Institute for Advanced Computing researchers receive grants to safeguard cybersecurity threats

Highlighting the connection between Virginia Tech’s presence in the greater Washington, D.C., area and its home in Southwest Virginia, four core faculty members from the Virginia Tech Institute for Advanced Computing in Alexandria were awarded cybersecurity research grants from the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) (see also).

The grants support new research in cybersecurity topics related to counterfeit cell towers, online safety of military families, cyberattacks or system malfunctions, and energy and bandwidth constraints on data processing. The projects, funded from July 2025-June 2026, touch on all five of the institute’s research areas of focus: artificial intelligence/machine learning, wireless and Next-G technology, quantum, computer systems, and intelligent interfaces.

Steve Flammia, Lingjia Liu, Kurt Luther, and Yang "Cindy" Yi received grants along with co-principal investigators from the Department of Computer Science and the Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the College of Engineering. Project funds will support the work of College of Engineering Ph.D. students collaborating with these professors.

“Our faculty use the power of research to solve big problems. This series of grant awards will support teams of Virginia Tech researchers as they tackle cybersecurity challenges in four really novel ways,” said Kirk Cameron, interim director of the Institute for Advanced Computing and professor of computer science. “I look forward to following the progress in the year ahead.”

The CCI Southwest 2026 Cybersecurity Research Program – which has resulted in 12 awards to date supporting research at Virginia Tech, Radford, University of Virginia’s College at Wise, and Virginia Military Institute – aims to fuel major research thrusts through a variety of approaches and teams, furthering CCI’s role in a commonwealth-wide ecosystem of innovation excellence in cybersecurity. CCI is establishing Virginia as a global center of excellence at the intersection of intelligence, autonomy, and security. Virginia Tech leads the CCI Southwest Node.

“CCI was very interested in research that could lay the foundation for start-ups or spinouts in the cybersecurity sector, and that is exactly what we received,” said Gretchen Matthews, professor of mathematics at Virginia Tech and director of CCI Southwest. “Virginia is filled with innovative researchers who are focused on the future of cybersecurity. We are excited to see the results of this round of funding.”

Research grants will support the following projects:

Support for military families

• Project: Supporting Military Family Cybersecurity with an AI-Infused OSINT Tool
• Principal investigator: Kurt Luther, Department of Computer Science and Institute for Advanced Computing
• Co-principal investigator: Jin-Hee Cho, Department of Computer Science

Service members and their families can be major targets for cyberattackers, including from foreign adversaries. Their knowledge of sensitive information, such as troop deployment locations and schedules, and even their access to government benefits and pensions can be attractive to cyber criminals.

“We know from previous work that there is public information about military members that can be used for cyberattacks, including information found on social media accounts,” said Luther, whose areas of expertise include human-computer interaction and human-artificial intelligence (AI) collaboration. “Less attention has been paid to the family members so that is the angle we are taking.”

The research led by Luther and Cho aims to safeguard U.S. military families from adversaries who scour public websites for operational clues. The one-year study started this summer with interviews of military family members and unit security managers to understand how they currently manage the ongoing challenge of operational security (OPSEC).

“Generally, military families are doing a good job practicing OPSEC,” Luther said. “But there are ways that information can leak out, even inadvertently or through aggregation, and that’s the problem we are looking to solve.”

Cho has previously conducted research to assess security risk for vulnerable populations such as seniors, and she and Luther plan to adopt that methodology to the subject of military families. This summer’s interview findings will guide construction of a new Operational Security Cyber Vulnerability Index, a quantitative score combining items that contribute to higher security risk such as having a large number of active social media accounts in the family or living in geographic areas with increased adversary capability.

The project has four phases with phases one and two focused on development of the vulnerability index. Then in phase three, the team will integrate this index into a software prototype, Homefront Helper, that silently inspects social-media posts, flags text or images disclosing potentially sensitive information, and offers clear recommendations that users may accept or refine.

“The idea is to develop a research-backed tool to promote community learning and reduce the likelihood of inadvertent OPSEC violations,” Luther said.

The project also has support from the Boeing Center for Veteran Transition and Military Families based at Virginia Tech in the D.C. area. The center, through Director Debbie Bradbard, is connecting the Virginia Tech team to local military leaders and families in the area.

“Military families use social media regularly, but they may only have a limited understanding of how their online behavior impacts OPSEC for their service member,” said Bradbard. “This study will help provide tools to military community to help change behavior and avoid unintended sharing of security information.”

