[{"id":1789,"date":"2026-09-30T18:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T18:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/?p=1789"},"modified":"2026-09-30T18:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T18:23:10","slug":"national-science-foundation-continues-decade-of-support-for-protein-research-at-vcu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/2026\/09\/30\/national-science-foundation-continues-decade-of-support-for-protein-research-at-vcu\/","title":{"rendered":"National Science Foundation continues decade of support for protein research at VCU"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The new award helps Lukasz Kurgan, Ph.D., advance AI tools for studying intrinsically disordered proteins<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new National Science Foundation (NSF) grant secured by Lukasz Kurgan, Ph.D.<\/strong><\/a>, the Dean Robert J. Mattauch Chair of the Department of Computer Science at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) College of Engineering, will support development of artificial intelligence tools designed to help scientists better understand an important but understudied class of intrinsically disordered proteins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The $593,556 award continues a decade of NSF support for Kurgan\u2019s research on these proteins and will fund the development of new computational methods for highly accurate predicting and characterizing their functions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis award builds on 10 years of NSF support that helped us develop widely used, competition-winning tools, including flDPnn, MoRFpred, disoRDPbind and DEPICTER,\u201d said Kurgan. \u201cWith this new funding, we will push the field even further by developing the next generation of state-of-the-art methods to predict and functionally characterize intrinsically disordered proteins, with a special emphasis on the largely overlooked bacterial and archaeal organisms.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Intrinsically disordered proteins are currently understudied because they require specialized and sophisticated computational tools. They are implicated in cancers, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegenerative diseases, and are considered promising targets for drug development, Kurgan explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kurgan\u2019s project will use an AI approach known as contrastive transformer networks to develop new tools for identifying intrinsically disordered proteins and characterizing their cellular functions. The resulting computational resources will be made available online, allowing researchers worldwide to use them in their own investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The award will also support the educational mission of Kurgan and his research team through undergraduate STEM education and interdisciplinary training and mentoring of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers, with an emphasis on the transdisciplinary nature of modern computational modeling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This achievement is especially notable given today\u2019s highly competitive NSF funding environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are grateful for NSF’s continued support and excited to get to work on the next chapter of our research,\u201d Kurgan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The Department of Computer Science provides undergraduate<\/a> and graduate<\/a> students with the opportunity to perform real-world research<\/a> as soon as they enroll. From designing algorithms to solving complex computing problems to working with cutting-edge AI technology, students gain understanding of many important computing topics. Browse videos and recent news from the Department of Computer Science<\/a> to discover how the College of Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University prepares the next generation of scientists and engineers for the challenges of the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Supported by a new National Science Foundation grant, VCU researcher Lukasz Kurgan, Ph.D., is developing advanced AI tools to better predict and characterize intrinsically disordered proteins linked to complex human diseases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2033,"featured_media":1790,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,165,15],"tags":[1150,1151,53,49,1146,1174],"class_list":["post-1789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cs","category-faculty-awards","category-grants","tag-aasc","tag-hm","tag-lukasz-kurgan","tag-national-science-foundation","tag-research","tag-research-grant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2033"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1789"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1791,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1789\/revisions\/1791"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":1785,"date":"2026-09-30T18:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T18:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/?p=1785"},"modified":"2026-09-30T18:18:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T18:18:09","slug":"meet-the-faculty-juhwan-lee-department-of-biomedical-engineering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/2026\/09\/30\/meet-the-faculty-juhwan-lee-department-of-biomedical-engineering\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Faculty: Juhwan Lee, Department of Biomedical Engineering"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Juhwan Lee, Ph.D.<\/strong><\/a>, assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, joins the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) College of Engineering from Case Western Reserve University. In this Q&A series, we get to know faculty who recently joined VCU Engineering. Lee shares his thoughts on why he joined VCU, his research, teaching and what he enjoys doing outside the classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What attracted you to the VCU College of Engineering?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The collaborative environment was one of the biggest factors that attracted me to VCU. My research focuses on cardiovascular image analysis, deep learning, machine learning and their clinical applications, so close collaboration with clinicians, particularly cardiologists and radiologists, is extremely important to my work. I was impressed by VCU\u2019s highly collaborative research environment, including clinicians who are enthusiastic about research and the extensive clinical data and resources available through VCU Health. I saw the VCU College of Engineering as an ideal place to build interdisciplinary collaborations and advance my research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the application of your research? How are you planning to continue that work with VCU Engineering?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

