Nathan Kahl

Electrical engineer powers back to the pool after a rocky start

Nathan Kahl — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 11:49:29 +0000

Electrical engineer powers back to the pool after a rocky start Nathan Kahl Thu, 03/12/2026 - 07:49

When Ryan Serbia arrived at �鶹��Ƶ, he had already done something most students never consider, finishing high school at 16. Arriving on campus on a swimming scholarship, the electrical engineering major was ready to get his swimming career started, but two weeks after coming to Fairfax, a scooter had other ideas for him. He hit a patch of gravel, went down, and broke his right arm, requiring surgery. “I tell people to stay away from those things,” he said sardonically.

Ryan Serbia. Photo by Raphael Suanes/George �鶹��Ƶ Athletics

His parents had to drive 1,500 miles from his hometown of Lawton, Oklahoma, to sign the paperwork authorizing medical attention, since he was still a minor. For a freshman recruited to swim Division I, it was a tough start. He redshirted the entire season, keeping his scholarship but watching meets from the pool deck. “It was a good experience being there,” he said. “But it stung. I wanted to be competing.”

Swimming has shaped much of his life, though it did not begin in the typical way. He grew up in a military family and switched to online homeschooling in sixth grade after moving from North Carolina to Oklahoma. The online program allowed him to advance quickly and after a placement test, he skipped ahead to eighth grade and then went back to public schools.

He started swimming at 11, later than many elite competitors. At first, he struggled; at his first tryout, coaches told him to come back a week later because he was too slow for the team. By the time he was 14, however, something shifted. At a state meet, he earned a qualifying time for a regional championship by one one hundredth of a second.

“That kind of started my journey,” he said. From there, his times began to drop. He switched club programs after disagreements about training and saw major improvements. By 16, he had earned Futures and Junior National cuts and was competing against swimmers several years older.

Serbia did not let a broken arm hold him back. Photo by Raphael Suanes/George �鶹��Ƶ Athletics

He chose George �鶹��Ƶ because the East Coast location appealed to him, along with the university’s strong engineering reputation and proximity to Washington, D.C. His father, now a systems engineer with Boeing after 20 years in the Army, encouraged him to look at schools with strong research connections.

He chose electrical engineering as his major, knowing it would be demanding alongside Division I athletics. “It’s probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done besides swimming,” he said. “But when it clicks, it’s really satisfying.”

During the season, his schedule includes early morning weightlifting, afternoon practices, classes, and study sessions. Managing time is the biggest challenge. “You get to the end of the day and it’s six o’clock, and that’s when you can study, but your body’s exhausted,” he said. Even so, he has earned a spot on the Provost’s Student-Athlete List with a GPA above 3.8.

Now healthy and competing, he has balance in his routine. Outside the pool and classroom, he appreciates the university’s walkable campus and the cooler Mid-Atlantic climate compared to Oklahoma’s heat.

Looking ahead, he is considering graduate study, possibly in quantum information or another research-intensive field. For now, he is focused on continuing to improve in the 200 breaststroke and building the foundation for both an engineering career and the next stage of competition.

For students considering the same path, his advice is simple: “Be ready to manage your time.”

Topics

Electrical Engineering

Student Athlete

CEC students

Patriot Profile

College of Engineering and Computing

Students

The cherry blossoms will bloom on…

Tama Moni — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 17:48:50 +0000

The cherry blossoms will bloom on… Tama Moni Fri, 03/06/2026 - 12:48

In This Story

Jonathan L. Auerbach

David Kepplinger

Now in its fifth year, �鶹��Ƶ’s Cherry Blossom Prediction contest again received entries from around the world, with teams attempting to predict peak bloom in five different locations. But what local folks want to know is: how will all that “snowcrete” and our wacky winter impact the trees at the Tidal Basin and around Washington, D.C.?

The cherry blossoms by �鶹��Ƶ Pond on the Fairfax Campus. Photo by Office of University Branding

“Typically, trees need a certain amount of cold weather and then a certain amount of warm weather to bloom,” said Jonathan Auerbach, an assistant professor in the Department of Statistics and the competition co-organizer. “If they don't get enough of either, then the bloom is delayed. For this reason, many contestants are predicting a late bloom this year.”

In fact, the average contestant is predicting a peak bloom in the D.C. area on April 2, about a week later than in recent years.

