{"693637":{"#nid":"693637","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Researchers Create Tool to Detect AI-Hallucinated Legal Citations ","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAs more legal documents are drafted with large language models (LLMs), falsified citations are becoming a problem for the people who rely on them. Georgia Tech researchers have created a tool to help lawyers verify their work.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThrough a donation from IBM, Georgia Tech\u2019s Center for Scientific Software Engineering (CSSE) and Open Source Program Office (OSPO) held a fellowship competition for students to work with mentors at CSSE and OSPO to create the tool. Master\u2019s students \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/adrian123l.github.io\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAdrian Lozada\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/woodygoodenough.com\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDi Wu\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E were selected as fellows to work on the project.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/github.com\/gt-csse\/mellea-lrc\/\u0022\u003EThe Mellea Legal Requirements Checker\u003C\/a\u003E (Mellea-LRC) can quickly identify and accurately verify case law citations, specifically checking for citations that are hallucinated by artificial intelligence (AI). One fellowship goal was to give lawyers and others in the legal field a tool to easily verify legal citations. Mella-LRC does this by using both LLMs and IBM\u2019s Mellea open-source framework to verify and repair LLM prompts. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe team tested the tool on 26 public court-filing documents containing falsified citations. Mellea-LRC can process a document in about eight minutes. The tool first extracts the case law citations from the legal document. It then verifies that each citation is authentic and supports the document\u0027s content.\u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIBM\u2019s Mellea framework was the foundation we built it on. Mellea\u2019s job is to make model calls predictable: you write the rules the output must satisfy as ordinary code, and the framework retries until LLM output meets them. Our job was to leverage the framework to build the legal application from end to end,\u201d Wu said.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAn important aspect of the project was ensuring the tool\u2019s code was open source. The team supported this goal by also creating and releasing a new test and validation dataset on Hugging Face \u2013 a popular open-source AI development community \u2013 for future benchmarking studies.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAgentic AI is growing quickly, and much of the growth happens in open-source projects, where anyone can read, use, and improve the work,\u201d Lozada said.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOSPO Director and Principal Research Scientist \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/jyoung3131.github.io\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EJeff\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003EYoung\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E noted that IBM\u2019s Mellea framework was critical to this work in that its \u201cinstruct, verify, repair\u201d paradigm allows for the creation of reliable LLM loops as well as the use of small language models (SLMs), such as IBM\u2019s Granite, which can be run on a laptop.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThis project demonstrates the power of open-source models like IBM Granite as well as the importance of using novel software engineering and algorithmic techniques from the Mellea project to improve the reliability of our existing LLMs and SLMs.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMellea-LRC provides a compelling example of AI\u2019s potential to evolve from a source of error in the legal profession into a trusted ally by helping lawyers work faster and cite precedents more accurately,\u201d Young said.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThrough a donation from IBM, Georgia Tech\u2019s Center for Scientific Software Engineering (CSSE) and Open Source Program Office (OSPO) held a fellowship competition for students to work with mentors at CSSE and OSPO to create the tool. Master\u2019s students \u003Cstrong\u003EAdrian Lozada\u003C\/strong\u003E and \u003Cstrong\u003EDi Wu\u003C\/strong\u003E were selected as fellows to work on the project.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Mellea Legal Requirements Checker (Mellea-LRC) can quickly identify and accurately verify case law citations, specifically checking for citations that are hallucinated by artificial intelligence (AI). One fellowship goal was to give lawyers and others in the legal field a tool to easily verify legal citations. Mella-LRC does this by using both LLMs and IBM\u2019s Mellea open-source framework to verify and repair LLM prompts. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech researchers have created a tool that detects AI-hallucinated citations in legal documents. "}],"uid":"36532","created_gmt":"2026-10-29 21:10:19","changed_gmt":"2026-10-30 19:37:40","author":"Morgan Usry","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-10-30T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-10-30T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681600":{"id":"681600","type":"image","title":"AdobeStock_2cc0dae5-a93c-42b2-bf30-419166aa8f0b.jpg","body":null,"created":"1793308229","gmt_created":"2026-10-29 21:10:29","changed":"1793308229","gmt_changed":"2026-10-29 21:10:29","alt":"AI analyzing legal document","file":{"fid":"266026","name":"AdobeStock_2cc0dae5-a93c-42b2-bf30-419166aa8f0b.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/29\/AdobeStock_2cc0dae5-a93c-42b2-bf30-419166aa8f0b.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/29\/AdobeStock_2cc0dae5-a93c-42b2-bf30-419166aa8f0b.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":107712,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/10\/29\/AdobeStock_2cc0dae5-a93c-42b2-bf30-419166aa8f0b.jpg?itok=vOEwx20X"}}},"media_ids":["681600"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"50875","name":"School of Computer Science"}],"categories":[{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"2556","name":"artificial intelligence"},{"id":"5155","name":"open source"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMorgan Usry, Communications Officer, School of Computer Science\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["morgan.usry@cc.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"693622":{"#nid":"693622","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Researchers Find Architectural Backdoors in AI Models Are Harder to Exploit in the Real World","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EImagine a vehicle powered by artificial intelligence (AI) whose object detection system has been secretly modified to misidentify stop signs whenever a particular visual pattern appears in its camera feed.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUnlike traditional AI backdoors, which manipulate a model\u0027s learned parameters, architectural backdoors hide malicious instructions directly in the code that defines how the model operates.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHowever, everyday image-processing operations, such as cropping, adjusting contrast, or adding noise, can change a trigger pattern and prevent an attack from working, according to \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/davidoygenblik.github.io\/pdfs\/FAULT.pdf\u0022\u003Enew research\u003C\/a\u003E from Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe findings challenge assumptions about how practical these attacks are. Although previous research showed that architectural backdoors could work under controlled conditions, the Georgia Tech team found that existing approaches struggle to remain effective and difficult to detect when AI systems process images under realistic conditions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe biggest misconception is that demonstrating an architectural backdoor under controlled conditions means it will actually work in the real world,\u201d said \u003Cstrong\u003EDavid Oygenblik\u003C\/strong\u003E, Ph.D. student and lead author of the study.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe study details the development of FAULT, a framework for evaluating architectural backdoors under realistic conditions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe findings reveal a tradeoff. Attackers can make a backdoor more sensitive, so it recognizes its trigger after an image has been changed. But that also increases the chance that ordinary images will accidentally activate the backdoor, potentially hurting the AI system\u2019s performance.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cFor the architectural backdoors we study, this tradeoff is fundamental,\u201d Oygenblik said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe team found that this problem persisted across five methods of implementing architectural backdoors. Even when attackers knew how the system would process images, they struggled to make their attacks both reliable and difficult to detect.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe research did not test attacks against real vehicles or other production systems, nor did it demonstrate outcomes such as crashes or ransomware. Instead, it examined whether existing architectural backdoors could reliably activate under different image-processing conditions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHowever, the findings highlight a potential risk in the AI software supply chain. If an attacker inserted malicious code into an AI model used in a real system, the backdoor could potentially cause incorrect predictions when its trigger was detected. The consequences would depend on how the system used the model\u2019s output.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBecause architectural backdoors hide in code, examining a model\u2019s learned parameters or retraining it may not be enough to uncover or remove the threat.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOygenblik said developers should test AI systems under realistic conditions, watch for unexpected drops in accuracy, and examine model code for suspicious trigger-detection logic.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/davidoygenblik.github.io\/pdfs\/FAULT.pdf\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EFinding FAULTs in Architectural Backdoors: Why Trigger Detection Fails Under Real-World Conditions\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, was accepted to the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sigsac.org\/ccs\/CCS2026\/\u0022\u003EACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security\u003C\/a\u003E. The authors will present the paper in The Hague in November.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOygenblik conducted the research with undergraduate students \u003Cstrong\u003ETeja Akella\u003C\/strong\u003E and \u003Cstrong\u003ETanmay Gupta\u003C\/strong\u003E, Ph.D. student \u003Cstrong\u003EYizhi Huang,\u003C\/strong\u003E and Associate Professor \u003Cstrong\u003EBrendan Saltaformaggio\u003C\/strong\u003E of Georgia Tech\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cyfi.ece.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ECyber Forensics Innovation Laboratory\u003C\/a\u003E. The lab is a collaboration between the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/scp.cc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003C\/a\u003E and the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ece.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Electrical and Computer Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EArchitectural backdoors in AI models appear harder to exploit reliably under real-world image processing. Georgia Tech researchers developed FAULT to evaluate these threats beyond controlled demonstrations.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2022\u2002Cropping, contrast changes, and similar transformations can disrupt visual triggers across five backdoor methods.\u003Cbr\u003E\u2022\u2002Increasing trigger sensitivity improves reliability but also raises accidental activations and may reduce system performance.\u003Cbr\u003E\u2022\u2002The study warns that parameter inspection or retraining may miss code-based threats, urging realistic testing and code reviews for suspicious trigger logic.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Architectural backdoors in AI models appear harder to exploit reliably under real-world image processing. Georgia Tech researchers developed FAULT to evaluate these threats beyond controlled demonstrations."}],"uid":"36253","created_gmt":"2026-10-29 17:11:18","changed_gmt":"2026-10-29 17:16:10","author":"John Popham","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-10-29T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-10-29T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681594":{"id":"681594","type":"image","title":"Car-security.png","body":null,"created":"1793293918","gmt_created":"2026-10-29 17:11:58","changed":"1793293918","gmt_changed":"2026-10-29 17:11:58","alt":"A digital car with a lock on the top of it ","file":{"fid":"266018","name":"Car-security.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/29\/Car-security.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/29\/Car-security.png","mime":"image\/png","size":758850,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/10\/29\/Car-security.png?itok=cyR93DUW"}}},"media_ids":["681594"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"660406","name":"School of Cybersecurity \u0026 Privacy"},{"id":"660367","name":"School of Cybersecurity and Privacy"}],"categories":[{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"145171","name":"Cybersecurity"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJohn Popham\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECommunications Officer for the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jpopham3@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"693612":{"#nid":"693612","#data":{"type":"news","title":"New Faculty Joins Tech to Advance Medicine and Science through AI","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAs doctors increasingly rely on computational approaches to examine and treat patients, Georgia Tech is building its expertise at the intersection of healthcare, computer vision, and artificial intelligence (AI).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/pwang.pw\/\u0022\u003EJiayun (Peter) Wang\u003C\/a\u003E began his tenure-track career on Oct. 15 as an assistant professor in the School of Computational Science and Engineering (\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cse.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ECSE\u003C\/a\u003E).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAt Georgia Tech, Wang will develop new AI tools to help doctors make better use of complex medical data. His research aims to transform information from medical images, clinical measurements, and patient records into clearer insights that improve diagnosis, treatment, and patient care.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI\u2019m excited to build a lab at Georgia Tech, and to work with students and collaborators on new ideas,\u201d Wang said. \u201cI hope our research can connect fundamental advances in AI with real challenges in healthcare and science.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBefore starting at Georgia Tech, Wang conducted postdoctoral research at Caltech and worked as a senior research scientist at Accenture. He earned his Ph.D. in 2023 from the University of California, Berkeley.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMuch of Wang\u2019s healthcare research builds on computer vision, which enables machines to interpret images and videos.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor example, lung ultrasound is a fast, portable, and radiation-free way to check breathing problems. However, a drawback is that images can be hard to read.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWang led the development of\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/pwang.pw\/lungNO\/\u0022\u003ELUNA\u003C\/a\u003E, an AI method that converts raw ultrasound signals into maps showing how air is distributed in the lungs. This approach makes bedside lung exams more consistent and easier to interpret.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWang has also used AI to improve another common type of medical imaging: MRI.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMRI scans can take time to complete, and analyzing the results can take even longer. Patients may find it uncomfortable to lie still in a scanner and waiting for results can add stress during an already difficult time. Long scans and reviews can also make it harder for doctors to schedule procedures and consult specialists.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo overcome this shortfall, Wang worked on a team that built a\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2410.16290\u0022\u003Esingle, flexible AI model\u003C\/a\u003E that reconstructs high-quality MRI images from fewer measurements across different scanning settings. Along with enabling faster scans, the approach preserves the details doctors need to make informed decisions.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESurgeon training is another way Wang has helped doctors using computer vision techniques.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDuring robot-assisted surgery, trainees receive guidance from experienced surgeons. However, it is difficult to know what advice improves techniques. A\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/proceedings.mlr.press\/v259\/gupta25a.html\u0022\u003Esurgical-training study\u003C\/a\u003E that Wang co-authored combined video and spoken feedback to assess trainee learning.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWang has used less serious clinical conditions to improve quality of life through AI. Dry eye is one of the most common reasons people visit eye clinics, yet the condition is difficult to assess.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWorking with collaborators at UC Berkeley, Wang studied AI methods to analyze patient information alongside images of tiny glands in the eyelids. This work contributed to AI tools that assist in \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2410.00292\u0022\u003Ediagnosing ocular surface diseases\u003C\/a\u003E and\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41598-025-96778-x\u0022\u003Epredicting dry eye onset based on lifestyle factors\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBeyond healthcare, Wang also works to make AI easier to train and use. His research helps models learn from images without extensive human labeling and build strong systems that require less computing power.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMedical measurements are often noisy, incomplete, or difficult to interpret. Yet they can carry information that matters for doctors and patients,\u201d said Wang.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI\u2019m motivated by the opportunity to combine what we know about the physical world with new learning methods to build AI systems that are more reliable and useful.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELooking ahead, Wang is building the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/swilab.cc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESWI Lab\u003C\/a\u003E (science, world models, and intelligence) at Georgia Tech.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe lab develops AI \u201cworld models\u201d that learn how physical and biological systems behave, predict how they change, and help researchers draw insights from incomplete measurements. This work connects fundamental AI advances with challenges in medicine and science.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPh.D. students\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/xfeng01.github.io\/\u0022\u003EXinsong Feng\u003C\/a\u003E and\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/zwt.zip\/\u0022\u003EWentao Zhou\u003C\/a\u003E joined SWI Lab this fall as its inaugural members. The lab welcomes prospective students, research interns, and visitors interested in world models and Wang\u2019s work.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe opportunity to work across computing, engineering, and science attracted me most to Georgia Tech,\u201d Wang said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe most interesting problems often require both new AI ideas and deep knowledge of their applications. I look forward to studying those problems through new relationships and collaborations.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAs doctors increasingly rely on computational approaches to examine and treat patients, Georgia Tech is building its expertise at the intersection of healthcare, computer vision, and artificial intelligence (AI).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:https:\/\/pwang.pw\/\u0022\u003EJiayun (Peter) Wang\u003C\/a\u003E began his tenure-track career on Oct. 15 as an assistant professor in the School of Computational Science and Engineering (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:https:\/\/cse.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ECSE\u003C\/a\u003E).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAt Georgia Tech, Wang will develop new AI tools to help doctors make better use of complex medical data. His research aims to transform information from medical images, clinical measurements, and patient records into clearer insights that improve diagnosis, treatment, and patient care.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Jiayun (Peter) Wang began his tenure-track career at Georgia Tech on Oct. 15. He is an assistant professor in the School of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE) specializing in computer vision and AI for healthcare, biology, and science."}],"uid":"36319","created_gmt":"2026-10-29 15:05:18","changed_gmt":"2026-10-29 15:44:35","author":"Bryant Wine","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-10-29T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-10-29T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681588":{"id":"681588","type":"image","title":"PW3-Story-Head-Image.jpg","body":null,"created":"1793286333","gmt_created":"2026-10-29 15:05:33","changed":"1793286333","gmt_changed":"2026-10-29 15:05:33","alt":"CSE Peter Wang","file":{"fid":"266010","name":"PW3-Story-Head-Image.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/29\/PW3-Story-Head-Image.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/29\/PW3-Story-Head-Image.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":125726,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/10\/29\/PW3-Story-Head-Image.jpg?itok=4ow99w4n"}}},"media_ids":["681588"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"50877","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"138","name":"Biotechnology, Health, Bioengineering, Genetics"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"654","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"166983","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"9153","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"10199","name":"Daily Digest"},{"id":"181991","name":"Georgia Tech News Center"},{"id":"170447","name":"Institute for Data Engineering and Science"},{"id":"9167","name":"machine learning"},{"id":"187812","name":"artificial intelligence (AI)"},{"id":"192863","name":"go-ai"},{"id":"194384","name":"Tech AI"},{"id":"11506","name":"computer vision"},{"id":"194391","name":"AI in Healthcare"},{"id":"195233","name":"AI in medicine"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"},{"id":"39431","name":"Data Engineering and Science"},{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBryant Wine, Communications Officer\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:bryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ebryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"693211":{"#nid":"693211","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Deleted AI Chats May Leave Clues Behind","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EDeleting a conversation with an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant may not erase everything the assistant remembers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech researchers have developed a tool that can recover deleted conversations from AI assistants running on Android phones. The tool, called \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ieeexplore.ieee.org\/abstract\/document\/11573549\u0022\u003EORISA\u003C\/a\u003E, can also rebuild the recovered information into a working AI session.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe findings show that deleting an AI conversation on a phone does not necessarily mean it removes every trace.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe research could give digital investigators a new way to recover information from phones. It also raises privacy concerns for people who use AI assistants that run locally on their devices.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELocal AI assistants run directly on a phone rather than sending conversations to a cloud service. While the local assistant is running, information from conversations can remain in the phone\u2019s working memory even after it is deleted.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EORISA searches this memory for pieces of deleted conversations.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn one experiment, researchers created a fictional AI assistant called \u201cProject Note Keeper\u201d using the ChatterUI Android app. They gave it 100 fictional facts about a project, then deleted the conversation.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EORISA recovered information from the deleted conversation and used it to create a new working session. When researchers asked the restored assistant to list the project notes it had been given, it returned 26 facts. The original session could access only 14 facts because the rest had fallen outside its active memory.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe experiment showed that researchers could recover information the AI had already stopped actively using.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt can help establish what information someone shared with an AI assistant and what assistance they received,\u201d said Ph.D. student \u003Cstrong\u003EKen Xu\u003C\/strong\u003E, lead author of the study.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers tested ORISA with 10 Android apps and three AI models. Across 60 test configurations, the tool recovered conversation information that remained in the phone\u2019s memory.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers say the information becomes harder to recover as the phone\u2019s memory is overwritten by other activity.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe research was presented at the 2026 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy. The paper, titled \u003Cem\u003ERecovering and Rehosting Mobile Local LLM Conversations and Contexts via Memory Forensics,\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003Ewas authored by Ph.D. students Xu, \u003Cstrong\u003EDavid Oygenblik\u003C\/strong\u003E, \u003Cstrong\u003ERunze Zhang\u003C\/strong\u003E, and \u003Cstrong\u003EMingxuan Yao\u003C\/strong\u003E; Research Scientist \u003Cstrong\u003EMuhammad Ibrahim\u003C\/strong\u003E; and Associate Professor \u003Cstrong\u003EBrendan\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003ESaltaformaggio\u003C\/strong\u003E. The work was done in Georgia Tech\u0027s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cyfi.ece.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ECyber Forensics Innovation Laboratory\u003C\/a\u003E, a collaboration between the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/scp.cc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003C\/a\u003E and the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.ece.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Electrical and Computer Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EDeleting a locally stored AI conversation may remove it from view without eliminating its data. Researchers find that deleted local AI chats may remain recoverable from a phone\u2019s memory through a new tool called ORISA. ORISA recovered 26 of 100 project facts from a deleted Android AI session\u2014more than the original session could still access. This shows that information an assistant appears to have forgotten may remain forensically recoverable.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Researchers find that deleted local AI chats may remain recoverable from a phone\u2019s memory through a new tool called ORISA."}],"uid":"36253","created_gmt":"2026-10-13 12:45:52","changed_gmt":"2026-10-26 12:59:02","author":"John Popham","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-10-13T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-10-13T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681416":{"id":"681416","type":"image","title":"Cyfi-Lab-Brendan-and-Student.jpg","body":null,"created":"1791895736","gmt_created":"2026-10-13 12:48:56","changed":"1791895736","gmt_changed":"2026-10-13 12:48:56","alt":"A man points to a rack of CPUs. He is talking to a student who is slighlty out of focus. ","file":{"fid":"265819","name":"Cyfi-Lab-Brendan-and-Student.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/13\/Cyfi-Lab-Brendan-and-Student.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/13\/Cyfi-Lab-Brendan-and-Student.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":362068,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/10\/13\/Cyfi-Lab-Brendan-and-Student.jpg?itok=zg3onBN9"}}},"media_ids":["681416"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"660406","name":"School of Cybersecurity \u0026 Privacy"},{"id":"660367","name":"School of Cybersecurity and Privacy"}],"categories":[{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"145171","name":"Cybersecurity"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jpopham3@gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJohn Popham\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr\u003ECommunications Officer\u003Cbr\u003ESchool of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003Cbr\u003EGeorgia Tech\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"693264":{"#nid":"693264","#data":{"type":"news","title":"When a Ship\u2019s Systems Lie, Cybersecurity Gets Complicated","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ESailors at sea rely on electronic equipment to keep ships on course and out of danger, but what happens when hackers get involved? Are the mariners equipped to handle modern cybersecurity threats like GPS spoofing?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn a \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/arxiv.org\/pdf\/2609.12810\u0022\u003Estudy\u003C\/a\u003E accepted for the 2026 \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.sigsac.org\/ccs\/CCS2026\/index.html\u0022\u003EACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security\u003C\/a\u003E, Georgia Tech researchers interviewed 20 military sailors about their cybersecurity experiences, training, and responses to hypothetical scenarios. Their findings point to a gap between how mariners are trained to handle emergencies and how cyberattacks can compromise the systems they depend on.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe study found several gaps in how crews prepare for cyber threats:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli data-list-item-id=\u0022edf63c815360cecb04c01d6561be9a7b1\u0022\u003ETraining often misses the mark. Thirteen participants said that standard cybersecurity training was largely irrelevant to their shipboard duties, and 14 reported receiving no mission-specific cybersecurity training.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli data-list-item-id=\u0022e619f896d048b6bcd034a76176e6067bb\u0022\u003EOperational technology is often overlooked. Eighteen participants said their training did not distinguish between traditional information technology and operational technology, such as navigation and propulsion systems.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli data-list-item-id=\u0022e928f3fef211e61dcd97e963697bd9389\u0022\u003EObvious failures are easier to recognize. Eighteen participants said they would primarily look for visible signs of operational problems when identifying a potential cyberattack.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli data-list-item-id=\u0022e1499170bf08bd8a760ed09fee3a091d7\u0022\u003ECybersecurity is often a low priority. Seventeen participants described their cybersecurity training as absent, low quality, or a low priority.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThese gaps matter because cyberattacks can compromise a system without causing it to stop working. For example, an attacker could manipulate navigation data, leaving a crew to make decisions based on false information.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI\u2019d assume it was anything but cyber at first. It would probably take me quite some time to get to that conclusion,\u201d one participant told the researchers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe team examined three hypothetical scenarios: GPS spoofing, loss of propulsion control in a high-traffic area, and failure of electronic navigation systems in a congested channel at night.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn each scenario, mariners would first focus on keeping the vessel safe, using established procedures to stabilize the ship and troubleshoot its systems. While this response is essential during an emergency, it could delay recognition of an attack if crews do not consider that the system or its data may have been compromised.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor example, a ship navigating a narrow channel depends on accurate location information, but what happens when its navigation systems appear to work normally while a hacker manipulates that data?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAn attacker could use GPS spoofing to falsify a vessel\u2019s reported position. If the false position is close enough to the ship\u2019s actual location, a mariner might not notice anything wrong. The vessel could gradually head toward shallow water or another obstacle without triggering an obvious error or alarm.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cBy the time the mariner realizes something is wrong, the ship\u2019s size and limited maneuverability could make it too late to avoid a grounding or collision,\u201d said \u003Cstrong\u003EAnna Raymaker\u003C\/strong\u003E, a Georgia Tech Ph.D. student who studies maritime security.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe scenario illustrates a central challenge in maritime cybersecurity: An equipment failure may be easy to recognize, but a cyberattack that provides false information can be much harder to detect.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/arxiv.org\/pdf\/2609.12810\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EBatten the Hatches: Cybersecurity with Military Mariners\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003Ewas written by master\u2019s student \u003Cstrong\u003ERyan Von Brock\u003C\/strong\u003E, Raymaker, Research Scientist \u003Cstrong\u003EAnimesh Chhotaray\u003C\/strong\u003E, Associate Professors \u003Cstrong\u003EFrank Li\u003C\/strong\u003E and \u003Cstrong\u003ESaman Zonouz\u003C\/strong\u003E, and Provost \u0026amp; Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs \u003Cstrong\u003ERaheem Beyah\u003C\/strong\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe research was conducted in Georgia Tech\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sites.gatech.edu\/capcpsec\/\u0022\u003ECyber-Physical Security Lab\u003C\/a\u003E, a collaboration between the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/scp.cc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003C\/a\u003E and the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ece.