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NSF CAREER award will support teen autonomy in age of AI

Nathan Kahl — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 15:45:38 +0000

NSF CAREER award will support teen autonomy in age of AI Nathan Kahl Tue, 06/09/2026 - 11:45

Adolescence has always been a time of figuring out who you are. Increasingly, that process unfolds alongside social media feeds, recommendation algorithms, and AI chatbots. 91��’s Nora McDonald received a prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) CAREER award for $748,000 to better understand how adolescents experience and are shaped by these artificial intelligence (AI) and other personalized digital environments, and how they can develop the skills and capacities necessary to maintain their sense of self, autonomy, and agency within them.

McDonald, an assistant professor in the Department of Information Sciences and Technology, has spent several years studying a growing reality of adolescent life, and one increasingly shaped by personalized AI technologies. Her research has found that social media recommendation systems and AI chatbots can serve as spaces where young people reflect on themselves, experiment with identity, and seek feedback about who they are.

McDonald's work will give teens tools to properly engage with digital technologies. iStock photo.

“Much of the public conversation has been about how algorithms influence what kids see and how we go down rabbit holes,” McDonald said. “I’m interested in a different question: How do algorithms shape self-understanding and how do teens make sense of themselves in environments that are increasingly personalized and shaped by algorithms and AI?”

McDonald’s previous research suggests that even while teenagers often view AI chatbots and recommendation systems as practical tools, those systems can become important spaces for self-exploration and self-presentation.

“Over time, teens might come to expect these systems to reflect aspects of who they are,” McDonald said. “They use them not just for help with homework or entertainment, but also to explore and understand themselves.”

Those findings raise broader questions about identity development during adolescence. If recommendation systems continually influence what young people see, what feedback they receive, and what content captures their attention, how will that affect how they see themselves?

McDonalds's CAREER project will investigate that question through what she calls a resilience framework that examines how adolescents recognize, interpret, and respond to algorithmic influence and how it relates to the coherence of their sense of self.

The research combines interviews, diary studies, surveys, and participatory design activities to better understand how adolescents interpret and respond to algorithmic systems. McDonald will recruit teenagers from across the country, beginning with qualitative studies and eventually expanding to a national survey designed to generate broader statistical insights.

One major outcome of the project will be the development of practical resources and activities designed with teenagers to help them navigate personalized digital environments.

The effort differs from traditional digital literacy initiatives that focus primarily on explaining how algorithms work. “It helps them reflect on algorithmic influence and develop strategies that are really rooted in managing attention and maintaining perspective on who they are outside of digital experiences,” McDonald said.

The CAREER award also supports substantial educational activities. McDonald plans to develop a new undergraduate course focused on algorithmic self-defense from a human-computer interaction perspective. The project will also support a youth summer institute for high school students helping young people to critically engage with AI personalized digital technologies that increasingly shape their everyday experiences.

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George Mason engineering team uses robotics to rethink accessibility

Katarina Benson — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 13:58:00 +0000

George Mason engineering team uses robotics to rethink accessibility Katarina Benson Tue, 06/09/2026 - 09:58

Many accessibility surveys depend on manual measurements, handwritten notes, and extensive walkthroughs with compliance checklists. A team of 91�� engineering students wondered if a robot could do it faster. Nine months later, they created one.

The project, called Salus, combines robotics, LiDAR technology, object detection, GPS mapping, cloud-based analytics, and a custom-built website to help survey public spaces for potential ADA accessibility barriers. Developed as part of a College of Engineering and Computing senior capstone project by mechanical engineering majors Lexi Chivers, Connie Lam, Mariah Tammera, Noemi Umanzor, and Tyler Yared, the system is designed to automate portions of the accessibility surveying process while allowing engineers and designers to better understand how people with disabilities experience physical spaces.

The Salus team with the robotic accessibility surveying system they developed as part of their senior capstone project at 91��. Photo provided

Salus was one of several George Mason capstone projects supported through a GO Virginia-funded initiative led by the Nexus234 Innovation District, which pairs students with industry-informed challenges and mentors.

“We saw a system that was operating poorly, and we wanted to optimize it,” said Chivers, the team lead.

The idea originated when one of Chivers’ teammates attended a conference and discussed the difficulties of collecting large volumes of survey data in the field with industry professionals.

“They basically said, ‘We wish we had something we could send out to collect data and not have to constantly manage,’” said Chivers. “That conversation sparked everything.”