My research applies image processing, deep learning and machine learning to quantitatively analyze medical images, including computed tomography, intravascular imaging and chest X-rays. The ultimate goal is to identify quantitative imaging biomarkers that can improve cardiovascular risk prediction and enable more personalized treatment strategies. At VCU, I plan to continue this work by building collaborations across engineering, cardiology, radiology and other clinical disciplines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you hope to accomplish during your first five years at VCU?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of my primary goals is to establish a strong, externally funded research program by securing major research grants, including National Institutes of Health R01 awards. I also hope to establish my own teaching trajectory at VCU focused on image processing, deep learning, machine learning and their applications to medical imaging. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you get into your field of research?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019d planned to pursue a Ph.D. since high school, although I didn’t know exactly which field I wanted to pursue at the time. During my junior year of college, I met a wonderful mentor who later became my Ph.D. advisor. While assisting with his cardiovascular imaging research, I became fascinated by the potential of medical image processing and AI to predict future cardiovascular risk. That experience ultimately led me to pursue this field. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you describe your teaching style and what can students expect when they step into your classroom?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I try to make my classes interactive and maintain open communication with students. I regularly check whether students are following the material and encourage them to ask questions whenever something is unclear. My teaching combines lectures with hands-on coding exercises, using MATLAB or Python so that students can apply what they learn to practical problems. Depending on the course, students can expect quizzes, coding exercises, paper reviews and team projects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you enjoy most about your field and about working with students?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the things I enjoy most about my field is the opportunity to collaborate with people from many different disciplines. My research is inherently interdisciplinary and brings together biomedical engineering, computer science, biostatistics, cardiology, radiology and other areas. It is a privilege to work alongside talented scientists and clinicians who bring different perspectives to challenging medical problems.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working with students is equally rewarding. There is always a learning curve at the beginning of a research project, but watching students develop their skills, gain confidence and eventually become experts in their own areas is one of the most fulfilling parts of being a faculty member. I also learn a great deal from my students because they bring different backgrounds, cultures, perspectives and new research ideas to the lab. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Besides your academic work, what is something you’re passionate about or like to do in your free time?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m a huge sports fan, especially baseball and basketball (Go Cavs and Guardians!). I don\u2019t play as much myself anymore, but I really enjoy playing sports with my children and watching games with my family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How are you liking Richmond so far? Have you discovered something in particular you enjoy, a place or an event?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Richmond has been great so far, and my family and I are really enjoying the area. I particularly like the variety of breweries and wineries around Richmond. I also think Richmond is a fantastic place for road trips. You can easily get to Washington, D.C., the mountains and national parks, or the coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One thing I recently discovered is NASCAR! It will be a completely new experience for us, and I think it will be a lot of fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dr. Lee with his family<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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

Meet Dr. Juhwan Lee, a new assistant professor in VCU’s Department of Biomedical Engineering, who leverages deep learning and AI image processing to advance cardiovascular disease prediction and personalized patient care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1829,"featured_media":1787,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1150,1151,1234,1145],"class_list":["post-1785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bme","tag-aasc","tag-hm","tag-juhwan-lee","tag-new-faculty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1829"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1788,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1785\/revisions\/1788"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":1780,"date":"2026-09-30T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/?p=1780"},"modified":"2026-09-29T17:27:48","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T17:27:48","slug":"american-society-of-mechanical-engineers-inducts-two-vcu-faculty-members-as-fellows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/2026\/09\/30\/american-society-of-mechanical-engineers-inducts-two-vcu-faculty-members-as-fellows\/","title":{"rendered":"American Society of Mechanical Engineers inducts two VCU faculty members as fellows"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Karla Mossi, Ph.D. and John Speich, Ph.D. were recently inducted into the American Society of Mechanical Engineers for their contributions to engineering research and education. In their time at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) College of Engineering, they have connected engineering knowledge with professional practice, preparing students to enter the technical workforce and helping partner industries hire engineers across a variety of disciplines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving Dr. Karla Mossi and Dr. John Speich recognized as ASME Fellows is a tremendous honor for the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering and the VCU College of Engineering,\u201d Arvind Agarwal, Ph.D.<\/strong><\/a>, chair of the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering said. \u201cI am proud to have such accomplished and dedicated colleagues whose teaching, mentorship, scholarship and service strengthen our department and engineering community, and have created meaningful opportunities for our students to learn, grow and succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karla Mossi, Ph.D.