Symposium 2025 Paper Presentations

Researchers and students from Virginia institutions of higher education will network and discuss their research on Tuesday, April 15, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., covering three topics: Autonomous Smart Systems; Cyber-Physical Systems Security; and Data Science, Information Theory, and Quantum. 

Group 1

Autonomous Physcal Systems

Ethical AI for Health Care Systems —  Uncertainty-Aware, Fair Federated Learning: Dian Chen, Virginia Tech

“Just stop doing everything for now!” Understanding security attacks in remote collaborative mixed reality: Maha Sajid, Virginia Tech

Human-in-the-Loop Deep Reinforcement Learning-Enhanced Intrusion Response for Secure and Resilient In-Vehicle Networks: Han Jun Yoon, Virginia Tech

Cyber-Physical Systems Security

Quantifying the Impact of Zero Trust Architecture on Cyber Risk Mitigation in Small-Medium Businesses: A Predictive Model Approach: Ahmed Abdelmagid, Old Dominion University

Compromising 3D Bioprinting: Firmware-Assisted Attacks and their Implications for Bioengineering: Muhammad Ahsan, Virginia Commonwealth University

Attack Detection in Real-Time Drone Data using Elastic: Stephen Antezana, George Mason University

CLAD: A Hybrid Static-Dynamic Approach for Detecting Stealthy Control Logic Attacks in Industrial Control Systems: Adeen Ayub, James Madison University

Model-Free Cyber-Resilient Coordinated Inverter Control in a Microgrid: Milad Beikbabaei, Virginia Tech

Cybersecurity Challenges in Federated Data Sharing Platforms: Zeb Bowden, Virginia Tech

Exploration of CyberSystem Risk in SouthWest Virginia: Karen Carter, University of Virginia at Wise

Water System Infrastructure — Innovative Experiential Learning Model to Enhance Career Interest in Cyber-Water: Rafael Diaz, Old Dominion University 

Group 2

Cyber-Physical Systems Security

CryptoPUF: A Lightweight and ML-Resilient Strong PUF Based on a Weak PUF and Crypto Core: Yimin Gao, University of Virginia

COTS Product Security Assessment for DoD Sites with AI-Driven Automation: Ross Gore, Old Dominion University

Balancing Security, Innovation & Trust: Policy Outlook for Open RAN in the United States: Erika Heeren-Moon, Virginia Tech 

PROTECT Digital Library: A Platform with Resources for Online Threat Education, Cybersecurity, and Training: Dang Khoa Le, Virginia Military Institute   

Inference Attacks on Streaming Video Doorbells: Chris Kreider, Christopher Newport University

UAV Security: Development of Monitoring, Detection, and Response Capabilities in Simulated Environments: William Leppert, George Mason University

Mapping Vulnerability: The Social Cyber Vulnerability Index: Shutonu Mitra, Virginia Tech

Tailoring Cybercrime Prevention Education: Age-Specific Insights for Enhancing Learning and Cybersecurity Programs: Katalin Parti, Virginia Tech

The GDPR’s Characterization of EU Cybergovernance: Riley Phillips, Virginia Tech

Cyber-Physical Threat Monitoring System of Real-Time Data Utilizing EDR and AI/ML: Steven Wadlin, George Mason University

Group 3

Data Science, Information Theory, and Quantum

Educating Citizens through Open-source RAG Chatbots: a Generative AI Approach: Cooper Bowden, Christopher Newport University

Taming Heavy-Tailed Losses in Adversarial Bandits and the Best-of-Both-Worlds Setting: Duo Cheng, Virginia Tech

A Cyber Risk Management Perspective on Shipbuilding AI-Based Supply Chain Management: Rafael Diaz, Old Dominion University

PathoLM: Identifying pathogenicity from the DNA sequence through the Genome Foundation Model: Sajib Acharjee Dip, Virginia Tech

DeepAge: Harnessing Deep Neural Network for Epigenetic Age Estimation From DNA Methylation Data of Human Blood Samples: Sajib Acharjee Dip, Virginia Tech

Assessing ChatGPT’s Code Generation Capabilities with Short vs Long Context Programming Problems: Sajib Acharjee Dip, Virginia Tech

HiRED: Attention-Guided Token Dropping for Efficient Inference of High-Resolution Vision-Language Models: Kazi Hasan. Virginia Tech

Fixing Imbalanced Attention to Mitigate In-Context Hallucination of Large Vision-Language Model: Kazi Hasan, Virginia Tech

A Data Architecture and Prototype for The Exchange of Supply-Chain Related Information in Virginia: Mac McCall, Virginia Tech/VTTI

Balancing Insights and Privacy: Applying Local Differential Privacy to Time Series Data: Bikash Chandra Singh, Old Dominion University

Strategic Questioning and Enhanced Engagement: Developing a Counselor Chatbot Using LLMs and Deep Reinforcement Learning for Deeper Self-Exploration and Therapeutic Dialogue: Qi Zhang, Virginia Tech