2026 CERIAS Annual Security Symposium Agenda

Visit https://ceri.as/symp/ for more information

Last Updated: 04/06/2026

Time Event Link Room

Tuesday, April 7th
08:00am Registration / Coffee PMU South Ballroom
08:20am Welcome: Dr. Dongyan Xu, Director of CERIAS, Purdue University PMU North Ballroom
08:30am Opening Comments / Special Recognition: Dr. Patrick Wolfe, Provost, Purdue University PMU North Ballroom
08:40am CERIAS: State of the Institute: Joel Rasmus, Managing Director of CERIAS, Purdue University PMU North Ballroom
09:00am Keynote
"Cyber Threats to Agriculture: Protecting a Critical Infrastructure Sector"
Dr. Kraig Kiehl, Director of Emergency Preparedness, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture 		PMU North Ballroom
10:00am Networking Break PMU North Ballroom
10:15am Panel #1: "Transportation Security"
  • Dr. Courtney Falk, CERIAS, Purdue University (Moderator)
  • Dr. Yiheng Feng, Assistant Professor of Civil and Construction Engineering and Assistant Director of the Center for Road Safety, Purdue University
  • Dr. Aniket Kate, Associate Professor of Computer Science, Purdue University
  • Chris Lupini, Sr. Cybersecurity Consultant, Auto-ISAC & IQM Research Institute
  • Dr. Jacob Bond, Artificial Intelligence Researcher, GM
 PMU North Ballroom
11:15am Lightning Talk:
"Can We Trust AI‑Based Intrusion Detection? An Explainable AI Evaluation Perspective"
Dr. Mustafa Abdallah, Assistant Professor, School of Applied and Creative Computing, Purdue University 		PMU North Ballroom
11:35am Technology Talk:
"From Yuma to Ukraine: Redefining Safety for Autonomous Defense Systems"
Jerry Towler, Program Director – Intelligent Systems, Southwest Research Institute 		PMU North Ballroom
12:05pm Lunch & Poster Session PMU South Ballroom
02:00pm Lightning Talk:
"Autonomous Collision Avoidance Decisions Fusing Machine Learning and Deterministic Techniques for Satellites in Low Earth Orbits"
Dr. Carolin Frueh, Harold DeGroff Associate Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University 		PMU North Ballroom
02:20pm Technology Talk:
"SecureChain: A Large-Scale Knowledge Graph for Software Supply Chain Security"
Dr. Tianyi Zhang, Assistant Professor, Computer Science, Purdue University 		PMU North Ballroom
02:50pm Networking Break PMU North Ballroom
03:10pm Panel #2: "Space Cybersecurity"
  • Dr. Stacey Connaughton, Dept. Communications, Purdue University (Moderator)
  • Dr. Edmon Begoli, ORNL
  • Ryan Roberts, Deloitte
  • Dr. Ajay Malshe, Purdue University
  • Dr. Daniel DeLaurentis, Executive Vice President of Research, Purdue Office of Research, Bruce Reese Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Purdue University
 PMU North Ballroom
04:10pm Fireside Chat:
  • Dr. Eugene Spafford, Emeritus Director of CERIAS, Purdue University
  • Dr. Kraig Kiehl, Director of Emergency Preparedness, Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture
  • Brian Peretti, CTO U.S. Dept. of Treasury (Retired)
 PMU North Ballroom
05:10pm Lightning Talk:
"Rightsizing ML: Adaptive Inference from 3D Perception to Generative Models"
Dr. Somali Chaterji, Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural & Biological Engineering, Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University and CEO, KeyByte LLC 		PMU North Ballroom
05:30pm End of Day 1 PMU North Ballroom

Wednesday, April 8th
08:00am Registration / Coffee PMU South Ballroom
08:30am Welcome: Joel Rasmus, Managing Director, CERIAS, Purdue University PMU North Ballroom
08:45am Awards:
  • Pillar of CERIAS Award
  • Diamond Award
 PMU North Ballroom
09:00am Keynote:
"From Models to Systems: Engineering Trustworthy AI Agents Across the Lifecycle"
Dr. Yuan (Emily) Xue, Head of Enterprise AI, Scale AI 		PMU North Ballroom
10:00am Networking Break PMU North Ballroom
10:15am Panel "Agentic AI and Cybersecurity"
  • Ananth Grama, Samuel D. Conte Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, Director of Institute for Physical Artificial Intelligence (IPAI), Purdue University (Moderator)
  • Enrique Alvarez, Public Sector Advisor - Google Cloud
  • Dr. Emily Xue, Head of Enterprise AI, Scale AI
  • Dr. Elisa Bertino, Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, Purdue University
  • Joshua Knox, Staff Engineer and Evangelist, Horizon3.ai
 PMU North Ballroom
11:15am Technology Talk:
"Distributed Quantum Computing: When Quantum Networks Meet Quantum Computing"
Dr. Shengwang Du, Scifres Family Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering - Purdue University 		PMU North Ballroom
11:45am Technology Talk:
"Understanding Strategic Adversary Decision Making in a High Consequence Systems Context"
Dr. Ruby Booth, Principal Member of Technical Staff - Cyber Systems Research - Sandia National Laboratories 		PMU North Ballroom
12:15pm Lunch / CERIAS Faculty Showcase PMU South Ballroom
01:30pm Panel: - "Securing Agriculture and the Food Chain"
  • Joel Rasmus, Managing Director, CERIAS (Moderator)
  • Dr. Trey Malone, Associate Professor Agricultural Economics and Boehlje Chair, Purdue University
  • Dr. Dennis Buckmaster, Professor, Agricultural & Biological Engineering | Dean's Fellow for Digital Agriculture - Purdue University
  • Brad Fruth, Director of Innovation, Beck’s Hybrids
 PMU North Ballroom
02:30pm Technology Talk:
"Bridging the Cyber-Physical Gaps in Healthcare and Humanitarian Assistance"
Dr. Yuewern Yih, Tompkins Professor, Edwardson School of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University 		PMU North Ballroom
03:00pm Networking Break
 PMU North Ballroom
03:20pm Technology Talk:
"Social-Pragmatic Challenges for Large Language Models"
Dr. Dan Goldwasser, Associate Professor of Computer Science, Purdue University 		PMU North Ballroom
03:50pm Lightning Talk:
"Memory Hard Functions: A Cryptographic Tool to Protect Low Entropy Secrets against Brute-Force Attacks"
Dr. Jeremiah Blocki, Associate Professor of Computer Science, Purdue University 		PMU North Ballroom
04:30pm Closing Keynote:
"AI, Cybersecurity, and the Path Forward"
Brian Peretti, CTO U.S. Dept. of Treasury (Retired) 		PMU North Ballroom
05:30pm End of Symposium PMU North Ballroom

Thursday, April 9th
09:00am CERIAS External Advisory Board (EAB) Meeting (for members only) CERIAS Board Room - Convergence Building: 101 Foundry Drive, WL Campus CONV 3800
12:00pm Lunch Break CONV 3800
03:00pm End of EAB Meeting CONV 3800