A project co-led by Anton Dahbura, an associate research professor of computer science and the executive director of the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute, has been selected to receive funding over the next year from the university’s Nexus Awards Program, a $15 million endeavor designed to support research, teaching, and event programming at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center in Washington, D.C.
The 28 projects funded this round span every academic division of the university and include more than 100 scholars exploring a variety of topics, including AI in transportation, rare disease therapies, research in art history, and public-private-university partnerships for American space leadership.
“In the nearly three years since we opened the doors to our Hopkins Bloomberg Center, our 118 Nexus awardees have been instrumental to realizing its founding aspirations as a hub for interdisciplinary convenings, groundbreaking cross-divisional research, and exemplary teaching,” says Ron Daniels, president of the Johns Hopkins University.
“In Hopkins’ 150th year, we are thrilled to support a fourth class of Nexus Award winners who continue to fulfill the promise of this building by inspiring discovery and making a public and meaningful impact on the urgent issues of our time.”
The co-director of Institute for Assured Autonomy, Dahbura is affiliated with the Malone Center for Engineering in Healthcare, the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics, and the Data Science and AI Institute, and leads the university’s Sports Analytics Research Group. Within the Department of Computer Science, his research focuses on security, fault-tolerant computing, distributed systems, and testing.
Dahbura’s proposal, “The Silicon Patient: Engineering AI-Driven Digital Twins for the Future of Health Policy,” which won an award in the Teaching category, is a collaboration with Javad Abed, an assistant professor of practice in information systems at the Carey Business School, and Ala Elhelali, an assistant professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery at the School of Medicine.
This interdisciplinary seminar series examines how AI-driven human digital twins are reshaping clinical decision-making, healthcare delivery, and regulatory governance. Integrating information systems, engineering, and health policy, it will explore how real-time physiological data, predictive modeling, and simulation technologies can enable personalized and preventive medicine while introducing new challenges in security, validation, and oversight.
“This Nexus Award enables us to bring together experts in engineering, medicine, cybersecurity, and public policy to explore how AI-driven digital twins will transform healthcare,” says Dahbura. “Through this public lecture series in Washington, we hope to foster informed dialogue on innovation, governance, and trust.”
Scheduled to be delivered at the Bloomberg Center early next year, the series will connect technological innovation with the federal policy environment, preparing participants to evaluate how computational health models influence standards of evidence, risk assessment, and public health decision-making.
Learn more about the Nexus Awards here.