McKEESPORT, Pa. — Research co-authored by Penn State Greater Allegheny faculty member Jennifer Breese, associate professor of information sciences and technology, received the Best Work-in-Progress Paper Award at the 2026 International Conference on Knowledge Management (KM2026) in Lisbon, Portugal, recognizing innovative work at the intersection of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and autonomous systems.
The award-winning paper, "DroneBench: Benchmarking AI Agent Performance via Secure Autonomous Drone Operations," explores how artificial intelligence (AI) can be evaluated in simulated drone environments before being deployed in real-world applications.
For Breese, the award highlights the impact of collaborative research that connects higher education with industry partners while advancing emerging technologies.
“Receiving the Best Work-in-Progress Paper Award is especially meaningful because it recognizes not only the quality of our research completed to date, but also the future potential of the project,” Breese said. “The award validates the importance of our work and highlights the contributions that the Greater Allegheny campus faculty and our collaborators are making to research in emerging technologies on an international stage.”
Breese collaborated on the research with lead author Ivan V. Voinov, a Penn State alumnus and founder of Agale.ai, and co-author Lori Paluti, founder of Pittsburgh Drone Services. The conference also provided an opportunity for Breese to connect with other researchers and industry professionals from around the world, strengthening collaborations that help move emerging technology research forward, she said.
“I left inspired by the quality of the presentations and the collaborative spirit of the attendees,” Breese said. “I would encourage Penn State faculty to submit their work and experience the benefits of participating in this academic community.”
As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly integrated into robotics and other physical technologies, DroneBench provides a standardized approach for evaluating AI agents in physical environments, identifying potential security concerns and supporting the development of safer, more reliable autonomous systems.
“DroneBench addresses a critical gap in AI evaluation by moving beyond purely digital benchmarks to assess how intelligent agents perceive, reason and act in complex physical environments,” Breese said. “This research has the potential to establish new standards for measuring embodied AI capabilities in safe, reproducible and realistic settings.”
The International Conference on Knowledge Management brings together researchers, educators and industry professionals from around the world to share advances in knowledge management, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and information technology. The conference uses a double-blind peer-review process to evaluate submissions and recognize outstanding research contributions across these fields.