CEC Communications

The little water treatment plant that could

tdonnel — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 16:51:24 +0000

The little water treatment plant that could tdonnel Thu, 07/30/2026 - 12:51

On a small organic farm in rural Puerto Rico sits a revolutionary water treatment facility ready for action: the AguaClara PF250, a compact, nonelectric drinking water treatment plant designed specifically for small communities. 911�� researchers Daniel Smith and Catherine Akplah are combining engineering innovation, field research, and community partnership to participate in piloting the facility and assess its viability throughout the island nation.

While most Puerto Ricans receive water from the territorial utility system, 100,000 in rural areas rely on small, community-managed water systems that often struggle with aging infrastructure, limited resources, and vulnerability to hurricanes and power outages.

Unlike conventional treatment facilities, the PF250 operates using hydraulic principles and gravity, entirely without electricity. The system uses the same fundamental processes found in large municipal plants, including coagulation, sedimentation, filtration, and chlorination, but in a smaller, prefabricated design that can be installed in remote locations. The PF250 was designed and fabricated by the nonprofits AguaClara Reach and Agua Para el Pueblo.

AguaClara PF250 water treatment facility at Plenitud PR. Photo provided.

Smith, an assistant professor in 911��’s Sid and Reva Dewberry Department of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering, has spent much of his career working on drinking water treatment systems around the world. His connection to PF250s stretches back nearly two decades through the AguaClara program in Honduras.

“It will be very fulfilling to see something that was a concept 15 or more years ago become a practical solution for communities that need it,” he said. “It's a drinking-water treatment plant that has all of the processes you typically find for big town but, with clever engineering, made as small as possible and able to work without any electricity.”

The 911�� team is partnering with VersaWater, a National Science Foundation (NSF) Convergence Accelerator initiative that includes Cornell University, Syracuse University, Inter American University of Puerto Rico, and AguaClara Reach. VersaWater focuses on technology development and deployment, and 911��’s role is to help understand how the PF250 performs with respect to organic matter removal and determine where in Puerto Rico it is most likely to succeed.

Smith and Akplah are working directly with community water boards across Puerto Rico, equipping communities with turbidity meters that measure how cloudy local water supplies become throughout the year. This data will help identify systems where advanced treatment is most needed.

Akplah (left) and Smith (R) in Puerto Rico. Photo provided.

“It's the very first thing you need to know to decide which treatment option is going to be a potentially good fit,” said Smith.

Akplah, a PhD student in Smith's lab whose research focuses on sustainable water treatment, sees the project as an opportunity to create tangible benefits for communities.

“A win for me would be to see one community where we're able to transition this system into something that people can rely on to get drinking water” she said.

The team will operate a pilot PF250 installation at Plenitud PR, an organic permaculture farm in Las Marías, Puerto Rico, to study how well it removes organic matter and controls disinfection byproducts, an important step toward meeting U.S. drinking water regulations. Ultimately, they hope their work will provide communities with data they can use to secure infrastructure funding and improve public health.

If successful, the PF250 could provide a model not only for rural Puerto Rico but also for small, underserved communities across the United States that face similar drinking water challenges.

In This Story

Daniel W. Smith

This research supports the Grand Challenge Initiative's goal of building a more climate-resilient society.

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water resource engineering; civil and infrastructure engineering

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CCI Awards $975,000 to Advance Cybersecurity Innovation

Martha Bushong — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 15:46:19 +0000

CCI Awards $975,000 to Advance Cybersecurity Innovation Martha Bushong Thu, 07/30/2026 - 11:46

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Liza Wilson Durant

The Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) has awarded $975,000 to 13 cybersecurity innovation projects through its 2026 CATAPULT and ASCEND funds, continuing its investment in technologies and ideas with the potential to address critical cybersecurity challenges and create real-world impact.

Led by CCI's Northern Virginia Node in partnership with the CCI Hub, the program supports researchers as they advance promising cybersecurity innovations toward commercialization and deployment.