The project consumed most of the team’s weekends as they worked through testing, software integration, fabrication, and constant iteration.

“A lot of people told us we weren’t going to be able to do this in nine months,” said Chivers. “At one point, someone told us it would take two years and eight NASA engineers.”

Instead, the students delivered a working proof of concept before graduation.

As the robot moves through a space, it uses LiDAR sensors, GPS mapping, and onboard cameras to identify and document potential accessibility issues. The data is processed through cloud-based systems and displayed through an interactive website. Rather than sorting through raw data, users can explore flagged locations through an interactive visual map built by the team.

For Chivers, the project also had a personal connection. She said her mother’s job teaching students with disabilities influenced the team’s conversations around accessibility and inclusion. “Just because something legally meets ADA standards doesn’t always mean it’s truly accessible for those with disabilities,” she said.

Kenan Aden, COO of Didlake and the team’s industry mentor, was introduced to the student team through Nexus234. He said the project impressed him both from its technical complexity and for the problem it set out to tackle.

“The entire team approached this project with an incredible level of determination and systems thinking,” said Aden. “What makes it especially meaningful is that they never lost sight of the people this technology is intended to help.”

"This team’s focus and dedication have been extremely impressive," said Leigh McCue, professor and chair of George Mason’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. "Any time I popped my head into the senior design space, or walked visitors through for a tour, the team was hard at work and eager to showcase their technology."

One of the most rewarding parts of the experience for Chivers was discovering the kind of engineer she wants to become.

“I thought I wanted to stay in the background,” said Chivers. “But this project made me realize I really love being a leader, solving problems, and doing things that actually matter to people.”

Currently, the students are working with George Mason’s Office of Technology Transfer to explore patent protection for the project’s intellectual property. Although the team is still deciding what comes next, Chivers said the technology has potential beyond the capstone project itself, including with construction firms, municipalities, designers, and accessibility planners.

In her advice to other entrepreneurs, Chivers said, “Your dreams are never too big. You just haven’t found all the tools you need to make them happen yet.”

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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 91�� 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.

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CIO Charmaine Madison honored with Change Champion Award

Charmaine Madison, vice president for information technology and chief information officer, has been honored by Cloudforce with a Change Champion Award for leading transformative change at George Mason in the realm of AI, inspiring teams, and challenging the status quo to adopt new ways of working.

Learn how Madison champions the adoption of generative AI across the university.

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91�� professor probes ‘Labubu economics’

Katelynn C Hipolito — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 15:03:55 +0000

91�� professor probes ‘Labubu economics’ Katelynn C Hipolito Tue, 06/02/2026 - 11:03

The billion-dollar Labubu phenomenon broke a cardinal rule of retail: Consumers need to know what they’re buying before they open their wallet. Most new Labubu sales took the form of “blind boxes,” where purchasers found out which type of doll they’d purchased only after the fact.

Zhechao Yang, assistant professor of information systems and operations management at Costello College of Business at 91��. Photo by Jeffrey Porovich/Costello College of Business.

Zhechao Yang, assistant professor of information systems and operations management at the Costello College of Business at 91��, says that the “blind box” strategy, or “probabilistic selling” in academic terminology, is a rapidly growing global phenomenon that goes way beyond Labubu. Her recently published paper in Manufacturing & Service Operations Management examines how, and why, this emerging strategy has worked for toymakers, car rental companies and booksellers alike—while delighting customers willing to pay for a surprise.

The paper was co-authored by Hongseok Jang of Tulane University and Xiajun Amy Pan of University of Florida.

The researchers used game-theoretic modeling to analyze the interactions of suppliers, retailers and customers in a market where a manufacturer sells through a retailer. In this realistic setup, a supplier offers an assortment of products ranging from high- to low-quality at wholesale prices, which retailers seek to sell to consumers at the highest possible profit. Either the retailer or the supplier can choose to initiate probabilistic selling (PS), selecting some mixture of high- and low-quality products to go in the “blind boxes.”

Yang and her co-authors noted that PS can improve profits for retailers and suppliers in a number of ways. “One is the market expansion effect,” Yang explains. “If there is an excess of high-quality products that consumers are not buying, they can be combined with low-quality products to form a new product, via PS…Another way is through strategic differentiation, essentially preventing the excess high-quality products from experiencing price convergence with lower-quality products.”

