UC Noyce Workshop Unites Experts to Tackle Cybersecurity and AI Grand Challenges

On April 16, some of the country’s foremost experts in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence (AI) convened at UC Davis to explore how collaborative research can address the most urgent digital security challenges of our time. The event, hosted by the UC Noyce Initiative, brought together faculty from UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC San Francisco and UC Santa Barbara to identify shared priorities and shape future funding opportunities in AI and cybersecurity.

More than a dozen researchers from across the five campuses participated in the one-day workshop, which included flash talks, breakout sessions, large-group discussions and a networking reception. Representatives from the Robert N. Noyce Trust also attended the event.

“This was not just a meeting of experts, it was a meeting of missions,” said Bryan Kerner, executive director of the UC Noyce Initiative. “By aligning our campuses around common cybersecurity and AI goals, we’re building the foundation for multi-campus projects that can have real societal impact.”

A Forward-Looking Format for High-Impact Collaboration

The structure of the workshop marked a departure from conventional academic or funding forums. Rather than reviewing pre-submitted proposals, participants were encouraged to think broadly and creatively about long-term grand challenges. Ideas surfaced during the event will directly inform a future UC Noyce request for proposals (RFP), expected to fund cross-campus research projects that fill critical gaps in the cybersecurity and AI landscape.

“The UC Noyce Initiative is doing something different here,” said Simon Atkinson, vice chancellor for research at UC Davis. “By giving faculty a seat at the table during the idea-forming stage, we’re ensuring that future investments are both practical and visionary. We are being very intentional in our approach to make sure it is grounded in deep expertise and bold enough to address emerging threats.”

Key Takeaways and Emerging Priorities

Across breakout sessions focused on AI for security, data privacy and the security of AI itself, several central themes emerged. Participants highlighted the need for:

• Advanced AI agents capable of detecting, preventing and responding to cyber intrusions in real time;
• Stronger safeguards for training data, including methods for protecting user privacy in an age of pervasive digital surveillance;
• New risk models that account for complex interactions between AI agents and human decision-makers.

One particularly attention-grabbing idea came from Giovanni Vigna, professor at UC Santa Barbara, who proposed building a secure data-sharing module for use across all five UC Noyce campuses. Such a federated system would allow for secure collaboration while maintaining the autonomy and privacy protections of each institution. 

The Growing Need for Action

The stakes for advancing academically based research in AI and cybersecurity are high. According to a 2024 report by IBM, the global average cost of a data breach reached $4.45 million, with healthcare and education sectors among the hardest hit. Meanwhile, AI adoption is surging across industries, bringing with it both transformational benefits and novel vulnerabilities. A 2023 survey by Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered AI found that more than 60% of security professionals view AI systems themselves as potential attack surfaces.

As threats evolve, those in the room emphasized that academia is uniquely positioned to anticipate risks that industry may overlook.

“Industry tends to think two years ahead,” noted one participant during the plenary discussion. “But universities can think five, even ten years out. That foresight is critical in spaces as fast-moving and high-stakes as AI and cybersecurity.”

What Comes Next

The Cybersecurity and AI Workshop is part of a broader strategy by the UC Noyce Initiative to fund transformative, ethically grounded research across three focus areas: computational health, quantum information science and cybersecurity. Like other UC Noyce workshops on computational health (spring 2025) and quantum computing (summer 2024), this convening at UC Davis will help inform the UC Noyce Executive Committee as it crafts a formal call for proposals.

The resulting request for proposals, shaped by the ideas and expertise shared at the workshop, will offer researchers at the five UC Noyce campuses an opportunity to pursue collaborative projects with real-world impact.