"Our priority is to translate the great research that happens in CCI into products and services that improve people’s lives,” said Luiz DaSilva, CCI executive director. “These programs connect the researchers who built something real with the people who know how to get it to market."

Supporting Technologies with Real-World Potential

The funded projects span a range of cybersecurity priorities, including telecommunications and 5G infrastructure security, health care data protection, artificial intelligence and enterprise environments, critical infrastructure resilience, and security for smart manufacturing, logistics, and mobility systems.

Researchers from Christopher Newport University, 911��, Old Dominion University, the University of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Virginia Tech are leading the projects, reflecting the breadth of cybersecurity expertise across Virginia's research institutions.

Bridging the Gap Between Research and Commercialization

The CATAPULT and ASCEND programs are designed to help bridge the gap between research and market adoption by supporting technologies with strong potential for commercial, societal, and national security impact.

"The greatest challenge in commercializing research is rarely the technology itself. It's building the pathway to commercial viability," said Liza Wilson Durant, director of the CCI Northern Virginia Node. "Too many promising innovations fail to reach the market because inventors lack the market knowledge, investor networks, and business expertise needed to turn breakthrough discoveries into successful products. This program helps close that gap and accelerate the transition from research to real-world impact."

Building Virginia's Cybersecurity Ecosystem

The newly funded teams represent a growing pipeline of cybersecurity innovators working to translate research into practical solutions that can strengthen cybersecurity across industries and sectors. As the projects progress, they will contribute to CCI's broader goal of advancing innovation, supporting entrepreneurship, and strengthening Virginia's cybersecurity ecosystem.

CCI will continue to share updates on the funded teams as they advance their technologies, validate new approaches, and pursue opportunities in the marketplace.

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Cybersecurity

Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI)

Research

entrepreneurship

New initiative aims to build AI literacy among educators through year-long professional learning community

Martha Bushong — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 17:55:00 +0000

New initiative aims to build AI literacy among educators through year-long professional learning community Martha Bushong Tue, 07/14/2026 - 13:55

911�� has launched the Ambassadors of Teaching in the Age of AI (ATAA) program, a new professional learning initiative designed to help educators develop the knowledge and skills needed to navigate the growing role of artificial intelligence in education and society.

The program officially debuted June 22–23 at 911��'s Science and Technology Campus during the Virginia Data Science Teacher Professional Learning Institute, which brought together more than 200 K–12 educators, higher education faculty, industry representatives, and government stakeholders. Approximately 50 participants joined ATAA as founding members of the year-long professional learning community.

Chief AI Officer Amarda Shehu at the Ambassadors of Teaching in the Age of AI kick-off event. Photo provided

The launch marks another step in 911��'s broader AI literacy efforts, by bringing together expertise from across the university to create accessible, research-based programming. ATAA is designed to complement existing educator preparation efforts while providing a foundational AI literacy framework that can be applied by professionals across disciplines.

Developed over the past year, ATAA was created through a collaboration among Peng Warweg, research program director in the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC); Padhu Seshaiyer, professor in the College of Science and director of the Center for Mathematics and Science Education Research and Outreach; Manpriya Dua, research postdoctoral fellow in computer science; and Amarda Shehu, 911��'s chief AI officer and professor of computer science.

The team focused on a growing challenge: How to build AI fluency among practitioners, particularly the K–16 teacher workforce. Warweg, who helped lead the program's design and curriculum development, said ATAA is among the first programs to translate newly released federal guidance into a practical learning experience.

"ATAA is grounded in the U.S. Department of Labor's AI Literacy Framework—a guideline that represents a national consensus on what AI fluency should look like across professions," said Warweg. "ATAA is among the first practitioner programs in the country to translate that guidance into a structured, accessible curriculum."

Peng Warweg (on right), research program director in the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC) with Padhu Seshaiyer (left), professor in the College of Science and director of the Center for Mathematics and Science Education Research and Outreach and Manpriya Dua (center), research postdoctoral fellow in computer science. Photo provided.