“One challenge many contestants chose to tackle this year was the effect of prolonged snow ground cover,” said David Kepplinger, also an assistant professor in the Department of Statistics and a competition co-organizer. He noted that some of the entries use snow coverage in their models.

A key challenge is while cherry trees tend to bloom earlier as the climate warms, complex weather patterns make annual predictions extremely difficult. “It wasn’t a record amount of snow or a record amount of cold, but it was a unique combination of the two,” Kepplinger said.

The contest received more than 30 entries, which is typical.

Last year, artificial intelligence (AI) made its appearance as a new tool for predictions. Auerbach said many contestants actually did better than AI. “This year we did the opposite of AI. We held a hackathon in person and got the students to network and meet,” he said, referring to an event on February 21 at Georgetown University.

The contest asks contestants to submit predictions for trees in Washington, D.C., New York City, Kyoto, Liestal-Weideli in Switzerland, and Vancouver, B.C. Entries must include a compelling narrative and reproducible analysis with any data and code they used.

Topics

cherry blossoms

Department of Statistics

Research

Protecting production through physics-powered detection

Nathan Kahl — Tue, 24 Feb 2026 13:25:04 +0000

Protecting production through physics-powered detection Nathan Kahl Tue, 02/24/2026 - 08:25

In This Story

Matthew Jablonski

When a manufacturing machine is cutting, drilling, or shaping metal, it is following a precise set of digital instructions, with every motor turn intentional. But what happens when there’s a subtle change along the way?

That is the problem Matt Jablonski is working to solve. Jablonski, an assistant professor in the �鶹��Ƶ's Department of Cyber Security Engineering, received $50k from Virginia’s Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) through its Industry Faculty Collaboration Acceleration Program. He is teaming up with Northern Virginia-based startup SARC Solutions, which is developing a product called Beholder based on technology licensed from Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The project focuses on protecting cyber physical systems, complex machines that blend software, electronics, and physical components. These systems power everything from manufacturing equipment to critical infrastructure. Securing them is challenging because traditional cybersecurity tools can interfere with real-time operations.

Beholder is the product that Jablonski is working on with SARC. Image provide.

“If you add too much security overhead to a control system, you risk disrupting the very thing you are trying to protect,” said Jablonski, who has a master's and a PhD degrees from George �鶹��Ƶ.

Instead of monitoring a machine directly with heavy security software, Jablonski is taking a lighter approach, collecting indirect measurements, including electrical power traces from motor drives and select operating system statistics, to observe how a machine behaves during operation. These indirect signals, often called side channels, can reveal patterns about what the system is doing without interfering with it.

The concept builds on Jablonski’s previous research in cyber physical system safety and security. It also connects directly to a course he teaches on practical side-channel attacks and defenses. Historically, side-channel analysis has been used by attackers to extract secrets by studying metadata such as timing, temperature, or power usage. Jablonski is applying those same ideas defensively.

In this project, the focus is a large manufacturing machine that follows digital instructions known as G-code. A 3D computer-aided design is translated into G-code, which tells the machine exactly how to move and cut. The team’s goal is to align those instructions with the physical signals coming from the machine’s motors and systems.

By mapping the expected digital commands to the observed physical behavior, the team is developing artificial intelligence models that learn what “normal” looks like and can flag when the system drifts from that state. Rather than generic anomaly detection, the models aim to identify subtle signs that the machine is not operating as intended.

“We are looking for indications that the system is not performing in a normative sense,” Jablonski said.

The grant will help support doctoral student Sanjay Kumar Samala, who begins his PhD in the fall. Together, they are building out the testbed and developing early models, with a demonstration targeted for this summer.

The partnership with SARC reflects the broader CCI mission of accelerating collaboration between academia and industry. By pairing faculty expertise with emerging companies, the program aims to move ideas more quickly from lab to application.

“This award is exactly what Virginia does well: pair applied academic expertise with a startup that can transition research into a deployable capability,” said Joseph Carter, strategy, execution and adaptation at SARC Solutions. “Our goal with George �鶹��Ƶ is to turn Beholder into a pilot-ready, ‘signals-to-decisions’ monitoring layer that helps manufacturers detect subtle manipulation before it impacts quality, safety, or uptime.”

For Jablonski, whose interest in security deepened during his freshman year of college in the wake of 9/11, the project fits squarely within a decade of work focused on making cyber physical systems safer. “We live in interesting times,” he said. “As systems become more connected and more intelligent, safety has to remain a priority.”

