{"id":2047,"date":"2026-06-29T09:27:38","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T13:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cps.uga.edu\/?page_id=2047"},"modified":"2026-09-08T10:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T14:52:09","slug":"cps2026","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/cps.uga.edu\/index.php\/cps2026\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cyber-Physical Systems Innovation Symposium 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cyber-Physical Systems Innovation Symposium 2026 aims to unite researchers, entrepreneurs, and program leaders from academia, industry, and government to build a robust innovation ecosystem centered around cybersecurity, cyber-physical systems, edge computing, Internet of Things (IoT), and medical devices. Cyber physical systems are important for a wide range of applications including industrial systems and medical devices. A key objective of the symposium is to foster collaboration between high-tech startups and university research labs to accelerate disruptive innovation and promote bold entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s symposium focuses on the interaction of Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence in cyber-physical systems. It will explore how AI can help to improve cybersecurity aspects of cyber-physical systems, and how to make the use of AI in such systems more secure. The symposium will feature technical sessions and discussions aligned with these core domains. The symposium aims to ultimately improve the operation, safety, and security of medical devices and other cyber physical systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The symposium is sponsored by an host partners including Augusta University, Savannah River National Laboratory, University of Georgia, Augusta Technical College, Clark Atlanta University, U.S. Army Cyber Command, Southeast Cyber Industry Association, Georgia Cyber Innovation and Training Center, International Economic Development Council (IEDC), Trideum, BigBear.ai, and others. The symposium also aims to enhance collaborations with experts from the medical field such as the Medical College, and the Dental College of Georgia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sponsorship Opportunities<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organizations can support the symposium through tiered sponsorships:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Platinum: $5,000<\/strong>
– Gold: $2,500<\/strong>
– Silver: $1,000<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sponsorships will help cover event costs and increase student participation. Sponsors will receive logo placement on the symposium website, program guide, and presentation materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Registration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CPS symposium\u2019<\/strong>26 will be on Friday, September 11, 2026 and please register at here<\/a> by August 19, 2026.<\/strong> Sponsorship fee is $50, FREE for students.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Venue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conference will be held on the Riverside Campus of Augusta University<\/a> at the Georgia Cyber Center<\/a> in the downtown district of Augusta, Georgia, USA. The Center is also the home of the School of Computer and Cyber Sciences<\/a>. You can find the Georgia Cyber Center on Google Maps by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The address of the conference venue is: Plug \u2019n\u2019 Play room at Georgia Cyber Center 100 Grace Hopper Lane Augusta, GA 30901, USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Agenda<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday September 10, 2026 (First floor, Georgia Cyber Center, Hull Mcknight Building)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1:00 – 4:00 PM HillCrest Robotic Diary Farm Tour <\/strong>(Max Capacity: 30): https:\/\/www.hillcrestdairy.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

6:00 \u2013 7:30 PM Welcome Reception, and Posters.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday September 11, 2026<\/strong> (Plug \u2019n\u2019 Play room at Georgia Cyber Center, Hull Mcknight Building<\/strong>)<\/strong>

7:30 \u2013 8:15 AM: Morning Coffee and Pastries
8:15 \u2013 8:30 AM: Introduction and remarks 

8:30 \u2013 9:30 AM: Keynote Speaker:<\/strong> Cheri Caddy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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– Talk Title:<\/strong> Cyber-Physical Systems: Cybersecurity, Complexity, and Increasing Automation
– Speaker Bio: <\/strong>Cheri Caddy is a nationally recognized cybersecurity executive whose thirty-year career spanned senior cyber policy and technical roles in the U.S. Government.  She currently serves as Senior Cyber Advisor at Savannah River National Laboratory, Senior Cyber Advisor at Meerkat Cyber LLC, and Vice President of Energy & Critical Infrastructure at ENIRAM LLC. Ms. Caddy served at the White House as Deputy Assistant National Cyber Director for Technology & Research, where she was the executive technical lead for the 2023 National Cybersecurity Strategy<\/em>, and earlier as Director for Cybersecurity Policy on the National Security Council. She spent five years as the National Security Agency\u2019s Executive Director of Enduring Security Framework, a joint program comprising DoD, DHS, the Intelligence Community, and industry leaders in the defense, IT, and communications sectors to collectively address intelligence-informed technical and operational cyber vulnerabilities and risks to national security systems and critical infrastructure.  As Senior Technical Advisor for Cybersecurity at the Department of Energy, she managed a $60M+ annual portfolio of cybersecurity R&D across the National Laboratories and co-authored the congressionally-directed National Cyber-Informed Engineering Strategy<\/em> (June 2022). Ms. Caddy is a Senior Cybersecurity Fellow at the McCrary Institute for Cyber & Critical Infrastructure Security; Vice Chair of the Cyber Warfare Division of the National Defense Industrial Association; and Chair of the Board of Fellows Visiting Committee at the Senator Patrick Leahy School of Cybersecurity and Advanced Computing at Norwich University, the Military College of Vermont. She and her team received the 2026 Cyber Policy Award for Research Impact from the Institute for Security and Technology, recognizing her continuing work advancing cybersecurity for engineers and operational technology through Cyber-Informed Engineering.  She holds a B.A. in international studies from Norwich University, Military College of Vermont; an M.A. in foreign affairs from the University of Virginia; and an M.P.A. in public policy from the American University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n



