The AI Lab faculty and student researchers have officially kicked off their regular weekly meetings for the Fall 2026 semester to track progress across several key ongoing projects:

1. Unified Cybersecurity Knowledge Graph (UCKG) v3 Rebuild – Upgrading and expanding our primary knowledge graph architecture.

2. Agentic Q&A Engine for UCKG – Developing an intelligent agent system capable of querying and reasoning over complex cybersecurity graphs.

3. Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) Toolset Development – Building actionable security analysis tools driven by our graph environment.

Special thanks to Shin and Kibrom for leading an intensive bi-weekly training series during the first three weeks of the semester. These hands-on workshops covered critical technical foundations, including setting up Neo4j, building and configuring UCKG, mastering Cypher query language, and integrating LLMs into agentic workflow development.

The AI Lab is wrapping up an incredibly productive and successful 2025-2026 academic year! Under the leadership of lab faculty Dr. Erdogan Dogdu and Dr. Roya Choupani, our members have achieved outstanding milestones in research, publications, and graduation.

Celebrating Our Graduates

We are immensely proud of our lab members who graduated this year. Their hard work and dedication have truly paid off:

• Bill Mitchell (MS in CS)

• John DeLeon (MS in CS)

• Kibrom Bahlibi (MS in CS)

• Aaron Alacar (MS in CS)

• Vitaly Andrejeus (MS in CS)

• Tatum Beaugh (BS in CS)

• Serena Reese (BS in CS)

• Luan Le (BS in CS)

• Htoo Myat Maung (BS in CS)

Major Research & Publication Milestones

This year marked a high point for our research output and funding success. The lab officially completed its Department of Defense (DoD) project with great success, delivering impactful results. Additionally, our team heavily contributed to the academic community with an impressive publication record this year:

• 9 IEEE conference papers published

• 4 papers submitted and under review

• 1 journal paper currently being written

Congratulations to all of our graduates and researchers for making this year an unforgettable success! We look forward to continuing our momentum into the next academic year.

The AI Lab made a significant impact at the Angelo State University Spring 2026 Research Symposium, held on campus this past Friday, May 1, 2026. Members of the lab joined researchers from across the university to present their latest findings in a day dedicated to academic excellence and innovation.

The lab was represented by a robust cohort of student researchers, presenting a total of nine posters:

• 5 Graduate Research Posters highlighting advanced methodologies and technical developments.

• 4 Undergraduate Research Posters demonstrating high-level inquiry and foundational exploration.

A significant portion of the research showcased by both the graduate and undergraduate teams is supported by the DoD Army Research Labs. These projects are conducted under the leadership and mentorship of faculty advisors Dr. Erdogan Dogdu and Dr. Roya Choupani, who serve as the project’s investigators.

The event provided an excellent platform for our students to engage with the broader academic community and demonstrate the lab's ongoing commitment to pushing the boundaries of artificial intelligence in cybersecurity. Congratulations to all our presenters on their hard work and successful presentations!

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Angelo State University Computer Science Team Wins Best Paper at IEEE AI in Cybersecurity Conference

The Department of Computer Science at Angelo State University proudly celebrates a major research milestone at the IEEE 5th International Conference on AI in Cybersecurity, held February 18–20, 2026, at the University of Houston.

A team consisting of Shane Waldrop, Dr. Erdoğan Doğdu, Dr. Roya Choupani, and Bill Mitchell received the Best Paper Award for their groundbreaking work, “Digital Precognition: Teaching Transformers to Map Cyber Threats Before Analysts Can.” The award recognizes innovative research that advances the application of artificial intelligence to real-world cybersecurity challenges.

Strong Student Participation

ASU Computer Science students Bill Mitchell, Shane Waldrop, and Kibrom Bahlibi represented the university at the conference, presenting their research and engaging with leading scholars and practitioners in the rapidly evolving field of AI-driven cybersecurity.

Five Papers Presented

ASU researchers contributed an impressive five peer-reviewed papers to the conference:

• Vitaly Andrejeus, Bill Mitchell, Sawyer Cawthon, Jesse Sullins, Erdoğan Doğdu, and Roya Choupani, “Automated Validation and Repair of Knowledge Graph Triples for Cyber Threat Intelligence.”

• Shane Waldrop, Erdoğan Doğdu, Roya Choupani, Bill Mitchell, “Digital Precognition: Teaching Transformers to Map Cyber Threats Before Analysts Can.” (Best Paper Award)

• Shane Waldrop, Sawyer Cawthon, Erdoğan Doğdu, Roya Choupani, Bill Mitchell, “Semantic Chunking for Triple Extraction from Cyber Threat Intelligence Reports.”

• Kibrom Bahlibi, Hoang Long Nguyen, Erdoğan Doğdu, Roya Choupani, and Bill Mitchell, “Beyond Single-Hop: Link Prediction Through Multi-Hop Reasoning in Malware Knowledge Graphs.”

• John Deleon, William Mitchell, Shane Waldrop, Serena Reese, Tatum Beaugh, Amiran Fields, Erdoğan Doğdu, and Roya Choupani, “Bridging the Black Box: Explainable Anomaly Detection for Critical Infrastructure Systems.”

Funded Research Driving Impact

These publications are the result of a major research initiative supported by the U.S. Department of War, Army Research Laboratory (ARL) with a subaward to Angelo State University. The project, titled “Research and Workforce Development in the Area of Cybersecurity,” is led by Principal Investigators Dr. Erdoğan Doğdu, Dr. Roya Choupani, and Dr. Sundar Krishnan at ASU.

The research focuses on advancing AI-powered cyber threat intelligence, knowledge graphs, explainable security analytics, and workforce development—areas that are critical to national security and the future of cyber defense.

A Milestone for ASU

This international recognition highlights Angelo State University’s growing leadership in AI and cybersecurity research and showcases the impactful collaboration between faculty and students. The Best Paper Award and the breadth of accepted publications underscore ASU’s commitment to producing cutting-edge research while preparing the next generation of cybersecurity professionals.

The authors express their sincere gratitude to the U.S. Department of War and the Army Research Laboratory for their continued support of this transformative project.

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