Topics

Cyber Security

Research

Artificial Intelligence

Alumni

Building a career that holds water

Nathan Kahl — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 15:26:51 +0000

Building a career that holds water Nathan Kahl Thu, 02/12/2026 - 10:26

“Some passions are genetic,” said Michael Smedley, a senior civil and infrastructure engineering student in the College of Engineering and Computing at �鶹��Ƶ. “My mom was a proud water engineer at Fairfax Water. After she arranged for a cub scout troop tour of the Griffith water treatment facility on the Occoquan, water processes were my passion.”

Smedley is in the Bachelor's to Accelerated Master's (BAM) program, concentrating on environmental and water resources engineering. His particular interest is in water treatment.

While Smedley’s three older siblings chose other Virginia universities, the Burke native appreciated how close George �鶹��Ƶ was to his home, and the campus tour impressed him.

“In high school I got really good at calculus and AP environmental science and my mom said, ‘Oh, well, you know what that means. You can try civil engineering,’” he said with a smile. “I don't regret it.”

Smedley loves every opportunity he has to get out in the field. Photo provided.

He cites BAM’s benefits. He was working on a minor in environmental engineering and his advisor, Lisa Nolder, currently director for student affairs and academic excellence in the Department of Cyber Security Engineering, explained that he could forgo the minor and spend that time working toward his master’s. “Lisa really helped me get set up with that and understand what it was.”

While at George �鶹��Ƶ he first had an internship at Fairfax Water, where he worked in the planning department, running simulations on water pressure at fire hydrants, called fire flows, and enjoying the opportunity to take field trips to the water treatment facility. He then had an internship with CDM Smith, an engineering, design, and construction firm.

“I’ve been there for two years and I'm going back this summer. I really like the nitty gritty calculations, and you get to go see the work up close. And that's really, like, magical for me,” he said.

At Fairfax Water, he helps with design calculations, which is what he wants to focus on professionally. “It’s doing calculations on flows and making a rough sketch of what a device or system then should look like, based on flow simulations.”

Smedley said last summer he learned from his experience at a water treatment plant in Fredericksburg, a facility in the process of doubling in size. He was stationed out of the facility for two weeks, where he had free rein to look at different treatment processes and collect data. “I saw every stage of that water treatment plant.”

Where some people don’t think twice about some rainfall or the course of a flow, Smedley loves it. “I would watch the stream outside my bedroom window during high precipitation events. The flow of water has always fascinated me.”

He’s graduating with his bachelor's this semester and plans to complete his master’s in December 2026. “I have learned so much about how we try to control the uncontrollable. I learned how the private and public sectors differ, and I hope to incorporate this into how I contribute to the water industry,” said Smedley. “Water is a topic that is discussed more frequently in this ever-changing environment. I hope to bring a little piece of stability and consistency to a world that thirsts for more.”

Topics

water resource engineering

water quality

civil and infrastructure engineering

BAM program

internships

College of Engineering and Computing

Students

Printing play: A path forward for children with prosthetics

Nathan Kahl — Thu, 15 Jan 2026 13:32:50 +0000

Printing play: A path forward for children with prosthetics Nathan Kahl Thu, 01/15/2026 - 08:32

In This Story

Quentin Sanders

A child who uses a lower-limb prosthesis faces unique challenges when it comes to activities most children take for granted, such as running and being active. Without access to a prosthetic device designed to support these movements, children may miss out not only on the simple joys of play, but also on critical opportunities for physical development during key stages of growth.

Quentin Sanders. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

�鶹��Ƶ researcher Quentin Sanders is part of a collaborative research team working to make high-performance prosthetic limbs more affordable, accessible, and better tailored to the needs of active children. Sanders, along with Jonathon Schofield, an associate professor at the University of California, Davis, and Garrett Melenka, an associate professor at York University, received a three-year, $500K grant from the National Science Foundation to support the project, which began in September 2025.

Most standard foot or leg prostheses are built for basic walking, not for the kind of active movement that helps children develop strength, balance, and coordination, the benefits that come from running and jumping with friends.

“This limitation can be especially challenging for children,” said Sanders, who has a joint appointment in the Department of Bioengineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering. “Kids want to run and play. When they can’t, they’re more likely to avoid physical activities, such as sports, or even stop using their prosthesis altogether.”