9:30 \u2013 9:45 AM: Coffee Break and Poster<\/strong>

9:45 \u2013 10:45 AM: Session 1: Digital Health & Biomedical Sensing<\/strong>
– From Movement to Digital Phenotyping: Identifying Type 2 Diabetes Risk Before Disease,<\/em> Sami Yli-Piipari, Professor, UGA.
– Physiological Monitoring in Critically ill Patients<\/em>, Younghoon Kwon, Associate Professor, UW Medicine.
– Diagnosis of Early Lung Cancer,<\/em> Shaheen Islam, Professor, AU.
– Obstructive Sleep Apnea: A Clinician\u2019s Perspective<\/em>, William Healy, Assistant Professor, AU.
– Contactless Sleep Apnea Detection with Bodyseismography<\/em>, Wenzhan Song, Professor, UGA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


10:45 \u2013 11:00 AM: Break and Poster<\/strong>

11:00 AM \u2013 12:00 PM: Session 2: Cybersecurity, AI & Critical Infrastructure<\/strong>
–\u00a0Data Centric Security in an AI World<\/em>, Raymond Schenk, Hawkeye Consulting.
– GECO \u2013 The Grid Enabled Cyber Operations Range at SRNL<\/em>, Will Johnson, SRNL.
– Cross-Domain Cybersecurity for Operational Technology Monitoring,<\/em> Will Johnson, SRNL.
– SPS for Convergent Safety Sensing and Perception,<\/em> Linbing Wang, Professor, UGA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


12:00 \u2013 1:00 PM: Lunch<\/strong>

1:00 \u2013 2:00 PM: Keynote Speaker<\/strong>: James Goosby<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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– Talk Title: <\/strong>When Cyber Becomes Physical: Building Resilient Systems from Research to Reality
– Speaker Bio:<\/strong> In his current role Goosby works closely with industry stakeholders and federal partners on operational technology strategy and cyber risk mitigation. With more than 30 years of service at Southern Company, James co-led an initiative to implement an enhanced Generation NERC-CIP program support model and has held various operations and engineering support leadership positions. Prior to joining Southern Company, James served in the U.S. Marines. He holds a B.S. in electrical engineering from Auburn University. James also served as a senior fellow at Auburn University\u2019s McCrary Institute, a prestigious group of nationally renowned cyber and critical-infrastructure security experts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


2:00 \u2013 2:15 PM: Break and Poster<\/strong>

2:15 \u2013 3:15 PM: Session 3: Smart Infrastructure and Manufacturing <\/strong>
– EMU: An IoT-Enabled Electrical Monitoring Unit for Grid-Edge Power-Quality Observability<\/em>, Abolfazl Najar, Graduate Student, UGA.
– Interpretable AI for Multimodal Neuroimaging: Structural\u2013Functional Gradient Coupling for Robust Behavioral Prediction,<\/em> Simiao Gao, Assistant Professor, AU
– Machine Learning-facilitated 3D Printing for Applications in Energy, Health and Defense<\/em>, Arunachalam, Ramanathan, Graduate Student, UGA.
– Electro-Assisted Direct Ink Writing (E-Writing) of Mycelium-based Scaffolds for Advanced Wound Healing<\/em>, Libin Yang, UGA.