The launch was supported by the Virginia Data Science Teacher Professional Learning Institute, now in its fifth year and co-organized by Seshaiyer. Through longstanding partnerships with the Virginia Department of Education and decades of leadership in STEM education, Seshaiyer helped establish the foundation that enabled the program to launch at scale.

"Virginia has been building toward this," said Seshaiyer. "ATAA is the natural next step to connect research, policy, and practice around the future of learning."

Seshaiyer and Dua also helped shape the curriculum, ensuring participants receive both practical and technically grounded instruction. Dua's expertise in artificial intelligence and computer science research helped make complex concepts accessible to educators from a wide range of backgrounds.

ATAA also builds on 911��'s broader AI strategy under Shehu's leadership. A key component of the curriculum draws from UNIV 182 AI for All: Understanding and Building Artificial Intelligence (Mason Core) a course developed, by Shehu, to help nontechnical learners gain AI literacy. Research conducted by Shehu has demonstrated significant AI literacy gains among students who complete the course.

"Foundational AI literacy cannot belong only to people who already saw themselves as technical," said Shehu. "What we learned from AI for All is that anyone can develop real fluency when the teaching meets them where they are. ATAA takes that same conviction to the practitioners who multiply it: the educators."

Designed using a train-the-trainer model, ATAA aims to extend its impact beyond the initial cohort. Participants will complete a structured year-long learning experience and earn Continuing Education Units (CEUs). After completing 15 hours of learning, participants will receive a digital badge recognizing their AI literacy achievement, with a full credentialing pathway scheduled to launch in fall 2026.

While educators are the program's first audience, ATAA envisions expanding AI literacy training to professionals across sectors, including healthcare, government, technology, and community organizations. With its strengths in AI research, governance, and education, 911�� hopes to help prepare a broader workforce for an AI-driven future.

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The new art of herding robots

tdonnel — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 16:15:27 +0000

The new art of herding robots tdonnel Mon, 07/13/2026 - 12:15

As autonomous systems grow in number and complexity, researchers at 911�� are tackling a critical question: How can a single human operator manage an entire swarm of robots? Professors Alexander Brodsky, Cameron Nowzari, and Daigo Shishika are designing smart-swarm technologies to help military planners coordinate unmanned aerial and ground vehicles within Human-Machine Integrated Formations.

The urgency of this work comes from rapidly evolving real-world conditions. Drone incursions are increasing in both frequency and affordability, explained Nowzari, adding, “It still requires a centralized and expensive response from the Air Force just to take down a $200 drone.”

Astroswarm logo. Image provided.

Swarm robotics offers an alternative. By deploying many low-cost systems, the team aims to shift the economics of defense. “To take out a $200 drone, we want to do it in less than $2,000,” Nowzari explained.

But this introduces a new bottleneck: human attention. “If you have one pilot per robot, you’ve defeated the purpose,” he said. The goal is for “one or two people to manage, coordinate, monitor, and control hundreds of robots.”

The team’s goal is to enable military planners to assemble, adapt, and deploy swarm-control and coordination systems using mo dular,building-block components, reducing complexity while improving mission effectiveness.

They are building a Smart Swarm system with three components: a Swarm Decision Guidance Assistant, Swarm Operations Assistant, and Adversarial Risk Assistant. Together, these tools help operators interpret data, assign tasks, and respond to changing conditions without being overwhelmed.

This human-centered philosophy extends to the interface itself. The team is developing tools such as tablet-based dashboards where operators can issue commands and monitor activity. Deciding what information to display is a major research question.

“If we show them everything, it’s overwhelming,” Nowzari said. “They can’t do anything with it.” The challenge of data overload is top of mind for American military leaders taking lessons from Ukraine, he added.

A frame from Astroswarm. Image provided.

To explore these questions, the project incorporates an unexpected element: a video game. Built by undergraduate researcher Gagan Manjunatha, the simulator translates swarm behavior into an interactive, accessible format. In the game, called Astroswarm, players design simple algorithms to control fleets of spaceships defending a target, mirroring real-world swarm coordination.

