Week 07: Presentations and Coding
GatorDetect Weekly Update: PDR Peer Review & Preparing for Testing
This week marked a major milestone for our team as we presented our Preliminary Design Review (PDR) and finalized key logistical project and travel plans. The feedback from our peers and the coaches were invaluable and allowed for us to make improvements for our future presentations. Our focus is now shifting towards the testing phase of the project.
PDR Presentation and Feedback
A major highlight this week was presenting our PDR at the peer review session. This was an amazing opportunity to share our projects vision, architecture, and progress with our peers and coaches. We had a great time gaining constructive feedback on our work, answering questions that gave us ideas, and the insights we gathered will be essential in refining our design as we move forward.
Continued Research and Finalized Plans
On the technical side, we continued our deep dive into potential CRSs, with a focus this week on understanding the architecture of Team 42. Also, we finalized our travel plans for our upcoming site visit, locking in the logistics for what is sure to be a productive and exciting trip.
Next Steps: Sourcing Code for Testing
With our initial research and planning phases solidifying, our next crucial step is to prepare for CRS implementation and application. We have started discussions about getting sample source code from Raytheon for our testing purposes. Access to this code will be critical for validating our system’s effectiveness and is a key step in bringing GatorDetect to life.
See you next week!
Week 06: Big Changes
Weekly Update: Deepening Our Research and Planning Our Build
This week, we focused on expanding our technical knowledge by solidifying our current toolset and planning for key future events. We explored a new CRS, confirmed some critical implementation details for the Team Buttercup CRS, and made important decisions about our project’s future infrastructure plans.
Expanding Our Potential CRSs
Our primary focus was on researching a potential new simpler CRS option and understanding its potential integration. We took a deep dive into 42-B3ond-6ug, analyzing its architecture and potential for use in our system. Alongside this new research, we had a significant breakthrough with one of our initial choices, Buttercup, confirming that it has a standalone version that can run on a laptop, great for testing purposes. We also began outlining our implementation strategy and generating initial concepts for how these systems will work together.
Infrastructure Decisions and Industry Visit
On the infrastructure side, we explored the possibility of using Kubernetes with Raspberry Pis. This is a crucial decision that will guide our system’s deployment strategy and concept generation. We also looked up the resource usage, from team 42, ensuring our resources are properly allocated due to the extreme LLM queries that some of these CRSs have. We are also excited to announce our upcoming trip to Raytheon in Largo, Florida, which we plan for on Nov 6th, which will be a great opportunity to see the company we are working for up close.
Next Steps: From a Concept to a Creation
This week’s research has been incredibly productive, clarifying our path forward. With key decisions made about our CRS choices and infrastructure, our focus is now shifting from planning to hands-on creation. We are moving into the concept generation and implementation phases, ready to start building the core of GatorDetect.
See you next week!
Week 05: Big Changes
September 26, 2025
Team Name Change: From Cipherpilot to GatorDetect
This week was an important moment for our team as we officially changed our name from CipherPilot to GatorDetect. This new name better reflects our goal and focus of detecting issues in source code using AI systems. We are excited to carry it forward as we dive into the core of our project integration.
Evaluating Our Options: CRS Integration
With our primary CRS selections from last week Team Atlanta and Buttercup, our research efforts this week pivoted to a deeper technical exploration of their architectures as well as exploring the feasibility of their integration. We are now working on how to integrate the two systems to perform vulnerability detection as well as patch proposal. The goal is to develop a mechanism that can find vulnerabilities from each CRS and work together to provide a patch that strengthens the source code. This is a crucial step for our project’s success, and our team is studying the specifics of each CRS to prepare for this integration. We are also exploring how to modify these systems to be compatible with the UF LLMs.
Product Design Specification Draft
Our key milestones this week was the creation of our Product Design Specification (PDS) draft. This document outlines the project’s technical requirements, design expectations, concepts, and deliverables. We have defined the scope of work, which includes learning about the AI Cyber Grand Challenge teams, selecting our CRSs, and creating a plan for their integration.
Next Steps: GatorDetect shifts to building.
This was a very productive week that shifted our focus from planning to the hands on technical details of the project. We have laid the groundwork for our project and are now ready to start the building and testing phases. We are looking forward to applying our current knowledge of AI and cybersecurity to bring our vision to life.
See you next week!
Week 04: Final Planning
September 19, 2025
Evaluating our Options: CRS Selection
With our primary CRS (Team Atlanta) already selected, his week, our research efforts were focused on evaluating the two potential secondary CRS models, Theori and Buttercup. After a thorough analysis of their capabilities, score scaling in the Cyber Grand Competition, and compatibility with our project goals, our team is currently leaning towards selecting Buttercup as our second CRS. This preliminary decision was based on Buttercup’s architecture and performance which seems to complement the Team Atlanta CRS.