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Electrical and Computer Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EPhotos by Terence Rushin\/College of Computing\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMaritime cybersecurity training leaves sailors vulnerable to attacks that manipulate ship systems without obvious failures. The Georgia Tech study identifies weaknesses in preparation and threat recognition among military mariners. Interviews with 20 military sailors found that 13 considered standard training irrelevant, while 14 lacked mission-specific cybersecurity training. Operational technology gaps affected 18 participants, and 18 said they would mainly seek visible operational problems when detecting attacks. In scenarios involving GPS spoofing and navigation or propulsion failures, crews prioritized vessel safety, but false data could delay detection and cause grounding or collision.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Maritime cybersecurity training leaves sailors vulnerable to attacks that manipulate ship systems without obvious failures. The Georgia Tech study identifies weaknesses in preparation and threat recognition among military mariners."}],"uid":"36253","created_gmt":"2026-10-16 13:29:06","changed_gmt":"2026-10-26 12:57:00","author":"John Popham","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-10-16T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-10-16T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681456":{"id":"681456","type":"image","title":"Saman-Zonouz-Lab_banner.jpg","body":null,"created":"1792414735","gmt_created":"2026-10-19 12:58:55","changed":"1792414735","gmt_changed":"2026-10-19 12:58:55","alt":"A group photo of students and faculty standing around lab equipment found on a ship. ","file":{"fid":"265864","name":"Saman-Zonouz-Lab_banner.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/19\/Saman-Zonouz-Lab_banner.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/19\/Saman-Zonouz-Lab_banner.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1807296,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/10\/19\/Saman-Zonouz-Lab_banner.jpg?itok=C77DD-Gm"}},"681458":{"id":"681458","type":"image","title":"Saman-Zonouz-Lab_side-view.jpg","body":null,"created":"1792414735","gmt_created":"2026-10-19 12:58:55","changed":"1792414735","gmt_changed":"2026-10-19 12:58:55","alt":"A group of students working on lab equipment. The equipment replicates a ship\u0027s helm. ","file":{"fid":"265866","name":"Saman-Zonouz-Lab_side-view.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/19\/Saman-Zonouz-Lab_side-view.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/19\/Saman-Zonouz-Lab_side-view.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1676397,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/10\/19\/Saman-Zonouz-Lab_side-view.jpg?itok=-Potoyjw"}},"681457":{"id":"681457","type":"image","title":"Saman-Zonouz-Lab_ship-equipment.jpg","body":null,"created":"1792414735","gmt_created":"2026-10-19 12:58:55","changed":"1792414735","gmt_changed":"2026-10-19 12:58:55","alt":"Lab equipment of a ship steering wheel and other electronic  measuring devices. ","file":{"fid":"265865","name":"Saman-Zonouz-Lab_ship-equipment.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/19\/Saman-Zonouz-Lab_ship-equipment.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/19\/Saman-Zonouz-Lab_ship-equipment.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1781292,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/10\/19\/Saman-Zonouz-Lab_ship-equipment.jpg?itok=mkKyqYFy"}}},"media_ids":["681456","681458","681457"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"660406","name":"School of Cybersecurity \u0026 Privacy"},{"id":"660367","name":"School of Cybersecurity and Privacy"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"147","name":"Military Technology"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"145171","name":"Cybersecurity"},{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jpopham3@gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJohn Popham\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr\u003ECommunications Officer\u003Cbr\u003ESchool of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003Cbr\u003EGeorgia Tech\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"693317":{"#nid":"693317","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech Researchers Find a Way to Reduce AI Chatbots\u2019 Reinforcement of Delusions","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EArtificial intelligence (AI) chatbots can give people a comfortable place to discuss personal thoughts and feelings. However, when a chatbot constantly agrees with a user, it can reinforce false beliefs and potentially \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/technology\/2025\/12\/ai-psychosis-is-a-medical-mystery\/685133\/?gift=rYkYJRkiFfFnni2r6QoYhEoKOopttUMYKvO0wk3NqmY\u0026amp;utm_source=copy-link\u0026amp;utm_medium=social\u0026amp;utm_campaign=share\u0022\u003Ecause harm\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/3849709\u0022\u003ENew research\u003C\/a\u003E from Georgia Tech suggests that a simple change to a chatbot\u2019s instructions could reduce that risk. The work was accepted to the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/3849709\u0022\u003EACM AI Letters\u003C\/a\u003E publication.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearchers \u003Cstrong\u003ELorenzo de la Loza\u003C\/strong\u003E and \u003Cstrong\u003EVijay Madisetti\u003C\/strong\u003E tested eight AI models in 1,280 experiments involving simulated conversations about delusional beliefs. They found that instructions designed to discourage excessive agreement reduced the models\u2019 confirmation of those beliefs by 73.8%. Adding a self-reflection step increased the reduction to 77%.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe think that this paper will help AI providers and solution creators better understand how best to protect and safeguard their users from harming themselves,\u201d Madisetti said. \u201cThis may make AI safer for all of us.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAI chatbots are designed to be helpful and supportive. But that behavior can become risky when a chatbot agrees with a user\u2019s beliefs without questioning whether they reflect reality. Researchers call this behavior sycophancy.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECourtney Crooks\u003C\/strong\u003E, a principal research scientist at the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/gtri.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EGeorgia Tech Research Institute\u003C\/a\u003E and adjunct faculty member in Georgia Tech\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/scp.cc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003C\/a\u003E, said chatbot conversations can have both positive and negative effects.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPeople may feel more comfortable discussing difficult thoughts with a chatbot than with another person. But if the chatbot always agrees, users may miss opportunities to question their beliefs or consider other points of view.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe same behavior that makes a chatbot feel supportive, Crooks explained, can also encourage harmful patterns of thinking.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers tested instructions that told AI models not to reinforce users\u2019 beliefs simply to be agreeable. The team evaluated the models using 16 clinically derived scenarios involving delusional beliefs.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe team also tested other safety tools, including systems designed to flag potentially harmful content. The results suggest that changing a chatbot\u2019s instructions can be an effective way to reduce excessive agreement in the scenarios tested.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECrooks called the findings a promising direction for future research combining psychology and AI safety.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe study did not test people in clinical settings or prove that the approach prevents real-world harm. However, it offers developers a potential way to make chatbots more careful when responding to vulnerable users without building an entirely new AI model.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech researchers found that instruction changes can reduce chatbots\u2019 reinforcement of delusional beliefs. The study suggests a practical safety measure while noting its real-world limits.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech researchers found that instruction changes can reduce chatbots\u2019 reinforcement of delusional beliefs."}],"uid":"36253","created_gmt":"2026-10-20 14:31:00","changed_gmt":"2026-10-26 12:55:58","author":"John Popham","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-10-20T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-10-20T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681502":{"id":"681502","type":"image","title":"AI-Chatbot.jpg","body":null,"created":"1792602258","gmt_created":"2026-10-21 17:04:18","changed":"1792602258","gmt_changed":"2026-10-21 17:04:18","alt":"A person at a computer. A little digital robot is hovering near his fingers.","file":{"fid":"265912","name":"AI-Chatbot.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/21\/AI-Chatbot.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/21\/AI-Chatbot.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1715464,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/10\/21\/AI-Chatbot.jpg?itok=9cA4rhB2"}},"681478":{"id":"681478","type":"image","title":"Vijay.jpg","body":null,"created":"1792507064","gmt_created":"2026-10-20 14:37:44","changed":"1792507064","gmt_changed":"2026-10-20 14:37:44","alt":"A man in a suit speaking with two students. ","file":{"fid":"265888","name":"Vijay.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/20\/Vijay_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/20\/Vijay_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1580263,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/10\/20\/Vijay_0.jpg?itok=Dfwgw1z0"}}},"media_ids":["681502","681478"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"660406","name":"School of Cybersecurity \u0026 Privacy"},{"id":"660367","name":"School of Cybersecurity and Privacy"}],"categories":[{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"192863","name":"go-ai"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"145171","name":"Cybersecurity"},{"id":"193653","name":"Georgia Tech Research Institute"},{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJohn Popham\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECommunications Officer for the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jpopham3@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"693393":{"#nid":"693393","#data":{"type":"news","title":"AI Improves Diabetes Care One Decision at a Time","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EPublic health systems often face a difficult challenge when time, funding, and resources are limited: who should receive care first? These decisions are complicated further by differences in patient needs, disease progression, and social factors like access to care.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA team of computer scientists and doctors led by Georgia Tech aims to change that. Using a system of artificial intelligence (AI) models, the team can help clinicians deliver the right intervention to the right patient at the right time.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETheir system uses Restless Multi-Armed Bandit (RMAB) models. While the name is technical, the idea is simple. The RMAB framework helps decision-makers choose the best actions over time when conditions are complex and constantly changing.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis project will tackle Type 2 Diabetes (T2D), building on previous experience expanding RMAB models to support maternal health care in India. Success on this front could lead to treating other chronic illnesses, like hypertension, heart disease, kidney disease, and mental health.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERecognizing the RMAB system\u2019s potential, the National Institutes of Health (NIH)\u0026nbsp; awarded the group an R01 grant.\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:https:\/\/reporter.nih.gov\/search\/Dar1PemdxE2k-lko4bhfMQ\/project-details\/11418002\u0022\u003EThe award will fund the project\u003C\/a\u003E with $1.2 million through 2029.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOur goal is to address the immense challenge of allocating limited health intervention resources in optimal ways,\u201d said\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:https:\/\/guaguakai.com\/\u0022\u003EKai Wang\u003C\/a\u003E, an assistant professor in the School of Computational Science and Engineering (\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:https:\/\/cse.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ECSE\u003C\/a\u003E).\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cBy leveraging rich contextual data and accounting for social determinants, we envision RMAB models that empower health centers to customize interventions to individual patient profiles. Ultimately, this advances precision medicine and ensures equitable healthcare access for diverse populations.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ET2D is a diabetes condition where the body resists insulin or doesn\u2019t produce enough to regulate blood sugar levels. Left unmanaged, high blood sugar leads to severe health problems like heart disease and stroke, damage to organs like eyes and kidneys, nerve damage, infections, and ulcers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ET2D is challenging to treat because patients have different ages, genetics, lifestyles, and body composition, all of which affect the progress of the disease. Social factors, like transportation and family support, matter just as much as biology to treat the disease.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor these reasons, patients who get the same medications may get very different results. While treatment plans now incorporate new GLP-1 drugs, they remain expensive and difficult to distribute equitably.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cDiabetes is a great example of a complicated, multi-faceted problem. It is a natural playground for the kind of high-dimensional machine learning algorithms we want to build and deploy,\u201d said School of CSE Professor\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:https:\/\/faculty.cc.gatech.edu\/~badityap\/\u0022\u003EB. Aditya Prakash\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAs a chronic disease, diabetes also creates opportunities for sequential decision-making. Providers are not making just one decision to treat the condition, but rather a series of decisions over time.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETrue to its multi-armed name, the team\u2019s framework applies RMAB models across three different thrusts.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EContextual RMABs use patient histories, biomarkers, demographics, and other data to predict how each individual will respond to an intervention. These models directly provide personalized, data-driven treatments.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy incorporating patient-specific information, contextual RMAB models can help healthcare providers prioritize the most timely interventions. The goal is to improve patient outcomes while making more efficient use of limited healthcare resources.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENext, the group wants to understand social life and community influence in public health. Families and social networks shape how people manage chronic health conditions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENetwork RMABs study and account for the role of social factors in health interventions. For example, the models can recognize when one patient responds better to treatment than others through benefits of their social circle.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMore broadly, hospitals, clinics, government agencies, and nonprofit organizations often share responsibility for the same population in an area. Sometimes, they even compete for the same medications or funding.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMulti-agent RMABs are the third glass of models aimed at decentralized health systems to make fairer decisions. These tools examine how to coordinate resources and decisions between stakeholders. This in turn leads to policies that encourage cooperation and equitable resource distribution.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI feel extremely confident in RMABs because we have already seen these frameworks deliver real-world impact,\u201d Wang said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cPrior success has proven the value of data-driven decision-making under resource constraints, giving us a strong blueprint to effectively address the nuances and complexities of diabetes.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWang previously built RMAB models to expand maternal healthcare for women in India. Working in conjunction with the non-profit organization ARMMAN, the models used healthcare information to identify and reach the most vulnerable populations.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy integrating RMAB models into ARMMAN mobile health technology, the partnership has reached over 350,000\u0026nbsp;mothers. This further led to a 31% improvement in engagement with health information.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECompared to maternal healthcare, diabetes is a more nuanced disease with differing causes, symptoms, and treatments. This requires a team effort spanning institutions and backgrounds. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr. \u003Cstrong\u003ESara Cromer\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;is an endocrinologist at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Experienced diagnosing and treating diabetes, she has studied how social issues and equity influences the disease. MGH will provide much of the patient data to train the RMAB models.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAssociate Professor\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:https:\/\/sites.google.com\/stonybrook.edu\/jianli\u0022\u003EJian Li\u003C\/a\u003E studies reinforcement learning at Stony Brook University. His expertise in applying reinforcement learning for resource allocation plays a key part tailoring models for the T2D problem. Wang and Li have previously worked together on RMAB research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPrakash is an expert in computational epidemiology at Georgia Tech. He has led substantial contributions to the use of AI for networks to predict outbreaks and track disease spread. This experience has led to collaborations with NIH, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Science Foundation, and others.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThis project speaks to the interdisciplinary problem-solving we try to achieve in CSE. Despite having different backgrounds, our interest in applying our strengths to real-world healthcare problems unites us together,\u201d Prakash said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThese problems require experts from all sides. Without computational scientists, we can\u2019t take advantage of available data. We lean on clinical experts to provide the data and expertise needed to guide our methods and make sense of results. Ultimately, these approaches need to be clinically validated if we want to make real-world progress.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EPublic health systems often face a difficult challenge when time, funding, and resources are limited: who should receive care first? These decisions are complicated further by differences in patient needs, disease progression, and social factors like access to care.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA team of computer scientists and doctors led by Georgia Tech aims to change that. Using a system of artificial intelligence (AI) models, the team can help clinicians deliver the right intervention to the right patient at the right time.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETheir system uses Restless Multi-Armed Bandit (RMAB) models. While the name is technical, the idea is simple. The RMAB framework helps decision-makers choose the best actions over time when conditions are complex and constantly changing.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis project will tackle Type 2 Diabetes (T2D), building on previous experience expanding RMAB models to support maternal health care in India. Success on this front could lead to treating other chronic illnesses, like hypertension, heart disease, kidney disease, and mental health.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"School of CSE researchers Kai Wang and B. Aditya Prakash are PIs of a $1.2 million NIH R01 grant to build AI models that consider individual, social, and system factors when treating patients with Type 2 Diabetes and other chronic illnesses."}],"uid":"36319","created_gmt":"2026-10-22 13:51:13","changed_gmt":"2026-10-26 12:55:43","author":"Bryant Wine","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-10-22T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-10-22T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681512":{"id":"681512","type":"image","title":"Wang-Prakash-NIH-R01-Head-Image.jpg","body":null,"created":"1792677082","gmt_created":"2026-10-22 13:51:22","changed":"1792677082","gmt_changed":"2026-10-22 13:51:22","alt":"CSE Wang Prakash NIH R01 Grant","file":{"fid":"265923","name":"Wang-Prakash-NIH-R01-Head-Image.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/22\/Wang-Prakash-NIH-R01-Head-Image.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/22\/Wang-Prakash-NIH-R01-Head-Image.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":174520,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/10\/22\/Wang-Prakash-NIH-R01-Head-Image.jpg?itok=F247Tcxl"}},"681513":{"id":"681513","type":"image","title":"RMAB-Figure-3.png","body":null,"created":"1792677124","gmt_created":"2026-10-22 13:52:04","changed":"1792677124","gmt_changed":"2026-10-22 13:52:04","alt":"CSE Wang Prakash NIH R01 Grant","file":{"fid":"265924","name":"RMAB-Figure-3.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/22\/RMAB-Figure-3.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/22\/RMAB-Figure-3.png","mime":"image\/png","size":82207,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/10\/22\/RMAB-Figure-3.png?itok=DiMd3WJi"}}},"media_ids":["681512","681513"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"50877","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"138","name":"Biotechnology, Health, Bioengineering, Genetics"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"654","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"166983","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"9153","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"10199","name":"Daily Digest"},{"id":"181991","name":"Georgia Tech News Center"},{"id":"170447","name":"Institute for Data Engineering and Science"},{"id":"176858","name":"machine learning center"},{"id":"9167","name":"machine learning"},{"id":"187812","name":"artificial intelligence (AI)"},{"id":"192863","name":"go-ai"},{"id":"194384","name":"Tech AI"},{"id":"49591","name":"Diabetes"},{"id":"186687","name":"diabetes research"},{"id":"755","name":"public health"},{"id":"108101","name":"chronic disease"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"39441","name":"Bioengineering and Bioscience"},{"id":"39431","name":"Data Engineering and Science"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71891","name":"Health and Medicine"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBryant Wine, Communications Officer\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:bryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ebryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"693304":{"#nid":"693304","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Where Are They Now? Team Atlanta Takes AI Cybersecurity Beyond the Competition","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/team-atlanta.github.io\/\u0022\u003ETeam Atlanta\u003C\/a\u003E spent two years exploring how artificial intelligence (AI) could help identify and fix software security problems as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sites.gatech.edu\/winningaixcc\/\u0022\u003EAI Cyber Challenge\u003C\/a\u003E (AIxCC).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAfter a grueling, world-class competition, the team \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/news\/georgia-tech-makes-history-wins-darpa-challenge\u0022\u003Ewon\u003C\/a\u003E the $4 million first-place prize in August 2025.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe team has since disbanded. Some members have moved into the corporate world, while others continue in academia. Despite these varied paths, Team Atlanta\u2019s search for breakthrough AI cybersecurity solutions continues.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EFrom AIxCC to Microsoft\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETeam Atlanta lead \u003Cstrong\u003ETaesoo\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003EKim\u003C\/strong\u003E, principal security researcher \u003Cstrong\u003EDongkwan\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003EKim\u003C\/strong\u003E, and three other former team members joined Microsoft Security after the competition, where they continue to work on AI and cybersecurity in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/github.com\/microsoft\/forge-lab\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EFrontier Offensive Research \u0026amp; Generative Exploitation (FORGE) Lab\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe move has given the researchers an opportunity to apply concepts from AIxCC to real-world software. It has also exposed them to challenges that are difficult to replicate in a competition or research lab.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDongkwan Kim said that team members continue to share what they learned through research papers, reports, software, and benchmarks. At Microsoft, these lessons are tested against real customer code.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis work led to \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/security\/blog\/2026\/05\/12\/defense-at-ai-speed-microsofts-new-multi-model-agentic-security-system-tops-leading-industry-benchmark\/\u0022\u003EMDASH\u003C\/a\u003E, Microsoft\u0027s multi-agent, multi-model system for vulnerability discovery and remediation. The system uses more than 100 AI agents to search for vulnerabilities, validate potential findings, and help develop fixes.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERather than asking a single AI model if a piece of code contains a vulnerability, MDASH can examine a problem using multiple agents. The system can also try to create an exploit to determine whether a potential vulnerability is real and reachable.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor Dongkwan Kim and the other former Team Atlanta members at Microsoft, moving from AIxCC to MDASH showed how research can look different when applied to real software.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAIxCC was not an endpoint for Team Atlanta,\u201d he said. \u201cWe continue sharing what we learned through technical reports, papers, open artifacts, and benchmarks for vulnerability discovery and patching.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWorking with customer code introduced new challenges for the Microsoft team. The researchers had to consider security boundaries, existing development processes, how findings would be reviewed, and how vulnerabilities would be prioritized for action.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThese challenges created a new feedback loop between research and product development. The team took ideas from AIxCC, test them on real software, learn where they worked and where they fell short, and use those lessons to improve the system.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe experience also showed that AI does not replace the need for cybersecurity experts. Human researchers are still needed to provide context, decide how to break down difficult problems, validate findings, understand attack paths, and determine the potential impact of a vulnerability.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETaesoo Kim, a professor in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/scp.cc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003C\/a\u003E and vice president of security research at Microsoft, said the competition continues to influence the Microsoft team\u0027s work.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cEvery single activity that we\u2019ve done at Microsoft was influenced by AIxCC,\u201d he said in a \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/commandline.microsoft.com\/taesoo-kim-interview-mdash-security-research\/\u0022\u003E2026 interview with Microsoft\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe work has continued to grow. In 2026, Microsoft introduced \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/microsoft.ai\/models\/mai-cyber-1-flash\/\u0022\u003EMAI-Cyber-1-Flash\u003C\/a\u003E, an AI model built specifically for cybersecurity and designed to work with MDASH.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe model is designed to handle many of MDASH\u0027s tasks while allowing larger AI models to focus on harder problems. Microsoft reported that replacing 80% of the models used by MDASH with MAI-Cyber-1-Flash increased its performance on the CyberGym benchmark from 88.4% to 95.95%.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe benchmark includes more than 1,500 examples from 188 software projects. Microsoft also reported that the new setup can achieve similar performance at half the cost of the previous MDASH configuration.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAIxCC has sparked cybersecurity innovation across the globe, from frontier AI companies to small academic labs,\u201d said Taesoo Kim. \u201cIt is an incredibly exciting time to be working in AI-driven security engineering and research, as we see AI fundamentally reshape how we find and fix vulnerabilities at scale.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EContinuing the Research at Georgia Tech\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe AIxCC experience also continues to shape cybersecurity research at Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EJiho\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003EKim\u003C\/strong\u003E, a Georgia Tech Ph.D. student who was part of Team Atlanta\u0027s research efforts, said one of the biggest lessons he\u2019s brought back to campus was learning how AI and traditional security tools can work together.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne of these tools is fuzzing. Fuzzing tests software with large numbers of inputs to detect unexpected behavior or security problems. Large language models (LLMs), meanwhile, can reason about code and help guide the search.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDuring the AIxCC competition, the Team Atlanta combined these ideas in \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/3832783.3834365\u0022\u003ECtxFuzz\u003C\/a\u003E, a system that uses an LLM to help guide fuzzing toward parts of software that may contain vulnerabilities.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe research was submitted to the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/conf.researchr.org\/home\/ase-2026\u0022\u003EACM\/IEEE International Conference on Automated Software Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E, where it received the ACM Distinguished Paper Award.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cSince AIxCC, we\u2019ve continued building on some of the core findings from our two-year journey with Team Atlanta,\u201d Jiho Kim said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOne of the biggest lessons for us was understanding how LLMs and traditional fuzzing can work together in a mutually beneficial way, using each to overcome the limitations of the other and ultimately find more and deeper vulnerabilities.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers also wanted to make the lessons from AIxCC useful to other cybersecurity researchers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThey created an \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/news\/competition-community-how-team-atlantas-ai-cybersecurity-breakthrough-going-open-source\u0022\u003EOpen-Source Cyber Reasoning System Framework\u003C\/a\u003E (OSS-CRS) and CRSBench, which provides researchers and security professionals with ways to use, test, and build on technology developed through AIxCC.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe\u2019ve also been focused on making the results of AIxCC useful to the broader security community,\u201d Kim said. \u201cWe created OSS-CRS and CRSBench so that researchers and practitioners can more easily use, reproduce, and build upon the capabilities and lessons from our AIxCC work.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe team\u0027s research has also moved beyond identifying vulnerabilities. Researchers are studying how well AI models can understand and reason about computer code.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EJiho Kim and his lab mates in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/gts3.org\/\u0022\u003ESystems Software \u0026amp; Security Lab\u003C\/a\u003E developed COIN, a benchmark designed to test how well LLMs can reason about code. The work has been accepted to the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/2026.emnlp.org\/\u0022\u003E2026 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Georgia Tech researchers are also developing additional benchmarks to study the various types of reasoning required for cybersecurity. They are using what they learn to create new datasets and methods for training AI models focused on cybersecurity.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe\u2019re using what we learn from these benchmarks to train cybersecurity-focused models through new datasets and training methodologies,\u201d Jiho Kim said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EPhotos by John Popham\/College of Computing\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETeam Atlanta\u2019s AI cybersecurity work has advanced from a competition victory to real-world vulnerability discovery. Former members continue this work through Microsoft products and Georgia Tech research. Microsoft\u2019s MDASH uses more than 100 AI agents for vulnerability discovery, validation, exploitation testing, and remediation; MAI-Cyber-1-Flash raised CyberGym performance from 88.4% to 95.95% while reducing costs. Georgia Tech researchers combine large language models with fuzzing through CtxFuzz, which received an ACM Distinguished Paper Award, and released OSS-CRS, CRSBench, and COIN to advance cybersecurity research.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Team Atlanta\u2019s AI cybersecurity work has advanced from a competition victory to real-world vulnerability discovery. Former members continue this work through Microsoft products and Georgia Tech research."}],"uid":"36253","created_gmt":"2026-10-19 17:56:04","changed_gmt":"2026-10-20 13:38:47","author":"John Popham","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-10-20T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-10-20T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"680033":{"id":"680033","type":"image","title":"AIxCC-2025-27-web-copy.jpg","body":null,"created":"1776880174","gmt_created":"2026-04-22 17:49:34","changed":"1776880174","gmt_changed":"2026-04-22 17:49:34","alt":"A group of people standing inside of a convention hall. 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The scoreboard has virtual stats from the AIxCC competition. ","file":{"fid":"265875","name":"AIxCC-2025-05.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/19\/AIxCC-2025-05.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/10\/19\/AIxCC-2025-05.