2024-2025 Impact Report Now Available

The mission at I2S covers three distinct objectives:

• Basic and Applied Research: To create and disseminate fundamental knowledge and new technologies
• Advanced Workforce Development: To educate and train students for technology leadership
• Science and Technology Services: To provide state, national, and international leadership for next generation information infrastructure

Today, the areas of research at I2S address a wide range of modern communications technologies and concerns. As an organization, it’s important to note that these technologies, and the risks that accompany them, continue to expand and evolve at a very rapid pace. The faculty and graduate researchers at I2S continuously strive to improve technologies within their respective scopes of work.

“The last few years have been eventful at I2S, and 2025 is no exception. As I mentioned in last year’s Impact Report, I2S transformed from the Information and Telecommunications Technology Center to I2S in 2022. This restructuring was not merely symbolic, but an important distinction that recognized the growth and inclusion of new and evolving technologies that touch all aspects of information-related research as well as their impacts on society,” said Dr. Perry Alexander, AT&T Foundation Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Science and Director of I2S.

READ: Impact Report: Serving State, Local and National Workforces Through the Development of New Technologies and Leaders.

These research areas, from their earliest days such as remote sensing research (now the Radar Systems Lab) and telecommunications and networking (now the Center for Communications, Networking and Photonics), continue at the heart of their activities. The High Assurance and Secure Systems Center, the Mathematical Methods and Interdisciplinary Computing Center, and the Computer Systems Center represent more recent areas of substantial growth. The newest center, the Center for Cyber-Social Dynamics, brings together researchers exploring computing impacts on societal norms.

The impact report highlights recent achievements across all six centers. Examples include:

• The Radar Systems Laboratory: Research in 2024 and 2025 has been quite productive and the center has recently earned multiple international awards. They are working on a wide array of radar and related topics, including diverse radar waveform design, optimized and adaptive receive processing, radio frequency direction finding, and antenna calibration. Their primary focus is on connecting new theoretical advances with open-air experimental demonstrations, and subsequent transitions into operational radar systems. The investments made through partnerships from both industry leaders and at the federal level continue to build the university into a leading hub for the highest level of defense technology developments. At the lab, this allows expanding cutting-edge research that will lead to vast improvements in effective operations in spectrally congested and contested environments.
• The Center for Communications, Networking & Photonics: In the 2024-2025 academic year, faculty Primary Investigators (PIs) in CCNP continued their success in research and have attracted research funding from both federal agencies and industry. Most notably, young faculty members excelled in their respective research areas and were recognized by the community. Their research efforts have resulted in a large number of impactful publications in leading academic and engineering journals as well as presentations at prestigious international conferences. Faculty and graduate students were also nominated with top honors for their research papers.
• High Assurance & Security Systems Center: Recent awards for projects include more than $500,000 from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for CAREER: SATC: on Bridging the Gap Between Research and Practice: Automation and Metrics in Security Operation Centers, led by associate professor Alex Bardas; a $1.8 million NSF award for Collaborative Research: Frameworks: Automated Quality Assurance and Quality Control for the StraboSpot Geologic Information System and Observational Data, led by associate professor Drew Davidson; and a $100,000 NSF award for Planning: DCL-EPSCOR: SaTC Frontier: Exploring the Synergy Between Generative AI and Cybersecurity led by professor Bo Luo.
• Mathematical Methods & Interdisciplinary Computing Center: Researchers focus on research and innovation through myriad projects that span a variety of fields, including biology, medicine, radar, and autonomous vehicles, that aim to deliver solutions to real-world applications. To name a few, Michael Branicky was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), for distinguished contributions to modeling, analysis and control of cyber-physical systems, and for applications to networked control systems and robotics. Cuncong Zhong collaborated with KUMC faculty on elucidating how the human gut microbiome modulates immunotherapy in lung cancer; the results have been published in the journal Nature Communications. Center director Suzanne Shontz received the 2024 James Corones Award for Leadership, Community Building and Communication from the Krell Institute.
• The Center for Cyber-Social Dynamics: In September 2024, CCSD launched the Navigating Our Worlds virtual series in partnership with KU’s The Commons. This interdisciplinary program brought together scholars and the public to examine the ethical and social implications of emerging technologies, strengthening KU’s leadership in conversations about the digital age. That same month, postdoctoral researcher Rebecca Johnston, affiliated with CCSD and the Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies, published their work on how the Russian state deploys culture to bolster its domestic and foreign policy aims, including the war in Ukraine. Momentum accelerated in February 2025, when CCSD earned two noteworthy research seed grants from the Computational Cybersecurity in Compromised Environments (C3E) Challenge Problems initiative for projects examining human–AI interaction and vulnerabilities in large language models.
• Computer Systems Center: Fellow researchers within CSC are working on multiple collaborations applied to a wide range of contexts. Electrical Engineering and Computer Science assistant professor Tamzidul Hoque is collaborating with researchers at the University of Florida and University of North Texas to build new educational modules focused on edge AI, which will enable students to create and run AI code on low-power TinyML devices, and build interest in technology as a career path for high school students. He is also working on projects to tackle hardware security in the semiconductor industry and combat threats like reverse engineering and IP theft. Professor Heechul Yun was awarded a new grant to explore the theory and practice concerning the formulation, design, and implementation of architectural on-the-fly Data Transformation Units (DTUs) to improve performance of complex applications by bridging the widening gap between memory technology and processors. CSC researchers also continue to conduct high-profile research for existing projects in quantum computing and software systems. 

Learn more and stay up-to-date on I2S' research centers.

"While we continue to evolve with the rapid development of information technologies, as this report demonstrates, a reminder that our core mission is and will always be to nurture our research community. Our primary goals remain supporting our PIs in groundbreaking research, positioning our students for success, and serving our state, region and nation," said Alexander.