September Newsletter
ROSS GORE CSICS 13 YEARS
MATTHEW KYTE OERI 12 YEARS
LYNCH 12 YEARS
LAURA COSTADONE ICAR 2 YEARS
CHRISTOPHER
Thirsty Thursday
August 7, 2025
Storymodelers Drs. Jose Padilla and Erika Frydenlund shared at this month’s Thirsty Thursday their insights on how to think like a Storymodeler when traveling in order to inspire research trajectories, build partnerships, and inspire new ways of thinking about the world around us.
They say that traveling is more than just seeing new things and eating different cuisines. Their advice is to get the most from travel: don’t just SEE, but OBSERVE the daily activities around you and take a moment to watch without applying your own cultural lens. Take notes. Take pictures. Connect with others. Collaborate with colleagues. Document the human condition.
Drs. Padill and Frydenlund said, “there are stories all around us, but it takes work to establish trust. Without our colleagues and friends abroad, we wouldn’t have been able to do even half of what we’ve done.”
Traveling can be much more when motivated by the question: what do we want to learn about the place/people/culture? This gives us pause to think about language differences, cultural commonalities, and all the things we may find “odd.”
Across OERI
ICAR Workshop to Share Resilience Assessment Findings, Identify Community Priorities August 18, 2025
On August 18th, ICAR co-led a community resilience workshop for residents of James City County, York County, and the City of Williamsburg, as part of the Resilience Adaptation Feasibility Tool, or RAFT. RAFT is an innovative collaborative approach to climate resilience that brings together partners and diverse stakeholders to support coastal communities.
Approximately 60 people received an update on the results of a resilience assessment by the RAFT team led by the Old Dominion University School of Public Service Community members broke out into locality groups to identify resilience priorities to implement over the coming year.
During this phase, ICAR will be supporting the priorities of the York County implementation team, including incorporating NOAA’s seal level rise projections into the county’s flood resilience plan.
Across OERI
TellVR Project Hits Key Milestone with Summer Prototype Test Summer, 2025
Thissummer,acollaborativeteamfromOERI,theEnglishLanguageCenter(ELC),andtheYork CountySchoolDivisionachievedamajormilestoneontheTellVRproject—partoftheDepartmentof DefenseEducationActivity(DoDEA)grantledbyDr.JessicaJohnson.
InJune,theteamtestedaprototypeversionoftheTellVRexperienceon-sitewithstudentsatTabb HighSchool.Studentsexploredtheimmersiveenvironment,engagedininteractivelanguage-learning scenarios,andprovidedinitialfeedbackthroughapost-sessionround-tablediscussion.Theirinsights arealreadyhelpingshaperefinementsforthenextdevelopmentphase.
ThismilestonereflectsthestrongcollaborativesupportfromprojectleadsDr.JessicaJohnsonand ELCLecturerAnnKumm,alongsidethetechnicalleadershipofOERI’sLeadProjectScientist, JohnShullandBratislavCvijetić.Theprojectalsobenefitedfromthecreativityandskillofstudentsin theODUGameDesignProgram,whoarecontributing3DassetsandcontentfortheVRexperience.
AspecialhighlightofthesummerwastheworkofIvankaSvitliar,arecentmaster’sdegreegraduate oftheOldDominionUniversityAppliedLinguistics(M.A.)programwhoworkedwithusthroughthe FulbrightStudentProgram.IvankasupportedtheELCandleddevelopmentofthequestion-andansweranalyticsforTellVR.Shealsofilmedandproducedthevideoaccompanyingthisrelease, capturingtheenergyandengagementofthestudenttestsession.
Withthismilestonecomplete,theTellVRteamisnowenteringthenextphaseofproduction,withafull yearofdevelopmentahead.Theprojectissettocontinueintoearly2027,allowingtimeforcontent creation,technicalrefinement,andfurtherclassroomtesting.
Across OERI
BlueBoat Testing
August, 2025
VISA’s Dr. Ahmet Saglam, Dr. Yiannis Papelis and Cap Lab’s Kevin O’Brien recently tested the newly acquired BlueBoat (an uncrewed surface vessel) in the water (its first test after assembly).
The vessel operated successfully, and they were able to collect sonar data. The BlueBoat is a flexible and expandable platform, and ODU students will be working on expanding its autonomy features in the coming semesters.