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":4251863,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/10\/19\/AIxCC-2025-05.jpg?itok=tfIiiSsD"}}},"media_ids":["680033","681466","677708","681468","681469","681470","681467"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"660406","name":"School of Cybersecurity \u0026 Privacy"},{"id":"660367","name":"School of Cybersecurity and Privacy"}],"categories":[{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"192863","name":"go-ai"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"145171","name":"Cybersecurity"},{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJohn Popham\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECommunications Officer at the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jpopham3@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"692926":{"#nid":"692926","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Cybersecurity Student Spends Summer of Securing the High Seas","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWhen \u003Cstrong\u003EAnna\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003ERaymaker\u003C\/strong\u003E began her Ph.D. at Georgia Tech, she hadn\u0027t yet decided which area of cybersecurity she wanted to pursue. That changed when she began working on a boat test bed and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/news\/researchers-find-training-gaps-impacting-maritime-cybersecurity-readiness\u0022\u003Etalking\u003C\/a\u003E with mariners about the cybersecurity challenges they face at sea.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThose conversations led Raymaker to focus her research on maritime security, including vulnerabilities in the Automatic Identification System (AIS), which ships use to broadcast their location, speed, and course.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis summer, Raymaker brought this research to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.ll.mit.edu\/\u0022\u003ELincoln Laboratory\u003C\/a\u003E, where she built a test bed to study AIS security in a controlled environment. The experience has also led to new research questions, from the security of shipboard Starlink connections to autonomous vessels and other maritime technologies.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWe spoke with Raymaker about her research, her experience at Lincoln Laboratory, and what she hopes to investigate next.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EWhat will you be working on at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory next?\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAfter submitting our paper based on this summer\u2019s work to a cybersecurity conference, we are continuing our collaboration and starting a new project to identify critical infrastructure that uses unique protocols. The project is still in the early stages of planning and design, but I\u2019m excited to continue working with the team.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EWhat was the biggest challenge you faced while building and testing the AIS security testbed, and how did you work through it?\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe biggest challenge was getting equipment designed to be installed and operated on a boat to function properly in a lab setting. That meant using a Faraday cage so that our AIS transmissions and security experiments wouldn\u2019t accidentally broadcast to nearby ships or interfere with real maritime traffic. I also had to simulate GPS signals and set up additional hardware to trick the AIS transponders into thinking they were operating on a real vessel. Putting all those pieces together into a safe, realistic test bed was challenging, but it ultimately let us study the equipment in a controlled environment.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EYou mentioned the collaborative culture at Lincoln Laboratory. Can you share a specific interaction or experience with a researcher there that had an impact on you or your work?\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWorking with \u003Cstrong\u003EHamed\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003EOkhravi\u003C\/strong\u003E, a senior staff member at Lincoln Laboratory, was an amazing experience. He was my mentor and consistently went out of his way to connect me with people who could help me find datasets, access equipment, or get the lab space I needed for my work. For example, when I realized I needed a Faraday cage for my experiments, he connected me with the Mobile Device Lab and helped me get access very quickly. The lab manager was also immediately willing to let me use the space and equipment. That experience really reflected the culture I saw throughout Lincoln Laboratory. Everyone genuinely wanted to help each other get what they needed to move their research forward.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EHow did Georgia Tech prepare you for the work at Lincoln Laboratory, and did the internship change how you think about your research or future career?\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMy experience at Georgia Tech was instrumental in preparing me for my work at Lincoln Laboratory. The way I was taught to think through difficult research problems and work independently toward solutions translated well to a large research lab. I was able to hit the ground running and take ownership of a project because Georgia Tech had prepared me to lead research independently. The internship also gave me valuable experience in a research environment outside academia, which broadened my perspective on how I could pursue research in the future.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EYou\u2019ve said you want to work through the cybersecurity problems mariners have shared with you \u201cone by one.\u201d Which problem do you most want to tackle next, and why?\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENext, I\u2019d love to look at Starlink connectivity for ships or for autonomous shipping. Mariners we\u2019ve spoken with have raised concerns about both. With Starlink and increasingly autonomous vessels, they worry that greater remote connectivity could give attackers new ways to access onboard systems and disrupt ship operations. I think those concerns are worth investigating.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWe recently had a paper accepted at CCS that examines exposed solar distributed energy resources, and I think applying a similar perspective to exposed maritime equipment could be very interesting. That paper is available \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/arxiv.org\/pdf\/2609.07783v1\u0022\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWe also recently had a paper on measuring GPS spoofing of ships accepted at IEEE S\u0026amp;P. The full paper isn\u2019t online yet, but the project was directly motivated by mariners telling us that they were struggling with GPS spoofing. That made me want to find a way to systematically measure where spoofing was occurring.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUltimately, the goal is to turn that kind of research into something useful for mariners, such as warning them when they are entering an area experiencing spoofing or when their own vessel may be affected and they should no longer trust their GPS. That is the kind of research I\u2019d like to continue doing: listening to the problems mariners are actually experiencing and finding ways to investigate and address them.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EPhotos by Kevin Beasley and Terence Rushin\/College of Computing\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAnna Raymaker\u2019s maritime cybersecurity research is advancing through controlled AIS testing and collaboration with mariners. Her summer at MIT Lincoln Laboratory expanded both her methods and future research direction. \u2022 She built a safe AIS testbed using a Faraday cage, simulated GPS signals, and specialized hardware to study ship equipment without affecting real maritime traffic. \u2022 Raymaker plans to investigate Starlink connectivity, autonomous vessels, exposed maritime equipment, and GPS spoofing, with the goal of developing practical warnings for mariners.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Anna Raymaker\u2019s maritime cybersecurity research is advancing through controlled AIS testing and collaboration with mariners."}],"uid":"36253","created_gmt":"2026-09-29 18:46:36","changed_gmt":"2026-09-29 18:55:53","author":"John Popham","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-09-29T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-09-29T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681294":{"id":"681294","type":"image","title":"Anna-Raymaker-3.jpg","body":null,"created":"1790707760","gmt_created":"2026-09-29 18:49:20","changed":"1790707760","gmt_changed":"2026-09-29 18:49:20","alt":"Smiling woman sitting in front of a window. 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But when information is spread across dozens of slides, charts, and tables, even advanced models can miss important details.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs many organizations and businesses are turning to AI to improve workplace efficiency, risk remains high. Between overlooked footnotes and misread graphics, small mistakes can have expensive consequences.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo address this challenge, researchers from Georgia Tech and J.P. Morgan developed SlideAgent. The new framework helps large language models (LLMs) better understand complex visual documents like presentation slide decks, brochures, and reports.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2510.26615\u0022\u003ESlideAgent\u003C\/a\u003E works by breaking documents into multiple levels, allowing the model to analyze both the big picture and the fine details. This human-inspired approach leads to more accurate and reliable interpretation than existing systems.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBeyond improving workplace tools, SlideAgent also points to a broader shift in AI. Instead of building only larger and more powerful models, the work shows how smarter design and more efficient reasoning can improve performance.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMultimodal LLMs such as GPT, Gemini, and Claude, can save people time and reduce the mental effort required to understand these documents, but they remain imperfect,\u201d said \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ahren09.github.io\/\u0022\u003EYiqiao (Ahren) Jin\u003C\/a\u003E, a Ph.D. candidate in Georgia Tech\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cse.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Computational Science and Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E (CSE).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIn high-stakes fields such as finance, for example, misreading a number, overlooking a footnote, or making an incorrect comparison across pages could affect reporting, risk assessment, or strategic decisions.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers tested SlideAgent on a wide range of real-world documents, including financial presentations, technical slides, and visual question-answering datasets.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe system consistently outperformed leading commercial models and open-source tools throughout the evaluation. In some cases, it improved accuracy by up to 10%. The gains were especially strong on more complex tasks, such as comparing information across slides or understanding how visuals relate to each other on a page.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe found the results very encouraging. SlideAgent reaches an improvement of 7.9% over its proprietary base model and 9.8% over the evaluated open-source base models,\u201d said Jin, the project\u2019s lead researcher.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThese are meaningful gains given the strength of the underlying multimodal models and the difficulty of the tasks.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECurrent multimodal AI systems often process entire pages at once. This approach can lead to mistakes, such as miscounting items in a chart or overlooking important details in dense visuals.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESlideAgent addresses this by mimicking how people read documents. Instead of treating each page as a single unit, the system looks at information at three levels: the full document, individual pages, and specific elements like charts, tables, and text blocks.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA network of agents, each specialized for a specific level, divides and coordinates analysis. Then, SlideAgent combines outputs to build a structured understanding of the overall document. This allows it to answer questions more accurately and reason across multiple pages.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe central inspiration was how people naturally read a long presentation,\u201d Jin said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe first develop an understanding of the overall narrative, then identify the relevant pages or sections, and finally zoom in on individual charts, tables, or text blocks when precise evidence is needed.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe work highlights a growing challenge with AI. As systems become more popular and more powerful, users increasingly discover the technology\u2019s limitations. This is especially true for real-world tasks that require structured reasoning and contextual understanding.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESlideAgent shows that better performance does not always come from building bigger models. Instead, it points to smarter ways of organizing how AI processes information that can lead to improvement.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) accepted SlideAgent for presentation at its annual meeting. The 64th \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/2026.aclweb.org\/\u0022\u003EACL 2026 meeting\u003C\/a\u003E took place July 2-7 in San Diego.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EACL is a scientific and professional organization for researchers in natural language processing (NLP). Its namesake conference is one of the world\u2019s leading venues for presenting NLP research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EACL 2026 followed a year after Jin completed an internship at J.P. Morgan AI Research, where he worked on SlideAgent. He interned under \u003Cstrong\u003ERachneet Kaur\u003C\/strong\u003E, \u003Cstrong\u003EZhen Zeng\u003C\/strong\u003E, and \u003Cstrong\u003ESumitra Ganesh\u003C\/strong\u003E, all co-authors of the paper. School of CSE Associate Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/faculty.cc.gatech.edu\/~srijan\/\u0022\u003ESrijan Kumar\u003C\/a\u003E advises Jin at Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAlong with SlideAgent, Jin authored two other papers accepted at ACL 2026.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cConferences such as ACL are valuable not only for sharing results, but also for refining future project ideas with the broader community. Discussions across institutions and research areas can reveal limitations, suggest new evaluations, and spark collaborations that are difficult to develop in isolation,\u201d Jin said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cFor SlideAgent, I was particularly interested in feedback on how we can make the framework more computationally efficient without sacrificing accuracy or interpretability.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EModern artificial intelligence (AI) platforms can summarize reports, analyze documents, and answer questions in seconds. But when information is spread across dozens of slides, charts, and tables, even advanced models can miss important details.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs many organizations and businesses are turning to AI to improve workplace efficiency, risk remains high. Between overlooked footnotes and misread graphics, small mistakes can have expensive consequences.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo address this challenge, researchers from Georgia Tech and J.P. Morgan developed SlideAgent. The new framework helps large language models (LLMs) better understand complex visual documents like presentation slide decks, brochures, and reports.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESlideAgent works by breaking documents into multiple levels, allowing the model to analyze both the big picture and the fine details. This human-inspired approach leads to more accurate and reliable interpretation than existing systems.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBeyond improving workplace tools, SlideAgent also points to a broader shift in AI. Instead of building only larger and more powerful models, the work shows how smarter design and more efficient reasoning can improve performance.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"The new AI framework called SlideAgent helps large language models (LLMs) better understand complex visual documents used in the workplace like presentation slide decks, brochures, and reports. "}],"uid":"36319","created_gmt":"2026-08-12 12:01:25","changed_gmt":"2026-09-29 18:42:26","author":"Bryant Wine","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-08-12T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-08-12T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"680843":{"id":"680843","type":"image","title":"SlideAgent-Head-Image.jpg","body":null,"created":"1786536102","gmt_created":"2026-08-12 12:01:42","changed":"1786536102","gmt_changed":"2026-08-12 12:01:42","alt":"Yiqiao (Ahren) Jin ACL 2026","file":{"fid":"265169","name":"SlideAgent-Head-Image.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/08\/12\/SlideAgent-Head-Image.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/08\/12\/SlideAgent-Head-Image.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":96345,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/08\/12\/SlideAgent-Head-Image.jpg?itok=MXXpRJcQ"}},"680844":{"id":"680844","type":"image","title":"YJ_ACL2026.jpg","body":null,"created":"1786536492","gmt_created":"2026-08-12 12:08:12","changed":"1786536492","gmt_changed":"2026-08-12 12:08:12","alt":"Yiqiao (Ahren) Jin ACL 2026","file":{"fid":"265170","name":"YJ_ACL2026.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/08\/12\/YJ_ACL2026.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/08\/12\/YJ_ACL2026.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":48282,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/08\/12\/YJ_ACL2026.jpg?itok=Vns4uEGI"}},"680845":{"id":"680845","type":"image","title":"YJ_ACL2026.jpeg","body":null,"created":"1786536520","gmt_created":"2026-08-12 12:08:40","changed":"1786536520","gmt_changed":"2026-08-12 12:08:40","alt":"Yiqiao (Ahren) Jin ACL 2026","file":{"fid":"265171","name":"YJ_ACL2026.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/08\/12\/YJ_ACL2026.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/08\/12\/YJ_ACL2026.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":219002,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/08\/12\/YJ_ACL2026.jpeg?itok=inGoNwsP"}}},"media_ids":["680843","680844","680845"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"50877","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"139","name":"Business"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"194609","name":"Industry"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"654","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"166983","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"9153","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"10199","name":"Daily Digest"},{"id":"181991","name":"Georgia Tech News Center"},{"id":"170447","name":"Institute for Data Engineering and Science"},{"id":"176858","name":"machine learning center"},{"id":"9167","name":"machine learning"},{"id":"187812","name":"artificial intelligence (AI)"},{"id":"14646","name":"human-computer interaction"},{"id":"192863","name":"go-ai"},{"id":"194384","name":"Tech AI"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"39431","name":"Data Engineering and Science"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBryant Wine, Communications Officer\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:bryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ebryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"692805":{"#nid":"692805","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Study Uncovers Security Weaknesses in Next-Generation Vehicle Technology","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech researchers have identified seven previously unknown security flaws in next-generation communication standards that connect in-vehicle computers. These flaws create vulnerabilities that could allow attackers to take control of key driver-assistance functions in personal vehicles.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe team also found that the new standard\u0027s core rules for sending messages and handling errors retain every known security weakness of older versions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe vulnerabilities could allow an attacker who has already gained access to a vehicle\u0027s internal computer network to change or intercept messages, take individual vehicle computers offline, send different information to different systems, or disrupt network communication.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECAN Extra Long (CAN XL), the latest version of the controller area network (CAN), is designed for future cars and other vehicles that need to move large amounts of data between onboard computers. The technology is not yet widely deployed in production vehicles, giving manufacturers an opportunity to address security concerns before it becomes more common.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cBecause it isn\u0027t widely deployed yet, we have a narrow window to get its security right,\u201d said Associate Professor \u003Cstrong\u003ESaman\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003EZonouz\u003C\/strong\u003E of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/scp.cc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003C\/a\u003E and the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ece.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Electrical and Computer Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E, one of the researchers on the project.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cFixing a standard now is far easier than fixing it once it\u0027s built into the hardware of millions of cars that stay on the road for a decade or more.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EZonouz said CAN XL is expected to become the primary version of CAN, the network that enables computers inside a vehicle to communicate. It is also expected to serve as the main network for driver-assistance systems in future vehicles.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers confirmed the seven vulnerabilities in commercial CAN XL hardware and demonstrated attacks using a physical test setup that mimics a vehicle network.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EModern vehicles can have dozens of electronic control units that manage systems such as sensors, brakes, steering, and entertainment. These computers need to communicate quickly and reliably.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor decades, many vehicles have used CAN for this communication. However, the original version, known as classic CAN, was not designed to handle the volume of data generated by newer vehicle technologies.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECAN XL was developed to provide faster communication, larger messages, and new security features, but the researchers wanted to know whether the new standard\u2019s basic rules were secure. Their testing revealed that they weren\u2019t. They discovered that an attacker who controls one computer on the network could intercept and replace messages or take a targeted computer offline.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThese flaws are in the standard itself, so every device built to follow it inherits them,\u201d Zonouz said. \u201cWith CAN XL, there\u0027s still time to fix these problems before they reach the road.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe attacks would require an attacker to first gain control of a computer connected to the vehicle\u0027s internal network. The research does not show that CAN XL itself provides a means to break into a vehicle. Instead, it shows what an attacker could do after gaining access.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESeveral attacks were also faster and harder to detect than similar attacks against classic CAN, according to the authors.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers proposed changes to the CAN XL rules to prevent several of the attacks. They also recommended additional security measures, including message authentication and systems that can detect unusual activity.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe team reported the vulnerabilities and informed the manufacturers of the commercial devices it tested about the bugs it found. One company has already released a fix. The researchers hope their findings will help manufacturers address security weaknesses before the technology becomes more widely used.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.usenix.org\/conference\/usenixsecurity26\/presentation\/tang-zhaozhou\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EA Formal Security Analysis of CAN XL\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E was published in the Proceedings of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.usenix.org\/conference\/usenixsecurity26\u0022\u003E35th USENIX Security Symposium\u003C\/a\u003E, held Aug. 12-14 in Baltimore, MD. The paper was also named a runner-up for a distinguished paper award.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe study was conducted by Georgia Tech Ph.D. student \u003Cstrong\u003EZhaozhouTang\u003C\/strong\u003E, Professor \u003Cstrong\u003EVijay\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003EGanesh\u003C\/strong\u003E, Zonouz, and Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs \u003Cstrong\u003ERaheem\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003EBeyah\u003C\/strong\u003E, along with \u003Cstrong\u003EKhaled\u003C\/strong\u003E \u003Cstrong\u003ESerag\u003C\/strong\u003E of the Qatar Computing Research Institute and Z. Berkay Celik of Purdue University.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe paper and its findings result from projects sponsored by the Hyundai America Technical Center, the Georgia Department of Transportation, and the $7 million CHORUS Center through the National Science Foundation\u2019s Cyber-Physical System Frontier Program.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech researchers found seven security flaws in CAN XL, a vehicle network standard intended for future driver-assistance systems. The findings show risks remain before the technology becomes widely deployed. \u2022 Attackers with access to a vehicle\u2019s internal network could alter or intercept messages, disable computers, provide conflicting information, or disrupt communication; some attacks were faster and harder to detect than those targeting classic CAN. \u2022 Researchers confirmed the flaws on commercial hardware, proposed rule changes, and recommended message authentication and unusual-activity detection; one tested manufacturer has released a fix.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech researchers found seven security flaws in CAN XL, a vehicle network standard intended for future driver-assistance systems."}],"uid":"36253","created_gmt":"2026-09-24 14:34:10","changed_gmt":"2026-09-29 18:41:26","author":"John Popham","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-09-24T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-09-24T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681243":{"id":"681243","type":"image","title":"Car-security.png","body":null,"created":"1790260526","gmt_created":"2026-09-24 14:35:26","changed":"1790260526","gmt_changed":"2026-09-24 14:35:26","alt":"A digital image of a car with a lock on it","file":{"fid":"265612","name":"Car-security.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/24\/Car-security.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/24\/Car-security.png","mime":"image\/png","size":758850,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/09\/24\/Car-security.png?itok=q0gzPjyJ"}},"675758":{"id":"675758","type":"image","title":"Saman Zonouz.jpg","body":null,"created":"1733171394","gmt_created":"2024-12-02 20:29:54","changed":"1733171394","gmt_changed":"2024-12-02 20:29:54","alt":"man in a pullover smiling","file":{"fid":"259421","name":"Saman Zonouz.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/12\/02\/Saman%20Zonouz.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/12\/02\/Saman%20Zonouz.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":20769150,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2024\/12\/02\/Saman%20Zonouz.jpg?itok=L0vEl8C_"}}},"media_ids":["681243","675758"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"660406","name":"School of Cybersecurity \u0026 Privacy"},{"id":"660367","name":"School of Cybersecurity and Privacy"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"145171","name":"Cybersecurity"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jpopham3@gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJohn Popham\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr\u003ECommunications Officer\u003Cbr\u003ESchool of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003Cbr\u003EGeorgia Tech\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"692643":{"#nid":"692643","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Internship Highlights Industry\u2019s Role in Advancing Safe, Trustworthy AI","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAcademic researchers often focus on advancing fundamental knowledge, while industry puts that knowledge into practice. This summer, Ph.D. student\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/mphute.github.io\/\u0022\u003EMansi Phute\u003C\/a\u003E experienced both sides of the process during an internship focused on making artificial intelligence (AI) safe, trustworthy, and reliable.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUpon returning to Georgia Tech, Phute reflected on her summer internship and what it taught her about the evolving relationship between research and industry.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EStudent:\u003C\/strong\u003E Mansi Phute\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch Interests:\u003C\/strong\u003E Machine learning (ML) robustness and artificial intelligence (AI) safety\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDegree Program:\u003C\/strong\u003E Ph.D. in Computer Science\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFaculty Advisor\u003C\/strong\u003E: School of CSE Professor and Associate Chair\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/poloclub.github.io\/polochau\/\u0022\u003EPolo Chau\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E2026 Internship\u003C\/strong\u003E: International Business Machines (\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.ibm.com\/us-en\u0022\u003EIBM\u003C\/a\u003E), San Jose, California\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat about IBM interested you in applying for and accepting an internship there?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EIBM is often at the forefront of AI safety, my field of interest, and has a culture that encourages exploratory and fundamental research. I felt this would give me a closer look at cutting-edge industry approaches without compromising on my research interests or my progress toward my thesis.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHow well did your coursework and experience at Georgia Tech prepare you for your IBM internship?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EMy experience at Georgia Tech was very helpful in preparing me for IBM. My coursework and other academic experiences certainly transferred over, but I believe that the wide range of people I met during those courses and what I learned from them helped me connect and relate strongly with people at IBM. Being conversant in different fields of research really helped me interact better with IBM coworkers and feel comfortable in a new environment.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat did you work on while interning at IBM?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EI worked on IBM\u2019s AI Foundations team, focusing on the security of multimodal agent communication during my internship. This is an important problem as we see an increase in agents applied in many use cases. It was also closely aligned with my research interests of AI safety.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDo you have a favorite memory or remarkable achievement from your internship?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EOne of my favorite moments was presenting my work to a broad, cross-team audience of technical and non-technical members. Afterward, my manager told me I was good at explaining my research to people with varying levels of familiarity with the domain. This feedback meant a lot to me because communicating clearly across different audiences is a skill I\u0027ve deliberately worked to improve. So, hearing that the effort was paying off was very rewarding.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EOverall, how helpful was this internship toward your studies at Georgia Tech and your career as an aspiring researcher?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EThis internship was very valuable for my development as an aspiring researcher. I worked alongside accomplished people in the AI safety field on projects that aligned closely with my research interests. I also saw how those same projects connect to a company\u0027s broader business priorities, a perspective that isn\u2019t easily available in academic settings. I shared many fruitful discussions with people working in safety, policy, and alignment, which gave me a much clearer sense of how industry approaches these issues compared to the more academic-oriented framing I am used to.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBased on what you learned during your internship, how important is private industry in progressing research and scientific discovery?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EWorking in private industry was a fascinating experience. I come away believing that industry plays an important role in advancing research, especially in AI, where companies have access to computing resources that are less prohibitive than in academic environments. I also think that because private industry has a strong hand in implementing and deploying research,\u0026nbsp;understanding industry priorities can help us frame and design our research in ways that complement industry applications. This ensures research has a bigger impact, particularly in the domain of ML safety and reliability.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAcademic researchers often focus on advancing fundamental knowledge, while industry puts that knowledge into practice. This summer, Ph.D. student\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/mphute.github.io\/\u0022\u003EMansi Phute\u003C\/a\u003E experienced both sides of the process during an internship focused on making artificial intelligence (AI) safe, trustworthy, and reliable.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUpon returning to Georgia Tech, Phute reflected on her summer internship and what it taught her about the evolving relationship between research and industry.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Ph.D. student Mansi Phute spent this summer at an internship focused on making artificial intelligence (AI) safe, trustworthy, and reliable."}],"uid":"36319","created_gmt":"2026-09-17 15:48:44","changed_gmt":"2026-09-21 14:49:44","author":"Bryant Wine","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-09-17T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-09-17T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681184":{"id":"681184","type":"image","title":"MP-Head-Image.jpg","body":null,"created":"1789660134","gmt_created":"2026-09-17 15:48:54","changed":"1789660134","gmt_changed":"2026-09-17 15:48:54","alt":"CSE Mansi Phute","file":{"fid":"265549","name":"MP-Head-Image.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/17\/MP-Head-Image.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/17\/MP-Head-Image.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":139529,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/09\/17\/MP-Head-Image.jpg?itok=ip-e5Jk6"}},"681185":{"id":"681185","type":"image","title":"MP-IBM-Internship.jpg","body":null,"created":"1789660171","gmt_created":"2026-09-17 15:49:31","changed":"1789660171","gmt_changed":"2026-09-17 15:49:31","alt":"CSE Mansi Phute","file":{"fid":"265550","name":"MP-IBM-Internship.