A 3D-printed running blade prototype, created using the technique Sanders and his colleagues are developing. Photo provided

Often seen in competitive events such as the Paralympic Games, running blades are curved, spring-like prosthetic feet made from carbon fiber that mimic the energy return of a biological foot. While these devices offer an alternative option to standard leg prostheses and can enable children to run, they are expensive and often inaccessible. A single running blade can cost several thousand to tens of thousands of dollars and is typically not covered by insurance because it is considered nonessential, rather than medically necessary.

Some charitable organizations help families access these devices, but demand far exceeds supply, and for growing children, one blade is rarely enough. “Kids grow quickly,” said Sanders. “As they get taller, they outgrow their prostheses, which means going through multiple blades over time.”

The research team has several goals, starting with identifying what children truly need from an activity-enabling prosthesis. The researchers are examining how motivation to be active, physical growth, and different types of movement influence prosthetic performance in everyday settings. “What do you use it for? What don’t you use it for? What do you wish you could do?” said Sanders.

The team is also analyzing how children move while using their current running blades, studying activities such as running, jumping, and changing direction to better understand the biomechanics and physical demands involved.

Finally, the team will take a close look at how today’s running blades perform under real-world demands. “We want to understand how stiff they are, how much load they can handle, and when they might fail,” said Sanders. “We can then combine that information with what kids tell us they want to do and use it to guide our 3D printing process—creating blades that are better suited for active play.”

Sanders and his collaborators are using an advanced additive manufacturing approach known as continuous-fiber 3D printing, in which carbon fibers are embedded within the printed plastic to reinforce the prosthetic structure. This method enables the creation of strong, lightweight devices that can be tailored to a child’s size, growth, and activity needs.

“By combining manufacturing, composite materials, prosthetics, design, and biomechanics, this project provides an innovative and holistic solution,” said Melenka.

The technique is already used to produce strong, lightweight components in the aerospace and automotive industries, but it has seen limited adoption in prosthetic design. This project represents one of the first efforts to apply it systematically to activity-enabling prostheses for children.

“What’s most exciting about this project is the collaboration across institutes, disciplines, and areas of expertise,” said Schofield. “We are bringing together researchers in movement mechanics, advanced materials manufacturing, and pediatric lower-limb prosthetic care. We are also incorporating the lived experience of children and families, along with clinicians who work with these patients every day.”

The work also has the potential for industry disruption, according to Sanders. “If we can show that a child’s physical measurements and movement needs can be translated into a digital model and then used to 3D print a customized prosthesis, existing prosthetic manufacturers would begin to integrate this approach into their production pipelines.”

For Sanders, the motivation goes beyond technical innovation. “I’ve always been interested in translating new technologies into real-world solutions,” he said. “Helping people with disabilities and impairments is why I got into this field in the first place.”

Topics

Bioengineering

mechanical engineering

3D Printing

Research

National Science Foundation

Fuse at �鶹��Ƶ Square

GCI-Health

Commonwealth Cyber Initiative NoVa Node promotes a research culture

Nathan Kahl — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 18:23:51 +0000

Commonwealth Cyber Initiative NoVa Node promotes a research culture Nathan Kahl Mon, 01/12/2026 - 13:23

In This Story

Liza Wilson Durant

Tanvir Arafin

Duminda Wijesekera

This is the third of a three-part series about the NoVa Node’s three foci: workforce development, innovation and entrepreneurship, and research.

The Commonwealth Cyber Initiative NoVa Node supports a portfolio of research projects across nine Northern Virginia institutions, as well as new faculty hires and undergraduate researchers. In FY25, CCI NoVa Node researchers received 68 external grants totaling $36.7 million.

Program Manager Jordan �鶹��Ƶ said the NoVA Node funding often straddles research and workforce development. “CCI funds undergraduate research assistantships, where the students conduct research 15 to 20 hours a week alongside faculty on cyber challenges they would otherwise only read about in the classroom.”

“CCI NoVa Node often provides seed funding for faculty to generate results that are then leveraged to support larger proposals for federal funding,” said Liza Wilson Durant, CCI NoVa Node director and associate provost for strategic initiatives at George �鶹��Ƶ. “Our impact on research is then amplified when our funded faculty bring back a 10-fold increase in funding over our initial investment.”