But PS’ profitability potential is far from uniform. As the paper clarifies, it can vary greatly with the context, based particularly on two elements: whether PS is retailer- or supplier-led, and whether high-value products are abundant or scarce.

The researchers found that transaction costs—the extra costs of creating and selling blind boxes—were one of the main determining factors. Whichever party initiates PS will have to bear certain costs, which may include the labor required to assemble “blind boxes,” and additional fulfillment, inventory and logistics costs. Additionally, Yang says, “There could be financial and accounting costs associated with adding new products.”

When retailers take it upon themselves to introduce PS, the associated transaction costs can reshape upstream pricing. Anticipating those costs, the supplier may lower the wholesale price of high-quality products to make the blind-box strategy viable for the retailer. This can help the retailer, but it also reduces the supplier’s margin and may make retailer-led PS unattractive to the supplier under some conditions.

When retailers take the lead, they will adjust the product mix for PS based on balancing transaction costs against the likelihood of product cannibalization—a trade-off that may give rise to more shortsighted choices.

On the other hand, supplier-led PS gives the supplier more control over both the blind-box mix and the wholesale terms. Also, by adjusting the number of high-quality products that will go in the “blind boxes,” the supplier can maximize price differentiation, thus increasing profits.

“When the supplier leads the strategy, it can reduce the channel inefficiency,” Yang says. “In the model, the supplier can control both the product mix inside the blind box and the wholesale terms offered to the retailer. That can make it easier to manage cannibalization and preserve the value of high-quality products.”

The importance of supplier-led PS becomes especially clear when high-value products are scarce. In that setting, the paper shows that firms should use the limited high-value capacity on “blind boxes” rather than sell those products separately.

Thus, the paper concludes that supplier-led PS, unlike the retailer-led variety, can create a “win-win-win” scenario where the supplier and retailer both earn higher profits, market coverage expands, and consumers benefit from access to a broader set of purchasing options.

However, power plays a significant role in real-world decisions around PS. “In reality, major retailers like Amazon may have more bargaining power, more pricing power. The high-level assumption we give this model is that when the retailer is more powerful, the retailer gets the first opportunity to decide whether to introduce PS., but that doesn’t mean it’s the best option for the whole supply chain,” Yang says.

“It’s better for the two parties to have some conversation before deciding who will take the power at the very beginning. Large retailers may have some advantages, but sometimes it’s better to give this power to the supplier.”

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George Mason PhD student recognized for blockchain privacy research

Nathan Kahl — Tue, 02 Jun 2026 10:51:19 +0000

George Mason PhD student recognized for blockchain privacy research Nathan Kahl Tue, 06/02/2026 - 06:51

91�� computer science doctoral student Aayush Yadav co-authored a paper that received a Distinguished Paper Award from the IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy, one of the industry’s premier conferences in the security field. The conference typically accepts around 13 percent of submissions.

Aayush Yadav. Photo provided

The paper addresses a growing challenge in blockchain technology—how to protect sensitive transaction information before it becomes public, focusing on improving privacy protections within blockchain systems while maintaining the transparency and decentralized structure that define the technology.

His research grew out of an internship last summer with Category Labs, a company developing blockchain tools and infrastructure. The work addresses a vulnerability tied to how blockchain transactions are processed before they are officially added to the chain. Traditionally, blockchain transactions are publicly visible before they are finalized. That visibility allows entities responsible for processing transactions to potentially manipulate their order for financial gain.

“These entities can act maliciously in some way,” Yadav said. “Because this information is public, these actors know the direction of the order of the transactions before the rest of the public. And they can take advantage of that.” Consider that if an actor sees that someone is about to make a major purchase or sale, they can quickly place their own trade first, causing the market price to change. The original user then receives a worse price than expected, while the actor profits from the price movement, effectively creating a hidden cost for the user.

The team’s research focuses on encrypting transactions while they are waiting to be processed, helping prevent that kind of exploitation. The goal is to encrypt or hide transactions as they are sent, revealing them later.

The paper introduces new approaches to what researchers call “mempool privacy,” referring to the protection of transaction data before it becomes part of the public blockchain ledger. The work also explores “threshold encryption,” which requires multiple parties to work together to decrypt transaction data, helping eliminate single points of trust or failure.

Yadav, who is completing his PhD in computer science this year, said his interest in theoretical computer science and algorithms started early in his academic career. “I enjoyed the process of solving problems that were algorithmic in nature,” he said. “Thinking about these abstract things, but then also being able to solve them concretely using an algorithm, is very satisfying.”

