Accelerator Funded Projects 2026
The CCI Accelerator supports market discovery, technology commercialization, and measurable economic impact by helping innovators validate customer needs, refine their solutions, and accelerate their path to market. It is a cohort‑based five-month-long accelerator program.
Researchers in the 2026 cohort are advancing cybersecurity solutions that protect telecommunications and 5G infrastructure, healthcare data systems, AI and enterprise environments, critical infrastructure, and smart systems across manufacturing, logistics, and mobility. This year, the program funded 13 projects totaling $975,000.
CATAPULT
The CATAPULT Fund (Cyber Acceleration, Translation, and Advanced Prototyping for University Linked Technology) helps advance cybersecurity innovations through the critical “Valley of Death” phase by supporting the translation of promising research into prototypes, scalable technologies, and commercially viable solutions.
AgentSec
AgentSec is an inline, tool-agnostic security gateway that sits between enterprise AI agents and execution tools (such as email, databases, and APIs) to block unsafe tool calls and enforce deterministic policies. By centralizing action control and producing audit-ready logs, it enables regulated enterprises and government contractors to safely accelerate agent deployments while mitigating prompt injection and data leakage risks.
PI - Rui Ning
Assistant professor, computer science, Old Dominion University
CyberMirage
CyberMirage is an innovative SaaS bot-detection and blocking web application designed to protect medium- to large-sized websites from automated AI bots while significantly reducing user friction. By leveraging a browser’s trusted computing module, the platform secures valuable online assets through highly effective puzzles that are easily accessible to humans but completely inaccessible to bots.
PI – Mingkui Wei
Associate professor, cybersecurity engineering, George Mason University
HGNsense
HGNsense is an AI-driven, software-based eye-tracking system designed to detect alcohol impairment and seamlessly integrate with existing automotive driver-monitoring and advanced driver-assistance systems. By offering a low-friction user experience and reduced calibration burden compared to traditional breath-based testing, it provides a scalable, regulation-ready solution that enhances vehicle safety and creates a competitive advantage for automotive partners and suppliers.
PI – Ahmad Salman
Associate professor, cybersecurity, James Madison University
InspectAI
InspectAI is an AI-assisted mobile inspection platform that turns a single smartphone walkthrough into a quantified inspection report and a networked cyber-physical asset inventory. By combining automated maintenance prioritization with cybersecurity compliance tracking, it allows institutional owner-operators to cut reactive repair costs and effortlessly manage vulnerable networked building systems.
PI - Arsalan Heydarian
Associate professor, civil and environmental engineering, University of Virginia
NoMagField
NoMagField provides a package-level engineered magnetic shield designed to eliminate sudden shielding collapse and maintain data integrity for STT-MRAM applications in magnetically noisy environments. By utilizing innovative design features that strategically control saturation and reroute flux, this solution ensures high reliability for wearables, automotive, and defense electronics without requiring an MRAM cell redesign.
PI - Jayasimha Atulasimha
Professor, mechanical and nuclear engineering, Virginia Commonwealth University
RAEMAP-Display
RAEMAP-Display is a privacy-preserved, low-cost, and scalable multi-user gaze tracking and audience analytics platform powered by commodity webcams and lightweight AI models. Designed for public-facing displays and digital advertising networks, it replaces limited traditional metrics with real-time, actionable attention insights to dramatically improve advertising ROI and optimize content delivery at scale.
PI – Sampath Jayarathna
Associate professor, computer science, Old Dominion University
RTLS
mmID is disrupting the asset tracking market with a battery-less millimeter-wave tag and reader system that delivers 7x better location precision at a 3x lower cost than traditional RFID solutions. By providing centimeter-level absolute visibility and seamless workflow integration, this scalable technology eliminates operational delays for high-volume environments while creating a compelling growth opportunity for the entire logistics ecosystem.
PI - Path Pathak
Associate professor, computer science, George Mason University
ASCEND
The ASCEND Fund (Academic Support for Cybersecurity Entrepreneurship and Next-Gen Development) connects early-stage companies and startups with academic subject matter experts (SMEs) to help them solve technical challenges, refine emerging technologies, and accelerate the development of innovative cybersecurity solutions.
AETD-X
AETD-X has developed AETD-X, an AI-driven early warning platform that transforms patient data security by providing real-time detection of inappropriate or anomalous access without adding any administrative burden to frontline clinicians. By shifting data protection from reactive, manual auditing to proactive threat mitigation, this solution directly addresses the critical needs of healthcare leadership seeking to avoid massive HIPAA fines, prevent reputation-damaging leaks, and minimize legal liabilities.
PI - Michael (Mike) Lapke
Associate professor, cybersecurity, Christopher Newport University
PointerPass / DeepRunAI Labs
PointerPass provides a managed digital forensics workspace equipped with governed AI to help examiners uncover investigative leads faster while strictly preserving legal defensibility in court. Designed for overloaded digital forensic labs, the solution significantly increases examiner throughput by eliminating tedious manual first-pass data discovery and reducing the technical burden of workstation management.
PI – Victor Olesen
Assistant professor, forensic science, Virginia Commonwealth University
SARC Technologies
Beholder offers a non-invasive, timing-first cyber event detection solution specifically engineered for utility substations, gateways, and resource-constrained edge-compute environments. By eliminating the dependence on heavy software agents and rich logs, it provides critical threat visibility and behavioral validation to safeguard operational technology infrastructure.
PI - Matt Jablonski
Assistant professor, cyber security engineering, George Mason University
SecureMind Technologies
Khasawaneh and his team are developing a hardware-based AI governance framework that captures compliance evidence directly from silicon, providing a tamper-evident alternative to traditional software-only reporting pipelines. This verifiable approach addresses the critical needs of CISOs, Chief AI Officers, and cloud infrastructure providers who require independent, cryptographic proof of compliant AI training and inference workloads.
PI - Khaled Khasawneh
Associate professor, electrical and computer engineering, George Mason University
VTNSI-Hardshell Secure RF
Hardshell is a pioneering data-centric security framework that protects AI/ML training datasets and models against adversarial attacks in mission-critical environments. By securing the foundational data for electronic warfare, ISR, and 5G spectrum operations, Hardshell ensures the resilience and integrity of autonomous systems for both defense and commercial infrastructure partners.
PI - Will (Chris) Headley
Interim director, research associate professor, Spectrum Dominance Division, National Security Institute, Virginia Tech
WiSights Lab
WiSights has developed a specialized, standards-aligned AI suite featuring ORANSight, a compact specification assistant and automated code generator for O-RAN and 3GPP workflows, alongside WiLM-Sec, a dedicated security firewall designed to protect wireless LLMs from prompt injection and jailbreak threats. This dual-pronged solution optimizes hardware and software engineering lifecycles while providing robust infrastructure security, delivering an essential value proposition for 5G network operators, O-RAN vendors, small-to-medium telecom providers, and defense technology sectors.
PI - Cong Shen
Associate professor, electrical and computer engineering, University of Virginia