Sponsors

Gold

Silver

Schedule

Browse the CAPWIC 2026 Schedule.

Time Description Location

2:30PM

Registration

Hallway/Atrium

3:00PM

AWS 101 Workshop

AB1-3140 Lecture Classroom

5:00PM

Break

5:15

Welcome

AB1-1100 Lecture Classroom / Boeing Auditorium

5:30

Dinner

AB1-1100 Lecture Classroom / Boeing Auditorium

6:00

Keynote Introduction

AB1-1100 Lecture Classroom / Boeing Auditorium

6:10

Keynote

Tools in Your Toolbox: What I've Learned as a Professional Female Computer Scientist
Laurian Vega, Ph.d. Booz Allen Hamilton

AB1-1100 Lecture Classroom / Boeing Auditorium

6:50

Q&A / Closing Remarks

AB1-1100 Lecture Classroom / Boeing Auditorium

Time Description Location

7:45AM

Registration

Hallway/Atrium

7:50AM

Breakfast

TBD

9:00AM

Keynote Introduction

AB1-1100 Lecture Classroom / Boeing Auditorium

9:05AM

Keynote

Goodbye Imposter, Hello Winner: Overcoming Perceptual Expectations to Reclaim Excellence
Candace Aku, Google Public Sector

AB1-1100 Lecture Classroom / Boeing Auditorium

10:00AM

Parallel Sessions

Workshop

Debugging Your Resume

Aubrey Baker (Red Van Workshop), Holly Wilsey (Purple Basil Games)

Session Chair: Nguyen Ho

AB1-1100 Lecture Classroom / Boeing Auditorium

Technical Talks

Education & Inclusion

Still Here, Still Learning: A Woman's Journey Back to Graduate Computing
Shareka Robinson (Morgan State University)

Designing the AI-Ready Workforce
Denise D'Angelo (dynamicD)

AB1-3130 Lecture Classroom

Flash Talks

Advancing AI Systems: Security, Evaluation, and Human-AI Collaboration

Methods and Challenges in LLM-Based Vulnerability Detection and Repair
Fatemeh Vares and Brittany Johnson

AI Assisted Cross-border Cybersecurity Literacy
Norah Ondus and Sehrish Basir Nizamani

OSMoSIS: Enabling Metacognitive Feedback Reflection in LLMs
Isaiah Freeman and Joseph Shelton

Pebble
James Mercer, Rhea Parekh, Nikhita Kuninti and Aleysa Sweeney

Benchmarking and Advancing Generative Models for Calorimeter Shower Simulation
Farzana Yasmin Ahmad and Geoffrey Fox

Effects of Prompt Writing Training Using the AMERH Framework on the Students' Prompt Quality
Eman A. M. Amer and Jeannine Eddleton

A Structured Dataset for Analyzing Human Group Motion Across Spatial Formations
Meklet Berihun

Session Chair: Mona Rizvi

AB1-3100 SCALE-UP Classroom

Research Shorts

Education, Ethics & Inclusive AI

From Deficits to Strengths: A Scoping Review on ADHD Adults & Productivity Technology
Suzanna Yaukey, Anita Komlodi, Ravi Kuber and Andrea Kleinsmith

Equity Responsive AI Learning Systems: A Framework for Personalized Learning and Inclusive Participation
Shalina Champa, Eshwitha Gali and Jayanth Reddy Bekkem

Ethics and AI in Education: Understanding Public Discourse on Twitter (X)
Akriti Bagale, Nafisa Mehjabin, Ali Unlu and Aditya Johri

CREA: A Collaborative Multi-Agent Framework for Creative Image Editing and Generation
Kavana Venkatesh, Connor Dunlop and Pinar Yanardag

Session Chair: Mai Dahshan

AB1-3120 Breakout Connected Classroom

Workshop

Designing Safer AI Agents: Secure-by-Design Patterns for AI Systems

Pavan Reddy (The George Washington University)