<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Associate Chair, Professor and Graduate Program Director<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Mossi guided the creation of the VCU College of Engineering\u2019s Ph.D. in Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering. Leading the curriculum development, documentation and coordination of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia process, she helped create a distinct Ph.D. program that addresses industry needs for high-level workers in fields like advanced manufacturing, energy, nuclear systems, aerospace, materials and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This experience helped Mossi create the VCU College of Engineering\u2019s first online master\u2019s program for the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering. It has helped working engineers, geographically constrained students and professionals seeking advanced credentials receive the education they require without leaving the workforce, resulting in partnerships with companies like Newport News Shipbuilding<\/a> and many others. The U.S. News & World Report<\/em> consistently recognized the success of this program, rating it among the top 10 online mechanical engineering programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her role as graduate program director for the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, Mossi prepares VCU engineers for emerging technical leadership roles in aerospace systems, complex engineering organizations and technology-driven industries. She built the infrastructure around the department\u2019s graduate education and created the Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering Fund, which solicits alumni and company donations to help graduate students bridge funding gaps in their educational careers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mossi\u2019s research spans work supported by Dominion Energy, NASA Langley and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Involving students in her research has provided them with training in smart materials, sensors, energy harvesting, flow control, instrumentation, nuclear-relevant materials and applied engineering systems. Her educational impact is closely connected to providing students opportunities to solve real-world engineering problems, providing employers with capable engineers ready to decipher complex problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside VCU, Mossi has leadership roles in the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and the Virginia Latino Higher Education Network. Her contributions led to Forbes Central America<\/em> recognizing Mossi as one of the \u201c100 Powerful Women of Central America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am honored to become a fellow of ASME. I joined ASME as a student many years ago, so this recognition is especially meaningful to me,\u201d Mossi said. \u201cI am very grateful to Dr. Agarwal and to everyone who supported my nomination. Thank you for your time, encouragement and confidence in me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John Speich, Ph.D.<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Professor<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Speich has held nearly every undergraduate education leadership position available in his 25 years at the VCU College of Engineering, from director of undergraduate studies to Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) coordinator, director of cooperative education, interim chair for the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering and many other roles. They reflect Speich\u2019s commitment to building durable academic systems, like the nuclear concentration he helped establish in VCU\u2019s mechanical engineering program. Garnering support from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Speich helped guide the nuclear program through a separate ABET accreditation beginning in 2012, creating a talent pipeline for VCU engineers to meet employment needs of the nuclear energy industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leading the development of the VCU College of Engineering\u2019s undergraduate professional development course, ENGR 395, Speich formed a way for students to find career success before graduation. When combined with internship opportunities and co-op experience courses, the coursework from ENGR 395 helps VCU Engineering graduates find consistent employment or be hired outright by the companies they worked at through the internship or co-op experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among Speich\u2019s research accomplishments is a longtime partnership with Adam Klausner, M.D., a urologist and professor at the VCU School of Medicine. The duo are advancing bladder biomechanics research.<\/a> Speich\u2019s contributions to their work recently earned him fellow status at the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is a great honor to be named as an ASME Fellow,\u201d Speich said. \u201cI am truly grateful to the mentors, colleagues and students that helped make this award possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering provides undergraduate<\/a> and graduate<\/a> students with the opportunity to perform real-world research<\/a> as soon as they enroll. From applying material science to additive manufacturing techniques to optimizing coolant systems for nuclear reactors and more, students gain understanding of many important engineering topics. Browse videos and recent news from the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering<\/a> to discover how the College of Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University prepares the next generation of scientists and engineers for the challenges of the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

VCU College of Engineering professors Karla Mossi and John Speich have been inducted as American Society of Mechanical Engineers Fellows, recognizing their exceptional contributions to engineering research, education, and workforce development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1829,"featured_media":1781,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[165,6],"tags":[890,27,71,1169,1152],"class_list":["post-1780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-awards","category-mne","tag-american-society-of-mechanical-engineers","tag-john-speich","tag-karla-mossi","tag-newport-news-shipbuilding","tag-smee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1829"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1782,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1780\/revisions\/1782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":1777,"date":"2026-09-29T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/?p=1777"},"modified":"2026-09-28T18:57:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T18:57:24","slug":"national-science-foundation-awards-250000-to-further-research-on-ai-related-security-risks-at-vcu-college-of-engineering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/2026\/09\/29\/national-science-foundation-awards-250000-to-further-research-on-ai-related-security-risks-at-vcu-college-of-engineering\/","title":{"rendered":"National Science Foundation awards $250,000 to further research on AI-related security risks at VCU College of Engineering"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Nya Farmer<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Virginia Commonwealth University\u2019s (VCU) College of Engineering is paving the way for research on the capabilities of AI coding tools, made possible by resources from the National Science Foundation (NSF). The $250,000 grant will go towards courses and labs to further student understanding of threats related to AI. Kostadin Damevski, Ph.D.