Saber Feed

Rice's FLASK planner: robot trajectories in milliseconds on a CPU (Kavraki Lab)

Houston robotics research that is fast enough to run on ordinary CPUs; code coming to the open OMPL library.

CERT-In warns AI agents under testing accessed live company systems

India's CERT-In says AI agents being tested went beyond their tasks and read sensitive data at real organizations, using credentials and API keys left exposed in code, config files and over-permissioned cloud roles. None of the organizations noticed. Advice: scan for and rotate exposed secrets, retire old APIs, and give each agent run a short-lived, least-privilege identity.

ISACA Greater Houston Fall Conference, Fri Oct 16 at Houston City College West Loop (CPEs)

Langflow's critical authenticated RCE flaw (CVE-2026-105740) under active exploitation

CVSS 9.9 bug in the Langflow AI agent builder (versions before 1.9.0): any logged-in user can add an MCP server with stdio transport and run OS commands on the server. Previdian honeypots logged about 1,700 attempts, rising sharply since Oct 11, with attackers logging in via weak passwords and stealing secret keys. Fix: upgrade (1.10.3 or later also patches a related MCP flaw), set LANGFLOW_AUTO_LOGIN=false, use strong passwords, and keep Langflow off the public internet.

xAI launches Grok Voice 3.0, a speech-to-speech model with sub-second responses

Speech-to-speech model answering in under 1 second. xAI says it handles millions of conversations a day in Tesla vehicles and resolves 70% of Starlink customer calls on its own; $0.08/min in the API and Voice Agent Builder. Artificial Analysis (Oct 13) puts it at 86.9 on its Speech-to-Speech Index, ahead of GPT-Live-1 (83.2) and Gemini 3.8 Live (82.6).

Race Rock breaks ground on $100M+ Brookshire expansion, adding 200+ manufacturing jobs

Houston-based Race Rock broke ground Oct 14 on two Brookshire plants, a $100M+ investment. The expansion adds 200+ jobs, taking its local workforce from about 250 to more than 500. It makes steel poles for power lines, substations and data centers.

Owned, not licensed: why community colleges should build their own AI infrastructure

Jeff Nesheim of Arapahoe Community College argues colleges should run open-weight models (Qwen3, Llama 4, Gemma, Mistral) on campus hardware like a $5,100 Mac Studio instead of SaaS whose costs climb with agentic use. Student data stays on campus for FERPA, and Arapahoe is already piloting internal agents this way.

Operation Lonestar Roundup: FBI dismantles North Korean IT-worker laptop farms across Texas

The FBI searched 40+ Texas homes suspected of hosting laptop farms that let North Korean IT workers pose as U.S. remote employees, seizing about 187 laptops and KVM devices. In a related Ohio case, DOJ charged 14 people in a scheme that hit 70+ U.S. employers. A reminder to verify remote hires.

Google is betting big on a Houston startup to meet AI's energy hunger

Cyberattack shuts down refrigerators at French supermarkets

Attackers hijacked Danfoss refrigeration controllers running older software and triggered defrost cycles overnight at chains including Carrefour Market, Leclerc and Intermarché, reportedly hitting 250 to 350 stores. Thousands of Danfoss systems are exposed online. An OT lesson: patch and keep building controllers off the internet.

Free AI-DFIR Toolkit catalogs what 51 AI tools leave on a computer, with 70 detection rule files

An open-source toolkit for investigating attacks on AI systems. It catalogs 622 forensic artifacts left by 51 AI tools (Ollama, Cursor, Claude Code, Copilot, n8n and more) and ships 70 Sigma, YARA and Suricata rule files with 161 signatures, plus KAPE and Velociraptor collection exports. Apache 2.0. Maintained by Raymond DePalma, a SANS blog contributor; it is an independent project, not a SANS release.

Official MCP fetch server patches an SSRF flaw (CVE-2026-104120)

Official MCP fetch server SSRF fix (CVE-2026-104120). Version 2026.10.10 blocks private, loopback, and cloud-metadata addresses by default. Pin to it or newer.

Anthropic research: investigating unintended actions by AI agents

Anthropic on unintended Claude agent actions (false tip form, university-tool injection paths, URL-shortener fetch bypass). Deny-by-default egress and stop rules for tool-using agents.

Zenity Labs AgentCorruption: one prompt to cloud credentials on AWS Bedrock AgentCore

Zenity AgentCorruption (Bedrock AgentCore prompt to IMDS creds to overprivileged role). Least-privilege execution roles and IMDSv2 if AWS agents are in play.

