
goes much deeper. They use what can use current products as their reason that the number must be
predecessors did, e.g., the dial tele- deleted before it can be changed.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MPOT.2019.2910303
phone versus the smartphone. This Unfortunately, if the user selects
Date of current version: 6 September 2023 lack of understanding presents an DELETE, he or she is on the verge

0278-6648/23©2023IEEE IEEE POTENTIALS September/October 20 2 3 ■ 39
of deleting the contact. Even the
warning message “Do you want to
delete this contact?” may not reg-
ister with the user. If the user does
choose the DELETE option, he or
she now finds that the process of
entering that contact needs to be
restarted, hopefully with the new
telephone number as well as all
of the other information that had
been included.
Of course, the developer may say
that the user should have read the
manual before attempting this ac-
tion. The Brand X manual is about
300 pages in length and written to a
high school graduate level of under-
standing and language—not a par-
ticularly good combination for the
casual user.
Perhaps the most fundamental
problem rests with the developer, who
understands what he or she is trying
to do and the method programmed
to achieve a particular goal. Unfortu-
nately, users most often will not have
that level of understanding—they
bring only an anticipation of suc-
cess in using the particular tech-
nology. There is also some level of
confidence that all possible entries
have been tested during the devel-
opment phase of the product, and,
therefore, the product cannot per-
form incorrectly. That is an assump-
tion for most products, which is more
often not true. It is a difficult task to
ensure that “every possible” selection
has been tested. Even when the nor-
mal developer testing has been com-
pleted and some user testing done,
there will be various combinations of
inputs that have not been included
but will often happen in the world of
the using community.
The developer’s knowledge
A second cha llenge, less often
encountered, is a lack of under-
standing on the part of the develop-
er regarding the problem being
solved. A simple example is in the
conversion of temperatures from
one scale to another, say degrees
Celsius (°C) to degrees Fahrenheit
(°F) or °F to kelvin (K). [Typically,
temperatures will be in °F, °C, K, or
degrees Rankin (°R)]. A typical
40 ■ S e p t e mber /O ctober 2023
application could output a message
similar to this:
E nt e r t e mp e r at u r e t o b e
converted:
Does the developer expect a scale
identifier (“F,” “C,” “K,” or “R”), or is
the user to input the value to be
converted? It would be better to out-
put a message such as this:
Enter temperature scale being
converted from:
Of course, then the user may input
“F,” “C,” “K,” or “R,” or he or she
might enter “f,” “c,” “k,” or “r,” not
knowing the developer is expecting
uppercase letters, not lowercase—
and the program does not function
as expected. Either the message to
the user must be explicit, or the
program should be flexible enough
to accept either (and ignore any
other entry from the user).
If the developer does not under-
stand the relationships between the
various scales, this could also pro-
duce invalid results. For example,
when converting from °F to K, the
formula is given as
K = cF + 459.67.
If a user were to enter –460 °F, the
result might be displayed as
cK = - 0.33.
Such a result provides two incorrect
identities. First, since the late 1960s,
the Kelvin temperature has been
designated as an absolute number,
not degrees. The answer should
appear as
K = - 0.33.
The second problem is that the Kelvin
scale is also known as absolute zero;
therefore, K may never be a negative
number (at least in current physics
definitions). This is something the
developer must know and guard
against, outputting a message to the
user that the temperature entered in
°F is not valid and cannot be lower
than –459.67 (K = 0). As an aside, the
Rankin scale also has this same lower
limit but is expressed in degrees.
IEEE POTENTIALS
The success or acceptance of a
particular application depends heav-
ily on the knowledge and skills of the
developer. While many developers get
wrapped up in the nuances and ele-
gance of an application, the develop-
er who will most often be successful
is the one who can take a step back
and view the product from the user’s
perspective. That does not limit the
developer to elegant solutions, as
long as he or she remembers that the
user does not see the elegance, only
the results. Testing new products for
the complete and proper operation
can be time-consuming and boring,
but, when it is done completely and
correctly, the user benefits from a
truly operational application and the
developer from a successful product.
About the author
Raymond E. Floyd (r.f loyd@ieee
.org) earned his B.S.E.E. degree
from the Florida Institute of Tech-
nology, Melbourne, Florida, USA, in
1970; his M.S.E.E. degree from
Florida Atlantic University, Boca
Raton, Florida, USA, in 1977; and
his Ph.D. degree in engineering man-
agement from California Coast Uni-
versity, Santa Ana, California, USA,
in 2009. He spent 26 years with IBM,
Armonk, New York, USA, retiring in
1992 as a senior engineer. He was
programmer for more than 40 years,
programming in a wide variety of
languages. He was an adjunct pro-
fessor for three years at Florida
Atlantic University and was a visit-
ing lecturer at Northwest College in
Powell, Wyoming, 82435, USA. He
was a Life Senior Member of IEEE,
life senior member of the Society
of Manufacturing Engineers, and
member of the Society of Petroleum
Engineers and the American Soci-
ety for Engineering Education. He
most recently coauthored a text,
Perspectives on Engineering (2011);
an IEEE e-book, Shaping an Engi-
neering Career: Book 2: Dual Career
Ladders (2013); and another text,
So You Want To Be an Engineer?
(2015). He passed away in May,
2023, after a lifetime of contribu-
tions to the field.

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