AIRE Workshop showcases AI progress and student-led research at Augusta University
On Nov. 21, the School of Computer and Cyber Sciences hosted its inaugural Artificial Intelligence in Research and Education (AIRE) Workshop at the Georgia Cyber Innovation & Training Center. Faculty, students, researchers and community partners spent a focused day on how AI is influencing research, education and the workforce.
"The workshop gathered speakers from across the CSRA, including universities, institutions and research labs. We also invited students from across Augusta University to attend and learn from these conversations," said Hisham Daoud, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Cyber Systems and Engineering and chair of the event.
The workshop advances the School's effort to establish a Center for AI in Research and Education-built to drive interdisciplinary projects, encourage experimentation and prepare students for AI-intensive careers.
Who was in the room
Speakers and participants represented regional institutions and industry partners, including the Savannah River National Laboratory. Faculty and students from multiple AU colleges and schools-such as the Medical College of Georgia and the School of Public Health-joined the discussion.
Four priority tracks for researchers
- Cybersecurity: Use cases centered on threat detection, autonomous incident triage and model assurance. Conversation emphasized evaluation protocols, privacy-preserving methods and deployment in constrained environments.
- Education: Practical frameworks for using AI in instruction and assessment while maintaining academic integrity. Faculty development, transparent policies and iterative feedback loops were recurring themes.
- Health care: Clinicians, statisticians and computer scientists examined decision support, patient monitoring and data analysis. The "AI in Healthcare: Perspectives and Challenges" panel stressed validation, bias audits and workflow integration.
- Applied intelligent systems: Case studies from industry and labs showed AI for inspection, energy efficiency and public safety. Discussion focused on model efficiency, edge deployment and lifecycle management.
Student research with real-world potential
A poster session highlighted student work across domains. Alex Brady, a graduate research assistant in the Computer and Cyber Sciences PhD program, presented an energy-efficient spiking neural network that predicts epileptic seizures ahead of time-research conducted with Daoud. The approach could be adapted for wearables outside clinical settings.
"For me, winning the Best Poster Award tells me I'm on the right track. It's very encouraging to be reminded from time to time of the significance of the work that we're doing," Brady said.
What students took away
Jordan Pruner, a fourth-year computer science student, said the workshop clarified how AI can support both learning and teaching. "As both a student and a future educator, I've always had concerns about AI. Coming to this workshop eased some of the fears I had, but it also made me more aware of the areas where we need to be cautious. At the same time, it gave me new ideas for how I can use AI in my learning and eventually my teaching."
For George Dorton, a third-year cyber operations student, the value was in seeing breadth and specifics. "The biggest benefit of this workshop was seeing how many real-world applications AI has. We use AI every day now, even for simple tasks, so gaining a deeper understanding of how it works - especially in fields like cybersecurity, education and health care - is extremely valuable. As a cyber operations student, I'm interested in building my own AI agents or using AI in future projects. This workshop showed me what's possible and how AI can strengthen the work we do in cybersecurity."
Why this matters for the research community
"Artificial intelligence is accelerating discovery in the sciences and transforming how we teach and learn," said Alex Schwarzmann, PhD, dean of the School of Computer and Cyber Sciences. "This workshop underscored both the promise and responsibility of AI. Our school is determined to advance AI research and education, not only by integrating it into our curricula and scholarly work, but by fostering collaborations that ensure these technologies serve society with integrity, innovation and impact."
Practical takeaways for labs and programs
- Build interdisciplinary teams: Pair domain experts with data scientists and engineers early to shorten iteration cycles.
- Invest in evaluation: Treat datasets, metrics and audits as first-class assets; plan for continuous monitoring, not just pre-deployment tests.
- Mind efficiency: Consider energy use, latency and hardware constraints; efficient models expand where AI can be deployed.
- Teach with clarity: Provide transparent AI use policies, scenario-based guidance and examples that students can apply immediately.
- Partner beyond campus: Collaborate with national labs and industry to access real data, real constraints and real impact.
The AIRE Workshop set a practical baseline for collaboration across cybersecurity, education, health care and applied systems. With plans to build a Center for AI in Research and Education, Augusta University is laying the groundwork for sustained research, training and community partnerships.
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