Session Chair: Mohammed Seyam

Posters

Core AI & Machine Learning Methods

Comparative Analysis of Knowledge-Guided Few-Shot Brain Tumor Detection
Okib Islam, Ayomide Bonojo, Joy Muchangi, Fahmi Khalifa and Mahmudur Rahman

Uncertainty-Aware Interfaces Between Neural Predictors and Large Language Models
Xinyue Zeng

Adaptive Block Diffusion With Cache Reuse and Confidence Calibration
Farhana Amin

Adaptive Knowledge Retrieval with Graph-Enhanced and Document-Centric RAG
Melike Yildiz Aktas, Min Zhang, Meenu Ravi and Chang-Tien Lu

Evaluating the Expressibility of Data Encoding Methods for Quantum Machine Learning
Natalie Lee

Reason Impossible: Can LLMs Forecast Wartime Returns?
Farzana Yasmin Ahmad, Kazi Noshin and Zakaria Mehrab

Knowledge Triple Filtration for Explainable Question-Answering
Joanne Varughese and Nicole Yazbeck

SETRL: Verifier-Guided Reinforcement Learning Under Query Budgets for Cross-Mode Generalization in SET
Michelle Lin

Deep Metric Learning for Ancient Coin Identification
Dhanshree Atre, Nathan Sprague, Jason Forsyth and Trevor Schonbrun

Improving Automated Coding of News Data: A Machine Learning Approach to News Framing
Emily Lugos and Mauricio Gruppi

Information Quality Assessment Framework to Design Human-Centered AI Systems for Assistive Technology
Anuridhi Gupta and Hemant Purohit

Session Chair: Jessica Zeitz

Hallway/Atrium

11:10AM

Parallel Sessions

Workshop

Best Practices for Using Gen AI to Manage Cloud Compliance

Srinija Desiraju (AWS), Alix Delgado (AWS)
Limited seats available: Registration only event (Workshop registrations starts after CAPWIC registration deadline)

Session Chair: Nguyen Ho

AB1-1100 Lecture Classroom / Boeing Auditorium

Technical Talks

Human-Centered & Applied AI

Natural Language as the User Interface: Designing Predictive AI That Actually Gets Used
Emily Smith (Unaffiliated)

Houston, We Have a Model: Performance Assessment for Mission-Critical AI
Cheryl Howard (IBM), Peyton Cooper (IBM)

Session Chair: Jin-Hee Cho

AB1-3130 Lecture Classroom

Flash Talks

Trust, Fairness, and Societal Impact of AI

Discovering Hidden Bias in AI
Anne Nyangaga, Alma Ladino and Pam Bogdan

LLM-Guided Input Generation for Causal Fairness Testing
Sadia Afrin Mim

Data-Driven Exploration of Physiological Factors Perpetuating Bias in Pulse Oximetry Readings for At-Home Use
Arshnoor Bhutani and Mahi Sanghavi

Gender, Culture, and Privacy
Khoulood Alharthi and Sehrish Basir Nizamani

A Trust-Aware, Biometrically-Secured Social Network Using Decentralized Identity Protocols and the Analytic Hierarchical Process for Collaboration
Christopher Parham, Sai Sindhu Tirumalasetty and Joseph Shelton

Understanding State-Level AI Readiness Policy
Saanvi Shashikiran, Henry Deng, Lisa Singh, Andrea Headley, Aditi Bhardwaj, Julie Dang and Vinuri Dissanayake

Session Chair: Mona Rizvi

AB1-3100 SCALE-UP Classroom

Research Shorts

Human-Centered Computing & HCI

Do You Feel the Burn? Exploring Lightweight Haptic Feedback and How It Can Improve Exercise Performance
Julia Larson and Jason Forsyth

When Jokes Cross the Line: A Dataset for Distinguishing Humor, Dark Humor, and Harm in Social Media Short-Form Videos
Sydney Johns