<\/strong><\/a>, professor and graduate program director in the Department of Computer Science, will be principal investigator of this research initiative. He will lead the research alongside Preetha Chatterjee, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at Drexel University. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cOur goal is to prepare students to use AI effectively without assuming that its actions or outputs are automatically safe. This grant will allow VCU students to get hands-on experience with detecting and resolving AI-related security risks. Helping to identify the best ways to teach AI systems to other students and get ahead of potential threats,” Damevski said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The grant will help advance research- and education-based projects, with some funding going toward building hands-on labs to guide students on identifying AI-related security risks. Coursework will help professors gauge which threats students have the most difficulty identifying. These metrics will be used to create an effective curriculum that can be used across various institutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe threat-modeling framework will give students a simple, repeatable way to look for security risks when AI agents help write software,\u201d Damevski said. \u201cInstead of only asking, \u2018Is the code secure?\u2019 Students will also ask things like: What can the AI access? What actions is it allowed to take? What information can influence it? Where should a human review its actions? And what safeguards should be in place? This is increasingly important because modern AI coding agents can browse the web, execute commands, access files and repositories, and use external tools.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Risks Damevski describes include prompt injection, which occurs when hackers disguise invasive data inside normal prompts to manipulate AI systems into revealing sensitive information. Permission settings for what AI can access are another vulnerability. Broad access to files, known as privilege creep, can compromise security. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe grant would first impact how we teach AI-based programming at VCU and Drexel, with the goal of extending that impact more broadly. We plan to disseminate our work through conference presentations, publicly sharing data and models and collaborating with a small group of other universities to pilot the approach,” Damevski said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

The Department of Computer Science provides undergraduate<\/a> and graduate<\/a> students with the opportunity to perform real-world research<\/a> as soon as they enroll. From designing algorithms to solving complex computing problems to working with cutting-edge AI technology, students gain understanding of many important computing topics. Browse videos and recent news from the Department of Computer Science<\/a> to discover how the College of Engineering at Virginia Commonwealth University prepares the next generation of scientists and engineers for the challenges of the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With a $250,000 National Science Foundation grant, Virginia Commonwealth University and Drexel University are developing hands-on coursework to teach software engineering students how to identify and mitigate AI-related security risks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2033,"featured_media":1778,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,165,15],"tags":[1150,1233,10,123,49,1146,1174],"class_list":["post-1777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cs","category-faculty-awards","category-grants","tag-aasc","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-grants","tag-kostadin-damevski","tag-national-science-foundation","tag-research","tag-research-grant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2033"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1777"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1779,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1777\/revisions\/1779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":1774,"date":"2026-09-25T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/?p=1774"},"modified":"2026-09-24T14:15:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T14:15:26","slug":"summer-internships-jean-luc-folly-explores-the-world-of-advanced-manufacturing-at-the-commonwealth-center-for-advanced-manufacturing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/2026\/09\/25\/summer-internships-jean-luc-folly-explores-the-world-of-advanced-manufacturing-at-the-commonwealth-center-for-advanced-manufacturing\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer Internships: Jean-Luc Folly explores the world of advanced manufacturing at the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jean-Luc Folly grew up in Centerville, Virginia, surrounded by people from many different backgrounds. It made him realize how much he valued diversity when choosing a college, and he chose Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) for the opportunity to meet people from a variety of cultural and racial backgrounds while exploring his growing interest in science and technology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A middle school Python programming class is where Jean-Luc\u2019s curiosity for technology began. \u201cI enjoyed being given a problem and having the freedom to develop my own solution, especially because there was rarely only one way to reach the answer,\u201d Jean-Luc said. This interest in technology and coding grew stronger with time and led him to pursue computer science, data science and artificial intelligence at the VCU College of Engineering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Expanding his knowledge in these areas of study, Jean-Luc secured a summer internship with the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing (CCAM), a research and development organization focused on advanced manufacturing. \u201cThe internship gave me an opportunity to see how computer science, data, machine learning and AI can be applied to real-world manufacturing problems,” Jean-Luc said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Machine learning and deep learning are two areas connected to the study of artificial intelligence. During his time at CCAM, Jean-Luc got hands-on experience with both, while also growing his knowledge with the Python programming language and working with systems that process real-world data. Jean-Luc also enjoyed a professional and collaborative work environment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCCAM taught me that working in a professional environment does not mean you are expected to know