He chose George Mason in part because of the university’s large computer science faculty and breadth of expertise. After arriving at George Mason in 2021, Yadav took his first cryptography course with Foteini Baldimtsi, an experience that shaped the direction of his research. “It had the right mix of theory and practice. The problems are very theoretical in some sense, and the way you solve them is theoretical, but at the same time they are grounded in real applications.”

“I am very proud of Aayush,” said Baldimtsi. “Throughout his PhD, he has worked on some of the most important challenges in modern cryptography, including signature protocols and privacy-preserving authentication for digital identities, while also focusing on post-quantum security. The award is a well-deserved recognition of his talent, dedication, and impact on the field.”

Later this year he will start a tenured-track faculty position at his alma mater, Rutgers University–Camden.

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Tip Sheet: How concerned should Americans be about Ebola?

Mary Cunningham — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 14:22:16 +0000

Tip Sheet: How concerned should Americans be about Ebola? Mary Cunningham Mon, 06/01/2026 - 10:22

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With a new Ebola virus disease outbreak in Africa affecting global travel, epidemiologist Amira Roess shares why the risk to Americans is currently low and other frequently asked questions.

Colorized transmission electron microscopic image showing the filamentous and curved morphology of an Ebola virus particle. Photo by CDC/Frederick A. Murphy via Public Health Image Library.

As of May 31, 2026, cases of Ebola virus disease have been spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda for several weeks. No cases have been reported in the United States because of this outbreak. However, due to Ebola’s highly infectious nature, major U.S and other global international airports have increased travel screening, entry restrictions, and public health measures to prevent the spread of this disease.

Epidemiologist Amira Roess previously worked on Ebola prevention as an epidemic intelligence service officer (i.e., disease detective) at the Centers for Disease Control. She also was the principal investigator on a grant studying Ebola prevention in Guinea during the West Africa outbreak in 2014-2016. Roess shares her expertise to answer frequently asked questions concerning Ebola.

How concerned should Americans be about Ebola right now?

The overall risk to Americans is currently low with no cases of Ebola reported in the U.S. because of the recent Congo outbreak as of May 31, 2026.

How does Ebola spread?

Ebola spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids (such as blood or saliva) of an infected person or animal. Ebola does not spread through the air the way the flu does, so you cannot get the disease from being near someone for a short period of time or passing them in public.

Though Ebola is not highly contagious because it does not spread through the air the way the flu virus does, Ebola is highly infectious, meaning even a small amount of contact with the virus can lead to severe effects.

What are the symptoms of Ebola?

Ebola symptoms begin with fever, aches, pains, and fatigue, and progress to diarrhea, vomiting and unexplained bleeding. Other symptoms may include chest pain, shortness of breath, confusion, red eyes, skin rash, hiccups, and seizures. Symptoms may start between 2-21 days, but typically appear between 8-10 days after exposure.

These symptoms can indicate a lot of other illnesses, and there is little risk of Ebola to anyone who has not come in contact with an infected person.

How deadly is Ebola? Is there a cure?

Ebola is a very deadly disease with a death rate between 25% to 50% depending on the strain, but has been up to 90% with previous outbreaks and strains. There are no licensed vaccines or treatments currently available for the Ebola strain responsible for the current 2026 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Early supportive treatment is key to increasing the survival rate, and public health measures and contract tracking are key to preventing the spread of the disease.

Learn more about Ebola from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

MEDIA INQUIRIES: For reporters who wish to speak to Dr. Roess about Ebola or other infectious diseases, please email media contact Michelle Thompson at mthomp7@gmu.edu.

Amira Roess is a professor of global health and epidemiology at 91��'s College of Public Health, Department of Global and Community Health. She served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer at the CDC (a disease detective), where she worked on Ebola prevention in the Congo region among other infectious diseases. In 2015, Roess was co-investigator on a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to study the ethnic, cultural and spiritual beliefs about Ebola virus disease among villagers and health care workers in the West African country of Guinea. She is an epidemiologist with expertise in infectious diseases epidemiology, multidisciplinary and multi-species field research and evaluating interventions to reduce the transmission and impact of infectious diseases. Roess oversees several longitudinal studies to understand emergence and transmission of zoonotic infectious diseases globally, including the emergence and transmission of Campylobacter (with support from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation), MERS-CoV (with support from the U.S. National Science Foundation), and the development of the microbiome during the first year of life. She studies links between food animal production and emerging infectious and zoonotic diseases emergence globally, and the effects of human and animal encounters on health and well-being. Find more information about her research here.