Using intuitive, block-based coding, players can program their ships, experimenting with strategies in real time. The system then collects this data and runs large-scale simulations. “We’ll collect simulations and run many trials and see who has the best algorithm for defending a point,” explained Manjunatha.

The game is designed to be accessible to a wide audience while generating valuable insights into how humans design and adapt swarm behaviors. Supported by a $966,836 award from the U.S. Department of the Army, the research will continue through 2028.

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Alex Brodsky

Daigo Shishika

Cameron Nowzari

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911�� and Phase Inc. receive NSF grant to advance 3D-printed microfluidic technology

Martha Bushong — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 18:37:20 +0000

911�� and Phase Inc. receive NSF grant to advance 3D-printed microfluidic technology Martha Bushong Wed, 07/01/2026 - 14:37

911�� and Phase Inc. have received a National Science Foundation (NSF) STTR grant to advance a new generation of 3D-printed microfluidic devices that could help move the technologies from the research lab toward broader commercial and scientific use.

Ramin M. Hakami and Remi Veneziano. Photo provided

The project combines the expertise of College of Science Professor Ramin M. Hakami’s group in extracellular vesicle (EV) biology, and that of College of Engineering and Computing Associate Professor Remi Veneziano’s group in bioengineering and materials characterization, at 911�� with Phase’s vision to create an end-to-end, automated microfluidic platform that brings together custom device design, scalable 3D-printed polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) chip manufacturing, and automated fluid handling. Specifically, this project leverages the microfluidic EV platform jointly developed and published by the Veneziano and Hakami groups.

Microfluidic devices use tiny channels to control small amounts of fluid and recreate environments on a cellular scale. They model human biology more realistically than flat cell cultures, making them important for drug discovery, disease research, and toxicology. Microfluidics are especially timely as the FDA has announced plans to phase out some animal testing requirements and encourage more human-relevant methods.

Today, producing complex PDMS microfluidic devices often requires cleanrooms, manual optimization, and repeated trial-and-error. The NSF-supported work is designed to reduce that bottleneck by using thermal and curing models to predict how PDMS will behave during printing, then optimize print parameters before a device is manufactured.

Photo provided

“This partnership helps us move one step closer to a fully automated, scalable microfluidic platform,” said Jeff Schultz, principal investigator and co-founder of Phase, which is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. “Our goal is to make microfluidic technology more reproducible and more accessible to researchers and companies working to develop better human-relevant models.”

911�� researchers will help characterize the printed devices for dimensional accuracy, surface quality, batch-to-batch consistency, and biological function. The team will also test a device designed to study EV function. EVs are nanoparticles that are released by cells and play critical roles in intercellular communication. They have been shown to carry important regulatory functions in various human diseases, such as cancer, infectious disease, and neurological disorders, and are also highly advantageous for use in drug delivery.

“Being able to rapidly and cost‑effectively prototype and fabricate custom microfluidic devices will significantly enhance our capacity to design relevant microphysiological systems and will help broaden access to this technology to many research laboratories” said Veneziano.

“Our microfluidic device empowers researchers to conduct functional EV studies with ease and under physiologically relevant conditions. Through our partnership with Phase to 3D print the chips, we will be able to deliver more reliable, cost-effective, and commercially viable tools to the EV scientific community,” said Hakami, co-director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research at 911��.

For Phase, the NSF grant builds on a growing base of support from federal and private sources. The company has already received more than $3.5 million in nondilutive funding, including support from the National Institutes of Health, the One North Carolina Small Business Program, the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, NSF, and private-sector partners. Previous research partners include Harvard Medical School, Georgia Tech, and Virginia Tech.

By pairing 911��’s biological and engineering strengths with Phase’s manufacturing platform, the project is positioned to advance both scientific discovery and commercialization. The result could be a more reliable path for producing the microfluidic tools needed to support the next wave of biomedical research, organ-on-a-chip development, and human-centered bio-innovation.