Team Development: FPL White Belt Training
Professional development was a key focus this week. Three of our team members attended the White Belt Quality Training hosted by Florida Power and Light. The workshop provided us with valuable insights into quality principles and collaborative team dynamics, which we are already applying to structure our workflow and enhance our group’s efficiency and communication.
Next Steps: CRS Integration Preparation
With our CRS selection nearly finalized, our next steps are to download and clone the Git repositories. Our primary goal is to begin a deeper dive into their core architecture, documentation, and APIs. This technical exploration is the critical first step in understanding how we can practically integrate these CRSs with UF LLMs.
This week was a productive shift from basic team planning to some more technical planning. We are excited to get our development environments configured and start building.
See you next week!
Week 03: Preliminary Work
September 12, 2025
Technologies, Raytheon. Español: Logo de Raytheon Technologies Corporation (2020). 3 Apr. 2020. https://www.rtx.com/ (web de Raytheon Technologies): https://www.rtx.com/-/media/project/united-technologies/shared/images/rtx_logo.svg, Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Raytheon_Technologies_logo.svg.
Meeting our liaisons: Introductions
During this week, we had the opportunity to meet with our two Raytheon liaison sponsors, Randall Brooks and Sylvia Traxler. This meeting marked our first key milestone as we had the opportunity to discuss our project in detail, asking questions that helped to clarify the project expectations, while also brainstorming ideas as to how we can approach the required objectives. The guidance from our liaisons will be essential in helping us navigate the complexities CRS integration into our UF LLMs
Diving into CRSs: Our Initial Research
Throughout this week we began conducting research into the CRSs from DARPA’s AI Cyber Grand Challenge. In particular, we focused on systems developed by Team Atlanta, Theori, and Trail of Bits.
Each of these CRSs brings have their own strengths:
• Team Atlanta: was the winning approach at the AIxCC
• Theori: is known for innovative vulnerability detection strategies
• Trail of Bits: has a strong focus on secure development and practical implementation
Exploring these tools has given us a better understanding of the possibilities and challenges ahead as we prep to select, configure, and test them in UF LLMs.
Next Steps: Starting our Development
With the first meeting with our liaisons completed and our initial research in progress, we are now shifting toward identifying the two CRSs that we will be integrating. At the same time, we are refining our team management system to keep the workflow structured and on schedule.
Reflecting on this week, we have gained a lot of information and dismissed a lot of confusions we had by the information gained from our liaisons. This project is beginning to take shape, and we are excited to continue our work in the weeks ahead.
See you next week!
Week 02: Getting Started
September 5, 2025
Getting Started: Diving into AI-Powered Code Development
Hi everyone! Our team of four is beginning our partnership with Raytheon on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Assisted Source Code Development and Analysis project. With guidance from our coach Dr. Andrea Goncher and support from Raytheon’s liaison engineers, we’ll be working with Cyber Reasoning Systems (CRSs) and exploring how AI can improve secure, memory-safe coding practices.
Waiting for Our First Meeting: Setting Expectations
We haven’t yet connected with our liaison partners or our coach Andrea Goncher, but we’re using this time to prepare. These upcoming meetings will be crucial for aligning our understanding of the project scope, clarifying responsibilities, and mapping out our approach to tasks like integrating CRSs, experimenting with AI based code generation, and testing secure code translations across different programming languages.
Understanding the Project: Scope and Objectives
We reviewed the project scope from Raytheon to get our bearings. The main components include researching CRSs from DARPA’s AI Cyber Grand Challenge, selecting and configuring at least two CRSs to run in a UF supported computing environment, and developing AI generated code by translating Ada to C++ and Rust while intentionally introducing specific security weaknesses (CWEs) for our testing purposes.
We will also be evaluating how effectively these CRSs can identify certain vulnerabilities and recommend fixes. It is a technically challenging project that combines AI, cybersecurity, and software engineering in ways we haven’t done before.
Early Planning: Getting Organized
Without any formal guidance yet, we have started some preliminary planning. We are discussing certain task management approaches, working out our weekly schedules for meetings, and considering how to divide the responsibilities among team members. We know that we will need strict method to track our progress on code analysis, integration work, and testing milestones to keep everything and everyone coordinated.
We may not have had our key meetings yet this week, but we are looking forward to the technical challenges ahead. This project involves new technology and methods for us, and will push us to learn new skills. We will keep you updated on our progress, the obstacles we encounter, and what we learn along the way.
See you next week!