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/17\/MP-IBM-Internship.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/17\/MP-IBM-Internship.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":208527,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/09\/17\/MP-IBM-Internship.jpg?itok=IniBDOHb"}}},"media_ids":["681184","681185"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"50877","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"194609","name":"Industry"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"},{"id":"194612","name":"Workforce Development"}],"keywords":[{"id":"654","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"166983","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"},{"id":"9153","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"170447","name":"Institute for Data Engineering and Science"},{"id":"192863","name":"go-ai"},{"id":"194384","name":"Tech AI"},{"id":"187812","name":"artificial intelligence (AI)"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"39431","name":"Data Engineering and Science"},{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBryant Wine, Communications Officer\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:bryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ebryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"692727":{"#nid":"692727","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Internship Explores Government\u2019s Investment for the Future","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMany scientific breakthroughs begin with long-term research investments. Government agencies often play a central role in this process, supporting work that addresses national priorities while laying the foundation for future innovations.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis summer, M.S. student \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/joey-cuthbert\/\u0022\u003EJoey Cuthbert\u003C\/a\u003E contributed to this mission through an internship at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Upon returning to campus, Cuthbert reflected on his internship and what he learned working alongside researchers in government and the defense community. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EStudent:\u003C\/strong\u003E Joey Cuthbert\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch Interests:\u003C\/strong\u003E Machine learning (ML), model-based systems engineering\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDegree Program:\u003C\/strong\u003E M.S. in Computational Science and Engineering, home unit in \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.isye.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EH. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E2026 Internship\u003C\/strong\u003E: Sensors Directorate Internship Program with Air Force Research Laboratory (\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.afrl.af.mil\/\u0022\u003EAFRL\u003C\/a\u003E) and the National Air and Space Intelligence Center (\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nasic.af.mil\/\u0022\u003ENASIC\u003C\/a\u003E), Beavercreek, Ohio\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat about AFRL interested you in applying for and accepting an internship there?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EThe Sensors Directorate Internship Program (SDIP) provided a unique opportunity to work alongside mentors from AFRL and NASIC on a defense-related research project over a 14-week internship. This aligned with my desire to work on applied ML research in the defense sector and allowed me to better understand the ins and outs of government and government-contracting work. The program provided competitive pay and housing throughout the program, which was a huge plus for me.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHow well did your coursework and experience at Georgia Tech prepare you for your AFRL internship?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EMy experience and coursework at Georgia Tech helped me a great deal this summer. I believe my understanding of ML has greatly improved over the past two semesters, which helped me complete my internship project. All of my experiments ran on high-performance computing (HPC) systems, and I felt I had a head start since I completed an HPC class last spring.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat did you work on while interning at AFRL?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EI worked on an image-classification robustness project for convolutional neural networks (CNNs) using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. I built a robustness benchmark by testing a model against nine types of noise, and used it to show how we can effectively increase robustness by inducing shape-bias in the model during training.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDo you have a favorite memory or remarkable achievement from your internship?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDuring the summer, we went on a tour of nearby \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.wpafb.af.mil\/\u0022\u003EWright-Patterson Air Force Base\u003C\/a\u003E, where we visited the sensors directorate buildings and checked out some of their labs. I also received the best poster presentation award among approximately 40 interns.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EOverall, how helpful was this internship toward your studies at Georgia Tech and career as an aspiring researcher?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EThis program provided great strides toward my research career goals. My coursework has provided a great foundation in ML, and I was able to apply this knowledge to a project. The internship offered me lots of autonomy, as well as time to explore different paths to find results.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFrom what you learned on your internship, how important are government agencies in progressing research and scientific discovery?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EI believe government agencies are massively valuable in advancing research and scientific discovery, especially within the defense sector. All work at AFRL has the goal of giving warfighters the greatest advantage possible. This often entails looking 10 to 20 years into the future of science and technology and trying to get there as fast as possible.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMany scientific breakthroughs begin with long-term research investments. Government agencies often play a central role in this process, supporting work that addresses national priorities while laying the foundation for future innovations.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis summer, M.S. student Joey Cuthbert contributed to this mission through an internship at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Upon returning to campus, Cuthbert reflected on his internship and what he learned working alongside researchers in government and the defense community. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"This summer, M.S. student Joey Cuthbert completed an internship at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), supporting work that addresses national priorities while laying the foundation for future innovations."}],"uid":"36319","created_gmt":"2026-09-21 14:42:15","changed_gmt":"2026-09-21 14:48:56","author":"Bryant Wine","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-09-21T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-09-21T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681208":{"id":"681208","type":"image","title":"JC-Head-Image.jpg","body":null,"created":"1790001748","gmt_created":"2026-09-21 14:42:28","changed":"1790001748","gmt_changed":"2026-09-21 14:42:28","alt":"CSE Joey Cuthbert","file":{"fid":"265574","name":"JC-Head-Image.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/21\/JC-Head-Image.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/21\/JC-Head-Image.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":99824,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/09\/21\/JC-Head-Image.jpg?itok=pWBltqhA"}},"681209":{"id":"681209","type":"image","title":"SARdust-Poster.jpg","body":null,"created":"1790001781","gmt_created":"2026-09-21 14:43:01","changed":"1790001781","gmt_changed":"2026-09-21 14:43:01","alt":"CSE Joey Cuthbert Poster","file":{"fid":"265575","name":"SARdust-Poster.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/21\/SARdust-Poster.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/21\/SARdust-Poster.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":401402,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/09\/21\/SARdust-Poster.jpg?itok=QqefVp7Y"}}},"media_ids":["681208","681209"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"50877","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"136","name":"Aerospace"},{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"147","name":"Military Technology"},{"id":"194610","name":"National Interests\/National Security"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"193157","name":"Student Honors and Achievements"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"654","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"166983","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"},{"id":"594","name":"college of engineering"},{"id":"180027","name":". ISyE"},{"id":"2633","name":"Air Force"},{"id":"191204","name":"Air Force Research Laboratory"},{"id":"1325","name":"aerospace"},{"id":"9167","name":"machine learning"},{"id":"187812","name":"artificial intelligence (AI)"},{"id":"9153","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"192863","name":"go-ai"},{"id":"10199","name":"Daily Digest"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"39431","name":"Data Engineering and Science"},{"id":"39481","name":"National Security"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBryant Wine, Communications Officer\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:bryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ebryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"692596":{"#nid":"692596","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Internship Connects Supercomputing with National Priorities","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ENational laboratories play a critical role in advancing science, developing energy technologies, and ensuring national security. This summer, Ph.D. student \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/tage-burnett-537549221\/\u0022\u003ETage Burnett\u003C\/a\u003E contributed to that mission firsthand during an internship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe internship provided Burnett with valuable insight into national laboratory research and reinforced skills he developed through his studies at Georgia Tech. When he returned to campus, we asked Burnett to share more about his internship and what he learned.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EStudent:\u003C\/strong\u003E Tage Burnett\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch Interests:\u003C\/strong\u003E Fusion energy, computational plasma physics, high-performance computing, and structure-preserving machine learning\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDegree Program:\u003C\/strong\u003E Ph.D. in Computational Science and Engineering\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFaculty Advisor\u003C\/strong\u003E: School of CSE Assistant Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/tangqi.github.io\/\u0022\u003EQi Tang\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E2026 Internship\u003C\/strong\u003E: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMany people are unfamiliar with national laboratories, like ORNL. Could you explain the purpose of these institutions and why they are important?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories are responsible for moving forward science and technology in the United States and solving high-consequence challenges in science, energy, and national security. They work on both applied and theoretical research with both short-term and long-term returns. ORNL has eight core research areas: biology and environment, energy science, fusion and fission, isotopes, physical sciences, national security, neutron science, and supercomputing. I was an intern in the supercomputing division.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHow well did coursework and experience at Georgia Tech prepare you for your ORNL internship?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMy coursework at Georgia Tech was vital in my preparation for this internship. I wrote highly parallel code where I leaned heavily on what I learned in \u003Cem\u003ECSE 6220: High-Performance Computing\u003C\/em\u003E. I also worked on numerical methods which required an understanding of partial differential equations and numerical linear algebra which I also learned at Georgia Tech from classes like \u003Cem\u003ECSE 6643: Numerical Linear Algebra\u003C\/em\u003E and a space plasma physics course.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat did you work on while interning at ORNL?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAt ORNL, I was a developer on the Adaptive Sparse Grid Discretization (\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/joss.theoj.org\/papers\/10.21105\/joss.06766\u0022\u003EASGarD\u003C\/a\u003E) codebase. The code uses adaptive sparse grids and the Discontinuous Galerkin method to beat the curse of dimensionality and solve high-dimensional partial differential equations (PDEs). \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/github.com\/openjournals\/joss-reviews\/issues\/6766\u0022\u003EThe code\u003C\/a\u003E is designed to simulate fully kinetic plasmas in up to 6-dimensional phase space. My project was to implement an iterative method to solve the efficiently solve the Poisson equation within the codebase. This project gave me hands on experience with linear algebra, numerical PDEs, parallel computing and software engineering which was invaluable to my development as a CSE researcher.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDo you have a favorite memory or remarkable achievement from your internship?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMy favorite memory from my internship was spending time with the other ORNL interns outside of work. There was an amazing group of interns at ORNL, and it was great getting to know them. One particularly good memory was when we went out to a restaurant with live music and played laser tag during our last week of the internship to celebrate our time at ORNL. The achievement I am most proud of was getting a working, highly efficient version of the Poisson solver into ASGarD. The ASGarD codebase is open source, so I hope other plasma physics researchers will use the code and find it helpful for their research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhile interning, you were selected for a GEM Fellowship, which Georgia Tech and ORNL nominated you for. What does this fellowship mean to you and is there anything you would like to say to your supporters?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo me, receiving the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.gemfellowship.org\/gem-fellowship-program\/#a\u0022\u003EGEM Fellowship\u003C\/a\u003E indicates that other people recognize the hard work I am doing, and they believe in my ability to meaningfully contribute to the field. Having this support from GEM, ORNL, and Georgia Tech gives me greater confidence in myself and my potential and inspires me to put my all into my work. I would like all my supporters to know that I am so grateful for the opportunity you have given me to be a part of the excellent community of researchers within GEM, ORNL, and Georgia Tech. I will do my very best to make your support worthwhile!\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EOverall, how helpful was this internship toward your studies at Georgia Tech and career as an aspiring researcher?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe internship was extremely important to both my studies at Georgia Tech and my career as a researcher. The hands-on experience I gained is irreplaceable and it helped me to apply all the skills I have developed throughout my education. I am also optimistic that the internship will open doors for me when I am seeking a job post-graduation.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ENational laboratories play a critical role in advancing science, developing energy technologies, and ensuring national security. This summer, Ph.D. student \u003Cstrong\u003ETage Burnett\u003C\/strong\u003E contributed to that mission firsthand during an internship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in Tennessee.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe internship provided Burnett valuable insight into national laboratory research and reinforced skills he developed through his studies at Georgia Tech. When he returned to campus, we asked Burnett to share more about his internship and what he learned.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"National laboratories play a critical role in advancing science, developing energy technologies, and ensuring national security. This summer, Ph.D. student Tage Burnett contributed to that mission firsthand during an internship at ORNL."}],"uid":"36319","created_gmt":"2026-09-15 16:02:56","changed_gmt":"2026-09-21 14:48:37","author":"Bryant Wine","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-09-15T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-09-15T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681151":{"id":"681151","type":"image","title":"Tage-Burnett-Head-Image.jpg","body":null,"created":"1789488262","gmt_created":"2026-09-15 16:04:22","changed":"1789488262","gmt_changed":"2026-09-15 16:04:22","alt":"CSE Tage Burnett","file":{"fid":"265514","name":"Tage-Burnett-Head-Image.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/15\/Tage-Burnett-Head-Image.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/15\/Tage-Burnett-Head-Image.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":117243,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/09\/15\/Tage-Burnett-Head-Image.jpg?itok=L5ERGUNS"}},"681153":{"id":"681153","type":"image","title":"TB-ORNL-Mentor.jpeg","body":null,"created":"1789488297","gmt_created":"2026-09-15 16:04:57","changed":"1789488297","gmt_changed":"2026-09-15 16:04:57","alt":"CSE Tage Burnett","file":{"fid":"265515","name":"TB-ORNL-Mentor.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/15\/TB-ORNL-Mentor.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/15\/TB-ORNL-Mentor.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":93096,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/09\/15\/TB-ORNL-Mentor.jpeg?itok=9neLNYx7"}}},"media_ids":["681151","681153"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"50877","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"144","name":"Energy"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"193157","name":"Student Honors and Achievements"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"},{"id":"194612","name":"Workforce Development"}],"keywords":[{"id":"654","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"166983","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"9153","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"170447","name":"Institute for Data Engineering and Science"},{"id":"108061","name":"Oak Ridge National Laboratory"},{"id":"663","name":"Department of Energy"},{"id":"167322","name":"supercomputing"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39431","name":"Data Engineering and Science"},{"id":"39531","name":"Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBryant Wine, Communications Officer\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:bryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ebryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"692473":{"#nid":"692473","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Professor, Alumni Receive Award for Edge Computing Research ","body":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA Georgia Tech research team was recently recognized for an influential paper that helped define how applications could run efficiently outside the cloud.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe team received the 10-Year Test of Time Award at the 20th ACM International Conference on Distributed and Event-Based Systems (DEBS 2026) in July.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProfessor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sites.cc.gatech.edu\/fac\/Kishore.Ramachandran\/homepage.html\u0022\u003EUmakishore Ramachandran\u003C\/a\u003E and his former Ph.D. students \u2013 \u003Cstrong\u003EEnrique Saurez\u003C\/strong\u003E, \u003Cstrong\u003EKirak Hong\u003C\/strong\u003E, \u003Cstrong\u003EDave Lillethun\u003C\/strong\u003E, and \u003Cstrong\u003EBeate Ottenw\u00e4lder\u003C\/strong\u003E \u2013 were recognized for their 2016 paper, \u003Cem\u003EIncremental Deployment and Migration of Geo-distributed\u003C\/em\u003E \u003Cem\u003ESituation Awareness Applications in the Fog. \u003C\/em\u003ESaurez, now a researcher at Microsoft, was the lead author of the paper.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMost of a person\u2019s daily internet use, such as sending emails or shopping, runs through the cloud. Cloud computing does have latency issues, but this is typically not perceptible to people. However, in situation-awareness applications, such as virtual reality or autonomous vehicles, this latency becomes a barrier. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cCloud computing is not appropriate for these latency-sensitive applications where events occur at computational perception speeds as opposed to human perception speeds. And this is the reason that edge computing became important,\u201d Ramachandran said. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERather than using the cloud, edge computing brings computation closer to the data source. This method reduces latency and backhaul bandwidth consumption. Beyond latency reduction, edge computing offers other advantages over the cloud. Businesses and organizations that handle confidential data may not want to store their records in the public cloud, and edge computing offers a more secure alternative. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe awarded paper proposed a new programming model, \u003Cem\u003EFoglets,\u003C\/em\u003E that enables domain experts with limited knowledge of edge computing to run their applications on the geographically distributed edge infrastructure. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe showed that with edge compute you can actually do some of the things that you need for situation awareness applications,\u201d Ramachandran said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAll of these students that I worked with on this paper have graduated and moved on to industry and academia and are doing great things, so it\u2019s a nice honor to see something we did 10 years back get recognition.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA Georgia Tech research team was recently recognized for an influential paper that helped define how applications could run efficiently outside the cloud.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe team received the 10-Year Test of Time Award at the 20th ACM International Conference on Distributed and Event-Based Systems (DEBS 2026) in July.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A Georgia Tech research team was recently recognized for an influential paper that helped define how applications could run efficiently outside the cloud."}],"uid":"36532","created_gmt":"2026-09-09 20:09:20","changed_gmt":"2026-09-09 20:13:52","author":"Morgan Usry","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-09-09T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-09-09T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681111":{"id":"681111","type":"image","title":"Kishore.jpeg","body":null,"created":"1788984791","gmt_created":"2026-09-09 20:13:11","changed":"1788984791","gmt_changed":"2026-09-09 20:13:11","alt":"A man standing in a courtyard in front of buildings","file":{"fid":"265470","name":"Kishore.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/09\/Kishore.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/09\/Kishore.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":120176,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/09\/09\/Kishore.jpeg?itok=N9_9SkJI"}}},"media_ids":["681111"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"50875","name":"School of Computer Science"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"175470","name":"edge computing"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMorgan Usry, Communications Officer, School of Computer Science\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["morgan.usry@cc.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"692252":{"#nid":"692252","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Alumna to Discuss Designing Tech for Marginalized Communities in Upcoming Lecture ","body":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECollege of Computing alumna \u003Cstrong\u003ENova Ahmed\u003C\/strong\u003E (CS Ph.D. 2010) will return to campus on Sept. 14 to discuss her two decades\u0026nbsp;of experience applying technology to address social and humanitarian challenges.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAhmed will present \u003Cem\u003EConnecting Systems with Humans\u003C\/em\u003E as part of the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/omscs.gatech.edu\/omscs-speaker-series\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EOMSCS Speaker Series\u003C\/a\u003E. The lecture will explore the evolution of Ahmed\u0027s research, from sensing systems designed for eldercare homes to low-resource technologies that address challenges faced by women and marginalized communities.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI was inspired by many other projects that handled social and humanitarian problems, especially one where Jill Diamond \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.ajc.com\/lifestyles\/georgia-tech-student-helps-create-street-harassment-app\/kMNuBbctHPCiFSTktVBL9J\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Eworked on domestic violence\u003C\/a\u003E under the supervision of \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/people\/amy-bruckman\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EAmy Bruckman\u003C\/a\u003E at Georgia Tech,\u201d Ahmed said. \u201cI thought, \u2018this is what work should look like, where lives are changed, and impacts are made.\u2019\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAhmed\u2019s research journey began with designing sensing systems for eldercare homes as a creative solution to an existing commercial problem. After completing her doctorate, she returned to Bangladesh, where she found that conventional technology design approaches often did not fit communities whose challenges were deeply connected to social and cultural contexts.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHer work subsequently shifted toward low-resource technologies designed for women and marginalized communities.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn her upcoming OMSCS Speaker Series lecture, Ahmed will discuss projects focused on social justice and on preventing violence and sexual harassment, as well as sensing technologies designed to improve people\u2019s lives. She will also share research and projects inspired by students and discuss her ongoing work examining women in computing and STEM, including the stressors faced by undergraduate students in STEM fields.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne of Ahmed\u2019s early projects was \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/news\/alumna-creates-app-help-victims-sexual-harassment-bangladesh\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EProtibadi\u003C\/a\u003E, a technology-based effort to address sexual harassment in Bangladesh.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHer work designing technology for marginalized communities has reinforced the importance of developing solutions that account for the specific needs and circumstances of the people they serve.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cDesigning something is easy, but designing for someone who needs something very different from others, being a marginalized one, takes a lot of courage and often can get overlooked,\u201d Ahmed said. \u201cBut once it can be done, it is extremely rewarding.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAhmed is a computer scientist and professor at North South University in Bangladesh. Her primary research interests include feminist human-computer interaction (HCI), low-cost sensor systems, and information and communication technologies (ICT) for development.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAhmed hopes those who attend her lecture this month\u0026nbsp;will take away the importance of continuing to pursue meaningful change.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe fact that things do not change much, but still we can keep trying to make the world a better place,\u201d she said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAhmed said she is looking forward to returning to Georgia Tech.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI am so humbled, honored, and can\u0027t wait to meet many of my old friends,\u201d she said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe lecture will take place Sept. 14 from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the Klaus Building, Rooms 1116 East and West. The event is free and open to the public.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECollege of Computing alumna Nova Ahmed (CS Ph.D. 2010) will return to campus on Sept. 14 to discuss her two decades\u0026nbsp;of experience applying technology to address social and humanitarian challenges.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"College of Computing alumna Nova Ahmed (CS Ph.D. 2010) will return to campus on Sept. 14 to discuss her two decades\u00a0of experience applying technology to address social and humanitarian challenges. "}],"uid":"36613","created_gmt":"2026-09-03 13:54:51","changed_gmt":"2026-09-03 14:14:16","author":"Emily Smith","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-09-03T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-09-03T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"681059":{"id":"681059","type":"image","title":"nova2.jpg","body":null,"created":"1788443843","gmt_created":"2026-09-03 13:57:23","changed":"1788443843","gmt_changed":"2026-09-03 13:57:23","alt":"Nova Ahmed","file":{"fid":"265410","name":"nova2.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/03\/nova2.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/09\/03\/nova2.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":129797,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/09\/03\/nova2.jpg?itok=VpMSrJqJ"}}},"media_ids":["681059"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"660374","name":"School of Computing Instruction"}],"categories":[{"id":"130","name":"Alumni"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"133","name":"Special Events and Guest Speakers"}],"keywords":[{"id":"654","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"506","name":"alumni"},{"id":"121521","name":"OMSCS"},{"id":"8472","name":"amy bruckman"},{"id":"166941","name":"School of Computer Science"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":["emily.smith@cc.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"691448":{"#nid":"691448","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Professor Earns NSF CAREER Award for Data Center Research","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ESchool of Computer Science Assistant Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/faculty.cc.gatech.edu\/~amsmti3\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAhmed Saeed\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E has received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support his research on improving data center efficiency. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe award is the NSF\u2019s most prestigious honor for early-career faculty and supports researchers with the potential to serve as academic role models and to lead advances in their department or organization. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Receiving the NSF CAREER Award is a tremendous honor and an opportunity to advance my long-term research agenda,\u201d Saeed said. \u201cIt was only made possible by the creativity and dedication of my students and the unwavering support and guidance of my family and mentors.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EModern data center servers manage resource allocation and load distribution separately, which can result in conflicting decisions. A key idea behind Saeed\u2019s proposal is to develop an integrated view of these operations to improve efficiency without requiring additional hardware.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhen performing operations jointly, you can maximize performance and completely eliminate the chances of conflict,\u201d Saeed said.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnother driver of the project is what Saeed calls the \u201csingle queue fallacy.\u201d This occurs when data center load controllers assume that all incoming requests to a server wait in a single queue to be processed.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn reality, servers are much more complex than this and can handle multiple queues at the same time. Modern workloads have heterogeneous load requirements, meaning that different requests end up landing in different queues.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThis single queue fallacy can lead to severe underutilization of these servers,\u201d he said.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERecent research by Saeed shows that a server\u2019s throughput can be doubled by avoiding the single-queue fallacy. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe potential benefits of this project are wide-ranging and impactful. Maximizing server efficiency would reduce costs and energy use. With fewer resources needed, the project could contribute to more sustainable computing infrastructure. Lower operational costs would benefit companies, application developers, and users.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe goal of my proposal is to develop mechanisms and policies that can allow data center operators to easily maximize the utilization of all hardware,\u201d he said.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs part of the educational component of his proposal, Saeed plans to organize competitions for students to design more efficient load and resource management algorithms using artificial intelligence.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to this award, Saeed was named a \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/news.research.gatech.edu\/2025\/11\/13\/bbiss-welcomes-seven-new-faculty-fellows\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EBrook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems (BBISS) Faculty Fellow\u003C\/a\u003E last fall to support his goal of making data centers more sustainable.\u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ESchool of Computer Science Assistant Professor Ahmed Saeed has received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support his research on improving data center efficiency. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe potential benefits of this project are wide-ranging and impactful. Maximizing server efficiency would reduce costs and energy use. With fewer resources needed, the project could contribute to more sustainable computing infrastructure. Lower operational costs would benefit companies, application developers, and users.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"School of Computer Science Assistant Professor Ahmed Saeed has received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support his research on improving data center efficiency. "}],"uid":"36532","created_gmt":"2026-08-04 20:21:56","changed_gmt":"2026-09-02 19:59:12","author":"Morgan Usry","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-08-04T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-08-04T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"680791":{"id":"680791","type":"image","title":"Ahmed-Said-Mohamed_86A1028-copy.jpg","body":null,"created":"1785906796","gmt_created":"2026-08-05 05:13:16","changed":"1785906796","gmt_changed":"2026-08-05 05:13:16","alt":"man standing in front of computer servers","file":{"fid":"265109","name":"Ahmed-Said-Mohamed_86A1028-copy.