Making networks more secure

• Project: Evolving Zero-Trust for O-RAN Defense: Interpretable and Verifiable AI for 5G NTN Fake Base Station Detection
• Principal investigator: Ming Jin, Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Co-principal investigator: Lingjia Liu, Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Institute for Advanced Computing

5G networks extending connectivity through satellite interfaces face critical threats from the development of fake base stations, or fake cell towers as we more commonly know them. Malicious devices can impersonate legitimate cell towers to intercept communications, creating security risks that are often difficult to detect.

This project led by Jin and Liu aims to develop an interpretability-by-design AI system that will generate verifiable detection programs for fake base stations identification within Open Radio Network architectures.

“This research dives deep into the fundamental nature of AI agency. We're examining how a system can not only evolve, but also self-monitor and self-criticize,” said Jin, who is also a core faculty member at the Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics. “Unlike solving a math problem with a clear right answer, cybersecurity is a constantly moving target. We’re essentially designing an AI agent to act like a human security researcher. It proposes its own experiments, provides its own feedback, and adapts its strategy for a cyberattack landscape that is always changing. Building an AI that can thrive in this endless cat-and-mouse game is one of the most critical and exciting challenges in our field today.”

The team was inspired by the recent success of Google Deepmind’s AlphaEvolve, which developed an evolutionary coding agent powered by large language models for general-purpose algorithm discovery and optimization.

“We plan to apply similar principles to security – using frontier large language models with strong coding capabilities during training to generate detection logic,” said Liu. “The system continuously evolves new detection strategies to spot fake base stations, and creates adaptive defenses that outpace innovations of adversaries.”

This research establishes foundations for verifiable AI in telecommunications security. The final outcome will outline ways to put the technology into use by collaborating with regional industry partners to address urgent national security priorities.

“The ultimate goal is for a cellular operator, government, or enterprise user to be able to employ the results of this research and make their networks more secure,” said Liu.

A quantum algorithim to detect cyberattacks

• Project: Quantum Changepoint Detection: A Statistical Framework for Cyber-Physical Threat Recognition
• Principal investigator: Steve Flammia, Department of Computer Science; director, Center for Quantum Architecture; Institute for Advanced Computing
• Co-principal investigator: Jamie Sikora, Department of Computer Science

In cybersecurity, spotting sudden changes in data sequences early on is crucial — it can help detect cyberattacks or system malfunctions before they cause serious harm or allow unauthorized access.

However, when working with quantum data, traditional algorithms are ineffective as quantum systems operate under principles fundamentally different from classical systems.

The aim of this project, proposed by the Center for Quantum Architecture and Software Development based at the Institute for Advanced Computing, is to develop specialized quantum algorithms that can identify these so-called data changepoints quickly and efficiently. By analyzing continuous streams of quantum information, the algorithm will seek to detect the earliest signs of an intrusion or anomaly.

A central focus is ensuring the algorithm runs on currently available and near-term quantum hardware, which faces limitations such as restricted memory and shallow circuit depth. To address these constraints, the design incorporates quantum-specific techniques, including the Bell test, which enables efficient comparison of quantum states.

This cross-university collaboration brings together experts in quantum computing and cybersecurity. By fostering interdisciplinary expertise, the project is positioned to seed larger-scale research efforts and attract sustained funding, while also training the next generation of quantum computing professionals.

Cybersecurity and the Internet of Things

• Project: Secure Edge Internet of Things with Neuromorphic Computing and Next-G Connectivity
• Principal investigator: Yang "Cindy" Yi, Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Institute for Advanced Computing
• Co-principal investigator:  Lingjia Liu, Bradley Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Institute for Advanced Computing

As autonomous systems such as drones and smart sensors become widespread, they face critical challenges: how to process data securely and intelligently at the edge, while operating under tight energy and bandwidth constraints.

This project led by Yi and Liu aims to create a transformative platform at the intersection of cybersecurity, autonomy, and AI — core to CCI's mission.

The project team will address data processing challenges by integrating neuromorphic computing — brain-inspired processors that enable ultra-efficient, on-device learning — with Next-G wireless networks supporting secure and resilient communication. Using Intel’s Loihi-2 chip, the team will build and test compact Internet of Things nodes that can learn, adapt, and protect themselves in real time. These nodes will collaboratively train AI models using privacy-preserving federated learning, making them ideal for applications such as smart infrastructure, environmental monitoring, and critical systems.

This project will:

• Advance cyber-autonomy through secure, intelligent, and scalable edge computing.
• Develop new educational and training programs focused on emerging technologies in secure and collaborative artificial intelligence.
• Be the basis for additional external funding requests, including proposals to the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense.

“By bridging research, education, and innovation, this advanced data security work will help position Virginia as a leader in secure, autonomous, and intelligent systems,” said Yi.

In addition to these awards, researchers from the Department of Mathematics, School of Architecture, and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute were among the recipients. See the full list on the CCI Southwest website.