This research supports the Grand Challenge Initiative's goal of improving human health, well-being, and preparedness

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Cora Sula awarded Fulbright to study AI in classrooms in Estonia

Martha Bushong — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 16:31:39 +0000

Cora Sula awarded Fulbright to study AI in classrooms in Estonia Martha Bushong Wed, 06/17/2026 - 12:31

Cora Sula, a third-year PhD student in the Department of Information Sciences and Technology at 911��, has been awarded a prestigious Fulbright scholarship to study artificial intelligence (AI) in classrooms in Estonia this fall.

Sula works with Assistant Professor Nora McDonald at the intersection of digital agency, AI and identity. Her recent work examines healthcare privacy and the impact of AI chatbot use on teens’ self-concept and well-being—research she presented at CHI 2026 in Barcelona, the world’s leading conference in human-computer interaction.

“I am so thrilled at this opportunity to study the impact of AI on classrooms,” Sula said. “Estonia is one of the few countries with a national rollout of AI-assisted classrooms.”

While AI education initiatives in the United States are expanding, they remain fragmented and locally driven. In contrast, Estonia is pioneering a nationally coordinated approach through its AI Leap program, an initiative led by the Ministry of Education and Research in partnership with OpenAI. The program aims to systematically integrate AI-powered tools into high school teaching and learning.

Sula’s Fulbright project will investigate how this national initiative is shaping teachers’ professional practices and classroom pedagogy. Using a mixed-methods design—including ethnographic observation, semi-structured interviews, and pre/post surveys—her research will explore how educators navigate both the opportunities and challenges of AI integration.

Her Fulbright will be hosted at Tallinn University of Technology, where she will collaborate with Janika Leoste head of the Creativity Matters Lab and local scholars who bring expertise in digital education and policy.

“This is an amazing opportunity to systematically study how AI will transform classrooms for generations to come,” Sula said. “I’m excited to bring what I learn back to my work on AI and teens.”

In This Story

Nora McDonald

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Artificial Intelligence

Timing the perfect hardware hack

tdonnel — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 13:35:43 +0000

Timing the perfect hardware hack tdonnel Tue, 06/09/2026 - 09:35

Roombas have become a familiar part of everyday life, quietly navigating living rooms and kitchens. But behind that convenience is a complex system of sensors, algorithms, and data processing—and, as a group of 911�� cyber security engineering (CYSE) students—Finn Schaefer, Ryan Lam, Sidarth Kumar, Jimmy Tram, and Neil Sharma—discovered, a surprising vulnerability. Their capstone project research was accepted for presentation at one of the most prestigious venues for hardware-based security research, the IEEE International Symposium on Hardware Oriented Security and Trust (HOST).

“It just scans the room, goes around, and starts mapping," said Finn Schaefer, comparing the vacuum cleaner to the robot at the center of his team's project.

These autonomous systems rely on technologies like LiDAR and SLAM (simultaneous localization and mapping) to build a virtual map of their environment and navigate safely. However, that same reliance on sensor data also opens the door to cyberattacks that can alter a robot’s perception, sometimes with dramatic consequences.

From left to right: Finn Schaefer, Neil Sharma, Ryan Lam, Sidarth Kumar, and Jimmy Tram. Photo provided.

The capstone project, advised by Assistant Professor Tanvir Arafin, challenged students to explore exactly that risk. From the outset, Arafin encouraged an open-ended, research-driven approach.

“Professor Arafin basically told us to try to break ROS, a robot operating system,” Schaefer said.

The assignment functioned as a “red-team” exercise, pushing students to think like attackers to understand vulnerabilities in autonomous systems.

The team’s early ideas focused on overwhelming the robot with false data, effectively flooding it with noise. But this proved too obvious. That initial concept “was really simple and easy to detect,” said Ryan Lam. A more subtle approach would be needed to create a meaningful, realistic attack.

