CREO Brings AI, Health, National Defense Into Focus for Cybersecurity Awareness Month

EAST GREENSBORO, N.C. (Oct. 5, 2026) – An artificial intelligence assistant that turns against the people it serves. A voice recording that reveals more about its speaker than they ever intended. A drug discovery model that becomes a target. These are not distant scenarios, and this October, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University is putting them in front of students.

The university’s Center of Excellence in Cybersecurity Research, Education and Outreach (CREO) is marking Cybersecurity Awareness Month with a speaker series that runs through Oct. 29. The series brings A&T faculty, alumni, industry professionals and Department of the Navy experts to campus for talks, a career panel and a hands-on hacking competition. All sessions are free and open to students, faculty and researchers in every discipline, and most can be attended in person at CREO or online.

This year’s lineup reflects how far cybersecurity now reaches beyond the server room. Speakers will examine the risks of autonomous AI agents, the privacy stakes of voice data in health care, the security of AI tools used in drug discovery, and the career paths open to students in national defense.

“Cybersecurity is no longer a niche field. It touches health care, science, defense, and every app on our phones. This series is designed to show students, whatever their major, where they fit in that picture and how to start building the skills to protect it,” said Ahmad Patooghy, Ph.D., interim CREO director.

The schedule of events:

• Tuesday, Oct. 6, 11 a.m.-noon
  “When AI Agents Become Adversaries: Security Lessons from the OpenAI–Hugging Face Incident”
  Tia Pope, Ph.D., Department of Computer Science assistant professor
  How goal-directed AI agents can slip past their controls, with a hands-on activity designing safeguards for an agent with tool access.
• Wednesday, Oct. 14, 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
  “Aggies in Cyber: From Capture the Flag to the Real World”
  Tre Harding, CNP Technologies, and a panel of A&T alumni
  A hands-on cybersecurity challenge followed by an alumni panel on AI, Zero Trust, security operations and life after A&T. No experience required.
• Friday, Oct. 16, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.
  “Protein Folding: From Basic Biology to Modern Generative Models”
  Farzan Ghane, Ph.D., bioinformatician, Astellas Pharma
  From the fundamentals of protein folding to AlphaFold and the use of generative AI in drug discovery.
• Monday, Oct. 19, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
  Kenneth Sherin, AgDefenders / NC PaCE
  Topic to be announced.
• Tuesday, Oct. 20, 11 a.m.-noon
  “AI-Driven Molecular Generation, Structure-Based Drug Discovery, and Security Challenges”
  Olaide Nathaniel Oyelade, Ph.D., computer systems technology assistant professor
  How AI is reshaping drug design and the security questions that follow as these tools move into real-world use.
• Thursday, Oct. 22, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
  ThreatOps Challenge
  Tracy Owens, SentinelOne
  A Capture the Flag-style competition on a live security console, with training on SentinelOne’s AI-powered threat-hunting assistant. Open to all skill levels. In person only.
• Thursday, Oct. 22, 1:30-3 p.m.
  “Can AI Hear Your Voice? Voice Biomarkers, Cybersecurity, Privacy, and the Future of Healthcare AI”
  Mohammad Arif, Ph.D., computer systems technology associate professor
  How AI detects health signals in the human voice, and the privacy and security risks of using voice data in health care.
• Tuesday, Oct. 27, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
  “Designing Secure AI Agents”
  Bedeabasi John
  How attackers hide commands inside everyday content such as web pages and PDFs, and how sandboxing and human approval can keep AI agents from becoming accomplices.
• Thursday, Oct. 29, 1-2 p.m.
  “Careers in National Defense”
  Bryan Woosley, Ph.D., Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane Division, Department of the Navy
  Career paths for civilian scientists and engineers in national defense, plus internships and the SMART Scholarship.

Cybersecurity Awareness Month was established in 2004 by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the National Cyber Security Alliance to help Americans stay safer online. CREO has observed the month every October since 2020 and partners with the Division of Information Technology Services on campus-wide awareness activities.

CREO advances cybersecurity research prepares students for careers in the field, and connects the university with industry, government and community partners.

Event registration and full session details are available at https://www.ncat.edu/research/centers/creo/cybersecurity-awareness/2026/index.php. Sessions take place in the lecture room at CREO, 2105 Yanceyville St., Greensboro.