USF launches national security hub with funding secured by Rep. Gus Bilirakis, expanding partnership with U.S. Central Command

By Georgia Jackson and Josh Napier, College of Arts and Sciences

What if national security leaders could test their next move before making it?

At the University of South Florida's new Security Analysis and Innovation Lab (SAIL), researchers will combine expertise in human behavior with artificial intelligence and predictive modeling to explore how decisions could play out - helping national security partners weigh possible outcomes before taking action.

The university just celebrated the opening of the lab - and its INSIGHT Core facility - with a ribbon cutting that drew remarks from USF President Moez Limayem, U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, College of Arts and Sciences Dean Elizabeth Spiller and other champions of the lab.

"Understanding human dynamics and their effects on behavioral outcomes is essential to global and national security," said Randy Larsen, associate dean for research for the College of Arts and Sciences. "SAIL will have all of the technology - both hardware and software - to continue advancing USF's national security human dynamics program."

INTRODUCING SAIL AND THE PEOPLE WHO RUN IT

Housed within the College of Arts and Sciences and supported by a $1.63 million federal appropriation secured by Rep. Gus Bilirakis, SAIL brings advanced technology and modeling capabilities to USF's growing national security research enterprise.

It's also a showcase for USF's broader Highly Integrative Basic and Responsive Research approach - known as HIBAR - which brings together university researchers and external partners from the earliest stages of a project. The college's long-term vision is a university-wide Human Dynamics and National Security HIBAR Network linking the social and behavioral sciences, AI, computational modeling, engineering and regional expertise with government and industry partners.

"USF has long been a tremendous partner in strengthening our region's role in national security, innovation, and workforce development," said Bilirakis, whose work to secure the investment made SAIL a reality. "I believe we must give our brightest minds the tools they need to confront increasingly complex threats to our nation.

"The SAIL Center will bring together researchers, students, military leaders, veterans and national security professionals to turn cutting-edge research into real-world solutions, while preparing the next generation to lead in this critical field. This is exactly the type of strategic investment that strengthens both the Tampa Bay region and our nation."

While SAIL is the facility, the USF INSIGHT Core is the team that brings it to life.

Senior data analysts Adam Wieder and Travis White - recruited directly from U.S. Central Command's (CENTCOM) own human dynamics program - now lead that effort at USF, alongside Mark Abdollahian, who joined USF's School of Information last year and now serves as SAIL's director.

"Across USF, we have expertise in behavioral and social science, data science, artificial intelligence, engineering, economics, regional studies, security studies, and many other fields," Abdollahian said. "SAIL gives us the platform to bring it together around consequential problems. And the INSIGHT Core combines human dynamics, data, modeling, simulation, expert judgment and AI-enabled tools to turn knowledge into decision-ready insight."

Abdollahian also sits on the board of the company that builds the software CENTCOM uses for its predictive modeling.

"We basically took their team and transplanted them at USF with the idea that we can continue now with a very strong collaboration with CENTCOM because we already have their people here," Larsen said.

BUILDING ON YEARS OF INVESTMENT

The lab is the result of years of ambitious, faculty-driven work by Larsen, Ernest Ferraresso of CyberFlorida, Randy Borum of the USF School of Information and Adib Farhadi, a former Afghan government finance official and professor in the Department of Religious Studies who serves as a principal investigator and liaison to CENTCOM.

"It was basically a group of faculty committed and passionate about the national security effort," Larsen said. "Sometimes you just have to find the right people."

The INSIGHT Core team's job is twofold: support USF faculty across colleges and take on outside analytics problems for government, defense and private-sector clients. The network already includes researchers from the USF Libraries, the Muma College of Business and the College of Engineering, whose work ranges from scenario wargaming and predictive modeling to counter-disinformation research and crisis-response analysis.

Alongside SAIL and INSIGHT, USF's Institute of Applied Engineering and Global and National Security Institute both support the university's national security portfolio. The IAE renewed its $85 million contract with U.S. Special Operations Command last year, conducting more than 80 research projects, while GNSI provides an institutional bridge connecting the work to wider national-security partnerships, education and engagement.

"Since 2020, national security and human dynamics have been priority research areas across the College of Arts and Sciences," Spiller said. "Altogether, we have recruited 45 faculty across 19 departments, investing $6.7 million, including nearly $2 million in research funding."

The federal investment provided SAIL's physical infrastructure, while an additional commitment from the College of Arts and Sciences helped recruit the INSIGHT Core team that puts the facility to work.

The lab is part of USF's National Security Human Dynamics Network, which brings university faculty expertise together with national security partners to connect research on human behavior with practical security needs.

CREATING OPPORTUNITIES FOR STUDENTS

SAIL and INSIGHT will give undergraduate and graduate students, including student veterans, opportunities to work alongside faculty and national security professionals, participate in advanced analytics research and prepare for careers in national security, intelligence and foreign affairs.

Nico Lavaud, a senior studying political science and technical communications in the Judy Genshaft Honors College who spoke during the ceremony, told attendees he initially worried that attending college in Tampa would limit his opportunities in foreign affairs compared to students based in Washington, D.C.

His experience at USF proved otherwise. During his sophomore year, Lavaud began working as a student analyst and planner at GNSI and became a founding member of the Future Strategists Program, which helps students explore careers in U.S. national security.

Lavaud later earned a David L. Boren Scholarship through the Department of Defense's National Security Education Program and studied French, Wolof and Senegalese culture in Dakar, Senegal. After returning, the Tampa Bay Committee on Foreign Relations awarded him the Mark Orr Fellowship. He now works as a student legal assistant at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida.

For Lavaud, SAIL represents an expansion of the opportunities he has already found at USF.

"You don't have to leave Tampa Bay to find extraordinary opportunities," Lavaud said. "They are being built right here at USF."

WHAT'S NEXT

With SAIL open and staffed, USF's national security research enterprise is looking to scale further, with conversations underway to expand partnerships with the Pentagon and U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) alongside the ongoing CENTCOM relationship.

In the five years since CENTCOM first began using data to understand how one nation's economy, politics, information environment and military ties allow it to influence another, USF has grown its role from a single outside contractor into a standing research partner - one with its own federally-funded facility, a dedicated analytics team transplanted from CENTCOM and a growing list of indices and tools built to anticipate where the next conflict or point of leverage might emerge.

"The technology is impressive, but what I want you to remember most of all is that USF and SAIL can help us make better decisions in an increasingly uncertain world," Limayem said. "I cannot wait to see the partnerships that are formed here, the ideas that are generated - and most importantly, the solutions that follow."

To learn more about SAIL, visit usf.edu/SAIL.