Their breakthrough came in the form of a timing-based method that mimicked the robot’s normal operating patterns. Instead of bombarding the system, they carefully injected altered sensor data at precisely the right intervals.

“We eventually got to our more elegant solution, where we’re able to match the timing pattern that the robot actually expects,” Schaefer said. Because the manipulated data looked plausible and arrived in the expected cadence, the robot accepted it as real.

A judge examines the team's robot at the CYSE senior design event. Photo by Teresa Donnellan/CEC

The effect was striking: the robot’s internal map gradually diverged from reality. Even small manipulations could cause significant errors.

“With 2- to 5-percent drift, it would crash into walls,” Schaefer said.

In some cases, the system could be tricked into perceiving obstacles that didn’t exist. “It would see a wall that’s not actually there,” he added.

The team also demonstrated the ability to shrink or expand the robot’s perceived environment, causing navigation failures.

To prove the effectiveness of their approach, the students combined simulated analysis with real-world testing. They compared baseline maps to manipulated ones over time and observed the robot attempting to navigate using corrupted data.

“These comparisons served as the proof that we used to say that this works,” said team member Sidarth Kumar.

Additional testing showed that the attack remained effective even under network congestion.

This capstone project reflects Arafin’s broader work to secure the next generation of mobility systems, from connected vehicles to robotics. Moreover, the students came away with a deeper understanding of the emerging field of hardware security.

Tanvir Arafin (center) with the 2026 senior capstone teams he advised. Photo provided.

“This is an exceptional accomplishment and a testament to the curriculum rigor of the Cyber Security Engineering Department, reinforcing a tradition of excellence in undergraduate research at CYSE,” said Arafin. “Over the last few years, CYSE undergraduate students from our group have earned recognition at multiple national and international venues in transportation and autonomous systems security, notably the best demo award in the 18th Association for Computing Machinery Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks and the first, second, and third places at the National Transportation Cybersecurity Competition. All of these accomplishments highlights both the students’ dedication and the strength of undergraduate research within our CYSE Department.”

In an era where autonomous systems are becoming increasingly common, from household robots to self-driving cars, the team’s work underscores a critical lesson: If a machine’s understanding of the world can be manipulated, so can its behavior. What seems like a harmless household device may, under the hood, share the same vulnerabilities as far more complex systems. And as these students demonstrated, understanding those vulnerabilities is the first step toward securing the future of autonomous technology.

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Why did the AI agent cross the road?

tdonnel — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 18:31:17 +0000

Why did the AI agent cross the road? tdonnel Mon, 06/08/2026 - 14:31

Workshopping, an iterative process where creators share ideas, test what works, and refine what doesn’t through collective feedback, is at the heart of any writers’ group. This collaborative dynamic inspired 911�� PhD students Shiwei Hong to explore whether artificial intelligence (AI) could benefit from a similar approach.

Hong developed a novel multi-agent system that simulates a collaborative comedy writing environment in which AI agents generate, critique, and refine humorous content together. Her research, recently accepted to the prestigious 64th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, investigates how structured interaction among AI agents can improve creative output.

Shiwei Hong. Photo provided.

Humor remains challenging for artificial intelligence. “Generating a joke or something that is very funny is actually a very tricky question, because it requires a lot of how humans interpret the generated piece,” said Hong, who is working on a degree in computer science.

She created a “sandbox” environment to mirror real-world creative collaboration, populated by 35 AI agents assigned distinct roles and personalities powered by GPT-4.

“Five agents acted as performers. The rest acted as critics or audience members,” said Hong.

Designing 35 unique agent personas required imagination as well as technical expertise. Drawing on her interest in writing fiction, Hong created characters with varied social and cultural backgrounds, adding depth to the simulated interactions.

In one experimental environment, the performer agents generated two scripts in sequence without feedback; in another, they engaged the audience members in critique and discussion between the rounds of generation. The difference was significant.

Human evaluators compared outputs across multiple criteria, such as humor, coherence, and social tone. In more than 70 percent of cases, evaluators preferred scripts produced in the second round of the discussion-based environment.