Across OERI
August 18-20, 2025
VMASC, VDMC, CME, and OERI team members attended the 17 Annual International MODSIM World Conference in Norfolk th
VMASC was an official sponsor and an exhibitor, highlighting the innovative work of VMASC and OERI in advancing the field of modeling and simulation. VMASC’s Executive Director Dr. Danette Allen gave remarks for the opening reception
There were also several team members and student interns who presented research and projects they’ve been working on.
Congressman Bobby Scott commended VMASC’s efforts during his Congressional Keynote Address, recognizing our dedication to using modeling and simulation to address challenges in our region.
Across OERI
VMASC’s Dr. Philippe Giabbanelli is supervising a student project by Caitlyn Martindale, M.D., Class of 2028 at Eastern Virginia Medical School at Old Dominion University.
Caitlyn shared her own words about the project:
"I am a second-year medical student in the M.D. program (Eastern Virginia Medical School) at Old Dominion University, and I am studying suicide prevention policy under the guidance of Dr. Philippe Giabbanelli. As a future physician, I want to understand how public health policy can impact patients. Through this project, I have learned about systems thinking and its application in public health, while usingmodels to assess suicide prevention policy at the state and federal level. I am proud to contribute to a body of research that may lead to improvements in suicide prevention policy and, ultimately, a reduction in suicide risk and fatalities in the U.S. I had the honor of presenting our research at the ODU Board of Visitors meeting in April, and I look forward to future presentation opportunities as we complete our analysis. In my research with Dr. Giabbanelli, I am advancing my goal of becoming a well-rounded physician and advocate for public health in my community."
This collaboration reflects the power of research mentorship in shaping the next generation of physicians, researchers, and advocates dedicated to improving community health.
*The picture above shows Caitlyn when she presented her research to the ODU Board of Visitors.
VMASC’s Faryaneh Poursardar presented her research, Integrating AI and Data Science for Meaningful Social Impact, at U.S. MORS
National Security Risk Analysis Community of Practice this summer.
Dr. Poursardar was grateful for the opportunity to contribute and engage with the community.
Dr. Faryaneh Poursardar
Across OERI
The Center for Mission Engineering (CME) conducted a Mission Engineering Competencies Workshop this past spring involving the US Navy, United States Marine Corps, United States Air Force, NASA Langley Research Center, the University of New South Wales (UNSW), and Newport News Shipbuilding, A Division of HII.
This event built upon the 2018 SERC Mission Engineering Competencies Technical Report (SERC-2018-TR-106). However, ME and enabling technologies have advanced significantly since 2018. Therefore, the workshop provided time to take a moment and describe the competency model that holistically reflects the interdisciplinary approach required to deliver mission outcomes.
Some substantive results from the workshop included:
- Mission Thinking, Critical Thinking, Creative Problem Solving, and Interdisciplinary Communication and Collaboration are Foundational Competencies for ME.
- Mission Definition and Decomposition, Capability and Gap Analysis, and RiskInformed Decision Making are ME Core Technical Competencies.
- Roles and Responsibilities for the Mission Engineer, Mission Integrator, Mission Architect, and Mission Test and Evaluator were defined.
- As ME continues to advance and evolve, AI and ML Engineer, Data Scientist for ME, HSI Engineer, and Mission Resilience Engineer were identified as emerging ME Roles and Responsibilities.
Click HERE to see the Workshop Summary Report.
The full report resides in ODU Library’s Digital Commons Repository: https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/cme_pubs/1/
Across OERI
Monarchs Give Back Food Drive
August 29, 2025
The ODU Office of Enterprise Research and Innovation participated in the Monarchs Give Back Campaign 2025, a University-wide campaign centered on collective impact and service.
Congrats to Team Big Blue on finishing #1 in this year’s Challenge within OERI with 7,853 items collected! Special shoutout to Christine LeBoeuf, reigning Champion two years running!
Together as OERI, we collected a total of 24,346 items, a true testament to teamwork, generosity, and the Art of Giving.
VMASC’s Philippe Giabbanelli directed an international collaboration including the University of Toulouse (France) and American University in DC, which are well-regarded institutions for agent-based modeling and political science, respectively Their interdisciplinary group combined largelanguage models (OpenAI's GPT) with simulations to estimate how virtual individuals would react to extreme political messages shared in online social networks.
