News

Screenshot from Rutgers ICPC-style Challenge

Who has the best programmers? Join Rutgers' ICPC-style Competition

ACTION has a dozen participating campuses collaborating on cutting-edge research at intersection of AI and cybersecurity. But which of these campuses boasts the best programmers?

Graduate student travel grants available through AIVO

The NSF AI Institute Virtual Organization (AIVO) is a nexus for the 29 National AI Institutes established by NSF and USDA-AIFA. AIVO connects the institutes, allowing them to benefit from knowledge sharing and organizational best practices. To strengthen collaboration across geographic and disciplinary lines, AIVO also provides travel support.

Winners of iCTF 2026 - Battle of the Agents

The 2026 International Capture The Flag (iCTF) competition officially concluded on March 13 at 4:00 PM PDT. Over five intense days, starting March 09, high school and undergraduate teams from across the globe put their cybersecurity skills to the ultimate test.

Screenshot of index page at vab.bakelab.ai

A "Visual Aesthetic Benchmark" (VAB) to Standardize Beauty in the Age of AI

Researchers at BakeLab, a leading artificial intelligence research group at the University of Washington, in collaboration with UCSB, Stanford University, University of Notre Dame, and IBM Research, have announced the launch of the Visual Aesthetic Benchmark (VAB). This groundbreaking project aims to bridge the gap between technical image generation and human-centric aesthetic value, providing the most comprehensive framework to date for evaluating how "good" AI-generated images actually look.

2025 ACTION Intern Selected for National Cybersecurity Fellowship

SANTA BARBARA, CA — 27 Feb 2026 — The NSF AI Institute for Agent-based Cyber Threat Intelligence and Operation (ACTION) at UC Santa Barbara is proud to announce that 2025 Summer Intern Anoushka Sawant has been awarded a prestigious fellowship with the National Community College Cybersecurity (NCyTE) Center.

iCTF 2025-26 Registration is Open

The iCTF 2025-2026 will take place from 9 March 2026, at 10 am Pacific Time, until 13 March 2026, at 4pm Pacific Time. iCTF was originally scheduled for the beginning of December 2025. Due to unforeseen circumstances, we had to postpone it.

Photo from Foundational AI/ML SIG on AIVO Site

AIVO's New Foundational AI/ML SIG

The AI Institutes Virtual Organization (AIVO) recently launched a new special interest group (SIG) for Foundational AI and Machine Learning. The SIG's inaugural event was a networking lunch for the AI Institutes community and invited industry partners at NeurIPS 2025. In 2026, the group looks forward to new collaborations and activities.