FSU Department of Computer Science faculty Yushun Dong has been awarded a new NSF grant under the CICI program titled “Secure Machine Learning as a Service for Collaborative Scientific Research.” This three-year project, led by FSU, involves close collaboration with Duke University and the University of Central Florida (UCF) through subawards. The goal is to develop a secure and usable Machine Learning as a Service (MLaaS) framework to support collaborative scientific computing across cyberinfrastructure environments, in partnership with the Florida Northwest Regional Data Center (NWRDC). The research will tackle key security challenges—such as model theft, data leakage, and inference privacy—using innovative defense strategies, privacy-preserving techniques, and encrypted computation protocols. The project also features educational initiatives, student training, and outreach efforts to support workforce development in AI and cybersecurity. The total amount of the funding awarded is $600k, with ~$180k allocated to each subwardee institution, Duke and UCF.