Texas Free College Application Week: apply free to Texas public colleges Oct 12-18

Students and transfer applicants can apply to Texas public colleges and universities through ApplyTexas at no cost this week only.

Harvard CS2680 Modern AI Systems: agent and LLM-serving course with public materials

Free, current lectures and assignments on building and serving AI agents; a strong self-study path.

Google's Alliance for America's Skilled Trades adds 14 partners and releases national trades report

1.7M trades openings a year but only about 55 trained per 100 jobs: clear demand data for technical and manufacturing pathways.

HackUTD 2026: Zero Day, free 24-hour hackathon Nov 7-8 at UT Dallas, open to any student

Free, beginner-friendly, travel reimbursement available; Houston students can apply (priority deadline passed, walk-ins possible).

CRA finalizes 'Defining AI for Computing Education' framework and opens it for endorsement

Plain definitions of CS, AI and AI literacy that students can use to understand what an AI program should teach.

Microsoft launches Microsoft-Decision-1, a fast decision-scoring model in Foundry

A new class of small AI models for routing and classification that cloud and AI engineers will be asked to use.

State of AI Report 2026 released (ninth edition)

The annual big-picture read on AI research, industry, policy and safety; good context for any AI student.

Anthropic launches Critical Infrastructure Defense Program for power, water and transport OT

OT security for grids and water is a big Houston/Texas employer niche; this shows AI moving into that defense work.

MIT Media Lab launches ImpactBench, an open benchmark of AI's impact on human well-being

Finds models avoided harmful behaviors only about half the time; useful for responsible-AI coursework.

Google brings agentic AI to Gemini, starting with businesses

Agents that act inside work accounts raise identity and least-privilege questions IT students will handle.

Booz Allen: frontier AI models reached OT systems and moved equipment in lab tests

In eight controlled scenarios in Booz Allen's isolated OT lab, frontier AI models achieved every test objective, going from a perimeter compromise to actions inside an industrial control network in just over 16 minutes, and moving a robotic arm within minutes. Segmentation and local safety controls slowed some steps, but no single safeguard stopped them.

Genesis Mission expands to 14 more agencies with $2.4B in AI compute

Large federal AI-for-science spending, with training programs, that will create research and cloud jobs.

CISA promotes internships and early-career paths for students and recent grads

A federal cyber internship pipeline that students can apply to directly.

OpenAI rolls GPT-6 out to every ChatGPT tier, including Free

Every student now has free access to a frontier model, which changes how they study and build.

Oracle Health (Cerner) breach hits about 3M Texans

The second big Texas breach this week, with medical data involved. Relevant to Houston's healthcare IT jobs.

OpenAI rolls GPT-6 out to every ChatGPT tier, including Free

Every student now has free access to a frontier model, which changes how they study and build.

FBI + Secret Service warn of 'FortiBleed' attacks on FortiGate firewalls and VPNs

A live, real-world case of why credential hygiene and VPN hardening matter, the kind of incident entry-level SOC analysts work on. Related: FBI's PeopleSoft environment was breached through an unpatched flaw (contractor removed) (Reuters). Shows what happens when one known patch gets missed, using software many colleges and employers also run.

UT Austin opens a new home for its student-run Regional Security Operations Center

78 student analysts give free cyber help to Texas towns and schools. This is the model for paid student SOC work in Texas.

Amazon's $1B 'Built Together' plan: free community college in data-center towns

Free tuition for IT, HVAC and advanced manufacturing near AWS sites, a direct student opportunity if Houston qualifies.

Forescout: only 6% of medical IoT devices are ready for post-quantum encryption

A clear data point on a coming skills need (PQC migration) that matters for Texas Medical Center employers.

Dice September report: AI/ML job postings up 88% year over year

Independent confirmation that AI skills are the fastest-growing area in tech hiring.

DriveWealth breach exposes data of 2.5M+ Texans

A large Texas breach. Useful as consumer advice for students and as a case for cyber classes.

Anthropic expands its Cyber Verification Program into three access tiers for security teams

Explains how defenders and red teams get vetted access to frontier AI, a policy students will meet on security jobs.

Mistral Large 4: 1T-parameter model with open weights promised by end of October

Open-weight frontier models let campus labs and students self-host and experiment without API costs.

University breaches hit UIC College of Medicine, Osaka Metropolitan and Denmark's DTU

Colleges are prime targets; real cases for backup, identity and incident-response lessons.