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/08\/05\/Ahmed-Said-Mohamed_86A1028-copy.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/08\/05\/Ahmed-Said-Mohamed_86A1028-copy.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":109815,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/08\/05\/Ahmed-Said-Mohamed_86A1028-copy.jpg?itok=s0fvXuul"}}},"media_ids":["680791"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"50875","name":"School of Computer Science"}],"categories":[{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"194836","name":"Sustainability"}],"keywords":[{"id":"194190","name":"AI data centers"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"39531","name":"Energy and Sustainable Infrastructure"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMorgan Usry, Communications Officer, morgan.usry@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["morgan.usry@cc.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"691812":{"#nid":"691812","#data":{"type":"news","title":"\u2018X to the Power of Computing\u2019: Celebrating Interdisciplinary Double Majors  ","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn the College of Computing, leaders often talk about a concept that defines the future of the field: \u201cX to the Power of Computing.\u201d It is the idea that computing acts as a force multiplier, exponentially amplifying every discipline it touches.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe future of computing extends far beyond the tech industry alone, and every sector increasingly relies on computational thinking and digital tools,\u201d Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education \u003Cstrong\u003EOlufisayo Omojokun\u003C\/strong\u003E said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cStudents who double major embody that vision by combining technical skills with expertise in another field. That combination prepares them to solve real-world problems in innovative ways.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile the national average for double majoring across all undergraduate disciplines sits at roughly 11%, Tech students are charting their own distinct paths. Among recent computer science graduates, \u003Cstrong\u003E17.5% (596 students)\u003C\/strong\u003E successfully completed at least one minor, and \u003Cstrong\u003E3.8% (131 students)\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003Egraduated with a full double major.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOverall, interdisciplinary interest is high, especially in areas like math, robotics, and economics,\u201d said \u003Cstrong\u003EBethany Mason\u003C\/strong\u003E, director of computing enrollment.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EA Snapshot of Interdisciplinary Paths\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile mathematics remains the most common pairing, computing students combine their studies with other fields in a wide range of ways. These combinations reflect individual interests and career goals, shaping how students translate technical skills into different professional contexts.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe top double majors among recent College of Computing graduates are mathematics, applied languages and intercultural studies, and industrial engineering.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOther recent graduates have minored, with Fintech, Mathematics, and Computing and Business being the top choices.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStudents pursue degree combinations for a variety of reasons. \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/691808\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EElliot Huang\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E (CS and Psychology, 2026), for example, added psychology after becoming interested in how people think. He now applies both fields in computational cognitive neuroscience research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/691809\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHunter Richardson\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E (CS and Business Administration, 2026), the connection between computing, accounting, and data systems made business a natural complement to his CS studies. He said the combination also helped him during recruiting and will inform his work in Tech Assurance at KPMG.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/691810\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EOliver Lee\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E (CS and Electrical Engineering, 2025) was drawn to electrical engineering after developing an interest in embedded systems, computer vision, and physical devices. His CS background now gives him a software foundation to apply to hardware and engineering projects.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/node\/691811\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAaron Huang\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E (CS and Biochemistry, Spring 2027), the path to a second major was influenced in part by his parents, both physicians. He has since combined his interests through research in medical labs, where computational methods are increasingly central to the life sciences.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ELooking Ahead\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe success of these students highlights a clear mandate for the College of Computing: to support and expand these impactful pathways even further.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOur role is to support those pathways with curricula and advising that make it feasible for students to meaningfully integrate rigorous computing preparation with study across other fields, so they graduate prepared for a wide range of careers and graduate programs,\u201d Omojokun said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMoving forward, the College is actively exploring how to broaden and formalize more of these interdisciplinary tracks.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe don\u0027t want students to just manually piece together a double major; we want to build structured frameworks that seamlessly blend disciplines from day one,\u201d Omojokun said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe\u2019ve already proven it can be done. For years, the immense student demand for combining mathematics and computer science led directly to the creation of our formal, joint \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/mathcomputing.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003Emathematics and computing major\u003C\/a\u003E.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELooking to the future, the College will use that successful blueprint to design even more formalized joint degrees, helping the next generation of Yellow Jackets change the world through the exponential power of computing.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECollege of Computing leaders often talk about a concept that defines the field\u2019s future: \u201cX to the Power of Computing.\u201d It is the idea that computing acts as a force multiplier, exponentially amplifying every discipline or industry it touches.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"In the College of Computing, leaders often talk about a concept that defines the future of the field: \u201cX to the Power of Computing.\u201d It is the idea that computing acts as a force multiplier, exponentially amplifying every discipline it touches."}],"uid":"36613","created_gmt":"2026-08-19 16:32:06","changed_gmt":"2026-09-01 15:33:45","author":"Emily Smith","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-09-01T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-09-01T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"680926":{"id":"680926","type":"image","title":"gradcap1.jpg","body":null,"created":"1787157319","gmt_created":"2026-08-19 16:35:19","changed":"1787157319","gmt_changed":"2026-08-19 16:35:19","alt":"graduation","file":{"fid":"265259","name":"gradcap1.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/08\/19\/gradcap1.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/08\/19\/gradcap1.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":3067193,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/08\/19\/gradcap1.jpg?itok=jwtewVSL"}}},"media_ids":["680926"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"660374","name":"School of Computing Instruction"}],"categories":[{"id":"130","name":"Alumni"},{"id":"42911","name":"Education"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"654","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"193866","name":"school of computing instruction"},{"id":"189662","name":"double major"},{"id":"594","name":"college of engineering"},{"id":"167710","name":"School of Psychology"},{"id":"167089","name":"Scheller College of Business"},{"id":"919","name":"Biochemistry"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":["emily.smith@cc.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"690376":{"#nid":"690376","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Online Age Checks Create a Pointless Privacy Risk","body":[{"value":"\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen a bartender checks an ID, they quickly verify a customer\u2019s date of birth and identity before serving them.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECompanies that employ online age verification claim their products function the same way on the web. That bartender analogy has, in part, justified laws passed in twenty-five US states \u2014 comprising more than 40% of Americans \u2014 mandating the use of digital age verification to gate access across social media and adult content online. Further regulation, targeting social media sites, is currently in process in a number of states.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHowever, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/mikespecter.com\/assets\/pdf\/AgeVerification.pdf\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Enew research\u003C\/a\u003E from Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and the University of California, Irvine (UC Irvine) reveals that the reality of online age verification is far from ideal.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe study found that the vast majority of sites covered by these laws do not appear to enforce age verification at all. When sites \u003Cem\u003Edo \u003C\/em\u003Ecomply, they often route users through third party age verification services.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers found that one such third party, Yoti, a London-based company used by Meta, OnlyFans, Sony PlayStation, and TikTok, provides services for an estimated 60% of websites deploying age verification services.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDepending on the verification method, a verification attempt via Yoti may transmit a user\u2019s IP address and\/or OS and browser metadata sufficient to uniquely identify and track devices. Some of the IP, OS, and browser metadata may be sent to credit card companies and IP geolocation services, while ID information may be sent to a known \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/oag.ca.gov\/data-broker\/registration\/186885\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003Edata broker\u003C\/a\u003E, or another verification service.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThere have been laws passed and court cases settled on the promise that these companies are incentivized to keep users\u2019 data private,\u201d said Assistant Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/mikespecter.com\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMichael A. Specter\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E at Georgia Tech\u2019s School of Cybersecurity and Privacy. \u201cWe found that reality is starkly different.\u201d\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAside from privacy concerns, researchers note that differing state policies could lead to what they call the \u201cBalkanization of the U.S. web.\u201d In other words, users may have access to different parts of the internet depending on the state they are in\u2014potentially limiting the free exchange of ideas and information.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAccording to Assistant Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sites.gatech.edu\/hoppenheimer\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHarry Oppenheimer\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E of the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/spp.gatech.edu\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EJimmy and Rosalynn Carter School of Public Policy\u003C\/a\u003E, users are already accustomed to experiencing the internet differently across countries. However, this may signal the beginning of similar fragmentation within the United States.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe are going to start seeing comparable differences between U.S. states,\u201d said Oppenheimer. \u201cUsers in some states will now have to go through additional steps to access information. Close your laptop in New York before a flight to Dallas and try to load the same web page\u2014now you see two different results.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe also observed age verification deployed on websites accessed from New York, which has no law requiring verification,\u201d said Associate Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/pearce.prof\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EPaul Pearce\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E \u003C\/strong\u003Eof UC Irvine\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cs.ics.uci.edu\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EDepartment of Computer Science\u003C\/a\u003E. \u201cWe don\u2019t know why these sites are deploying such verification\u2014it could be a move to limit liability or simplify operations. Regardless, it points to an emerging threat for the open Internet where restrictive laws from some states could impact the entire country and beyond.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe study, \u003Cem\u003EPapers Please: A First Look at Age Verification on the Web,\u003C\/em\u003E was led by Georgia Tech Ph.D. student Shreyas Minocha, undergraduate Isaac Sheridan, and professors Oppenheimer, Pearce, and Specter. It is part of the proceedings of the 47th \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sp2026.ieee-security.org\/\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EIEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy\u003C\/a\u003E and was presented in San Francisco on May 20th, and featured in \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Farstechnica.com%2Ftech-policy%2F2026%2F03%2Fafter-discord-fiasco-age-check-tech-promises-privacy-by-running-locally-does-it-work%2F\u0026amp;data=05%7C02%7Cjohn.popham%40cc.gatech.edu%7C9618dbf4c61140338f5508deb7673edd%7C482198bbae7b4b258b7a6d7f32faa083%7C1%7C0%7C639149851249813372%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C\u0026amp;sdata=WDS9aMmP8UCwjQdFIuZh73PMNG%2Be4Ks949IjaeUZv%2FI%3D\u0026amp;reserved=0\u0022 rel=\u0022noreferrer noopener\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EArs Technica\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003ECORRECTION: A previous version of this article, posted in error, included statements that were not part of the researchers\u2019 findings or intent. This version has been updated for clarity, and to reflect the research as published in IEEE S\u0026amp;P.\u003C\/em\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ENew cybersecurity research indicates that one of the world\u2019s leading age verification providers collects and shares highly sensitive personal data with third parties.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe research also reveals that most websites that require age verification don\u2019t enforce the policy.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"New cybersecurity research indicates that one of the world\u2019s leading age verification providers collects and shares highly sensitive personal data with third parties and in some cases don\u0027t even enforce the policy.."}],"uid":"36253","created_gmt":"2026-05-19 15:01:23","changed_gmt":"2026-07-16 18:35:39","author":"John Popham","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-05-19T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-05-19T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"680309":{"id":"680309","type":"image","title":"Digital-ID.jpg","body":null,"created":"1779203176","gmt_created":"2026-05-19 15:06:16","changed":"1779203176","gmt_changed":"2026-05-19 15:06:16","alt":"A hand holds up a digital identification card. The card has the silhouette of a man wearing a suit and tie. ","file":{"fid":"264556","name":"Digital-ID.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/05\/19\/Digital-ID.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/05\/19\/Digital-ID.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":1508599,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/05\/19\/Digital-ID.jpg?itok=M-WXTSUO"}}},"media_ids":["680309"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"660367","name":"School of Cybersecurity and Privacy"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"365","name":"Research"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"182941","name":"cc-research; ic-cybersecurity; ic-hcc"},{"id":"1404","name":"Cybersecurity"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"145171","name":"Cybersecurity"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jpopham3@gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJohn Popham\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr\u003ECommunications Officer\u003Cbr\u003ESchool of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003Cbr\u003EGeorgia Tech\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"690809":{"#nid":"690809","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Research Gets to the Core of AI Drone Crashes","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA drone powered by artificial intelligence crashes in a remote field, destroying its onboard computer and leaving investigators without the data needed to determine whether a cyberattack caused the failure.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearchers at Georgia Tech say they have developed a system to help answer that question.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKnown as FIRA, the tool analyzes drone crashes to determine whether they were caused by tampered machine-learning (ML) models. The team will present its findings at the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.usenix.org\/conference\/usenixsecurity26\u0022\u003E35th USENIX Security Symposium\u003C\/a\u003E in August.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe research addresses a growing safety challenge as drones are increasingly used for deliveries, infrastructure inspections, and agriculture.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs drones rely more on machine learning to navigate and make decisions, they also become vulnerable to model poisoning attacks. In these attacks, adversaries manipulate an AI system during its learning phase, embedding hidden triggers that can cause failures under specific conditions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMachine learning drones are making more decisions in flight, which makes ML a safety-critical component of these systems,\u201d said\u0026nbsp;\u003Cstrong\u003EYizhi Huang\u003C\/strong\u003E, Ph.D. student and lead researcher on the project.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhen something goes wrong, investigators need a way to ask whether the model was responsible, but the model is the part of the system that no one can examine after a crash.\u0026nbsp;FIRA\u0026nbsp;gives investigators a way to investigate these cases by reconstructing what the model was doing during the crash. As more drones run with ML, this kind of forensic capability can help drones be used more effectively and safely.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen a drone crashes, investigators must determine whether the cause was malicious interference, weather, or mechanical failure. Without reliable forensic tools, accountability is difficult to establish, and safety standards are harder to enforce.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFIRA identifies how drone components interact with machine learning models and monitors those interactions in real time, even with limited bandwidth.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe system functions like a flight recorder, capturing key system activity and reconstructing a timeline after a crash. It then analyzes the model\u2019s behavior to determine whether a malicious trigger was introduced via poisoned ML training data.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn tests across multiple drone platforms and crash scenarios, FIRA identified failure causes and distinguished cyberattacks from environmental or mechanical issues.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe system does not require access to a drone\u2019s source code, making it practical for real-world investigations.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAs commercial drone use expands, tools like FIRA could help improve accountability and trust in AI-powered systems operating in public airspace,\u201d said\u0026nbsp;Huang.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.usenix.org\/system\/files\/conference\/usenixsecurity26\/sec26_prepub_huang-yizhi.pdf\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EFIRA: Enabling Automatic Forensic Investigation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E was led by Georgia Tech\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cyfi.ece.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ECyber Forensics Innovation Lab\u003C\/a\u003E in cooperation with the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sites.gatech.edu\/capcpsec\/\u0022\u003ECyber-Physical Security Lab\u003C\/a\u003E. These labs reside in the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/scp.cc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003C\/a\u003E and the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ece.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Electrical and Computing Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EA drone powered by artificial intelligence crashes in a remote field, destroying its onboard computer and leaving investigators without the data needed to determine whether a cyberattack caused the failure.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearchers at Georgia Tech say they have developed a system to help answer that question.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Researchers at Georgia Tech say they have developed a system to determine whether a cyberattack caused drone crashes."}],"uid":"36253","created_gmt":"2026-06-18 17:56:23","changed_gmt":"2026-07-16 18:35:19","author":"John Popham","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-06-18T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"660599":{"id":"660599","type":"image","title":"CyFI Lab Sign","body":null,"created":"1661532564","gmt_created":"2022-08-26 16:49:24","changed":"1661532564","gmt_changed":"2022-08-26 16:49:24","alt":"Sign reading Cyber Forensics Innovation Laboratory The CyFI Lab","file":{"fid":"250302","name":"SCP August 2022-66.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/SCP%20August%202022-66.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/SCP%20August%202022-66.png","mime":"image\/png","size":9087261,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/SCP%20August%202022-66.png?itok=7KS9Gbz_"}}},"media_ids":["660599"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"660406","name":"School of Cybersecurity \u0026 Privacy"},{"id":"660367","name":"School of Cybersecurity and Privacy"}],"categories":[{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"145171","name":"Cybersecurity"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:jpopham3@gatech.edu\u0022\u003EJohn Popham\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr\u003ECommunications Officer\u003Cbr\u003ESchool of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003Cbr\u003EGeorgia Tech\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"691079":{"#nid":"691079","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Professor Receives Third Test of Time Honor in Three Years","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EProfessor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/moin.cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EMoinuddin Qureshi\u003C\/a\u003E received the ACM SIGARCH\/IEEE-CS TCCA Influential ISCA Paper Award at the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/iscaconf.org\/isca2026\/\u0022\u003EInternational Symposium on Computer Architecture\u003C\/a\u003E (ISCA 2026) on June 30.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPresented annually, the ISCA Influential Paper Award recognizes a standout paper from the ISCA Conference 18-22 years prior. Winning papers are those which have demonstrated \u201cthe most impact on the field (in terms of research, development, products or ideas) during the intervening years.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe awarded paper, \u003Cem\u003EAdaptive Insertion Policies for High-Performance Caching\u003C\/em\u003E, has been highly influential in cache replacement research. As a Ph.D. student at the University of Texas at Austin, Qureshi co-authored the paper with his advisor Yale Patt and collaborators from Intel, including Aamer Jaleel, Simon Steely, and Joel Emer.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI\u2019ve been working on memory systems for 20 years and if I had to pick one favorite paper, it would be this one,\u201d Qureshi said. \u201cBoth because of the simplicity of the solution and for the impact it had.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhen the paper was published at ISCA 2007, on-chip cache sizes were growing but still managed almost exclusively by the\u0026nbsp;Least Recently Used (LRU) replacement policy.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe paper showed that more than half of the lines in cache were discarded before they could be used under LRU policy and that this happened because the workloads being run were larger than the cache size. The team came up with a simple solution of modifying the \u201cInsertion Policy\u201d, such that the incoming lines were inserted at the LRU position instead of the MRU position, thus protecting the cache from thrashing patterns. The problem was that some workloads benefited from this policy while others were hurt by it.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EInstead of applying one policy across the whole cache, their solution dynamically tested two small segments against each other, each running a different policy. Whichever policy had fewer cache misses was applied to the entire cache. They named this technique Set Dueling.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EQureshi clearly remembers the moment he knew this paper would be important. He was up late working on the project when he ran the final simulation with the solution.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI was so excited that I just didn\u2019t sleep that night. I knew that the solution would get incorporated and it would change how people think about caching. I could not wait to share the results with my collaborators\u201d he said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESet Dueling has since become a common technique for choosing between two competing policies when neither wins on all workloads. With close to 1,000 citations, the paper has greatly influenced research on cache optimization.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis recognition is Qureshi\u2019s third test-of-time honor. In 2024, he received one at the IEEE\/ACM International Symposium on Microarchitecture, for his work on Multi-core Cache Partitioning and in 2025, at the IEEE\/IFIP International Conference on Dependable Systems and Networks, for his work on DRAM Reliability.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EQureshi said that his goal in working in computer architecture is to have an industry impact.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s very gratifying to see that the ideas that we developed a decade or two decades ago are having an impact and being incorporated,\u201d Qureshi said. \u201cAs a researcher, these are the best awards you can have because it serves as a validation that the work you\u2019ve done is valuable to both industry and follow-up research.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EProfessor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/moin.cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EMoinuddin Qureshi\u003C\/a\u003E received the ACM SIGARCH\/IEEE-CS TCCA Influential ISCA Paper Award at the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/iscaconf.org\/isca2026\/\u0022\u003EInternational Symposium on Computer Architecture\u003C\/a\u003E (ISCA 2026) on June 30. The awarded paper, \u003Cem\u003EAdaptive Insertion Policies for High-Performance Caching\u003C\/em\u003E, has been highly influential in cache replacement research.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Professor Moinuddin Qureshi received the ACM SIGARCH\/IEEE-CS TCCA Influential ISCA Paper Award at the International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA 2026) on June 30. "}],"uid":"36532","created_gmt":"2026-07-10 14:44:32","changed_gmt":"2026-07-16 18:33:44","author":"Morgan Usry","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-07-10T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-07-10T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"680590":{"id":"680590","type":"image","title":"moin_isca.jpg","body":null,"created":"1783701216","gmt_created":"2026-07-10 16:33:36","changed":"1783701216","gmt_changed":"2026-07-10 16:33:36","alt":"moin","file":{"fid":"264869","name":"moin_isca.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/07\/10\/moin_isca.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/07\/10\/moin_isca.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":163890,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/07\/10\/moin_isca.jpg?itok=hFw3xbfW"}}},"media_ids":["680590"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"182764","name":"microarchitecture"},{"id":"175184","name":"computer architecture"},{"id":"170453","name":"Test of Time Award"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:morgan.usry@cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EMorgan Usry\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr\u003ECommunications Officer\u003Cbr\u003EGeorgia Tech College of Computing\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"690884":{"#nid":"690884","#data":{"type":"news","title":"ICSFlux: Using Physics to Uncover Cyberthreats ","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe factories, water utilities, and power systems that keep daily life running rest on the assumption that as long as no one breaks into the computers that run the equipment, the equipment stays safe.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELogically this makes sense and has been backed up by past security research. However, researchers at Georgia Tech have found hidden paths in cyber-physical systems that attackers can use to disrupt or even destroy them.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo find these hidden paths before an attacker does, the researchers built a testing tool called ICSFlux. This new tool leans on the physics used by the industrial process and maps out the system to find new threats that were once thought impossible.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EICSFlux was deployed across 11 different programmable logic controllers in six industrial sectors, including chemical manufacturing, water treatment, power grids, aircraft, desalination, and waste processing. The process uncovered twenty genuine safety violations.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn one case drawn from a chemical-plant simulation, an attack path uncovered by the tool drove a reactor past its safe pressure limit and into a simulated explosion. By using nothing but valid operator commands, the team took the reactor from a completely normal and stable state to critical territory.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBecause the method relies only on the physics of a process and not on the details of any one controller, the same tool worked across all six sectors without being rebuilt, and it reduced the search space by roughly 50%.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sahinburak.github.io\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBurak Sahin\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, a Ph.D. student at Georgia Tech and the study\u0027s lead author, found that by sending a series of perfectly normal, fully authorized commands, intruders can slowly nudge a physical process toward a dangerous state.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThese systems are usually judged safe as long as nobody hacks into them,\u0027\u0027 Sahin said. \u201cWhat we found is that an attacker who can send everyday commands, the same ones a normal operator sends, can patiently steer the process toward a failure. No single command looks wrong, which is exactly why the usual defenses miss it.\u0027\u0027\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMost existing tools assume an attacker can rewire the controller or change the software inside it. In the real world, those controllers are locked down and cannot be touched. ICSFlux takes the opposite and more realistic view. It treats the controller as a sealed box that cannot be opened and works only with the commands an operator is normally allowed to send.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERather than measuring how much of a controller\u0027s software it has exercised, the usual yardstick for this kind of testing, ICSFlux measures how close the physical system is getting to an unsafe limit and steers its testing in that direction.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cTwo different sensor readings can run through the exact same code and still send a reactor in completely different directions,\u0027\u0027 Sahin said. \u201cLooking only at the software tells you nothing about whether the physical system is safe. We had to follow the physics, not the code.\u0027\u0027\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne of the study\u0027s most important takeaways emerged when the researchers tightened the safety margins to see whether caution alone would help. Even when every command stayed within approved limits, the way the controller reacted to a steady stream of small adjustments could still cause pressure to overshoot and the reactor to fail. In other words, staying inside the rules was not always enough.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAll of the team\u0027s experiments were carried out on secured, controlled test beds. The work was conducted with Georgia Tech\u0027s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sites.gatech.edu\/capcpsec\/\u0022\u003ECyber-Physical Systems Security Lab\u003C\/a\u003E, whose research spans the security of cyber-physical systems from industrial programmable logic controllers to marine, automotive, and drone platforms. Georgia Tech\u0027s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cyfi.ece.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ECyber Forensics Innovation Laboratory\u003C\/a\u003E, a team of researchers who work together to further the investigation of advanced cyber crimes and the analysis and prevention of next-generation malware attacks, also contributed to the paper.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe labs are a collaboration between the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/scp.cc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003C\/a\u003E and the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ece.