Whether a new professor or a veteran researcher, CCI NoVa Node helps many faculty explore new and existing avenues. “As a new faculty member, CCI and NoVa Node immensely helped bootstrap my research portfolio,” said Tanvir Arafin, an assistant professor in cyber security engineering. “The seed grants provided an opportunity for learning competitive grant preparation, as well as successful research execution with high-risk, high-reward projects. CCI events also helped me connect with fellow researchers across nodes, collaborate in active research, and pursue major research grants.”

Arafin said that those efforts directly translated into success for students, ranging from building their own 5G testbed for hardware security research to a Best Demo Award at ACM WiSec 2025, a major conference.

Samy El-Tawab, information technology professor and program director in the department of computer science at James Madison University, said, “Since becoming an R2 university in 2020, our engagement with CCI significantly contributed to enhancing research at James Madison. This partnership is vital for supporting faculty development, providing essential equipment, and fostering opportunities for undergraduate researchers. The CCI collaboration has truly been one of the key avenues for advancing our research capabilities and educational mission, and we're excited to be a part of this impactful effort.”

Duminda Wijesekera, a tenured professor in the Cyber Security Engineering and Computer Science Departments at George �鶹��Ƶ and former recipient of a CCI Impact Award, said, "CCI brings together universities, businesses, and government in developing and enhancing Virginia's cyber capabilities. I have met participants across the commonwealth working with them on impactful projects. CCI's financial assistance played a major role in establishing the Living Innovation Laboratory at �鶹��Ƶ Square and providing me a CCI fellowship.”

President and CEO of Fairfax County Economic Development Victor Hoskins stressed the geographic importance of having NoVA Node at George �鶹��Ƶ. “This region is the sixth largest economy in the country at $600 billion annually, and $320 billion of that is in Northern Virginia. And George �鶹��Ƶ is smack dab in the middle of that.”

�鶹��Ƶ CCI
CCI was established in 2018 by the General Assembly, according to its website, to “serve as an engine for research, innovation, and commercialization of cybersecurity technologies, and address the commonwealth’s need for growth of advanced and professional degrees within the cyber workforce.”

Other institutions in the CCI NoVA Node include James Madison University, the University of Mary Washington, Marymount University, Shenandoah University, Blue Ridge Community College, Germanna Community College, Laurel Ridge Community College, and Northern Virginia Community College.

Topics

Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI)

Research

George �鶹��Ƶ and King’s College London win Google Award to fight AI-driven romance scams targeting older adults

Nathan Kahl — Sun, 26 Oct 2025 23:23:41 +0000

George �鶹��Ƶ and King’s College London win Google Award to fight AI-driven romance scams targeting older adults Nathan Kahl Sun, 10/26/2025 - 19:23

The term “catfishing” entered mainstream use with the release of the eponymous 2010 documentary investigating the practice of creating fake online personas, frequently to scam someone. Today, AI is pushing this practice to a frightening new level, with the prospect of older adults falling for what are called “romance scams.”

Sanchari Das, an assistant professor in �鶹��Ƶ’s Department of Information Sciences and Technology, and Ruba Abu-Salma, an associate professor in the department of computer science at King’s College London, received a $100,000 Google Academic Research Award to help keep older adults safe online. Their project, Scammed by Love: Toward Mitigating AI-Facilitated Romance Scams Against Older Adults Through Empirical and Cross-National Studies, will investigate the prevalence of such scams targeting older adults and will create educational tools to help them safely navigate dating apps.

The researchers will conduct a multi-national study spanning 13 countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom. Das, who has published research on older adults and their online dating habits, said, “We think about older adults in terms of health care needs, but we don't think about dating and romance. I learned that a majority of older-adult scams come from scam dating, and the victims cannot even share that it happened with their support networks, like their children, because it would be such a taboo and embarrassing thing to share.” Das added that an estimated $3 billion is lost each year in the United States to romance scams across all age groups, based on reported figures. “And that’s only what’s being reported.” Das is concerned that while romance scams are among the most prevalent forms of fraud affecting older adults, this population remains understudied in this context.

AI is making romance scams even harder to detect. iStock photo.

With roughly 12 percent of Americans over 70 having used a dating app or site, there is significant exposure for financial harm. Given the rapid advances in AI-generated images, video, audio, and simulated emotional expression, these attacks are increasing. One news story (of many) tells of a UK resident who scammed at least 10 female victims over 11 years out of 100,000 British pounds.