Their innovative hybrid approach used real-world data such as a real social network and real online posts to show that GPT could accurately predict the political alignment of virtual individuals. Most notably, the simulations show how virtual individuals react to messages over time based on their demographic characteristics. This new tool supports future efforts related to cyberwarfare by predicting how a demographic group may react to (mis)information and simulating strategies to counter information warfare. Their work has been published in the proceedings of the International conference on Computational Science (ICCS)
VDMC’s Research Assistant Professor/Workforce Development Lead and Director of the Applied Cognitive Engineering and Simulation Lab, Dr. Jessica Johnson, has received word that her paper on human-AI training has been accepted for the 2025 Interservice / Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC). This is a full acceptance which means her paper will be published in the conference proceedings and presented at the conference itself.
Dr. Johnson’s paper, titled “Advancing Expertise Development Through Adaptive Human-AI Training,” delves into the critical need to understand how automation can not only support performance but actively foster expertise development through intelligent knowledge capture Dr. Jessica Johnson
Dr. Philippe Giabbanelli
ICAR Paper Receives Best Diversity Paper Award at ASEE Conference Summer, 2025
Carol Considine, Mujde Erten-Unal, and Dalya Ismael received the “Best Diversity Paper Award” at the 2025 ASEE Annual conference in Montreal, Canada.
Their paper, “Engagement in Practice: Partnering with Communities to Address Nuisance Flooding Challenges,” highlights a multi-year, interdisciplinary effort to address recurrent nuisance flooding in five environmental justice communities in Southside Norfolk.
The work was conducted through the Coastal Community Design Collaborative (CCDC) in collaboration with the Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience (ICAR) at Old Dominion University. This initiative integrates engineering and architecture education with community-centered climate adaptation and resilience planning.
To see the paper, visit: https://nemo.asee.org/public/conferences/365/papers/48795/view
VMASC’s Christopher Lynch and VDMC’s Jessica Galassie have a manuscript titled "Accelerating Shipyard Modernization: A Technology Transfer and Insertion Framework" that has been accepted for publication and presentation at the 2025 SNAME Maritime Convention, October 30-31, 2025, in Norfolk.
This paper presents a framework for accelerating shipyard modernization by integrating Extended and Virtual Reality (XR/VR) technologies into drydock aining. Leveraging SBIR/STTR technologies and owered by Agentic AI, the proposed system anslates deckplate issues into Navy Quad Charts, aps them to relevant innovations, and prioritizes olutions using a risk-based dashboard.
Jessica Galassie
heir paper will be published here: ttps://onepetro.org/
Congrats!
Lawrence Obiuwevwi (graduate student), VDMC’s Krzysztof Rechowicz, Vikas Ashok and Sampath Jayarathna, had a paper titled, "Toward Affordable and Non-Invasive Detection of Hypoglycemia: A Machine Learning Approach," in Proceedings of IRI 2025: IEEE 26th International Conference on Information Reuse and Integration for Data Science, August 6-8, 2025 in San Jose, CA.
For more information on this conference: https://ieee-iri.github.io/
Lawrence Obiuwevwi
Dr. Christopher Lynch
Team members from both VISA and OERI have had their paper, “Assessing Communications Equipment Performance for Reliable USV Teleoperation and Autonomy,” selected for publication and presentation at the 2025 Interservice / Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), happening December 1–4 in Orlando, FL.
Authored by Ahmet Saglam, Ph.D., Kevin O'Brien, Bratislav Cvijetic, Virginia Zamponi, and Yiannis Papelis, Ph.D., the study evaluates the real-world performance of long-range radio to ensure stable, long-range connectivity between unmanned surface vessels (USVs) and ground stations.
By characterizing radio performance under realistic maritime conditions, their findings pave the way for more accurate communication simulations, smarter timeout settings, and stronger, mission-critical USV communication strategies.
Researchers from VMASC and Florida State University have had their paper, “Emerging Uses of AI-Generated Images for Equitable and Transparent Simulations,” accepted for presentation at the AAAI 2025 Fall Symposium on AI for Social Good: Emerging Methods, Measures, Data, and Ethics.