Persona-Sensitive Design Evaluation
Khyati Goyal, Zannah Zeiw, Svastik Arora, Sehrish Basir Nizamani

Understanding Developer Acceptance of AI-Assisted Code Commenting: An Undergraduate Study Using the AI Code Comment Acceptance Model (AICCAM)
Yoonje Lee, Anurag Pokala, Jasser Darguech, Parth Mehta and Sehrish Basir Nizamani

Session Chair: Mai Dahshan

AB1-3120 Breakout Connected Classroom

Workshop

Cyber Hygiene That Sticks: Research in the K-12 Space on Cybersecurity

Deborah Kariuki (University of Maryland Baltimore County) and Hidare Debar (University of Maryland Baltimore County)

Posters

AI for Health, Science & Creative Applications

Moodoodle: Generative Soundscapes for Reflective Emotional Exploration
Mindy Zheng

Generative Models for Reconstructing Cosmological Initial Conditions from Realistic Observations
Giti Doolabi

SongSmith: An AI Lyric Study
Andre Daniels, Denise Daniels and Joon Lee

Emotion-Aware Speech Analysis for Mental Health Support Using Whisper
Claire Gillaspie, Cyd Oldham, Nigel Uson and Jae Skeete

Spatial Seer: Exploiting Telemetry to Expose XR User Environment
Gayatri Kamtala, Allie Craddock, Bo Ji and Brendan David-John

PhysioAI
Amulya Chinnala, Aleysa Sweeney, James Mercer, Nico Parong, Rhea Parekh, Vinicius Rezanejad and Sehrish Nizamani

MITransfer: Towards Model-level Generalization of Mechanistic Interpretability
Wendy Zheng, Yinhan He and Jundong Li

A Comparative Study of Spatio-Temporal Deep Learning Methods for Multimodal Urban Mobility Prediction
Seyma Simsek, Melike Yildiz Aktas and Chang-Tien Lu

Flexible Swarm: ROS2 Action-based Coordination of Heterogeneous Drone Swarms
Eva Grimes, Aubrie Kooiker and Emma Faith

Octree-Based Spatial Partitioning for Multi-Agent UAV Navigation
Emma Faith

Drone Trajectory Tools with KKT Conditions and CasADi
Aubrie Kooiker

Session Chair: Jessica Zeitz

Hallway/Atrium

12:15PM

Lunch

TBD

1:20PM

Parallel Sessions

Panel

Navigating the Path to Grad School: Discuss, Reflect, and Make an Informed Decision

Madison Barton (Northeastern University), Mohammed Farghally (Virginia Tech), Promise Owa (Northeastern University), Chandani Shrestha (JMU)
Moderator: Mohammed Seyam (Virginia Tech)

AB1-1100 Lecture Classroom / Boeing Auditorium

Technical Talks

AI Security & Training Systems

QBTrain: Zero-Cost, Accessible Hands-On Educational Labs for AI Agent Security
Pavan Reddy (The George Washington University)

Beyond the Weakest Link
Deborah Kariuki (University of Maryland, Baltimore County), Hidare Debar (University of Maryland, Baltimore County)

Session Chair: Nada Basit (University of Virginia)

AB1-3130 Lecture Classroom

Research Shorts

AI & Machine Learning Methods

RESFL: Uncertainty-Aware Federated Learning for Joint Privacy, Fairness, and Utility
Dawood Wasif, Terrence Moore and Jin-Hee Cho

StagePilot: A Deep Reinforcement Learning Agent for Stage-Controlled Cybergrooming Simulation
Heajun An, Qi Zhang, Minqian Liu, Xinyi Zhang, Sang Won Lee, Lifu Huang, Pamela Wisniewski and Jin-Hee Cho

Urban Giants Under Threat: Unveiling Climate Vulnerabilities and Adaptive Strategies in Megacities
Dhanyasri Bolla

Multimodal Spatio-Temporal Representation Learning for Edge-Based Urban Traffic Control
Seyma Simsek, Betul Nur Guner and Chang-Tien Lu