Roess’ peer-reviewed papers related to Ebola:

About George Mason University
91�� is Virginia’s largest public research university. Located near Washington, D.C., Mason enrolls more than 40,000 students from 130 countries and all 50 states. Mason has grown rapidly over the past half-century and is recognized for its innovation and entrepreneurship, remarkable diversity, and commitment to accessibility. In 2023, the university launched Mason Now: Power the Possible, a one-billion-dollar comprehensive campaign to support student success, research, innovation, community, and stewardship. Learn more at gmu.edu.

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The College of Public Health at 91�� is the first College of Public Health in Virginia and a national leader in inclusive, interprofessional, public health research, education, and practice. The college comprises public health disciplines, health administration and policy, informatics, nursing, nutrition, and social work. The college offers a distinct array of degrees to support research and training of professionals dedicated to ensuring health and well-being for all. The college’s transdisciplinary research seeks to understand the many factors that influence the public’s health and well-being throughout the lifespan.

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George Mason and UVA Wise researchers use phylogenomics to identify cyanobacteria in Shenandoah River

Katarina Benson — Fri, 29 May 2026 18:15:40 +0000

George Mason and UVA Wise researchers use phylogenomics to identify cyanobacteria in Shenandoah River Katarina Benson Fri, 05/29/2026 - 14:15

You’ve probably seen slimy mats of brownish green clinging to rocks in streams or on lake beds, and perhaps not given it another thought. But 91��’s Rosalina Stancheva Christova has.

Mats in the Shenandoah River. Photo provided

Christova, an assistant professor in the College of Science, has been researching Microcoleus, a common mat-forming cyanobacterium found in streams and lakes worldwide, for more than 20 years. The troublesome thing about Microcoleus is that some strains pose a risk to human, animal, and aquatic ecosystem health, but others do not.

Christova leads the Algal Ecology Lab at George Mason and wanted to learn more about Microcoleus in George Mason’s backyard—the Shenandoah River. To do so, she reached out to a colleague at University of Virginia Wise, A. Bruce Cahoon, who shared her interest in the research. Together, Christova and Cahoon set out to study the species’ diversity, distribution, and toxicity in the Shenandoah.

4-VA approved their collaborative research grant proposal, “Integrative Characterization of the Anatoxin-a-Producing Benthic Cyanobacterial Genus Microcoleus in the Shenandoah River,” and Christova and Cahoon got to work. Research began with the collection of benthic mats over a two-year period from 11 sites in the North and South Forks of the Shenandoah River.

It proved successful and surprising, revealing a stunning breakthrough in identification of Microcoleus collected from the river. Some of the bacteria was not actually Microcoleus after all, but a genus called Limnofasciculus that was discovered in 2023.

Cyanobacterium specimens. Photo provided

In all, the team identified six species and isolated two monoclonal Microcoleus strains, one nontoxic and one producing anatoxin-a.

“Phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene sequences confirmed that both strains belong to the genus Microcoleus. The toxic strain was most closely related to M. anatoxicus from California, confirming the wide distribution of this problematic cyanobacterium,” said Christova.

Christova credits her large team for doing the good but difficult work. She was supported by her co-PI Benoit Van Aken, an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Pat Gillevet, director of the Microbiome Analysis Center. Graduate students Jacob Mormando, Sydney Brown and Rwan Alsaadi also worked on the project.

Mormando collected a sample with novel Limnofasciculus species for genome analysis and conducted temperature experiments with the toxic Microcoleus strain. Brown handled molecular and morphological studies of the species, field work collecting benthic cyanobacteria from the river, molecular work and cyanobacteria culturing. Alsaadi developed distributional and ecological data and collected benthic cyanobacteria from the river.

From left, Rwan Alsaadi, Sydney Brown, Jacob Mormando, A. Bruce Cahoon, and Rosalina Christova in the lab at the Potomac Science Center. Photo provided

Undergraduate students also played a role in the effort. Biology major Armon Ghaffari did data analysis of Microcoleus distribution in the river samples, and environmental science major Emma Boyden oversaw the laboratory maintenance of cyanobacterial cultures.

Two undergrads at UVA Wise, Amelia Clark and Matthew Sullivan, prepared molecular work.