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Electrical and Computer Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EFuzzing the Physical Space: Physics-Aware Testing of Black-Box Industrial Control Systems\u003C\/em\u003E\u0027 was accepted to the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sp2026.ieee-security.org\/\u0022\u003E2026 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy\u003C\/a\u003E. In addition to Sahin, the team includes Ph.D. students \u003Cstrong\u003EDavid Oygenblik\u003C\/strong\u003E, \u003Cstrong\u003EMingxuan Yao\u003C\/strong\u003E, and \u003Cstrong\u003EYizhi Huang \u003C\/strong\u003Eas well as Associate Professors \u003Cstrong\u003EBrendan Saltaformaggio\u003C\/strong\u003E, and \u003Cstrong\u003ESaman Zonouz\u003C\/strong\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe factories, water utilities, and power systems that keep daily life running rest on the assumption that as long as no one breaks into the computers that run the equipment, the equipment stays safe.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELogically this makes sense and has been backed up by past security research. However, researchers at Georgia Tech have found hidden paths in cyber-physical systems that attackers can use to disrupt or even destroy them.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo find these hidden paths before an attacker does, the researchers built a testing tool called ICSFlux. This new tool leans on the physics used by the industrial process and maps out the system to find new threats that were once thought impossible.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"To find hidden vulnerabilites before an attacker does, researchers built a testing tool called ICSFlux that leans on the physics used by the industrial process and maps out the system to find new threats once thought impossible. "}],"uid":"36253","created_gmt":"2026-06-24 14:57:00","changed_gmt":"2026-06-24 15:10:58","author":"John Popham","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-06-24T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-06-24T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"680500":{"id":"680500","type":"image","title":"utilities.jpg","body":null,"created":"1782313123","gmt_created":"2026-06-24 14:58:43","changed":"1782313123","gmt_changed":"2026-06-24 14:58:43","alt":"A collection of utilities like power plants, geothermal stations, solar farms, etc.","file":{"fid":"264773","name":"utilities.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/06\/24\/utilities.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/06\/24\/utilities.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":3540206,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/06\/24\/utilities.jpg?itok=RC1Hy0vy"}},"680501":{"id":"680501","type":"image","title":"Burak-Sahin.jpg","body":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBurak Sahin\u003C\/strong\u003E, a Ph.D. Candidate in Computer Science at the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EGeorgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/a\u003E, advised by \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sites.google.com\/site\/samanzonouz4n6\/saman-zonouz\u0022\u003ESaman Zonouz\u003C\/a\u003E (\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sites.gatech.edu\/capcpsec\/\u0022\u003ECPSec Lab\u003C\/a\u003E) and co-advised by \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/saltaformaggio.ece.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EBrendan Saltaformaggio\u003C\/a\u003E (\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cyfi.ece.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ECyFI Lab\u003C\/a\u003E)\u003C\/p\u003E","created":"1782313398","gmt_created":"2026-06-24 15:03:18","changed":"1782313398","gmt_changed":"2026-06-24 15:03:18","alt":"A side profile of a man\u0027s face. He has long hair and a beard","file":{"fid":"264774","name":"Burak-Sahin.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/06\/24\/Burak-Sahin.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/06\/24\/Burak-Sahin.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":75559,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/06\/24\/Burak-Sahin.jpg?itok=3mVGJ9eI"}}},"media_ids":["680500","680501"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"660406","name":"School of Cybersecurity \u0026 Privacy"},{"id":"660367","name":"School of Cybersecurity and Privacy"}],"categories":[{"id":"42901","name":"Community"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"150","name":"Physics and Physical Sciences"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"145171","name":"Cybersecurity"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJohn Popham\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECommunications Officer II at the School of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jpopham3@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"690525":{"#nid":"690525","#data":{"type":"news","title":"New Framework Enhances AR Experience by Predicting Where Users Will Look","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAugmented reality (AR) devices like smart glasses may soon be able to predict where a user will look and provide an enhanced interactive experience.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/fkryan.github.io\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFiona Ryan\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, a Ph.D. student in Georgia Tech\u2019s School of Interactive Computing, is pioneering research that tracks and predicts user gaze from a first-person perspective in 3D environments.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECurrently, most AR devices react to where users look, playing catch-up. Ryan\u2019s method could give these devices a heads-up and make the user experience more seamless.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt allows an AR system to anticipate what the person will interact with next and where they\u2019re going to look next so it can proactively render the experience,\u201d she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERyan is the lead author of the paper \u003Cem\u003EForecasting 3D Scanpaths in Egocentric Video,\u003C\/em\u003E which she will present next week at the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cvpr.thecvf.com\/\u0022\u003EIEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition\u003C\/a\u003E (CVPR) in Denver.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile there is existing research on predicting user gaze from 2D still images, her work is the first to address the issue through a 3D framework.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cBecause we live in a 3D world and people are dynamically moving around from multiple points of view, we need to predict gaze in 3D rather than 2D,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is a path of the person\u2019s attention in 3D through space. Our paper is the first to attempt to model this.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERyan conducted most of the research while interning at Meta, where she used data from Meta\u2019s\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.projectaria.com\/datasets\/adt\/\u0022\u003EAria Digital Twin dataset\u003C\/a\u003E. The dataset contains first-person video footage of users interacting with objects in an apartment.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe chose that dataset because it has a high-fidelity 3D reconstruction of a full environment, which helps us get a ground-truth 3D gaze,\u201d she said. \u201cWe can trace eye movement and see how it intersects with the environment.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA video demonstration of Ryan\u2019s work shows her software tracking a user\u2019s path toward a table with a cup on it. Once the user picks up the cup, the software correctly predicts the direction the user will turn next.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhen we look at a scene, we don\u2019t take in everything in full detail all at once,\u201d she said. \u201cWe fixate on certain areas, and our gaze is a sequence of fixations, which might depend on what we\u2019re trying to do. If we want to pick up a cup, we might look toward that and then the next step would be looking at where we\u2019re going to put it down.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERyan said the software can predict, on average, up to three seconds into the future \u2014 and as far as 10 seconds in some cases. That\u2019s enough time for the AR system to proactively render a more enhanced environment.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe\u2019re not looking that far into the future right now, but it would be interesting to explore longer forecasting windows,\u201d she said. \u201cI think potential futures would diverge pretty quickly, so we\u2019re trying to explore what can reasonably be predicted from a short segment of a person looking and moving through space.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERyan said her paper served as a proof-of-concept, and that there is still much future work to be done. She already has some ideas.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI think future models can include different scenarios to help narrow down possibilities. Sometimes a person\u2019s gaze stays on one thing for a long time. If we know what someone is trying to do, we\u2019ll have a better idea of the likely path their attention might go.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThere could also be future implications for her work in robotics research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt could potentially be used for training algorithms for robots to emulate active human perception. If we can understand what a person looks at as they perform a task, we could use that to facilitate a robot learning to do that same task.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EPh.D. student Fiona Ryan has created a new framework for tracking and predicting user gaze in Augmented Reality devices. If these devices know where a user will look next, it can proactively display information and interactive features more seamlessly.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Ph.D. student Fiona Ryan has created a new framework for tracking and predicting user gaze in Augmented Reality devices"}],"uid":"36530","created_gmt":"2026-05-27 21:15:00","changed_gmt":"2026-05-27 21:16:17","author":"Nathan Deen","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-05-27T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-05-27T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"680364":{"id":"680364","type":"image","title":"IMG_2114.JPG","body":null,"created":"1779916518","gmt_created":"2026-05-27 21:15:18","changed":"1779916518","gmt_changed":"2026-05-27 21:15:18","alt":"Fiona Ryan","file":{"fid":"264620","name":"IMG_2114.JPG","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/05\/27\/IMG_2114.JPG","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/05\/27\/IMG_2114.JPG","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":100549,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/05\/27\/IMG_2114.JPG?itok=uM3cBtPX"}}},"media_ids":["680364"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"50876","name":"School of Interactive Computing"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"188776","name":"go-research"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"9153","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"1597","name":"Augmented Reality"},{"id":"11506","name":"computer vision"},{"id":"183308","name":"smart glasses"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"690524":{"#nid":"690524","#data":{"type":"news","title":"New Framework Enhances AR Experience by Predicting Where Users Will Look","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAugmented reality (AR) devices like smart glasses may soon be able to predict where a user will look and provide an enhanced interactive experience.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/fkryan.github.io\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFiona Ryan\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, a Ph.D. student in Georgia Tech\u2019s School of Interactive Computing, is pioneering research that tracks and predicts user gaze from a first-person perspective in 3D environments.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECurrently, most AR devices react to where users look, playing catch-up. Ryan\u2019s method could give these devices a heads-up and make the user experience more seamless.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt allows an AR system to anticipate what the person will interact with next and where they\u2019re going to look next so it can proactively render the experience,\u201d she said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERyan is the lead author of the paper \u003Cem\u003EForecasting 3D Scanpaths in Egocentric Video,\u003C\/em\u003E which she will present next week at the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cvpr.thecvf.com\/\u0022\u003EIEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition\u003C\/a\u003E (CVPR) in Denver.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile there is existing research on predicting user gaze from 2D still images, her work is the first to address the issue through a 3D framework.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cBecause we live in a 3D world and people are dynamically moving around from multiple points of view, we need to predict gaze in 3D rather than 2D,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is a path of the person\u2019s attention in 3D through space. Our paper is the first to attempt to model this.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERyan conducted most of the research while interning at Meta, where she used data from Meta\u2019s\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.projectaria.com\/datasets\/adt\/\u0022\u003EAria Digital Twin dataset\u003C\/a\u003E. The dataset contains first-person video footage of users interacting with objects in an apartment.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe chose that dataset because it has a high-fidelity 3D reconstruction of a full environment, which helps us get a ground-truth 3D gaze,\u201d she said. \u201cWe can trace eye movement and see how it intersects with the environment.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA video demonstration of Ryan\u2019s work shows her software tracking a user\u2019s path toward a table with a cup on it. Once the user picks up the cup, the software correctly predicts the direction the user will turn next.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhen we look at a scene, we don\u2019t take in everything in full detail all at once,\u201d she said. \u201cWe fixate on certain areas, and our gaze is a sequence of fixations, which might depend on what we\u2019re trying to do. If we want to pick up a cup, we might look toward that and then the next step would be looking at where we\u2019re going to put it down.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERyan said the software can predict, on average, up to three seconds into the future \u2014 and as far as 10 seconds in some cases. That\u2019s enough time for the AR system to proactively render a more enhanced environment.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe\u2019re not looking that far into the future right now, but it would be interesting to explore longer forecasting windows,\u201d she said. \u201cI think potential futures would diverge pretty quickly, so we\u2019re trying to explore what can reasonably be predicted from a short segment of a person looking and moving through space.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERyan said her paper served as a proof-of-concept, and that there is still much future work to be done. She already has some ideas.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI think future models can include different scenarios to help narrow down possibilities. Sometimes a person\u2019s gaze stays on one thing for a long time. If we know what someone is trying to do, we\u2019ll have a better idea of the likely path their attention might go.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThere could also be future implications for her work in robotics research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt could potentially be used for training algorithms for robots to emulate active human perception. If we can understand what a person looks at as they perform a task, we could use that to facilitate a robot learning to do that same task.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EPh.D. student Fiona Ryan has created a new framework for tracking and predicting user gaze in Augmented Reality devices. If these devices know where a user will look next, it can proactively display information and interactive features more seamlessly.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Ph.D. student Fiona Ryan has created a new framework for tracking and predicting user gaze in Augmented Reality devices"}],"uid":"36530","created_gmt":"2026-05-27 20:42:33","changed_gmt":"2026-05-27 20:42:33","author":"Nathan Deen","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-05-27T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-05-27T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"50876","name":"School of Interactive Computing"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"188776","name":"go-research"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"9153","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"1597","name":"Augmented Reality"},{"id":"11506","name":"computer vision"},{"id":"183308","name":"smart glasses"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"690166":{"#nid":"690166","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Music and Magic Inspire New Ph.D. Graduate\u2019s Work in Brain Science","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWhen Chengrui Li walks across the stage this Thursday at Commencement, it will be his final, and perhaps easiest, performance at Georgia Tech.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBetween orchestra concerts, magic shows, and yo-yo exhibitions, Li thrives in the limelight. In fact, not much rattles his nerves considering the five years of pressure he endured studying computational neuroscience at Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBefore he returns to New York City to continue building brain-interface technologies at Meta, we caught up with Li to learn how he keeps such a cool head at Georgia Tech and beyond. \u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGraduate:\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/jerrysoybean.github.io\/\u0022\u003EChengrui Li\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch Interests:\u003C\/strong\u003E Computational neuroscience, eye-tracking experiments and data analysis, statistical machine learning\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EEducation:\u003C\/strong\u003E Ph.D. in\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cse.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EComputational Science and Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E (CSE)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFaculty Advisor\u003C\/strong\u003E: School of CSE Assistant Professor Anqi Wu\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat persuaded you to attend graduate school at Georgia Tech?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EMy undergraduate was at Sichuan University in China. We knew that the most cutting-edge technology and research were in the United States, so I participated in an undergraduate exchange program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, during my third year.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI wanted to pursue a Ph.D. in neuroscience while also becoming very proficient in math and computer science (CS). This led me to apply to the CSE Ph.D. program over others. Georgia Tech\u2019s CS ranking is very high, and the CSE program is very interdisciplinary, which matched my expectations super well. I did attain a solid education in math and CS at Georgia Tech. I also advanced my interest in neuroscience and its application by studying mathematical models and algorithms.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat research project from Georgia Tech are you most proud of?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMy \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/openreview.net\/forum?id=HD5Y7M8Xdk\u0022\u003Evariational importance sampling paper\u003C\/a\u003E is a favorite. That one was based heavily on statistical inference. I spent many hours working through complicated derivation calculations, often half-awake and half-asleep after several late nights.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis paper confirmed to me, though, that innovative research requires both hard work and inspiration, and that this endeavor can be rewarding. The paper was selected as a top 5% spotlight paper at ICLR 2024, a world-leading conference on artificial intelligence research.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECould you share more about your role as a research scientist at Meta?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI have been working on\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.meta.com\/ai-glasses\/meta-ray-ban-display-glasses-and-neural-band\/?srsltid=AfmBOoopWx7e8KGmSJVD8ItoQBedev-lha3aSZpHPkknZxNC4voGwoqN\u0022\u003EMeta\u2019s electromyography (EMG) neural band\u003C\/a\u003E. This next-generation human-computer interaction device connects with and navigates Meta\u2019s AI glasses.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWith the neural band, you can use finger gestures to control the display content you see through the glasses, like swiping your thumb to scroll the screen, or writing on your lap as if you had a pen in your hand to send WhatsApp messages.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHow did your Georgia Tech education prepare you for this role?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy pursuing my Ph.D., I am more proficient in critical thinking, math, coding, and presentation. During my interview, I demonstrated these skills and provided my publication records. This helped me land an internship, enabled my success in that role, and led to a full-time position. Additionally, my background in computational neuroscience best matched the work on the EMG neural band team at a big tech company.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat advice would you give someone interested in graduate school?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFirst, be clear whether a bachelor\u2019s or master\u2019s degree meets your work needs, or if you are truly interested in a scientific research topic. This interest should be based on your own passion, not the current trends. Interest is an important factor in deciding to pursue a Ph.D. because you have to like the topic and like it for a long time. A Ph.D. will require you to dive deep into a subject you must be genuinely curious about.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESecond, we are in a new era with rapid advances in information technology. Time is an invaluable resource and is shaped by technology. You have to think more about your time, consider where and how you spend it, and embrace ways to use it more efficiently.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECan you tell us more about your hobbies and how you keep up with them?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI started learning violin when I was five years old, and magic tricks when I was 11. The brain is a supercomputer suitable for functional computation. Our brain is an interface between the objective and subjective, where computation plays a core role in integrating these exact mechanics into interpretations of the world. This realization was one of the important factors that inspired me to pursue my Ph.D. research in computational neuroscience.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAnother comparison I\u2019ve learned after playing violin for 23 years is that the cochlea in our inner ear is a fast Fourier Transformer that simultaneously computes the aesthetic of music for us. Performing magic tricks for 17 years taught me that all the occurrences of seemingly low-probability magic phenomena are achieved by either letting it be a certain event or exhausting all possibilities.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI also have other hobbies, like yo-yo balls. I enjoy performing all these skills in front of audiences. Performing brings me satisfaction when I see excitement and happiness from the people I entertain. I am very grateful to my parents for their cultivation and encouragement in doing things that bring me fulfillment. They taught me to be curious and explore my interests, to enjoy pastimes, and instilled the habit to not give up my passions. These were not secondary things that distracted me from coursework or Ph.D. research, but rather complementary parts of my life that bring out the best in me.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat is your favorite Georgia Tech memory?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI have a lot. For my research, I debated frequently with\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sites.google.com\/view\/brainml\/pi?authuser=0\u0022\u003EAnqi Wu\u003C\/a\u003E, my advisor. These often went late into the night to defend my stances. These challenged my beliefs and made me a stronger scholar, for which I am grateful to Anqi for her time and patience. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI also enjoyed performing in the Georgia Tech symphony orchestra with our great conductor,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/music.gatech.edu\/people\/chaowen-ting\u0022\u003EChaowen Ting\u003C\/a\u003E. I was involved with the Georgia Tech Chinese Students and Scholars Association, where I showcased magic and yo-yo performances at organization events.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWhen Chengrui Li walks across the stage this Thursday at Commencement, it will be his final, and perhaps easiest, performance at Georgia Tech.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBetween orchestra concerts, magic shows, and yo-yo exhibitions, Li thrives in the limelight. In fact, not much rattles his nerves considering the five years of pressure he endured studying computational neuroscience at Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBefore he returns to New York City to continue building brain-interface technologies at Meta, we caught up with Li to learn how he keeps such a cool head at Georgia Tech and beyond. \u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Before he returns to New York City to continue building brain-interface technologies at Meta, we caught up with Chengrui Li to learn how he keeps such a cool head at Georgia Tech and beyond.   "}],"uid":"36319","created_gmt":"2026-05-06 09:39:58","changed_gmt":"2026-05-13 12:36:58","author":"Bryant Wine","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-05-06T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-05-06T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"680188":{"id":"680188","type":"image","title":"Meet_CSE_Chengrui_Li1.jpg","body":null,"created":"1778060414","gmt_created":"2026-05-06 09:40:14","changed":"1778060414","gmt_changed":"2026-05-06 09:40:14","alt":"Meet CSE Profile: Chengrui Li","file":{"fid":"264430","name":"Meet_CSE_Chengrui_Li1.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/05\/06\/Meet_CSE_Chengrui_Li1.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/05\/06\/Meet_CSE_Chengrui_Li1.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":113848,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/05\/06\/Meet_CSE_Chengrui_Li1.jpg?itok=5fWD2dio"}}},"media_ids":["680188"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"50877","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"130","name":"Alumni"},{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"194568","name":"Arts and Performance"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"195105","name":"2026 Spring Commencement"},{"id":"629","name":"graduation"},{"id":"654","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"166983","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"},{"id":"193614","name":"gt-neuro"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"39431","name":"Data Engineering and Science"},{"id":"193656","name":"Neuro Next Initiative"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBryant Wine, Communications Officer\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:bryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ebryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"690167":{"#nid":"690167","#data":{"type":"news","title":"New Graduate Builds Fintech Startup using Leadership Mindset","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EInvestment is the best word that summarizes Agam Shah\u2019s journey as a graduate student at Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat is clearest on the surface, where Shah studied how public statements by businesses and financial institutions shape market behavior. At a deeper level, though, his success was buoyed by support from professors and his mentorship of younger students.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShah\u2019s ability to connect and invest in others led him to partner with Georgia Tech colleagues and start a financial technology business. He returns to campus this week to officially graduate from Tech, giving us a chance to catch up about his grad school experience and life as an entrepreneur.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGraduate:\u003C\/strong\u003E Agam Shah\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearch Interests:\u003C\/strong\u003E Quantitative and computational finance, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, large language models (LLMs)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EEducation:\u003C\/strong\u003E Ph.D. in Machine Learning, home unit in the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cse.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Computational Science and Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E (CSE)\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFaculty Advisors\u003C\/strong\u003E: Scheller College of Business Professor \u003Cstrong\u003ESudheer Chava\u003C\/strong\u003E and School of CSE Associate Professor \u003Cstrong\u003EChao Zhang\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat persuaded you to attend graduate school at Georgia Tech?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech\u2019s dedicated College of Computing strongly appealed to me. I was particularly drawn to the interdisciplinary nature of its machine learning Ph.D. program and the School of Computational Science and Engineering, both of which align well with my research interests.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat research project(s) from Georgia Tech are you most proud of and why?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI am proud of all 20-plus research papers I have had the opportunity to contribute to at Georgia Tech. However, if I had to choose one, it would be my work on\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2305.07972\u0022\u003EFederal Open Market Committee (FOMC) text analysis\u003C\/a\u003E, which was also\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/news\/dataset-committees-public-comms-yields-new-insights-federal-reserves-influence\u0022\u003Ehighlighted in the news\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis work is not only well-cited in academic literature, but the language model developed in the paper is also actively used by economists at many of the world\u2019s top central banks, including researchers at the FOMC and the Bank of England. It is also used by leading financial institutions such as BlackRock and Daiwa Securities. Since its release, the model has achieved over 100,000 downloads on Hugging Face.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat can you tell us more about your startup, ZettaQuant?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.zettaquant.ai\/\u0022\u003EZettaQuant\u003C\/a\u003E aims to solve one of the biggest challenges in using LLMs and agents: working effectively with massive underlying datasets. We serve as a layer between raw data and LLMs, helping distill billions of tokens into the relevant context that models can use.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs a deep-tech startup, we are actively engaging with industry practitioners to better understand how to design and engineer our system to integrate seamlessly with their evolving AI workflows. Given the complexity of the problem we are tackling, particularly in advancing document intelligence systems, we are currently very focused on research and foundational development.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHow did your Georgia Tech education prepare you for starting ZettaQuant?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENot just my education, but my entire experience at Georgia Tech, extending beyond the classroom, prepared me for this journey. I met my co-founders at Georgia Tech, and many of the initial use cases we are exploring at ZettaQuant are built on open-source research I conducted there.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to research, I mentored more than 300 students through the\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/vip.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EVertically Integrated Project\u003C\/a\u003E \u201cNLP for Financial Markets.\u201d This experience taught me how to manage teams and think about building systems with a long-term vision.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat advice would you give someone interested in graduate school?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;Most people pursue graduate school after already completing more than 15 years of education. Also, people who are admitted to a top school like Georgia Tech are often already well-positioned to secure strong job opportunities. So, graduate school should provide value beyond what you could learn outside the classroom.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBefore deciding, think carefully about what you hope to gain from graduate school that you cannot otherwise. Once you enroll, take full advantage of the faculty, research labs, networks, and seminars. Many students underutilize these opportunities during their undergraduate and graduate years.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EI would also like to quote the epilogue of my Ph.D. thesis: \u2018Advice is abundant; conviction must be your own.\u2019 Build a strong conviction about what you want to achieve from graduate school before committing to it.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat did you do for fun and relaxation while attending Georgia Tech? Do you still keep up with these now?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;This may sound unconventional, but I spent a significant amount of time mentoring and teaching throughout my Ph.D. Many of my mentees went on to gain admission to top graduate programs. This included two students I mentored for all four years of their undergraduate studies who later joined the ML Ph.D. program at Georgia Tech. They are now teaching and mentoring students, completing a full-circle journey.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWorking with mentees and supporting their growth gives me a strong sense of fulfillment and serves as a form of relaxation. In addition, I enjoy listening to music, especially while coding, and I continue to do that today.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat is your favorite Georgia Tech memory?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;If I had to choose one favorite memory, beyond the many exciting late nights in the lab, it would be proposing to my wife on Tech Green at Georgia Tech. She is also a Yellow Jacket, having completed her undergraduate degree here and currently pursuing her Ph.D. Our home truly is a hive of Yellow Jackets.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EInvestment is the best word that summarizes Agam Shah\u2019s journey as a graduate student at Georgia Tech.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat is clearest on the surface, where Shah studied how public statements by businesses and financial institutions shape market behavior. At a deeper level, though, his success was buoyed by support from professors and his mentorship of younger students.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShah\u2019s ability to connect and invest in others led him to partner with Georgia Tech colleagues and start a financial technology business. He returns to campus this week to officially graduate from Tech, giving us a chance to catch up about his grad school experience and life as an entrepreneur.