AB1-3100 SCALE-UP Classroom

Research Shorts

Systems, Architecture & Performance

Heterogeneous Paging in PagedAttention: Adaptive Memory Management for LLM Inference Workloads
Nishat Sultana

MARCO: Multi-Agent Code Optimization for High-Performance Computing
Ariana Nafisi, Veljko Cvetkovic, Claire Shin, Kathleen Reece, Krishnateja Reddy, Bryan Torres, Sina Heidari, Margaret Ellis and Dimitrios Nikolopoulos

Automatic Identification of Relevant Scholarly Work for Initial Screening in Systematic Reviews
Minji Kang and Bipasha Banerjee

Relationship Extraction Using Retrieval Augmented Generation for Biomedical Dataset
Jannat Lnu, Bridget McInnes, Tomasz Arodz and Charlie Dil

Session Chair: Mai Dahshan

AB1-3120 Breakout Connected Classroom

Workshop

Augmenting Datasets with Generated Data: Methods and Evaluation

Rebecca Ansell (Georgetown University) and Lisa Singh (Georgetown University)

Session Chair: Nguyen Ho

Posters

Cybersecurity, Privacy & Responsible AI

Towards Practical Discrimination Testing for Software Systems
Sadia Afrin Mim and Brittany Johnson

PrivacyR1: Privacy-Preserving Collaborative Reasoning in Multi-Agent Systems
Min Zhang and Chang-Tien Lu

Beyond the Android Manifest: Analyzing Native Libraries and Eye-Tracking Use in Virtual Reality Applications
Kimberly Giordano, Brendan David-John, Bo Ji and Margaret Ellis

Benchmarking DAOS Filesystem on Aurora
Rebecca George, Xinxin Mei and Jie Ren

Securing Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks (VANETs) Against Cyber Threats
Susan Zehra, Syed Rizvi and Stephan Olariu

Hope or Hype? Understanding Vibe Coding through Software Practitioner Discussions
Fairuz Nawer Meem, Fatema Tuz Zohra, Justin Smith and Brittany Johnson

Well-Being in AI-Assisted Software Development
Fairuz Nawer Meem, Justin Smith and Brittany Johnson

Exploring Socioeconomic Status Narratives of Computer Science Students
Jennifer Alexandra Thompson and Sara Hooshangi

Bridging the AI Education Gap: A Self-Funded AI Awareness Initiative in Cocoa-Farming Villages of Ghana
Zahra Rizvi, Sophia Rizvi and Derek Atiawu

Is it Ethical for Professors to Use AI Detectors on Human Papers?
Jerome Dizon

Session Chair: Jessica Zeitz

Hallway/Atrium

2:30PM

Parallel Sessions

Panel

Beyond Participation: Rethinking Classroom Discussion with ThoughtSwap

Chandani Shrestha (James Madison University), Mona Rizvi (James Madison University), Alexander Heckel (James Madison University), Michael Stewart (James Madison University)

AB1-1100 Lecture Classroom / Boeing Auditorium

Technical Talks

AI for Agriculture & Domain Applications

AGRI-Fidelity: Evaluating the Reliability of Listenable Explanations for Animal Disease Detection
Sindhuja Madabushi (Virginia Tech), Arda Dogan (Virginia Tech), Jonathan Liu (Virginia Tech), Dian Chen (Virginia Tech), Dong S. Ha (Virginia Tech), Sook Shin (Virginia Tech), Jin-Hee Cho (Virginia Tech)

X-MAP: eXplainable Misclassification Analysis and Profiling for Spam and Phishing Detection
Qi Zhang (Virginia Tech), Dian Chen (Virginia Tech), Lance Kaplan (U.S. Army DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory), Audun Josang (University of Oslo), Dong Hyun Jeong (University of the District of Columbia), Feng Chen (University of Texas at Dallas), Jin-Hee Cho (Virginia Tech)