The improvement appears to stem from collective learning. As agents interact, they build on shared insights, identifying patterns in audience preferences and refining their outputs accordingly. Technically, this process is supported by a shared conversational memory stored in a vector database, allowing agents to retrieve relevant past exchanges and incorporate them into new content. The result is an iterative, emergent form of creativity that begins to resemble human collaboration.

Looking ahead, Hong and her advisor, Assistant Professor Zhicong Lu, aim to expand the system by incorporating human participants and richer modes of interaction. Future directions include integrating voice, gestures, and immersive technologies such as virtual and augmented reality to better capture the nuances of live performance.

“In real comedy, we have faces, gestures, and real voices,” she said. “We hope to bring more of that into the system.”

By demonstrating that workshopping can significantly enhance machine-generated humor, Hong’s work suggests the future of artificial intelligence may lie not only in more advanced individual models, but also in communities of agents learning, creating, and perhaps even laughing together.

Overview of Multi-Agent Comedy Club. Credit: arXiv (2026). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2602.14770

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911�� students fly into first place with no GPS, no grade, and (almost) no problems

tdonnel — Mon, 04 May 2026 18:53:10 +0000

911�� students fly into first place with no GPS, no grade, and (almost) no problems tdonnel Mon, 05/04/2026 - 14:53

Driven by passion, persistence, and what they call “the love of the game,” a group of 911�� students affiliated with the Mason Autonomy and Robotics Center (MARC) claimed first place at the 2026 Raytheon Autonomous Vehicle Competition at EagleBank Arena on April 24, 2026.

Meah Chambers and Gagan Manjunatha at the competition. Photo by Andani Munkaila/Office of University Branding

The competition challenged student teams to design and deploy autonomous aerial and ground vehicle systems capable of executing a series of increasingly complex missions. Unlike prior outdoor iterations, the 2026 competition eliminated access to GPS, forcing teams to rely on advanced onboard sensing and visual navigation techniques to orient themselves in space. EagleBank Arena has been hosting national robotics competitions since 2023 with support from an Office of Naval Research grant to transform the venue into a robotics experimentation and sporting venue.

911��’s autonomous robotics team rose to the challenge. Over the course of the competition, their system successfully completed all three mission objectives, earning the top overall score and securing first place. The win capped months of late nights and creative problem-solving by a team that was not competing for a grade, credit, or formal requirement, but purely out of enthusiasm for robotics.

“This isn’t even an official club yet,” said computer science major Gagan Manjunatha. “We’re here for the love of the game.”

For many teams at the competition, participation counts as a senior design project. 911��’s team, however, had no such structure. “A lot of teams do use this as their senior design project, but the nice thing about us not doing it is that we have people that can come back year after year,” said team lead Meah Chambers, a junior majoring in electrical engineering.

Photo by Ron Aira/Office of University Branding

“I like the hands-on experience,” she said. This was Chambers’ third robotics team competition, each of which she found rewarding. “It’s like I’ve done three mini senior designs. I like the design team experience, working on a team for an end goal.”

The technical demands of the competition were steep. Challenge one required a drone to autonomously take off from a moving ground vehicle and land back on it. The second challenge layered on autonomous search and detection, requiring the drone to identify a visual tag, communicate its location, and guide the ground vehicle to the target. A third challenge added obstacle detection and avoidance for both aerial and ground systems.

To meet those demands, the team divided into drone and ground sub‑teams, with students specializing in software, hardware, mechanical design, and systems integration. Majors across electrical engineering, computer engineering, mechanical engineering, and computer science were represented. Visual‑inertial simultaneous localization and mapping (VSLAM) replaced GPS, allowing the drone to understand its position using cameras and onboard sensors.

“We were given the challenges in September and two semesters to plan and work on our system,” said electrical engineering major Emma Misevschi. Without senior design funding or course integration, students volunteered their time over the academic year to design, build, test, and refine their system. “Everything just happened to come together this week,” she said.