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Agam Shah returns to campus this week to officially graduate from Tech, giving us a chance to catch up about his grad school experience and life as an entrepreneur."}],"uid":"36319","created_gmt":"2026-05-06 09:47:39","changed_gmt":"2026-05-08 11:48:29","author":"Bryant Wine","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-05-06T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-05-06T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"680189":{"id":"680189","type":"image","title":"Meet_CSE_Agam_Shah3.jpg","body":null,"created":"1778060870","gmt_created":"2026-05-06 09:47:50","changed":"1778060870","gmt_changed":"2026-05-06 09:47:50","alt":"Meet CSE Profile: Agam Shah","file":{"fid":"264431","name":"Meet_CSE_Agam_Shah3.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/05\/06\/Meet_CSE_Agam_Shah3.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/05\/06\/Meet_CSE_Agam_Shah3.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":714059,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/05\/06\/Meet_CSE_Agam_Shah3.jpg?itok=WrdlWHya"}}},"media_ids":["680189"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"50877","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"130","name":"Alumni"},{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"131","name":"Economic Development and Policy"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"195105","name":"2026 Spring Commencement"},{"id":"629","name":"graduation"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"39431","name":"Data Engineering and Science"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBryant Wine, Communications Officer\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:bryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ebryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"689256":{"#nid":"689256","#data":{"type":"news","title":"New Study Shows Explainability is a Must for Older Adults to Trust AI","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EVoice-activated, conversational artificial intelligence (AI) agents must provide clear explanations for their suggestions, or older adults aren\u2019t likely to trust them.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat\u2019s one of the main findings from a study by AI Caring on what older adults expect from explainable AI (XAI).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/ai-caring.org\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAI Caring\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E is one of three AI Institutions led by Georgia Tech and funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The institution supports AI research that benefits older adults and their caregivers.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENiharika Mathur, a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Interactive Computing, was the lead author of a paper based on the study. The paper will be presented in April at the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/chi2026.acm.org\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E2026 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) in Barcelona\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMathur worked with the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/empowerment.emory.edu\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECognitive Empowerment Program at Emory University\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E to interview 23 older adults who live alone and use voice-activated AI assistants like Amazon\u2019s Alexa and Google Home.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMany of them told her they feel excluded from the design of these products.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe assumption is that all people want interactions the same way and across all kinds of situations, but that isn\u2019t true,\u201d Mathur said. \u201cHow older people use AI and what they want from it are different from what younger people prefer.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne example she gave is that young people tend to be informal when talking with AI. Older people, on the other hand, talk to the agent like they would a person.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIf Older adults are talking to their family members about Alexa, they usually refer to Alexa as \u2018she\u2019 instead of \u2018it,\u2019\u201d Mathur said. \u201cThey tend to humanize these systems a lot more than young people.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EGood Explanations\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe study evaluated AI explanations that drew information from four sources of data:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EUser history (past conversations with the agent)\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EEnvironmental data (indoor temperature or the weather forecast)\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EActivity data (how much time a user spends in different areas of the home)\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EInternal reasoning (mathematical probabilities and likely outcomes)\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMathur said older users trust the agent more when it bases its explanations on data from the first three sources. However, internal reasoning creates skepticism.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EInternal reasoning means the AI doesn\u2019t have enough data from the other sources to give an explanation. It provides a percentage to reflect its confidence based on what it knows.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe overwhelming response was negative toward confidence scores,\u201d Mathur said. \u201cIf the AI says it\u2019s 92% confident, older adults want to know what that\u2019s based on.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis is another example that Mathur said points to generational preferences.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of explainable AI research that shows younger people like to see numbers in explanations, and they also tend to rely too much on explanations that contain numerical confidence. Older adults are the opposite. It makes them trust it less.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EKnowing the Context\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMathur said that AI agents interacting with older adults should serve a dual purpose. They should provide users with companionship and support independence while reducing the caretaking burden often placed on family members.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESome studies have shown that engineers have tended to favor caretakers in the design of these tools. They prioritize daily tasks and routines, leaving some older adults to feel like they are merely a box to be checked.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShe discovered that in urgent situations, older users prefer the AI to be straightforward, while in casual settings, they desire more conversation.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cHow people interact with technological systems is grounded in what the stakes of the situation are,\u201d she said. \u201cIf it had anything to do with their immediate sense of safety, they did not want conversational elaboration. They want the AI to be very direct and factual.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ENot Just Checking Boxes\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMathur said AI agents that interact with older adults are ideally constructed with a dual purpose. They should provide companionship and autonomy for the users while alleviating the burden of caretaking that is often placed on their family members.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESome studies have shown that engineers have strayed toward favoring caretakers in the design of these tools. They prioritize daily tasks and routines, leaving some older adults to feel like they are a box to be checked.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThey\u2019re not being thought of as consumers,\u201d Mathur said. \u201cA lot of products are being made for them but not with them.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShe also said psychological well-being is one of the most important outcomes these tools should produce.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShowing older adults that they are listened to can significantly help in gaining their trust. Some interviewees told Mathur they want agents who are deliberate about understanding their preferences and don\u2019t dismiss their questions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMeeting these needs reduces the likelihood of protesting and creating conflict with family members.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt highlights just how important well-designed explanations are,\u201d she said. \u201cWe must go beyond a transparency checklist.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAn AI Caring study led by Georgia Tech researchers shows that older adults are more likely to trust conversational AI systems that provide them with clear explanations for their decision-making. The study also shows that including older adults more in the design process benefits their well-being and reduces the caretaking burden of family members\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"A Georgia Tech study finds older adults are more likely to trust voice-activated AI systems when those systems clearly explain how and why they make decisions."}],"uid":"36530","created_gmt":"2026-03-31 14:01:07","changed_gmt":"2026-04-27 14:31:27","author":"Nathan Deen","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-03-31T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-03-31T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"679796":{"id":"679796","type":"image","title":"0A6A0355.jpg","body":null,"created":"1774965687","gmt_created":"2026-03-31 14:01:27","changed":"1774965687","gmt_changed":"2026-03-31 14:01:27","alt":"An older couple sitting on a couch as a man helps them use Amazon\u0027s Alexa","file":{"fid":"263999","name":"0A6A0355.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/03\/31\/0A6A0355.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/03\/31\/0A6A0355.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":171883,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/03\/31\/0A6A0355.jpg?itok=t62aVqXD"}}},"media_ids":["679796"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"50876","name":"School of Interactive Computing"}],"categories":[{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"192863","name":"go-ai"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"9153","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"193860","name":"Artifical Intelligence"},{"id":"187812","name":"artificial intelligence (AI)"},{"id":"14342","name":"older adults"},{"id":"148721","name":"Amazon Alexa"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71901","name":"Society and Culture"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:ndeen6@gatech.edu\u0022\u003ENathan Deen\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr\u003ECollege of Computing\u003Cbr\u003EGeorgia Tech\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"689263":{"#nid":"689263","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Transformer Explainer Shows How AI is More Math Than Human","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWhile people use search engines, chatbots, and generative artificial intelligence tools every day, most don\u2019t know how they work. This sets unrealistic expectations for AI and leads to misuse. It also slows progress toward building new AI applications.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech researchers are making AI easier to understand through their work on Transformer Explainer. The free, online tool shows non-experts how ChatGPT, Claude, and other large language models (LLMs) process language.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/poloclub.github.io\/transformer-explainer\/\u0022\u003ETransformer Explainer\u003C\/a\u003E is easy to use and runs on any web browser. It quickly went viral after its debut, reaching 150,000 users in its first three months. More than 563,000 people worldwide have used the tool so far.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGlobal interest in Transformer Explainer continues when the team presents the tool at the 2026 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/chi2026.acm.org\/\u0022\u003ECHI 2026\u003C\/a\u003E). CHI, the world\u2019s most prestigious conference on human-computer interaction, will take place in Barcelona, April 13-17.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E[\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sites.gatech.edu\/research\/chi-2026\/\u0022\u003ERelated: GT @ CHI 2026\u003C\/a\u003E]\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThere are moments when LLMs can seem almost like a person with their own will and personality, and that misperception has real consequences. For example, there have been cases where teenagers have made poor decisions based on conversations with LLMs,\u201d said Ph.D. student\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/aereeeee.github.io\/\u0022\u003EAeree Cho\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cUnderstanding that an LLM is fundamentally a model that predicts the probability distribution of the next token helps users avoid taking its outputs as absolute. What you put in shapes what comes out, and that understanding helps people engage with AI more carefully and critically.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EA transformer is a neural network architecture that changes data input sequence into an output. Text, audio, and images are forms of processed data, which is why transformers are common in generative AI models. They do this by learning context and tracking mathematical relationships between sequence components.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETransformer Explainer demystifies how transformers work. The platform uses visualization and interaction to show, step by step, how text flows through a model and produces predictions.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUsing this approach, Transformer Explainer impacts the AI landscape in four main ways:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EIt counters hype and misconceptions surrounding AI by showing how transformers work.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EIt improves AI literacy among users by removing technical barriers and lowering the entry for learning about AI.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EIt expands AI education by helping instructors teach AI mechanisms without extensive setup or computing resources.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EIt influences future development of AI tools and educational techniques by providing a blueprint for interpretable AI systems.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWhen I first learned about transformers, I felt overwhelmed. A transformer model has many parts, each with its own complex math. Existing resources typically present all this information at once, making it difficult to see how everything fits together,\u201d said\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/gracekimcy.github.io\/\u0022\u003EGrace Kim\u003C\/a\u003E, a dual B.S.\/M.S. computer science student.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cBy leveraging interactive visualization, we use levels of abstraction to first show the big picture of the entire model. Then users click into individual parts to reveal the underlying details and math. This way, Transformer Explainer makes learning far less intimidating.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMany users don\u2019t know what transformers are or how they work. The Georgia Tech team found that people often misunderstand AI. Some label AI with human-like characteristics, such as creativity. Others even describe it as working like magic.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFurthermore, barriers make it hard for students interested in transformers to start learning. Tutorials tend to be too technical and overwhelm beginners with math and code. While visualization tools exist, these often target more advanced AI experts.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETransformer Explainer overcomes these obstacles through its interactive, user-focused platform. It runs a familiar GPT model directly in any web browser, requiring no installation or special hardware.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUsers can enter their own text and watch the model predict the next word in real time. Sankey-style diagrams show how information moves through embeddings, attention heads, and transformer blocks.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe platform also lets users switch between high-level concepts and detailed math. By adjusting temperature settings, users can see how randomness affects predictions. This reveals how probabilities drive AI outputs, rather than creativity.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cMillions of people around the world interact with transformer-driven AI. We believe that it is crucial to bridge the gap between day-to-day user experience and the models\u0027 technical reality, ensuring these tools are not misinterpreted as human-like or seen as sentient,\u201d said Ph.D. student\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.alexkarpekov.com\/\u0022\u003EAlex Karpekov\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cExplaining the architecture helps users recognize that language generated by models is a product of computation, leading to a more grounded engagement with the technology.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECho, Karpekov, and Kim led the development of Transformer Explainer. Ph.D. students\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/alechelbling.com\/\u0022\u003EAlec Helbling\u003C\/a\u003E,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/seongmin.xyz\/\u0022\u003ESeongmin Lee\u003C\/a\u003E,\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/bhoov.com\/\u0022\u003EBen Hoover\u003C\/a\u003E, and alumni\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/zijie.wang\/\u0022\u003EZijie (Jay) Wang\u003C\/a\u003E (Ph.D. ML-CSE 2024) and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/minsuk.com\/\u0022\u003EMinsuk Kahng\u003C\/a\u003E (Ph.D. CS-CSE 2019) assisted on the project.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProfessor\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/poloclub.github.io\/polochau\/\u0022\u003EPolo Chau\u003C\/a\u003E supervised the group and their work. His lab focuses on data science, human-centered AI, and visualization for social good.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAcceptance at CHI 2026 stems from the team winning the best poster award at the 2024 IEEE Visualization Conference. This recognition from one of the top venues in visualization research highlights Transformer Explainer\u2019s effectiveness in teaching how transformers work.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cTransformer Explainer has reached over half a million learners worldwide,\u201d said Chau, a faculty member in the School of Computational Science and Engineering.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI\u0027m thrilled to see it extend Georgia Tech\u0027s mission of expanding access to higher education, now to anyone with a web browser.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech researchers are making AI easier to understand through their work on Transformer Explainer. The free, online tool shows non-experts how ChatGPT, Claude, and other large language models (LLMs) process language, improving AI literacy.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech researchers are making AI easier to understand through their work on Transformer Explainer. The free, online tool shows non-experts how ChatGPT, Claude, and other large language models (LLMs) process language, improving AI literacy."}],"uid":"36319","created_gmt":"2026-03-31 16:42:57","changed_gmt":"2026-04-27 14:30:50","author":"Bryant Wine","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-03-31T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-03-31T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"679798":{"id":"679798","type":"image","title":"Transformer-Explainer-Head-Image.jpg","body":null,"created":"1774975392","gmt_created":"2026-03-31 16:43:12","changed":"1774975392","gmt_changed":"2026-03-31 16:43:12","alt":"CHI 2026 Transformer Explainer","file":{"fid":"264002","name":"Transformer-Explainer-Head-Image.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/03\/31\/Transformer-Explainer-Head-Image.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/03\/31\/Transformer-Explainer-Head-Image.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":120484,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/03\/31\/Transformer-Explainer-Head-Image.jpg?itok=eryBAi-R"}},"679799":{"id":"679799","type":"image","title":"Transformer-Explainer-Text-Image.jpg","body":null,"created":"1774975428","gmt_created":"2026-03-31 16:43:48","changed":"1774975428","gmt_changed":"2026-03-31 16:43:48","alt":"CHI 2026 Transformer Explainer","file":{"fid":"264003","name":"Transformer-Explainer-Text-Image.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/03\/31\/Transformer-Explainer-Text-Image.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/03\/31\/Transformer-Explainer-Text-Image.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":69012,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/03\/31\/Transformer-Explainer-Text-Image.jpg?itok=0B-WDInX"}}},"media_ids":["679798","679799"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/news\/transformer-explainer-shows-how-ai-more-math-human","title":"Transformer Explainer Shows How AI is More Math than Human"}],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"50877","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"130","name":"Alumni"},{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"654","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"166983","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"9153","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"10199","name":"Daily Digest"},{"id":"181991","name":"Georgia Tech News Center"},{"id":"170447","name":"Institute for Data Engineering and Science"},{"id":"176858","name":"machine learning center"},{"id":"9167","name":"machine learning"},{"id":"187812","name":"artificial intelligence (AI)"},{"id":"14646","name":"human-computer interaction"},{"id":"192863","name":"go-ai"},{"id":"194384","name":"Tech AI"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"},{"id":"39431","name":"Data Engineering and Science"},{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71881","name":"Science and Technology"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBryant Wine, Communications Officer\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:bryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ebryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"689428":{"#nid":"689428","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Researchers Build AI Tutor Grounded in Course Materials","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAs students increasingly turn to artificial intelligence (AI) to help with coursework, some worry that their learning could be compromised. Georgia Tech researchers are working to counter this potential decline with an AI tool they hope will promote learning rather than hinder it.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETokenSmith is a citation-supported large language model (LLM) tutor that can be hosted locally on a user\u2019s personal computer. The tutor only provides answers based on course materials, such as the textbook or lecture slides.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAssociate Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/faculty.cc.gatech.edu\/~jarulraj\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EJoy Arulraj\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E began the project with support from the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/research.gatech.edu\/c21u-announces-inaugural-bill-kent-ai-higher-education-fellows\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBill Kent Family Foundation AI in Higher Education Faculty Fellowship\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E last year. The fellowship, led by Georgia Tech\u2019s Center for 21st Century Universities, supports faculty projects exploring innovative and ethical uses of AI in teaching.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EArulraj has enlisted assistant professors \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/kexinrong.github.io\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EKexin Rong\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E and \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/steve.mussmann.us\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESteve Mussmann\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E to help build TokenSmith.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMussmann said TokenSmith is a synergistic blend of a database system and a machine learning system. The model stores textbooks, textbook annotations by course staff, common questions and answers, a learning state of the student, and student feedback in a structured database system. However, machine learning plays a key role in the answer generation as well as adapting the system to the student, course staff guidance, and user feedback.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022What excites me most is demonstrating how data-driven ML and principled database systems design can reinforce each other \u2014 one providing adaptability and flexibility, the other providing structure and traceability \u2014 in a way that benefits students,\u0022 Mussmann said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKeeping the model local has been an important focus of the project. The team wanted to create an AI tutor that helps students learn from their class resources rather than just giving answers. With each response, TokenSmith cites the origin of the answer in the provided documents.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cOne problem with LLMs is that they can hallucinate and provide wrong answers, but in this controlled environment, we can add these guardrails to make sure it\u2019s actually helpful in an educational setting,\u201d Rong said.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERong said she feels that students often undervalue textbooks, and she hopes TokenSmith can motivate students to make better use of them.\u202f\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cTextbooks can sometimes be daunting, but maybe if we combine them with the model, students might be more willing to read a paragraph or page in the textbook, and that could help clarify something for them,\u201d she said.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ERunning the model locally is more cost-effective and helps preserve the user\u2019s privacy. But running the new tool locally comes with technical challenges.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne challenge with creating the model is speed. Since it is a locally based model, TokenSmith depends solely on the user\u2019s computer memory. \u0026nbsp;Tests have also shown that the tutor currently struggles to answer more complex questions.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe are interested in pushing the boundaries of these local models so that they give students good answers and also run fast enough to keep students engaged,\u201d Arulraj said.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETokenSmith is a citation-supported large language model (LLM) tutor that can be hosted locally on a user\u2019s personal computer. The tutor only provides answers based on course materials, such as the textbook or lecture slides.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAssociate Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/faculty.cc.gatech.edu\/~jarulraj\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EJoy Arulraj\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E began the project with support from the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/research.gatech.edu\/c21u-announces-inaugural-bill-kent-ai-higher-education-fellows\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBill Kent Family Foundation AI in Higher Education Faculty Fellowship\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E last year. The fellowship, led by Georgia Tech\u2019s Center for 21st Century Universities, supports faculty projects exploring innovative and ethical uses of AI in teaching.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"TokenSmith is a citation-supported large language model (LLM) tutor that can be hosted locally on a user\u2019s personal computer. The tutor only provides answers based on course materials, such as the textbook or lecture slides.  "}],"uid":"36532","created_gmt":"2026-04-02 20:25:02","changed_gmt":"2026-04-02 20:30:36","author":"Morgan Usry","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-04-02T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-04-02T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"679842":{"id":"679842","type":"image","title":"AI-Tutor-Image.jpg.jpeg","body":null,"created":"1775161510","gmt_created":"2026-04-02 20:25:10","changed":"1775161510","gmt_changed":"2026-04-02 20:25:10","alt":"Graphic showing the researchers in front of a computer screen","file":{"fid":"264048","name":"AI-Tutor-Image.jpg.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/04\/02\/AI-Tutor-Image.jpg.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/04\/02\/AI-Tutor-Image.jpg.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":321180,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/04\/02\/AI-Tutor-Image.jpg.jpeg?itok=yDJdQ838"}}},"media_ids":["679842"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"50875","name":"School of Computer Science"}],"categories":[{"id":"194606","name":"Artificial Intelligence"},{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"42911","name":"Education"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"193860","name":"Artifical Intelligence"},{"id":"192863","name":"go-ai"},{"id":"194701","name":"go-resarchnews"},{"id":"9153","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"10199","name":"Daily Digest"},{"id":"194394","name":"AI in Education"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"193655","name":"Artificial Intelligence at Georgia Tech"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EMorgan Usry, Communications Officer\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["morgan.usry@cc.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"689250":{"#nid":"689250","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Researchers Look to Bolster Technology Support for Menopause","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWomen in need of supportive maternal and menstrual healthcare in patriarchal societies have increasingly found outlets for disclosure in online communities.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThat support, however, begins to disappear in these restrictive cultures once women reach menopause, according to new research from Georgia Tech\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENaveena Karusala, an assistant professor in Georgia Tech\u2019s School of Interactive Computing, and master\u2019s student Umme Ammara are working toward improving existing technologies and designing new ones for a demographic they believe has been neglected.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKarusala and Ammara co-authored a paper based on a study they conducted with women in urban Pakistan experiencing menopause.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWomen\u2019s health is understudied in general, but menopause is more neglected than other women\u2019s health issues,\u201d Karusala said. \u201cOur choice to focus on menopause is motivated by expanding how we holistically think about women\u2019s well-being across their lifespan.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKarusala and Ammara will present their paper in April at the 2026 ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) in Barcelona.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMasking Symptoms\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMenopause is diagnosed after 12 consecutive months without a period, vaginal bleeding, or spotting. The transition to menopause, called perimenopause, usually happens over two to eight years.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHormone changes may cause symptoms such as irregular periods, vaginal dryness, hot flashes, night sweats, trouble sleeping, mood swings, and brain fog.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThese symptoms can be debilitating in some cases and affect daily life. However, Ammara said women are pressured to remain silent, maintain appearances, and regulate their emotions to meet social expectations.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cUnderstanding menopause is important because a woman would be experiencing all these symptoms, and people will not understand those as actual symptoms,\u201d Ammara said. \u201cThere\u2019s been resistance to the idea of the medicalization of menopause. People don\u2019t view it as an illness, but as a life transition and something that happens naturally.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFeeling Isolated\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe women interviewed by Karusala and Ammara either stayed at home full-time or were part of the workforce.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers discovered that trusted family members might be the only sources women who stay at home and do not work turn to for disclosure.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWomen at home have the flexibility to take breaks or work at their own pace, so a lot of their experience is shaped by the emotional barriers they face,\u201d Ammara said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThat could come from their husbands and family members. Some are supportive and some are not. They might weaponize it and use that term against them, or they might dismiss what they\u2019re going through.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAmmara said it might be easier for women in the workforce to confide in their coworkers, but explaining to an employer that they need sick leave for menopause symptoms can be intimidating.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EEven in online communities that have enabled women to anonymously share their health experiences, menopause is seldom discussed.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ERaising Awareness\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKarusala and Ammara argue in their paper that a public health approach could be the most effective way to spark conversation about menopause in a patriarchal culture in which technology use varies.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThey said the challenge in implementing technologies geared toward menopause support is that the condition isn\u2019t well understood in public. Improving maternal health, for example, is easier to promote within these societies because of the general understanding that motherhood is important.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThere must be an existing infrastructure to build on,\u201d Karusala said. \u201cFor example, menstrual and maternal health are taught in schools and regularly discussed in primary care. Cultural and social meaning and importance are placed on motherhood.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cA lot of that doesn\u2019t exist for menopause. Primary care doctors are unprepared to talk about menopause compared to other health issues.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDesign Solutions\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAmmara said that the most effective way for technologies to make an impact on women going through menopause is to directly address systemic power structures around women\u2019s health within Pakistani culture.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt can start with the husbands.