Co-authored by Dr. Philippe J. Giabbanelli (VMASC), Dr. Megan A. Witherow (VMASC), and Dr. Kourosh Shoele (Florida State University), the paper highlights innovative pathways for integrating AI-generated images into Modeling and Simulation (M&S), an area where adoption has thus far been limited to text.
The team outlines new uses for AI-generated images to encourage empathetic decision-making, promote transparency in the modeling process, and enable connections between models that have so far been separate (e.g., population-level models and physics-based simulations). The team also addresses the ethical challenges that arise when deploying AI-generated images in M&S, emphasizing strategies to ensure safety, equity, and transparency.
VMASC, in collaboration with colleagues at George Mason University, Montana State University, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, has published in IEEE
Access:
“AI-Generated Messaging for Life Events Using Structured Prompts: A Comparative Study of GPT with Human Experts and Machine Learning.”
What we found:
• Generated 24,000 GPT-4 life-event messages (births, deaths, hiring, firing)
• 87% alignment with human intent using structured prompts
• 90% match between human reviewers and ensemble ML validation
Why it matters:
This research demonstrates that structured prompts + ML validation pipelines can improve the trustworthiness of AI-generated communication with implications for healthcare, crisis comms, education, and policy. Congratulations to lead author Christopher Lynch and co-authors across ODU, GMU, MSU, and PNNL!
OERI In The News
Google is killing millions of web links to save a few bucks
Washingtonpost.com August 1, 2025
There’s a moment when you click a compelling link in an online article or product review and — Ugh. You land on a busted digital page.
Google is about to create a deluge of busted links.
The company announced plans to nuke a decade of online links later this month created with its “link shortener” technology. Websites, blogs, social media users and book authors had used the “goo.gl” format to create mirror website links that were saved on Google’s computers for preservation or other purposes.
Google says people aren’t using link shorteners much anymore, which is true But the company didn’t need to cripple the years of existing links scattered across the internet. Google on Friday marginally backtracked from its nuking plan, which may affect up to an estimated 10 million links in total, according to the web information repository Common Crawl Foundation.
Michael L. Nelson, a digital archivist and computer science professor at Old Dominion University, acknowledged Google’s explanation that many of the links the company is wiping out are little used.
But he and other internet preservationists say that digital ephemera can have useful nuggets of information — and it’s hard to know what you’d miss when it’s gone. You might rarely or never look at a silly old family photo or a 1960s magazine advertisement but it still has value as a glimpse of your life or American history
READ MORE
OERI In The News
Workshop to Share Resilience Assessment Findings, Identify Community Priorities
wydaily.com
August 5, 2025
Monday
“We are pleased to bring experts to present on the risks and causes of coastal flooding and other vulnerabilities in the region. This information is extremely helpful for policy makers, planners, and community members alike as they make decisions about implementation,” said Jessica Whitehead, the Joan P Brock endowed executive director of the ODU Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience, a RAFT partner.
CHARLOTTESVILLE — Historic Triangle residents are invited to attend a Community Resilience Workshop at the James City County Rec Center Monday, Aug. 18.
Led by the University of Virginia, Old Dominion University and Virginia Tech, the workshop, taking place from 4-7 p.m., is part of the Resilience Adaptation Feasibility Tool, or RAFT. According to the University of Virginia’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, the RAFT is an innovative “collective impact” collaborative approach to climate resilience that brings together multidisciplinary partners and diverse stakeholders to aid coastal localities.
The event will introduce the results of a resilience assessment of Williamsburg, James City County, and York County by the RAFT team, followed by a discussion to help each community identify resilience priorities to implement over the coming year.
“The RAFT team led a six-month process that included a review of local government planning documents and community interviews to determine the Historic Triangle’s resilience strengths, challenges, and opportunities,” said Tanya Denckla Cobb, director of UVA’s Institute for Engagement and Negotiation. “We are excited to share our findings with as many community members as possible so they can determine the resilience actions they want to implement ”
OERI In The News
Chance for rain, multiple systems in Atlantic put spotlight on flooding in Hampton Roads
wtkr.com
August 6, 2025
HAMPTON, Va. — Showers and storms were in the forecast Tuesday and multiple systems were brewing out in the Atlantic. There’s no need to panic, but with a wet few days possibly ahead it’s a good reminder that Hampton Roads is no stranger to flooding when rain moves through.
“I think, first of all, what we have to remember is many of our stormwater systems are more than 50 years old and climate has changed in 50 years," said Carol Considine.