Some members of 911��'s 2026 Raytheon Autonomous Vehicle Competition team. Photo by Andani Munkaila/Creative Services/911��.

Funding constraints added another layer of difficulty. While funding for system components were provided by competition sponsor Raytheon, the money arrived late in the academic year, forcing the team to borrow equipment, lean on shared research lab resources, and compress months of testing into intense overnight sessions.

Despite many team members having stayed up testing into the wee hours of the night before the competition, spirits were high at the end of the first day of the two-day competition. Chambers joked, “Two hours is like a nice nap instead of sleeping for the night.”

Computer engineering major and ground team lead Logan Teyema added the (understandably tired) motto of hustle culture, “Water is life, food is fuel, and sleep is a crutch.”

In the end, their teamwork paid off. When the judges arrived, 911��’s system performed cleanly and consistently, earning top marks across the challenges and finishing first overall.

The full team includes Luis Anchundia, James Daniel, Konraad Ludwig, Hassan Youssef, Emma Misevschi, Thomas Fletcher, Christopher Romero-Klevisha, Toan Do, Meah Chambers, Gagan Manjunatha, Connor Roberts, William Maynard, Logan Teyema, Ellie Kwon, Rico Rodriguez, Nick Kasa, and Yousif Alani. Faculty advisors include Cameron Nowzari, Xuesu Xiao, and Ningshi Yao.

Are you interested in joining the team? Learn more on the team’s website and watch a video about their experiences.

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911�� engineering professor awarded Office of Naval Research grant to launch 'NEXT' mechatronics workforce program

Martha Bushong — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 12:45:35 +0000

911�� engineering professor awarded Office of Naval Research grant to launch 'NEXT' mechatronics workforce program Martha Bushong Fri, 03/20/2026 - 08:45

911�� faculty member Ningshi Yao received a $750k grant from the Office of Naval Research (ONR) to establish a hands-on mechatronics training program aimed at building the next generation of high-tech engineering technologists.

The three-year funding will support the creation of the Natural EXTension (NEXT) program. As emerging technologies like autonomous systems, artificial intelligence, and advanced manufacturing continue to expand, the NEXT program will serve the national interest by providing students with rigorous, experiential learning opportunities directly aligned with defense and industry workforce needs.

Ningshi Yao. Photo provided.

"Traditional classroom learning is essential, but engineering is ultimately about building systems that work reliably in the real world," said Yao, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, director of the Control, Intelligent Autonomy, and Optimization Lab, and the sole principal investigator on the project. "With the NEXT program, we are implementing a 'flipped classroom' model. Students will review video lectures and technical instructions as their homework, allowing us to dedicate our entire class time to building and testing the mechatronic vehicles. This highly dynamic 'learning-by-doing' approach prepares students for the complex problem-solving required in today's high-tech workforce."

The program, which will welcome its pilot class in fall 2026, moves beyond standard laboratory exercises. A centerpiece of the NEXT curriculum is a high-stakes endurance mechatronics competition. Student teams will be challenged to design, build, and deploy autonomous mechatronic vehicles during a 72-hour rapid prototyping sprint, followed by a live, 90-minute competitive match on an outdoor field.

This intense environment forces participants to manage limited resources, modify hardware, program the systems on the fly, and ensure their systems can handle unpredictable real-world elements like uneven terrain and weather.

"We want to push students' engineering creativity and strategic thinking to the absolute limit," said Yao. "By bridging the gap between academic theory and rigorous physical deployment, we are ensuring our graduates are job-ready for defense and tech industry roles from day one."

911�� is already known as one of the commonwealth's largest producers of tech talent. The NEXT program will further support the university’s efforts in building Virginia’s high-tech workforce by creating a regional talent pipeline.

"Relationships between universities and industry are common, but integrating direct, hands-on challenges that mirror the complexities of defense operations makes this initiative unique," Yao added.

This project is sponsored by the Office of Naval Research under award number N00014-26-1-2153.

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