Additionally, Janice Lawrence and Cecilio Valadez-Cano of the University of New Brunswick, Canada, helped with the molecular studies. Another important collaborator on the project was Gordon M. Selckmann, associate director for Aquatic Habitats at Interstate Commission on the Potomac River Basin (ICPRB). The 4-VA team used some of the field material Selckmann collected as part of an ongoing investigation of the benthic harmful algal blooms in the Shenandoah River funded by the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and ICPRB.

The team is now sharing their findings and have presented at the Society for Freshwater Science Annual Meeting, the Southeastern Phycological Colloquy, the Potomac River Conference, and the 2025 Biennial Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation Meeting in Richmond, Virginia.

“The 4-VA@Mason funding was very important to me, as it supported the establishment of my research lab, fostered the development of regional and international research collaborations, and provided funding for undergraduate and graduate students interested in aquatic and cyanobacterial research,” said Christova.

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Global startups touch down in the Nexus234 Innovation District

Katarina Benson — Fri, 29 May 2026 15:08:10 +0000

Global startups touch down in the Nexus234 Innovation District Katarina Benson Fri, 05/29/2026 - 11:08

This May, startups from across the globe came to Manassas, Virginia. Along with their suitcases, they brought polished presentations, new technologies, and big plans.

Inbar Oz, CEO and cofounder of TrackiMed, pitches to investors during the Nexus234 Global Innovation Showcase at George Mason’s SciTech Campus. Photo provided

They spent two days in the Nexus234 Innovation District for the Global Innovation Showcase. Ten startups were selected from a competitive pool of 22 applicants representing the United States, Israel, Japan, and South Korea.

Offered through the Northern Virginia International Soft Landing Accelerator (NISA), the program combined networking, facility tours, and investor conversations. It also included a pitch competition. All these elements were designed to connect companies with the region’s growing innovation ecosystem.

“There’s only so much you can learn from a brochure or a website,” said Jaehan Park, founder and CEO of Naugen, one of the leading organizations of NISA. “Actually spending time here gives startups a much clearer picture of the opportunities and resources available in Nexus234."

Throughout the showcase, startups visited places such as 91��’s Science and Technology Campus, ATCC, and commercial wet lab facilities, including Endeavor, led by Prince William County’s Department of Economic Development and Tourism, and the Northern Virginia Bioscience Center located in Innovation Park. They also talked with George Mason faculty about potential research collaborations and spoke with students about startup culture and what career development looks like in emerging industries.

“Northern Virginia is a rare blend that’s often very difficult for startups to find in one place: research institutions, industry collaborations, skilled talent, and proximity to major markets,” said Sarah Brooks, director of business and financial services at the Virginia Economic Development Partnership. “This area is especially supportive for companies wanting to expand in the U.S."

For many attendees, the pitch competition was the highlight of the showcase. Startups stepped in front of judges to present technologies ranging from wearable medical devices and regenerative medicine to AI platforms. The judges brought experience from venture capital, startup acceleration, health care innovation, business development, and entrepreneurship support organizations across the region and beyond. Lucina Biotherapeutics won first place, while TrackiMed came in second, and MedicosBiotech took third.

Executives from international companies competing to soft land in Nexus234, investors from across the United States, and representatives from 91��, Prince William County, the City of Manassas gathered during the Global Innovation Showcase in Manassas, Virginia. Photo provided

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George Mason sends record number of students to National Conference on Undergraduate Research

Katarina Benson — Tue, 26 May 2026 14:23:23 +0000

George Mason sends record number of students to National Conference on Undergraduate Research Katarina Benson Tue, 05/26/2026 - 10:23

This April, 63 91�� students presented their research at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) in Richmond. NCUR is dedicated to promoting undergraduate research across disciplines. This year marked George Mason’s highest attendance to date, and many students were able to attend due to support from the Office of Student Creative Activities and Research (OSCAR).

Students listen to a speaker at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research. Photo provided

For Karen T. Lee, associate director of OSCAR, accompanying the students to NCUR each year is one of her favorite parts of the job. “Sharing results is the ultimate step in completing a research or creative project, and sharing them at a national conference like NCUR allows students to contribute to the body of knowledge in their field, and to meet students and faculty working on similar projects and learn to network as professionals,” she said. “Having this experience as an undergraduate, early in their career, is a real boost in their confidence.”