everything,\u201d Jean-Luc said. \u201cA major part of being successful is knowing when to ask questions, communicate challenges and collaborate with people who have different areas of expertise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean-Luc\u2019s advice for fellow students is to develop both technical and interpersonal skills during the internship experience, like the ability to communicate and form connections with colleagues. “If you are more reserved, challenge yourself to speak up when you have a question or something valuable to contribute,\u201d Jean-Luc said. \u201cAn internship is not only an opportunity to prove what you already know; it is an opportunity to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the most memorable experiences of Jean-Luc\u2019s internship was leading meetings where he presented his work because of how valuable it was to receive feedback from team members and how much it made future presentations better. \u201cThat experience showed me being a computer scientist is not only about writing good code; it is also about being able to explain why your work matters,” Jean-Luc said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWorking at CCAM reinforced my desire to work in an environment where I can apply my software and data science skills across different technical fields. When I began my internship at a manufacturing-focused research organization, I was unsure how my software background would connect to manufacturing. Over the course of 11 weeks, I gained exposure to different manufacturing machines and learned how the data generated from these systems could be analyzed and used to develop software solutions, Jean-Luc said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing gave Jean-Luc the opportunity to hone his technical and professional skills while also developing a network of experienced professionals to call on for guidance as he enters the field. Jean-Luc hopes to pursue a career in aerospace as a data scientist. He wants to find creative solutions to complex problems, something he has enjoyed since his first programming class in middle school. \u201cI am especially interested in exploring how artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics can be used to improve efficiency, support decision-making and solve complex problems across different areas of an aerospace organization,” Jean-Luc said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VCU student Jean-Luc Folly gained hands-on data science and AI experience during his internship at the Commonwealth Center for Advanced Manufacturing, highlighting technical growth, effective communication, and collaboration in real-world engineering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2033,"featured_media":1775,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,13,1127],"tags":[1150,1232,1190],"class_list":["post-1774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cs","category-students","category-ugrad","tag-aasc","tag-commonwealth-center-for-advanced-manufacturing","tag-internships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2033"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1776,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774\/revisions\/1776"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}},{"id":1770,"date":"2026-09-24T13:39:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-24T13:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/?p=1770"},"modified":"2026-09-24T13:39:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-24T13:39:25","slug":"gevick-safarians-is-building-tiny-worlds-to-fight-a-deadly-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.vcu.edu\/engineering\/2026\/09\/24\/gevick-safarians-is-building-tiny-worlds-to-fight-a-deadly-cancer\/","title":{"rendered":"Gevick Safarians is building tiny worlds to fight a deadly cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The M.D.-Ph.D. student is using microfluidic chips to simulate the environments metastatic prostate cancer travels through \u2014 and to find the chinks in its armor.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Christopher Richmond<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gevick Safarians remembers the conversations. Patients dealing with cancer and other diseases with very poor prognoses, hoping not for years but for months \u2014 a little more time to settle their affairs, to figure out who would care for their pets. Those encounters stayed with him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Patients that are dealing with cancer deserve that added chance in life,” said Safarians, a third-year M.D.-Ph.D. student in Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine\u2019s<\/a> Medical Scientist Training Program<\/a>. “And I see myself, with my training, in a unique position to be that person for them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That sense of purpose is what brought Safarians to the Wright Center’s Translational Biomedical Sciences T32 Training Program<\/a>, a federally funded fellowship supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at the National Institutes of Health, that prepares predoctoral researchers to bridge the gap between laboratory discovery and patient care. As a T32 trainee, Safarians is doing exactly that: bridging engineering and medicine to bring the three-dimensionality of the human body into the lab, one controlled variable at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A chip the size of a thumbnail<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Safarians works in the lab of Priscilla Hwang, Ph.D.,<\/a> associate professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering<\/a>, in the VCU College of Engineering<\/a>, whose research focuses on developing 3D microphysiological systems to study cancer progression and collective cell migration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His focus within that work: metastatic prostate cancer, and the steep drop in survival odds that comes with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Once it’s localized and you’re able to catch it early, you see about a 90 percent survival over the course of five years,” Safarians explains. “But there are situations where metastasis can happen \u2014 and for those patients, unfortunately, five-year survival drops to just around 30 to 37 percent. And that’s what’s driving the need to create more therapeutic opportunities.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Part of what makes metastatic prostate cancer so difficult, Safarians said, is the sheer variety of environments the cancer passes through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s very heterogeneous in terms of the environments it experiences in the body \u2014 starting from the prostate, then metastasizing through the blood, reaching places like the bone, liver or lungs,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of these places have different landscapes, and in those landscapes there are many features that may be affecting the tumor: making it more metastatic, more proliferative or even treatment resistant.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n