CAFE Lab
Cognitive-Security, Accountability, Fairness, and Explainability
—Cognitive-Security through Human-Centered AI
About the CAFE Lab
The CAFE Lab advances research at the intersection of human cognition, AI safety, and cybersecurity, guided by a Human Centered AI framework built on three core dimensions:- Human Cognitive Empowerment:
• Build interpretable, transparent AI aligned with human cognitive processes.
• Develop tools that protect both human and machine decision processes from deceptive influence, bias, and misuse. - Cognitive Privacy & Social Justice:
• Safeguard sensitive cognitive and behavioral data from inference, profiling, and exploitation
• Audit AI decisions for fairness and guide their use toward equitable, socially beneficial real-world outcomes. - System Integrity & Reliability:
• Defend AI pipelines against adversarial attacks, data poisoning, and manipulation.
• Build reliable systems capable of safe decision‑making under pressure with human‑centered, robust AI.
Research Focus
Cybersecurity
- Interpretable AI-Based Security Systems – Fast, robust, and transparent AI models defending against zero day exploits, emerging malware, and evolving threat vectors.
- Cognitive & Cyber Threat Mitigation – Human centered AI tools to counter both cognitive threats (misinformation, persuasion, social engineering) and technical threats (intrusions, malware, network anomalies).
Social Good
- We apply data science, humanities, and AI to global challenges including: (a) misinformation resilience and civic integrity, (b) public safety and humanitarian analytics, and (c) environmental and sustainability applications. All through a lens of human values, fairness, and societal impact.
Health Informatics
- We leverage medical data, behavioral signals, and social networks to: (a) improve diagnostics and clinical decision making and (b) counter cognitive and digital misinformation in health contexts. Our models emphasize privacy, reliability, and interpretability.Our approach emphasizes privacy, reliability, and interpretability.
News
- Oct 20, 2025, Received funding from The Minerva Center Innovation Funding for Research & Creative Endeavors.
- Sept 1, 2025, Inauguration of CAFE lab
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Members
- Sheikh Rabiul Islam, Assistant Professor, UAlbany
- Nazia Tabassum Natasha, PhD Student, UAlbany
- Stephen Gravereaux, Undergraduate, UAlbany
- Sean Reyes, Undergraduate, UAlbany
- Megha Das, Undergraduate, UAlbany
- Anooshah Minhas, Undergraduate, UAlbany
- Farhad Safi, Undergraduate, UAlbany
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CAFE Lab, ETEC 312, University at Albany, Albany, NY 12203
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Education & Collaboration
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The CAFE Lab:
- Creates hands on learning opportunities for undergraduate, graduate, and PhD students.
- Produces open research tools, datasets, and curricular modules on explainability, fairness, privacy, and AI security.
- Collaborate to advance Human‑Centered AI and cognitive security, ensuring AI‑based systems are secure, fair, explainable, and effective in addressing real‑world challenges.
- Welcome partnerships with cyber‑physical system operators (electric grids, gas, water utilities), government agencies (NSF, DoD, DARPA, IARPA), advocacy groups supporting neurodiverse and underserved communities, and high‑stakes industries such as cybersecurity (intrusion detection, forensics), healthcare (AI diagnostics, decision support), and finance (fraud detection, risk management).
- Invite motivated undergraduate and graduate students to join our research on cognitive security and Human‑Centered AI. If interested, please reach out by email.
Contact Information
CAFE Lab, ETEC 312, University at Albany, Albany, NY 12203
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