Both Michael Kaleem, a junior majoring in community health with a concentration in clinical science, and Auj Atteeq, a senior majoring in computational and data science, were supported by OSCAR grants this year.

Kaleem with his research poster. Photo provided

For Kaleem, NCUR was the first time he has presented his research outside of George Mason. With his project, “Rest and Results: The Relationship Between Sleep, Stress, and Grade Point Average (GPA) in Undergraduates,” Kaleem found that while sleep didn’t necessarily affect students’ GPA, students’ stress levels influenced both their sleep quality and their academic performance.

A member of the Honors College and OSCAR's Undergraduate Research Scholars program, Kaleem credits Lee and his mentor Ali A. Weinstein, a professor of global and community health, for helping him hone his research skills. He hopes to work in the health care field in the future and plans to continue his studies at George Mason and pursue an accelerated master's in public health with a concentration in health policy.

In her project, “Thermal Stress Impact on Global Bleaching Events,” Atteeq found a positive correlation between sea surface temperature and coral reef bleaching across the globe. Essentially, rising temperatures disrupt the homeostasis of coral reef systems, causing them to turn white and become vulnerable to starvation and disease. Coral reefs support at least a quarter of all marine life, making Atteeq’s research incredibly important.

Atteeq with her research. Photo provided

Atteeq originally began her research as a final project for one of her computational and data sciences classes. OSCAR staff member Kim Seligman encouraged her to continue the work and apply to attend NCUR. She received a travel grant from OSCAR to attend the conference. In the future, Atteeq wants to continue her research on climate science and plans to pursue a career in academia.

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Chaos theory finds its voice

Nathan Kahl — Tue, 19 May 2026 15:42:55 +0000

Chaos theory finds its voice Nathan Kahl Tue, 05/19/2026 - 11:42

Talk may be cheap, but it is still rich with data, and George Mason's Anomadarshi Barua is using artificial intelligence (AI) and a new approach to chaos theory to rebuild missing pieces of speech with incredible accuracy.

"When we talk, our voices have a frequency component from zero kilohertz (kHz) to around 8 kHz," said Barua, an assistant professor in the Department of Cyber Security Engineering. "Capturing all those frequencies normally requires devices to collect and process large amounts of data, which consumes power, storage, and computing resources."

He will present a paper he coauthored on this topic at the Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) annual meeting later this summer. ACL is one of the world's leading conferences in natural language processing and speech technologies, and the paper was accepted in the top 15 percent of accepted submissions at a conference with a 19 percent acceptance rate overall.

Smaller devices and sensors operating with limited battery life or bandwidth have difficulty capturing an entire signal, and so record a smaller slice, attempting to reconstruct the missing frequencies later. Barua says this is known as bandwidth extension or bandwidth reconstruction.

Imagine listening to a song through a wall and trying to mentally fill in the muffled higher notes. Barua's research teaches AI systems to do something similar, but with far greater mathematical precision. The team's major breakthrough came from incorporating a concept not often associated with speech: chaos theory.

"Our speech is actually a chaotic signal," Barua said. "'Chaos' does not mean completely random."

Instead, he describes speech as "deterministically random," meaning sounds and phonemes are strongly connected to one another in predictable ways. "You can actually determine what could be the next phoneme if you have the sufficient information from the previous phoneme," he said.

To capture those hidden relationships, the researchers developed what Barua calls a "chaotic discriminator" inside a machine-learning framework known as a generative adversarial network, or GAN. In simple terms, one part of the AI system generates reconstructed speech while another checks whether the recreated speech preserves the natural chaotic patterns found in human voices.

The approach significantly improved reconstruction quality compared to previous methods. "We are getting more improved results compared to the previous baseline," Barua said, "because of the incorporation of the chaotic properties."

By integrating chaos-informed modeling, the team dramatically reduced the size of the AI system needed for reconstruction. "We actually reduce the size of the discriminator by 14 times," Barua said. Smaller models require less memory and computing power, making them more practical for real-world devices.

For Barua, whose earlier work focused primarily on cybersecurity before expanding into speech and natural language processing, the ACL conference's acceptance marks an important milestone. "This is my first paper in natural language processing," he said.

While the current paper focuses on speech, Barua sees much broader possibilities ahead. The same reconstruction techniques could eventually be applied to electrical signals, sonar, lidar, and other sensing technologies. "This concept is not only limited to speech," he said. "We are trying to open up a larger branch in different signal modality."

And that message comes through loud and clear.

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