AB1-3130 Lecture Classroom

Research Shorts

Applied AI & Emerging Technologies

Interpretable AI for Animal Health: Bayesian Networks with Uncertainty-Aware Decision Making
Dian Chen, Sindhuja Madabushi, Raj Kashikar, Angelie Nguyen, Dong Ha, Sook Shin and Jin-Hee Cho

Investigating the Neural Correspondence of Speech-Based Neural Networks with Human Brain Responses
Ivy Brundege, Gasser Elbanna and Josh McDermott

A Hybrid Multi-Agent Prompting Approach for Simplifying Complex Sentences
Pratibha Zunjare and Michael Hsiao

Temperature and Interface Effects on Carrier Transport in Hydrogen-Terminated Diamond MOSFETs
Nuwayyir Alshammari

AB1-3100 SCALE-UP Classroom

Research Shorts

Cybersecurity, Trust & Resilience

Identifying Human Factors in Red Teams for Cyber Exercises
Stephanie Travis and Denis Gracanin

Framework for Finding Attribution of Social Media Screenshots
Tarannum Zaki, Michael Nelson and Michele Weigle

From Vulnerable to Resilient: Examining Parent and Teen Perceptions on How to Respond to Unwanted Cybergrooming Advances
Xinyi Zhang, Mamtaj Akter, Heajun An, Qi Zhang, Lifu Huang, Jin-Hee Cho, Pamela Wisniewski and Sang Won Lee

Towards Large Language Model-Powered Automation of Detecting Metadata Related Bugs
Yeana Bond

Session Chair: Mai Dahshan

AB1-3120 Breakout Connected Classroom

Birds of a Feather

Thriving in Computing Across Career Stages: A Values-Based Framework for Retention, Resilience, and Leadership

Adalena Oliver (Amtrak)

Session Chair: Allyson Senger

Posters

Human-Centered Computing, Education & Smart Systems

DBWorkout: Enhancing SQL Education Through Gamification and Real-Time Collaboration
Deepika Devaraj, Tien Nguyen, Jaren Goldberg, Sehrish Basir Nizamani, Saad Nizamani, Sally Hamouda

Experiences in Transition: Survey Development, Validation, and Analysis of Computer Science Transfer Student Pathways
Nawar Wali

Beyond the Percentage: An LTI Proxy to Support Mastery-Based Grading in CS
Ilse van Duijl

Roots for STEM: Promoting STEM Accessibility
Isabella Divietro, Giada Grant and Evan Sturgill

Expert Systems as Accessible Pedagogical Infrastructure: Developing a Cross-Disciplinary General Education AI Literacy Course
Mackenzie Swain, Eric McGowan, Karen Anewalt and Jennifer Polack

Drone On and Code Along: Inclusive Robotics for Non-Tech Majors
Warren Emmell, Evangelina Grimes and Abhishek Phadke

Bridging the AI Education Gap: Understanding How Students Learn to Maintain AI Systems
Fatema Tuz Zohra and Brittany Johnson

Praxly: An Online IDE for the Praxis CS Test Pseudocode
Ellona Macmillan, Chris Mayfield and Chris Johnson

Exploring the Factors Contributing to the Gender Disparity in Computing Education
Sara Hailemariam

Between Places and Pasts: Enhancing Cultural Heritage Experiences through Location-Based Systems
Yuanqi Zhen

Virginia Transit Deserts: A Geo-Demographic Study of Public Transportation Access
Jayla Hall

Session Chair: Jessica Zeitz

Hallway/Atrium

3:40PM

Keynote Introduction

AB1-1100 Lecture Classroom / Boeing Auditorium

3:50PM

Keynote

Human-Centered Automation: A Journey through HCI, AI, and the Future of Robotics
Meg Dickey-Kurdziolek, Intrinsic

AB1-1100 Lecture Classroom / Boeing Auditorium

4:35PM

Closing

AB1-1100 Lecture Classroom / Boeing Auditorium