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cFraming the issue for husbands to understand menopause should be at the forefront of designing technology solutions,\u201d she said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIn Islamic contexts, we suggest using faith-based framings. This has been proposed for maternal health in prior works that draw on Islamic principles to engage expectant fathers in providing care and support. Framing it around religious responsibility to involve men in the journey can also be done for menopause.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech assistant professor Naveena Karusala and master\u0027s student Umme Ammara are researching how to improve existing technologies and design new ones to better support women experiencing menopause. Their work is based on a study conducted with women in urban Pakistan, where patriarchal social norms pressure women to stay silent about menopause symptoms and limit their ability to seek support, even in online communities that have otherwise helped women discuss other health issues\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Georgia Tech researchers are looking at how technology can better support women experiencing menopause in urban Pakistan, where patriarchal norms leave them largely isolated and without resources for managing their symptoms."}],"uid":"36530","created_gmt":"2026-03-31 12:09:13","changed_gmt":"2026-03-31 13:18:07","author":"Nathan Deen","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-03-30T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-03-30T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"679788":{"id":"679788","type":"image","title":"Ammara-Umme_86A2210.jpg","body":null,"created":"1774958961","gmt_created":"2026-03-31 12:09:21","changed":"1774958961","gmt_changed":"2026-03-31 12:09:21","alt":"Umme Ammar sits in a booth with laptop in front of her","file":{"fid":"263990","name":"Ammara-Umme_86A2210.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/03\/31\/Ammara-Umme_86A2210.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/03\/31\/Ammara-Umme_86A2210.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":95810,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/03\/31\/Ammara-Umme_86A2210.jpg?itok=7jqYXbcn"}}},"media_ids":["679788"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"50876","name":"School of Interactive Computing"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"8900","name":"women\u0027s history month"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"9153","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"3543","name":"women\u0027s health"},{"id":"171911","name":"women of pakistan"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39501","name":"People and Technology"}],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71891","name":"Health and Medicine"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:ndeen6@gatech.edu\u0022\u003ENathan Deen\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr\u003ECollege of Computing\u003Cbr\u003EGeorgia Tech\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"689175":{"#nid":"689175","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Tech Swarms into Athens for Clean, Old-Fashioned Computing","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe in-state rivalry between the Yellow Jackets and the Bulldogs usually heats up when Georgia Tech visits the University of Georgia. However, one Saturday last month, the focus shifted from competition to collaboration.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Georgia Scientific Computing Symposium (GSCS) held its annual meeting on February 21 in Athens. Since 2009, the event has hosted researchers from across the Peach State to showcase homegrown advances in scientific computing.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/haoningwu.github.io\/GSCS2026.html\u0022\u003EThe symposium\u003C\/a\u003E highlighted Georgia\u2019s reputation as a computing innovation hub. People from around the world come to Georgia universities to lead computing research. By advancing science, engineering, medicine, and technology, their work improves communities at home and abroad.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFaculty and students from Georgia Tech, UGA, Georgia State University, and Emory University presented at the symposium. Georgia Tech participants came from the colleges of Computing, Engineering, and Sciences.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThis year\u2019s organizers agreed to meet in Atlanta for the 2027 symposium. Georgia Tech\u2019s \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cse.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003ESchool of Computational Science and Engineering (CSE)\u003C\/a\u003E will host the 19th GSCS.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cFrom healthcare to computer chip design, scientific computing underpins many of the technological advances we see in our lives,\u201d said Professor\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/faculty.cc.gatech.edu\/~echow\/\u0022\u003EEdmond Chow\u003C\/a\u003E, associate chair of the School of CSE.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cScientific computing provides the mathematical models, simulations, and data\u2011driven tools that make modern innovation possible. It allows people to analyze complex systems, test ideas virtually before building them, and make faster, more accurate decisions across nearly every sector of society.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProfessor\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/hmzhou.math.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EHaomin Zhou\u003C\/a\u003E and Assistant Professor\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/itshelenxu.github.io\/\u0022\u003EHelen Xu\u003C\/a\u003E delivered two of the symposium\u2019s five plenary talks.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EZhou presented a new method for solving the Schr\u00f6dinger equation, a landmark equation in quantum mechanics. Drawing inspiration from the mathematics used in generative artificial intelligence models, his approach develops an algorithm that more effectively simulates waves, particle motion, and other physical systems.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EXu focused on improving how computers move and organize data during complex calculations. Her work uses \u201ccache-friendly\u201d layouts that help computers access data more efficiently, boosting performance for scientific and engineering applications.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cSpeaking at GSCS was a great opportunity,\u201d Xu said. \u201cThe symposium fostered connections within the scientific computing community and gave us a chance to share exciting research.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe symposium showcased student work through a poster blitz and a poster session. During the blitz, 36 students each had one minute to introduce their research to the full audience. They then shared more details about their research during the poster session.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe student projects showed the range of fields supported by scientific computing. The session also provided attendees with an opportunity to connect and expand their professional networks, helping grow the field\u2019s future impact.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAs an aerospace engineer by training and aspiring computational scientist, GSCS gave me the platform to network with other researchers in the field while showcasing my own research,\u201d said M.S. student \u003Cstrong\u003EKashvi Mundra\u003C\/strong\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI was able to connect with scientists across different disciplines whose work intersects with my own in unexpected ways. Those conversations pushed my thinking beyond my own lab\u0027s perspective, helping me see my work on physics-informed machine learning for inverse problems in a broader scientific computing context.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EGeorgia Tech students who presented posters included:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAbir Haque\u003C\/strong\u003E (CSE), \u003Cem\u003EMassively Parallel Random Phase Approximation Correlation Energy via Lanczos Quadrature\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAntonio Varagnolo\u003C\/strong\u003E (CSE), \u003Cem\u003EPhysics-Enhanced Deep Surrogates for the Phonon Boltzmann Transport Equation\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBen Burns\u003C\/strong\u003E (CSE), \u003Cem\u003EInfinite-Dimensional Stein Variational Inference with Derivative-Informed Neural Operators\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBen Wilfong\u003C\/strong\u003E (CSE), \u003Cem\u003EShocks without Shock Capturing; Compressible Flow at 1 quadrillion Degrees of Freedom without Loss of Accuracy\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDaniel Vickers\u003C\/strong\u003E (CSE), \u003Cem\u003EHighly-Parallel Fluid-Solid Interactions for Compressible Flows\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EEric Fowler\u003C\/strong\u003E (CSE), \u003Cem\u003EHigh-Performance Tensor Contractions in Computational Chemistry\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHaoran Yan\u003C\/strong\u003E (Math), \u003Cem\u003EUnderstanding Denoising Autoencoders through the Manifold Hypothesis: A Geometric Perspective\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EKashvi Mundra\u003C\/strong\u003E (CSE), \u003Cem\u003EAutoregressive Multifidelity Neural Surrogate Modeling under Scarce Data Regimes\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESebasti\u00e1n Guti\u00e9rrez Hern\u00e1ndez\u003C\/strong\u003E (Math\/CSE), \u003Cem\u003EPDPO: Parametric Density Path Optimization\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EVivian Zhang\u003C\/strong\u003E (AE), \u003Cem\u003EMultifidelity Operator Inference: Non-Intrusive Reduced Order Modeling from Scarce Data\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EXian Mae Hadia\u003C\/strong\u003E (CSE), \u003Cem\u003EData Efficiency of Surrogate Models: Learning Physics Data from Full Field Data vs. Inductive Bias from Approximate PDE Solvers\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EXiangming Huang\u003C\/strong\u003E (CSE), \u003Cem\u003ENeural Operator Accelerated Evolutionary Strategies for PDE-Constraint Optimization\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EZhaiming Shen\u003C\/strong\u003E (Math), \u003Cem\u003EUnderstanding In-Context Learning on Structured Manifolds: Bridging Attention to Kernel Methods\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EZhongjie Shi\u003C\/strong\u003E (Math), \u003Cem\u003ETowards Understanding Generalization in DP-GD: A Case Study in Training Two-Layer CNNs\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThe in-state rivalry between the Yellow Jackets and the Bulldogs usually heats up when Georgia Tech visits the University of Georgia. However, one Saturday last month, the focus shifted from competition to collaboration.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Georgia Scientific Computing Symposium (GSCS) held its annual meeting on February 21 in Athens. Since 2009, the event has hosted researchers from across the Peach State to showcase homegrown advances in scientific computing.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/haoningwu.github.io\/GSCS2026.html\u0022\u003EThe symposium\u003C\/a\u003E highlighted Georgia\u2019s reputation as a computing innovation hub. People from around the world come to Georgia universities to lead computing research. By advancing science, engineering, medicine, and technology, their work improves communities at home and abroad.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Researchers from universities across Georgia, including Georgia Tech, set aside rivalry to collaborate at the 2026 Georgia Scientific Computing Symposium, highlighting the state\u2019s growing role as a hub for innovation in scientific computing."}],"uid":"36319","created_gmt":"2026-03-25 13:04:13","changed_gmt":"2026-03-25 19:41:06","author":"Bryant Wine","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-03-25T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-03-25T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"679732":{"id":"679732","type":"image","title":"GSCS-2026-Head-Image.jpeg","body":null,"created":"1774443866","gmt_created":"2026-03-25 13:04:26","changed":"1774443866","gmt_changed":"2026-03-25 13:04:26","alt":"2026 Georgia Scientific Computing Symposium","file":{"fid":"263927","name":"GSCS-2026-Head-Image.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/03\/25\/GSCS-2026-Head-Image.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/03\/25\/GSCS-2026-Head-Image.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":217081,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/03\/25\/GSCS-2026-Head-Image.jpeg?itok=2Vs3GesS"}},"679733":{"id":"679733","type":"image","title":"Kashvi-Mundra-Poster.jpeg","body":null,"created":"1774443901","gmt_created":"2026-03-25 13:05:01","changed":"1774443901","gmt_changed":"2026-03-25 13:05:01","alt":"2026 Georgia Scientific Computing Symposium","file":{"fid":"263928","name":"Kashvi-Mundra-Poster.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/03\/25\/Kashvi-Mundra-Poster.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/03\/25\/Kashvi-Mundra-Poster.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":84134,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/03\/25\/Kashvi-Mundra-Poster.jpeg?itok=i7BjGyOA"}}},"media_ids":["679732","679733"],"related_links":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/news\/tech-swarms-athens-clean-old-fashioned-computing","title":"Tech Swarms into Athens for Clean, Old-Fashioned Computing"}],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"50877","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"194611","name":"State Impact"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"654","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"166983","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"},{"id":"9153","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"181991","name":"Georgia Tech News Center"},{"id":"10199","name":"Daily Digest"},{"id":"168681","name":"scientific computing"},{"id":"194970","name":"2026 Georgia Scientific Computing Symposium"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"39431","name":"Data Engineering and Science"},{"id":"39541","name":"Systems"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBryant Wine, Communications Officer\u003Cbr\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:bryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Ebryant.wine@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"689185":{"#nid":"689185","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Researchers Find Training Gaps Impacting Maritime Cybersecurity Readiness","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWhether it\u2019s a fire or a flood, a ship\u2019s crew can only rely on itself and its training in emergencies at sea. The same is true for crews facing digital threats on oil tankers, cargo ships, and other commercial vessels.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENew cybersecurity research from the Georgia Institute of Technology, however, revealed that crews aboard commercial vessels were often not adequately prepared to manage cyberattacks effectively due to systemic training gaps.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe findings are based on interviews conducted by researchers with more than 20 officer-level mariners to assess the maritime industry\u2019s readiness to handle cybersecurity attacks at sea.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Historically, cybersecurity research has focused heavily on cyber-physical systems like cars, factories, and industrial plants, but ships have largely been overlooked,\u201d said \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/annaraymaker.dad\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAnna Raymaker\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E, Ph.D. student and lead researcher.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThat gap is concerning when more than 90% of the world\u2019s goods travel by sea. Recent incidents, from GPS spoofing to ships linked to subsea cable disruptions, show that maritime systems are increasingly part of the global cyber threat landscape.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe researchers proposed four practical strategies to strengthen maritime cyber defenses and close the training gaps. Their findings were presented recently at the \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.sigsac.org\/ccs\/CCS2025\/call-for-papers\/\u0022\u003EACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS).\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch6\u003E1. Make Cybersecurity Training Actually Maritime\u003C\/h6\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMany of those interviewed for the study described current cybersecurity training as \u201cboilerplate\u201d \u2014 generic modules that don\u2019t reflect real shipboard risks.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearchers recommend:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003ERole-specific instruction: Navigation officers should learn to detect and identify GPS spoofing. Engineers should focus on vulnerabilities in remotely monitored systems.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EBridging IT and Operational Technology: Crews need to understand how attacks on IT systems can trigger physical consequences in operational technology \u2014 including collisions, groundings, or explosions.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EHands-on delivery: Replace passive PowerPoints with drills and in-person exercises that build muscle memory.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EAccessible standards: Training must account for the wide range of educational backgrounds across crews and be standardized across ranks.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Ch6\u003E2. Move Beyond \u201cCall IT\u201d\u003C\/h6\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAt sea, crews can\u2019t simply escalate a cyber incident to a shore-based IT department and wait. Operational resilience requires onboard readiness.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearchers recommend:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EVessel-specific response plans: Ships need clear, actionable protocols for threats such as AIS jamming or radar manipulation.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EMilitary-style drills: Adopting MCON (Emission Control) exercises \u2014 used by the U.S. Military Sealift Command \u2014 can train crews to operate safely without electronic systems.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EStronger connectivity controls: High-bandwidth satellite systems like Starlink introduce new risks. Clear policies and network segregation are essential to prevent new entry points for attackers.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cblockquote\u003E\u003Ch6\u003ERelated Article: \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/theconversation.com\/when-gps-lies-at-sea-how-electronic-warfare-is-threatening-ships-and-their-crews-278181\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhen GPS lies at sea: How electronic warfare is threatening ships and their\u0026nbsp;crews\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E by Anna Raymaker\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h6\u003E\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\u003Ch6\u003E3. Create Unified, Ship-Specific Regulations\u003C\/h6\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMaritime cybersecurity regulations are often reactive and fragmented. Researchers argue the industry needs a cohesive, domain-specific framework.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKey recommendations include:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EA unified global model: Like the energy sector\u2019s NERC CIP standards, a maritime framework could mandate baseline controls such as encryption, network segmentation, and anonymous incident reporting.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003ERules built for real crews: Regulations designed for large naval operations don\u2019t translate well to smaller merchant or research vessels. Standards must reflect actual shipboard conditions.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EFuture-proofing requirements: Autonomous ships and remotely operated vessels expand the cyber-physical attack surface. Regulations must proactively address these emerging technologies.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Ch6\u003E4. Invest in Maritime-Specific Cyber Research\u003C\/h6\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFinally, the researchers stress that long-term resilience requires deeper technical research focused on maritime systems.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPriority areas include:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cul\u003E\u003Cli\u003EReal-time intrusion detection systems tailored to shipboard protocols.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003EProactive security risk assessments of interconnected onboard systems.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003Cli\u003ECyber-physical modeling to better understand cascading failures in complex maritime environments.\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Ch6\u003EThe Bottom Line\u003C\/h6\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECyber threats at sea are no longer hypothetical. Mariners report real-world incidents ranging from GPS spoofing to ransomware that disrupts global trade.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThrough our interviews with mariners, I saw firsthand how much dedication and pride they take in their work,\u201d said Raymaker. \u201cOur goal is for this research to serve as a call to action for researchers, policymakers, and industry to invest more attention in maritime cybersecurity and support the people who risk their lives every day to keep global trade, food, and energy moving.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/dl.acm.org\/doi\/10.1145\/3719027.3744816\u0022\u003E\u003Cem\u003EA Sea of Cyber Threats: Maritime Cybersecurity from the Perspective of Mariners\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cem\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/em\u003Ewas presented at CCS 2025. It was written by Raymaker and her colleagues, Ph.D. students \u003Cstrong\u003EAkshaya Kumar\u003C\/strong\u003E, \u003Cstrong\u003EMiuyin Yong Wong\u003C\/strong\u003E, and \u003Cstrong\u003ERyan Pickren\u003C\/strong\u003E; Research Scientist \u003Cstrong\u003EAnimesh Chhotaray\u003C\/strong\u003E, Associate Professor \u003Cstrong\u003EFrank Li,\u003C\/strong\u003E Associate Professor \u003Cstrong\u003ESaman Zonouz\u003C\/strong\u003E, and Georgia Tech Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs \u003Cstrong\u003ERaheem Beyah\u003C\/strong\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EResearch from the Georgia Institute of Technology shows that commercial ship crews are often unprepared for cyberattacks due to inadequate, generic training, despite rising threats like GPS spoofing and ransomware. Because ships must handle incidents independently at sea, researchers recommend more practical, maritime-specific training, stronger onboard response plans, unified global cybersecurity regulations, and increased investment in ship-focused cyber research. These steps are critical to protecting maritime operations, which carry over 90% of global trade.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Research from the Georgia Institute of Technology shows that commercial ship crews are often unprepared for cyberattacks due to inadequate, generic training, despite rising threats like GPS spoofing and ransomware."}],"uid":"36253","created_gmt":"2026-03-25 16:47:20","changed_gmt":"2026-03-25 18:01:30","author":"John Popham","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-03-25T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-03-25T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"679738":{"id":"679738","type":"image","title":"Cyber Navy","body":null,"created":"1774461240","gmt_created":"2026-03-25 17:54:00","changed":"1774461240","gmt_changed":"2026-03-25 17:54:00","alt":"A graphic of a boat sailing across the globe with a cyber shield at its front. ","file":{"fid":"263933","name":"AdobeStock_1936842040.jpeg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/03\/25\/AdobeStock_1936842040.jpeg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/03\/25\/AdobeStock_1936842040.jpeg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":50518,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/03\/25\/AdobeStock_1936842040.jpeg?itok=CQWC0YmI"}}},"media_ids":["679738"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"660367","name":"School of Cybersecurity and Privacy"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"}],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"145171","name":"Cybersecurity"},{"id":"39461","name":"Manufacturing, Trade, and Logistics"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EJohn Popham\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECommunications Officer II\u0026nbsp;School of Cybersecurity and Privacy\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["jpopham3@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}},"688916":{"#nid":"688916","#data":{"type":"news","title":" Undergrads Earn National Recognition for Computing Research","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETwo Georgia Tech undergraduates are being recognized for their contributions to computing research.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ERyan\u0026nbsp;Punamiya\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;(CS 2025)\u0026nbsp;and \u003Cstrong\u003ESummer Abramson\u003C\/strong\u003E, a third-year\u0026nbsp;computational\u0026nbsp;media student, have been honored by the Computing Research Association (CRA) through its 2025\u20132026 \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cra.org\/about\/awards\/outstanding-undergraduate-researcher-award\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EOutstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award (URA) program.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPunamiya\u0026nbsp;was named a runner-up for the prestigious award, while Abramson received an honorable mention among hundreds of applicants from universities across North America.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cra.org\/about\/awards\/outstanding-undergraduate-researcher-award\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award program\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;recognized eight awardees in 2026, along with eight runners-up, nine finalists, and over 200 honorable mentions from thousands of applications.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAdvancing\u0026nbsp;Robotics Research\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPunamiya\u0026nbsp;knew early on that he\u0026nbsp;didn\u2019t\u0026nbsp;want to wait until starting his Ph.D. to do meaningful and impactful robotics research.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPunamiya\u0026nbsp;joined the Robot Learning and Reasoning Lab (RL2) directed by Assistant Professor\u0026nbsp;Danfei\u0026nbsp;Xu. While there, he contributed to the lab\u2019s Meta-sponsored\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/news\/new-algorithm-teaches-robots-through-human-perspective\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EEgoMimic\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;project, which trains robots to perform human tasks using recordings captured by Meta\u2019s Project Aria research glasses.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPunamiya\u0026nbsp;is\u0026nbsp;also the first author of a paper accepted to the 2025 Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS),\u0026nbsp;one of the world\u2019s most prestigious artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning conferences.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cRyan is the strongest undergraduate I\u0027ve worked with,\u201d Xu said, \u201cincluding students who went on to Stanford, Berkeley, and leadership roles in major tech companies.\u0026nbsp;He\u2019s\u0026nbsp;already\u0026nbsp;operating\u0026nbsp;at the level of a strong\u0026nbsp;third-year Ph.D.\u0026nbsp;student.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPunamiya\u0026nbsp;said it was a challenge to balance his undergraduate coursework with his research in Xu\u2019s lab.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cYou get out how much you put in,\u201d\u0026nbsp;he\u0026nbsp;said.\u0026nbsp;\u201cI built my class schedule to give myself as much time to do research as possible. It also boils down to having the right research mentors.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201c(Xu) never saw me as an\u0026nbsp;undergrad\u0026nbsp;who\u2019s\u0026nbsp;just there to do grunt work. I was\u0026nbsp;fortunate\u0026nbsp;he saw my curiosity and cultivated me as a researcher.\u0026nbsp;That\u2019s\u0026nbsp;really how\u0026nbsp;you get more\u0026nbsp;undergrads\u0026nbsp;motivated to research \u2014 giving them the chance to be independent and explore ideas of their own.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPunamiya\u0026nbsp;said his work in Xu\u2019s lab has already helped him identify the research areas he wants to focus on as he considers his next steps. He will continue developing generalized training models for robots using human data so they can perform tasks instantly upon deployment.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022The amount of data needed to train a robot is difficult to obtain even for top industry companies,\u0022 he said. \u0022We have embodied robot data available in billions of humans. With the advent of extended reality devices, we can get a scalable source of diverse interactions within environments.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPunamiya\u0026nbsp;graduated in December and recently started an internship at Nvidia. He mentioned he has been accepted into several Ph.D. programs, including Georgia Tech, and he is choosing where to continue his research.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s the first time my research has been\u0026nbsp;acknowledged\u0026nbsp;externally by the robotics community,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s\u0026nbsp;good to\u0026nbsp;know\u0026nbsp;the problem\u0026nbsp;I\u2019m\u0026nbsp;working on is important, and that motivates me. Robotics is an exciting field. We are doing things now that two years ago were difficult to do.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Ch4\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EResearching Inclusion in Computing Education\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/h4\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAbramson conducts research in the People-Agents Research for Computing Education (PARCE) Laboratory under the mentorship of\u0026nbsp;Pedro Guillermo Feij\u00f3o-Garc\u00eda, a faculty member\u0026nbsp;in the School of Computing Instruction. He and the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education, Olufisayo Omojokun, nominated her for the award.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHer work focuses on the intersection of computing education and human-AI interaction, where she\u2019s been exploring ways to create more equitable technology.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThis is such a huge milestone, and I couldn\u0027t be prouder of Summer,\u201d Feij\u00f3o-Garc\u00eda said. \u201cMentoring her for almost two years has been an amazing experience.\u201d\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAbramson has received the Georgia Tech President\u2019s Undergraduate Research Award (PURA) twice, which supports her research exploring how user-centered design curricula can help address attrition among women in computing.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI\u2019ve had the amazing opportunity to pursue research at the intersection of student identity, community belonging, and how we can build tools that support our diverse student population,\u201d Abramson said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cDr. Pedro and I have a goal to build community through a human-first approach, and I could not be more grateful for his support and guidance in my own journey. The CRA highlights the best of what the computing discipline has to offer, and I am incredibly honored for our work to be recognized.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAbramson will spend the summer researching how user-centered design curricula can help promote confidence, belonging, and retention for women in computing.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENominees for the PURA program were recognized for contributing to multiple research projects, authoring or coauthoring papers, presenting at conferences, developing widely used software artifacts, and supporting their communities as teaching assistants, tutors, and mentors.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003ESchool of Computing Instruction Communications Officer Emily Smith contributed to this story.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EMain Photo: Ryan Punamiya works with a robot during the 2025 International Conference on Robotics and Automation in Atlanta. Photo by Terence Rushin\/College of Computing.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ERyan\u0026nbsp;Punamiya\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;(CS 2025)\u0026nbsp;and \u003Cstrong\u003ESummer Abramson\u003C\/strong\u003E, a third-year\u0026nbsp;computational\u0026nbsp;media student, have been honored by the Computing Research Association (CRA) through its 2025\u20132026 \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cra.org\/about\/awards\/outstanding-undergraduate-researcher-award\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EOutstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award (URA) program.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EPunamiya\u0026nbsp;was named a runner-up for the prestigious award, while Abramson received an honorable mention among hundreds of applicants from universities across North America.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cra.org\/about\/awards\/outstanding-undergraduate-researcher-award\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ECRA Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award program\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;recognized eight awardees in 2026, along with eight runners-up, nine finalists, and over 200 honorable mentions from thousands of applications.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Ryan Punamiya (CS 2025) and Summer Abramson, a third-year computational media student, have been honored by the Computing Research Association (CRA) through its 2025\u20132026 Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award (URA) program. "}],"uid":"36530","created_gmt":"2026-03-13 14:57:26","changed_gmt":"2026-03-20 12:51:21","author":"Nathan Deen","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2026-03-13T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2026-03-13T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"679613":{"id":"679613","type":"image","title":"ICRA-2025_P9A0421-Enhanced-NR.jpg","body":null,"created":"1773413856","gmt_created":"2026-03-13 14:57:36","changed":"1773413856","gmt_changed":"2026-03-13 14:57:36","alt":"Ryan Punamiya","file":{"fid":"263795","name":"ICRA-2025_P9A0421-Enhanced-NR.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/03\/13\/ICRA-2025_P9A0421-Enhanced-NR.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2026\/03\/13\/ICRA-2025_P9A0421-Enhanced-NR.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":133995,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2026\/03\/13\/ICRA-2025_P9A0421-Enhanced-NR.jpg?itok=r8p0C5IW"}}},"media_ids":["679613"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"50876","name":"School of Interactive Computing"}],"categories":[{"id":"153","name":"Computer Science\/Information Technology and Security"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"},{"id":"193158","name":"Student Competition Winners (academic, innovation, and research)"},{"id":"193157","name":"Student Honors and Achievements"},{"id":"8862","name":"Student Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"},{"id":"9153","name":"Research Horizons"},{"id":"101271","name":"Computing Research Association"},{"id":"22861","name":"undergraduate research awards"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}