Key Points
- Florida State University computer scientist Xian Mallory earned $100,000 in funding from ReliaQuest for her startup called Sage, a cybersecurity platform designed to protect personal data.
- The grand prize highlighted "The Quest for What's Next!" competition at FSU Discovery Days, one of the signature events where six teams competed for funding from ReliaQuest to pursure innovative projects in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
A Florida State University computer scientist won a $100,000 grand prize from cybersecurity company ReliaQuest after delivering a winning pitch for Sage, a startup designed to protect personal data.
During Monday's "The Quest for What's Next!" competition at FSU Discovery Days, Department of Computer Science Assistant Professor Xian Mallory presented Sage to a panel of judges. Her pitch beat five other teams competing for the grand prize aimed at pursuing innovative projects in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.
Two other teams took home $50,000 each. Department of Scientific Computing Assistant Professor Olmo Zavala Romero earned the additional funding from ReliaQuest for his startup called Ariadne, while Department of Statistics Professor Xin Zhang benefited his ambitions after his presentation, "Protecting the Rare Label: Error-Controlled Classification for Data Sensitivity."
Mallory's presentation, "Sage: When Innocent Files Become a Privacy Threat," explained how separate pieces of seemingly harmless information can reveal someone's identity, location and behavior when combined. Sage uses artificial intelligence to uncover those hidden connections and help protect against identity and privacy risks.
Mallory illustrated the risk with shopping receipts. One receipt may reveal little, she explained, but several combined can expose far more about an individual.
"If we have only one receipt, maybe it's not so dangerous," Mallory said. "If we link them together, then we probably can know a lot more about you."
Sage aims to make hidden privacy threats visible before malicious actors exploit them. Mallory is developing the project with a team of three graduate students and one undergraduate student.
The prize money will help Mallory expand Sage beyond its current work with small datasets and strengthen its ability to identify potential attacks.
"Right now, we are only dealing with a small amount of data, but we want to work with much larger datasets," Mallory said. "We also want the AI to recognize when a user may be under attack by detecting changes in their behavior. Then, we can alert the security team so they can break that link right away."
Mallory was overwhelmed by the win.
"It's unbelievable," Mallory said. "I almost cried. I've never been on stage before winning the first prize, so it's just amazing. It's incredible."
One of the featured events of FSU Discovery Days, "The Quest for What's Next!" drew a crowd to the Brian and Renee Murphy Forum at the Herbert Wertheim College of Business with an engaged audience. Jeff Culhane, the Voice of the Seminoles, hosted the event, which also featured a "halftime" podcast with FSU Men's Basketball Head Coach Luke Loucks and ReliaQuest Director of Mental Performance Derin McMains about developing the right mindset for entering the workforce.
The competition grew from an AI and cybersecurity partnership launched by FSU and ReliaQuest in spring 2026 to accelerate research and real-world innovation. Backed by a $1.5 million philanthropic investment from ReliaQuest, the collaboration established the annual ReliaQuest Innovation Challenge at FSU to encourage faculty research into complex applications of AI and cybersecurity. The Tampa-based global cybersecurity company was founded by CEO, FSU alumnus and trustee Brian Murphy.
With the $100,000 prize, Mallory hopes to give security teams an earlier warning when personal information is at risk.