Abu-Salma, who has also published research on older adults and other at-risk groups, noted that according to a recent 2025 study by Lloyds Bank, “Individuals aged 55 to 64 are the most targeted age group, accounting for 20 percent of romance scam victims, followed by those aged 65 to 74, who represent18 percent of cases.”

In response to these risks, Das and Abu-Salma’s project will proceed in three phases. First, they will analyze data from focus groups and surveys of older adults in countries with high dating-app adoption. Second, they will develop educational safety materials. Third, they will hold in-person community workshops in the United States and the UK, partnering with older adult communities to refine and disseminate these materials. The team will work with organizations worldwide to share their findings online.

Das said she is excited about this collaboration and grateful to receive such highly competitive Google Academic Research Award in the Trust, Safety, Security, and Privacy research domain, noting, “We all know about deepfakes, but the bigger issue is that scammers are no longer just swapping faces. They are creating entirely new personas that feel real, so you may not even question whether the person you are talking to exists.” She added, “Our goal is to equip older adults with simple tools and support so they can connect online with confidence.”

In This Story

Sanchari Das

Topics

Cyber Security

Information Sciences and Technology Departmenat

Older Adults

Research

Google

Artificial Intelligence

Anonymity’s ARX nemesis

Nathan Kahl — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 15:12:08 +0000

Anonymity’s ARX nemesis Nathan Kahl Mon, 10/20/2025 - 11:12

A team of faculty and students from �鶹��Ƶ recently discovered a vulnerability in a widely used anonymization tool. They presented their findings last week in Taiwan at the Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ACM CCS), one of the world’s most prestigious computer security conferences, with a very low paper acceptance rate.

The problem they discovered was with ARX, an open-source data anonymization tool, which provides what is referred to as k-anonymity. It is a commonly used tool in clinical settings to maintain data privacy. The discovery is particularly important at a time when more and more private data is being used in a variety settings and systems.

Evgenios Kornaropoulos, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, said, “Sometimes this type of microdata is very valuable. Tools like ARX anonymize the data so it’s compliant with HIPAA, and then that data can be shared with policymakers, engineers, scientists, and others who will make policy decisions and scientific studies based on this information.”

While many people receiving medical care are comfortable with their information being included in larger data sets for purposes of medical discovery, they likely do not want personal, identifiable information released.

“For patients, and especially those from more vulnerable or marginalized communities, data privacy is not an abstract concern, it’s deeply tied to trust in the health care system," said paper co-author Rebecca Sutter, a professor in the School of Nursing, and director of the MAP Clinics. "The integrity of tools like ARX matters because they underpin how we protect patient information while advancing public health research. When anonymization fails, it’s not only a technical vulnerability, it’s a human one."

Computer science PhD student Somiya Chhillar, lead author on the paper, said that the ubiquity of ARX was a reason they chose to study it. “We wanted to see how ARX really operates and how the algorithm works. While we were doing that, we realized that a few of the steps that it takes are very opportunistic, and because of that, it leaks information that we shouldn't be finding out by just looking at the anonymized data.”

Chhillar said that ARX follows a “greedy strategy,” explaining that there is a tension between privacy and utility. When data is shared, it should be useful without leaking information. The best metric for deciding the data usefulness is measured by information loss while the data is being made private. “The algorithm tries to minimize information loss while anonymizing the data, and ideally, we want the least possible information loss. And that's the greedy aspect of it; it's not always going for the most private, it’s just going for the most utility.”

This is what backfires, said Kornaropoulos, because experts (or attackers) can reverse engineer the anonymization steps the algorithm took throughout its execution to maximize utility and figure out properties of the data that were there before and after this anonymization step.

Kornaropoulos praised his student’s dedication to the discovery, noting that Chhillar “worked on this project for a while, and this code base of ARX is an elaborate tool, with thousands of lines of code. She had to go through it to truly internalize understand everything that's going on there,” he said.

The project was supported by a Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) grant from the program, “Securing Interactions between Humans and Machines,” and as a requirement of the grant, the project crossed different parts of the university. The College of Engineering and Computing collaborated with �鶹��Ƶ and Partners (MAP) Clinics, which provided the data.