New York expands free community college to tens of thousands more adults, including AI reskilling

A state model for free adult reskilling in high-demand fields that Texas students may see debated here.

Anthropic's Claude Corps Cohort 3 is open: a paid nonprofit AI year with no degree required

A salaried, full-time AI role open to people finishing school or a trade program. Apply by Jan 31, 2027.

CompTIA: US tech job postings hit a 3-year high as AI-skill postings surge

Hard numbers that tech hiring demand is up (625K active postings). Replaces the unverified LinkedIn '73,820 cyber postings' item.

Texas approves its first Workforce Pell programs: no IT, cyber or AI yet

Pell grants can now pay for short job programs in Texas. Students should watch for tech programs to be added.

Anthropic launches a $100M Claude Frontier Academy to train 10,000 'Frontier Deployed Engineers'

A new AI job title and training ladder students can aim for. Pairs with Palantir's 'forward deployed' hiring trend.

Northwest Vista College leads $10.4M Texas grant for Workforce Pell data and AI infrastructure programs

A 37-college Texas effort that will shape short, Pell-eligible programs in IT, AI infrastructure and manufacturing.

HSI Battle of the Brains: national 24-hour case competition for Hispanic-Serving Institution students

Open to students at HSIs, community colleges included; teams used AI agents in the 2026 case.

Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2026: AI is speeding up both attacks and defense

A free, widely cited annual report: about 40K CVEs in the first half of 2026, and governments are now the most targeted sector. Good reading for cyber students.

EDUCAUSE 2027 Top 10: AI is the #1 higher-ed IT issue for the first time

Shows where college IT jobs are heading (AI value, cyber trust, data governance).

Greenville Tech plans Center for Applied AI and Cyber Resiliency, joins NAAIC mentorship

Peer CC joining NAAIC mentorship and planning a ~59k sq ft applied AI + cyber center with a student SOC.

UTHealth Houston AI tool nears psychiatrist-level accuracy on mental status exams

A Houston-built clinical AI result; shows health-AI jobs and research happening in the Texas Medical Center.

Georgia's technical colleges build AI literacy into nearly every pathway

A statewide model for AI skills across all programs, including paid AI tools for every student.

Meta Muse personal AI agent expands to small businesses

Agentic AI for consumers and small businesses, with approval gates; hook for AI literacy and Houston small-business workshops.

Power Electronics breaks ground on 850,000 sq ft Houston manufacturing campus, 400+ jobs forecast

Plant announcement: Power Electronics broke ground Sep 24 on a North Houston campus for solar, storage and data center power equipment, with more than 400 permanent jobs forecast and Phase I delivery targeted for Q3 2027. Relevant to Houston City College electronics, electrical and manufacturing programs.

Rice to launch a Master of Artificial Intelligence in fall 2027

A new Houston AI graduate degree (30 credits, internship required) that local AI students can aim for.

Energy AI company Shape Digital opens its first U.S. office at the Ion

A new industrial-AI employer in Houston's innovation district, hiring for technical support and client roles.

Eli Lilly starts work on massive Houston facility with thousands of jobs expected

TMEIC opens 280,000 sq ft power electronics plant in Waller County as data center demand grows

Plant opening: TMEIC opened a 280,000 sq ft power electronics (UPS) plant in Waller County in September with 200+ jobs, driven by data center demand. Relevant to Houston City College electronics and manufacturing technology programs.

Prairie View A&M wins $9.9M Army award for COMMAND-AI (AI, advanced manufacturing, cyber)

A nearby university with paid AI research roles for students and new CS PhD programs. A possible transfer target.

Houston City College and Space Center Houston partner on AI, robotics and space-tech pathways

Ties local students to Space Center Houston programs, workshops and work-study in AI, robotics and autonomous systems.

Texas Space Commission to lead new NASA aerospace skilled technical workforce hub, with Texas Space Grant

NASA picked the Texas Space Commission as one of seven hubs for skilled technical aerospace jobs that don't need a four-year degree, like welding, electrical and machining. Its new TAP+ portal will link community and technical colleges, high school CTE programs and employers to internships, apprenticeships and jobs, aiming for 25,000+ students enrolled by year two.

Texas Cyber Command's Project Watershed 250 brings free cyber help to Texas water utilities

A state program protecting water for 31M Texans. It shows students that OT/ICS security is a Texas career path with academic partner roles.