3:15 \u2013 3:30 PM: Coffee Break and Poster<\/strong>

3:30 \u2013 4:30 PM:<\/strong> Robotics and Intelligent Systems<\/strong>
– Advanced Technology in Modern Agriculture \u2013 A Dairy Tale<\/em>, Mark Rodgers<\/em>, Hillcrest Farm.
– Teleoperation of Quadrupedal Robots through Mixed Reality<\/em>, Kyle Johnsen, Professor, UGA.
– TBD, Ramviyas Parasuraman, Associate Professor, UGA.
– Turning Up the Volume: Unauthorized Command Injection on Commercial BLE Hearing Aids<\/em><\/em>, Justin Carney, Graduate Student, AU.

4:30 \u2013 4:45 PM Break and Poster<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


4:45 \u2013 5:30 PM Research Ideas Teaser<\/strong>


Poster Session: Titles and Presenters<\/strong>
– SPS for Convergent Safety Sensing and Perception
– Sensor Web: Connecting Dots for the Intelligence
– The Hawkeye Protocol
– Cross-Domain Cybersecurity for Operational Technology Monitoring 
– EMU: An IoT-Enabled Electrical Monitoring Unit for Grid-Edge Power-Quality Observability
– Smart Monitoring for Networked Power Electronic Systems using EMU
– Turning Up the Volume: Unauthorized Command Injection on Commercial BLE Hearing Aids
– AccuLog: Audit-Path-Based Recovery System for Efficient and Verifiable Logging<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guidance<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Posters and Slides:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Slides for presentations shall be sent to the organizer\u2019s email.
– The posters must be formatted to be up to 48\u00d742 inches (Height x Width). Please post it before the  welcome reception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meeting Location:<\/strong> Plug \u2019n\u2019 Play room at Georgia Cyber Center 100 Grace Hopper Lane Augusta, GA 30901, USA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parking : <\/strong>Parking is available on the Nathan Deal Campus for Innovation in the adjacent parking deck for $1.25\/hour or $7 all day. The parking deck is cashless and accepts all major credit cards. It is located at the front of the campus and can be accessed from 11th Street or Grace Hopper Lane. The Georgia Cyber Center is not able to provide validated parking passes. For more details please follow this link: https:\/\/www.gacybercenter.org\/facility\/map-directions\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hotel<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main hotel for the conference is the Augusta Marriott at the Convention Center<\/a>. The hotel is about 200 meters away from Georgia Cyber Center, and the shortest walk is on the scenic Augusta Riverwalk<\/a> that runs along the Savannah River. We have arranged a special rate with Augusta Marriott for CPS attendees. Please book the hotel using this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are several other hotels in the area. Other options include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Hyatt House Downtown Augusta<\/a>, on Broad Street about one block away from the conference venue.
– Crowne Plaza North Augusta<\/a>, just across the Savannah River in North Augusta.
– The Partridge Inn<\/a>, a historic hotel with a rooftop bar, a short drive down Walton Way from downtown Augusta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other budget option nearby include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Ramada by Wyndham Augusta Downtown Hotel & Conference Center 640 Broad Street, Augusta, Georgia 30901<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Background<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The School of Computer and Cyber Sciences (SCCS)<\/a> aims to provide high-engagement, state-of-the-art technology education and research across its computer science, information technology and cybersecurity disciplines. SCCS is uniquely positioned within multiple facilities at Augusta University, including the prestigious Georgia Cyber Innovation & Training Center. Through strong partnerships, SCCS impacts K-12 education, higher education, healthcare, government, and the business community. These collaborations foster cutting-edge cybersecurity research, workforce development, and entrepreneurial innovation, positioning Augusta as a national hub for talent in the cyber industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mission of UGA Center for Cyber-Physical Systems (CCPS) is to develop partnerships among university, industry and government on research and education in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) analytics and security, and fosters bold innovation and entrepreneurship in CPS. The CCPS center is an interdisciplinary research center in UGA committed to advancing research and education in CPS and to transitioning CPS science and technology into engineering practice and real-world applications with lasting impact. More details found here: UGA Center for Cyber-Physical Systems.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Program Chairs:<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haijian Sun [hsun@uga.edu] (UGA)
Glenn Fink [glenn.fink@srnl.doe.gov] (Savannah River National Laboratory)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steering Committee:<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Costas Busch [kbusch@augusta.edu] (Augusta University)
WenZhan Song [wsong@uga.edu] (UGA)
Steve Weldon [SWELDON@augusta.edu] (Savannah River National Laboratory)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Platinum Sponsors:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Savannah River National Laboratory<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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School of Computer and Cyber Sciences, Augusta University<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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The College of Engineering<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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Office of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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