Topics

computer science

Cyber Security

Data Mining in Health Care

Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI)

Research

In This Story

Rebecca Sutter, DNP, APRN, BC-FNP

Learn more about Cybersecurity at George �鶹��Ƶ

Resilient robots in rough terrain

Nathan Kahl — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 01:01:54 +0000

Resilient robots in rough terrain Nathan Kahl Mon, 10/13/2025 - 21:01

Xuesu Xiao oozes enthusiasm when he talks about his off-road robotics testbed in �鶹��Ƶ’s new Fuse building at �鶹��Ƶ Square.

The Robotixx team provided demonstrations to visitors during the Fuse grand celebration in September. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

“I'm extremely excited about this because it’s an only-of-its-kind thing on the planet. Nowhere else has such abilities. Off-road mobility and autonomy is a very difficult area to study and investigate because you need to have supporting facilities, you need to have off-road terrain, and you need to have the vehicles. We have all of that,” said the computer science assistant professor.

Xiao is a roboticist who develops algorithms to make robots not only capable, but also intelligent. His goal is that robots will someday work in the real world; humans will stand aside while robots go places that humans don't want to—or simply cannot—go.

“We want them to go to a forest to search for a victim who is lost in the woods,” he said. “We have a proposal in review right now to build robot firefighters. We want them in the field, doing things like scientific exploration in the South Pole.”

Presently, autonomous driving generally involves road networks with traffic lights and lane markings. Xiao’s research focuses on motion planning: using machine learning to determine a series of movements to get a robot from a starting point to a goal while avoiding obstacles.

“That is where AI comes into place,” said Xiao. “We want robots not only to be programmed to do things, but also to learn from themselves, from the humans around them, and from each other.”

Xiao hosted visitors from the RoSys Group of the University of Catania, Italy. Pictured: assistant professor Giuseppe Sutera, Xiao, PhD student Francesco Cancelliere, and assistant professor Dario Calogero Guastella in the test bed. Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

The testbed where Xiao and students put their robots through their paces is about 700 square feet of rocks and faux vegetation. Xiao is intimately familiar with the space, having placed most of the rocks himself. “I'm very, very proud of this testbed, which has more than seven tons of rocks. I took five of our students of seven or eight trips to the landscaping store. It was an exhausting week!”

The terrain is rugged, designed to represent a real-life situation. “Off-road environments may get the robot stuck because the terrain may be deformable—changing shape under weight,” Xiao said. “Off-road terrain may make the robot roll over because, if there are a lot of rocks, they may need to crawl over them. You don't want the vehicle to roll over on top of those things. Successfully maneuvering this terrain is a very, very big thrust of our lab.”

The testbed is built to a one-tenth scale. A motion-capture system of eight cameras (soon to be upgraded to 16) surveils the entire terrain. Xiao says that his team knows exactly how the vehicles are moving with six-degrees-of-freedom tracking.

The year has been busy for Xiao, who in 2025 won the university-wide Presidential Award for Faculty Excellence and the College of Engineering and Computing’s Excellence in Research Award. He is also George �鶹��Ƶ’s sole nominee for the Rising Star Outstanding Faculty Award by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia.

While he appreciates that recognition, Xiao isn’t one to rest on his laurels. He is particularly excited about what’s next in the lab: He just ordered an autonomous Polaris “side-by-side”—a $300,000 autonomous off-road vehicle that can hold two people. He also talked about a capability that allows the testbed to be used far from George �鶹��Ƶ.

“I was at a conference in Korea, and we opened our testbed to the entire world by using a web interface. So, the attendees of the Conference on Robot Learning in Korea could drive our robots in Fuse in Arlington, Virginia.”

With robots at George �鶹��Ƶ taking commands from the other side of the globe, Xiao is showing that in robotics, there are no borders—only new frontiers to explore.

Explore AI at George �鶹��Ƶ

In This Story

Xuesu Xiao

Topics

Autonomous Systems

Fuse at �鶹��Ƶ Square

robotics

Artificial Intelligence

Research

�鶹��Ƶ Autonomy and Robotics Center

GCI-Digital

Commonwealth Cyber Initiative NoVa Node nurtures next-gen cyber sleuths

Nathan Kahl — Wed, 08 Oct 2025 18:38:00 +0000

Commonwealth Cyber Initiative NoVa Node nurtures next-gen cyber sleuths Nathan Kahl Wed, 10/08/2025 - 14:38

In This Story

Liza Wilson Durant

This is the first of a three-part series about the NoVa Node’s three foci: workforce development, innovation and entrepreneurship, and research.