Considine is the director of applied projects in Old Dominion University’s Institute for Coastal Adaptation and Resilience. She said updating stormwater systems isn’t something that can happen quickly and it isn’t cheap, which is why many systems are as old as they are.
The problem doesn’t stop there, though.
“I think the biggest problem that we have right now is that building codes don’t incorporate the latest scientific data," Considine explained.
READ MORE
OERI In The News
ODU, City of Norfolk open Maritime Autonomous Systems Test Site, becoming a global hub
13newsnow.com August 20, 2025
NORFOLK, Va. Old Dominion University and the City of Norfolk are joining forces to put Hampton Roads on the map as a leader in maritime innovation.
On Wednesday morning, leaders cut the ribbon on a new test site for autonomous vessels. It's called the Maritime Autonomous Systems Test (MAST) site Officials say this will help position our region as a global center for autonomous maritime technology.
We're told it's a first-of-its-kind hub for testing unnamed surface and underwater vehicles. Yiannis E. Papelis, Ph.D., Chief Technology Officer for the Office of Enterprise Research and Innovation (OERI) and Executive Director, Virginia Institute for Spaceflight & Autonomy (VISA) at ODU, said that for places like Hampton Roads with unique access to water, it creates an advantage.
-Dr. Yiannis Papelis
13newsnow.com
August 21, 2025
Hurricane Erin spared the Outer Banks, but experts say repeated NC 12 shutdowns show the region’s vulnerability and raise concerns for future storms
George McLeod, Ph.D., Old Dominion University Director of GeoSEA, and Senior Fellow for ICAR and the Commonwealth Center for Recurrent Flooding Resilience appeared in three segments on 13News Now as an expert, providing insights about flooding impacts related to Hurricane Erin.
Dr. McLeod discussed the immediate impacts of Erin's flooding, including the closure of coastal highway NC-12 in the Outer Banks, as well as longer term economic impacts to infrastructure from the damage that recurring "nuisance" flooding events like Erin can cause to highway infrastructure
"If that storm were a couple hundred miles to the west, the Outer Banks would be in a lot of trouble, and our region would be in a lot of trouble," Dr. McLeod said.
OERI In The News
Beyond Boats and Submarines:
ODU, City of Norfolk Celebrate the Oopening of the Maritime Autonomous Systems Test Site
odu.edu
August 26, 2025
Old Dominion University and the City of Norfolk, in concert with industry partners, celebrated the beginning of a new era in uncrewed maritime systems with the ribbon cutting of the Maritime Autonomous Systems Test Site (MASTS) at Willoughby Boat Ramp in Norfolk last Wednesday
The test site is the result of several years of work between the City of Norfolk, the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development and ODU leadership to secure funding for the development of unmanned surface and underwater vehicles and make the city a hub of technology
The test site will provide hands-on experience for students and researchers to accelerate the development of maritime autonomy technologies
Yiannis E. Papelis, Ph.D., ODU’s chief technology officer for the Virginia Institute for Spaceflight & Autonomy (VISA), said the partnership will enable the University to expand its research capabilities and could lead Hampton Roads to become the “Silicon Valley of autonomous marine systems.”
“If you are monitoring world affairs, or simply watching the news, you know that autonomous and/or uncrewed vessels, whether in the air, land, water or underwater, are pervasive in both civilian and military applications,” he said.
Upcoming Events
DivRED Fall 2025 Kick-Off Luncheon
On behalf of Vice President Kenneth Fridley and the Division of Research and Economic Development, we are excited to invite you to the DivRED Fall 2025 KickOff Luncheon on Monday, September 29, 2025, from 11:00 am - 12:30 pm at the SEALab inside the VMASC building.
During the luncheon, Vice President Fridley will provide a review of recent updates, share upcoming initiatives, and express gratitude for the incredible contributions made during the Monarchs Give Back Campaign for the President's Challenge.
Details:
When: Monday, September 29, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm Where: VMASC, SEALab (room 1102) Lunch will be provided.
VDMC is hosting the 2026 Digital Ship Challenge in April 2026. They are looking for industry members to be team mentors, attend the Maritime Connect, and to sponsor a team!
If you know anyone in the maritime industry, have them sign up today!
https://digitalmaritime.org/digitalship-challenge/