A cyber-physical systems testbed, cutting-edge research projects across AI and next-gen networks, a cybersecurity apprenticeship program, and a cybersecurity accelerator are just a sampling of the outcomes from �鶹��Ƶ’s role as the NoVa Node headquarters of the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI), Virginia’s main access point for workforce development cybersecurity innovation, and research.
According to Jordan �鶹��Ƶ, NoVa Node program manager, all programs in the node check at least two of those boxes, but he emphasized that NoVa Node is particularly strong in workforce development. From traineeships to internships for different ages, the NoVa Node has opportunities for people interested in learning more.

“There are more than 50,000 cybersecurity job openings in Virginia and the existing pipeline of cybersecurity-related degree-seeking candidates is not enough to fill the demand,” said Liza Wilson Durant, CCI NoVa Node director and associate provost for strategic initiatives at George �鶹��Ƶ. “CCI NoVa Node programs widen the pipeline and present new sources of talent, including those with degrees outside of the typical cybersecurity pathway, but with hands-on skills developed in the field. Our programs have touched thousands, and we know we are having an impact.”

The node features a cybersecurity traineeship targeting people who, at the end of the program, will be ready for full-time, entry-level cybersecurity positions. The traineeship builds a bridge for people with non-technical or non-cybersecurity backgrounds, typically either recent grads or career transitioners looking to enter the field.

�鶹��Ƶ said, “We pay them to go through a seven-week, full-time cyber fundamentals boot camp. And then we work to place them in 12-week apprenticeships. CCI trainees have been placed with Peraton, one of the first adopters of the program, as well as other government contractors and some small businesses. One graduate from our program landed a position with TikTok and another with Amazon Web Services.”

"The node also runs a subsidized internship program," said �鶹��Ƶ, with a sliding scale determining level of support based on company size. “Small and start-up companies have limited resources to support interns and yet they are excellent training ground, providing roles with significant responsibility and opportunities for technical training,” said Durant. NoVa Node’s support of startups and early-stage companies provides secondary reinforcement of the innovation and entrepreneurship foci.

NoVa Node interns participate in "Tech Duels." Photo courtesy CCI.

Fairfax County Economic Development Authority President and CEO Victor Hoskins stressed the need for a skilled technical workforce in the region. “We have five times the data center capacity of Silicon Valley. We have three times the data center capacity of Singapore. So, when you look at what our global competitors would be, we are way ahead of them in terms of their infrastructure capacity. And when you get ahead in the infrastructure, you also must have the talent to run it.”

Recognizing the importance of filling the pipeline when the talent is still deciding on a career path, NoVa Node runs a summer high school internship program partnering with the Children's Science Center, part of the Northern Virginia Science Foundation. The competitive application process yielded 45 students in a recent cohort. �鶹��Ƶ said, “The candidate interns go through a two-week professional skills boot camp and are then placed in a five-week paid internship.”

Xin-Wen Wu, an associate professor at the University of Mary Washington, said CCI was instrumental in the university’s growth in cybersecurity education and research. "We have hosted summer camps for high school students, funded faculty-led research involving undergraduate CCI Scholars, and provided students with access to paid internships and experiential learning opportunities. These initiatives have significantly advanced UMW’s research capabilities and contributed to the development of a skilled cybersecurity workforce.”

Coming up next: Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Topics

Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI)

Workforce Development

internships

Students

Nathan Kahl

Electrical engineer powers back to the pool after a rocky start

Topics

The cherry blossoms will bloom on…

In This Story

Topics

Protecting production through physics-powered detection

In This Story

Topics

Building a career that holds water

Topics

Printing play: A path forward for children with prosthetics

In This Story

Topics

Commonwealth Cyber Initiative NoVa Node promotes a research culture

In This Story

Topics

George �鶹��Ƶ and King’s College London win Google Award to fight AI-driven romance scams targeting older adults

In This Story

Related Stories

Topics

Anonymity’s ARX nemesis

Topics

In This Story

Related Stories

Resilient robots in rough terrain

Related Stories

In This Story

Topics

Commonwealth Cyber Initiative NoVa Node nurtures next-gen cyber sleuths

In This Story

Topics