The founding team.

LC

Lucy Chen, MBA

Co-Founder & CEO

Leads commercialization strategy, business development, and partnership engagement across defense and civilian markets. Driving CerVa from technology validation to market-ready deployment.

YC

Yu Chen, Ph.D., FSPIE

Co-Founder & CTO

Professor of Electrical & Computer Engineering at Binghamton University. 15+ years in cybersecurity, multimedia authentication, and signal processing. Over $3M in federally funded research (NSF, AFOSR). 50+ peer-reviewed publications. Long-standing AFRL collaborator.

Advisory Network & Research Partners

CerVa is supported by a deep network of defense researchers, technology transfer professionals, and domain experts who provide strategic guidance and operational access.

U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory — Information Directorate
Long-standing academic research collaboration on synthetic media authentication, information fusion, and multimedia forensics. The technical foundations of CerVaLens are documented in the peer-reviewed publications listed below.
Dr. Bryant Wysocki — Member, Department of War Science, Technology and Innovation Board (STIB); Co-founder & CEO, Full Spectrum Research LLC
Advisory Board — Three decades in defense science and technology spanning Air Force military service, AFRL Information Directorate Technical Director (Civilian Senior Executive), and private-sector innovation. Recognized authority in C5ISRT, quantum optics, and unconventional computing.
Dr. Genshe Chen — CTO, Intelligent Fusion Technology (IFT)
Advisory Board — Defense contractor partnership, sensor fusion, and Virtual C2 integration. Co-author of CerVa's AFRL RNMA letter of support.
Binghamton University Innovation Ecosystem
Technology Transfer Office, NSF I-Corps Hub, and EXCEED ($6M NSF ART) program providing entrepreneurial mentorship and translational funding pathways.

Grounded in rigorous
academic foundations.

CerVaLens technology is built on a decade of published, peer-reviewed research in ENF analysis, PRNU hardware fingerprinting, multimedia forensics, and AI-generated content detection.

2026

CerVaLens: On-Device Multimodal AI-Generated Content Detection for Mobile Authentication

SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing 2026
2025

Topological Frequency Feature Analysis for AIGC Authentication

SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing 2025 — Disruptive Technologies in Information Sciences IX
2025

LEAD-AI: Lightweight Entropy Analysis for Distinguishing AI-Generated Images from Genuine Photographs

SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing 2025 — Disruptive Technologies in Information Sciences IX
2024

Identifying AI-Generated Social Media Images using Frequency Domain Analysis

IEEE Consumer Communications & Networking Conference (CCNC) 2024
2023

AUSOME: Authenticating Social Media Images using Electrical Network Frequency Fingerprints

SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing 2023
2022

DeFakePro: Decentralized DeepFake Attacks Detection using ENF Authentication

IEEE IT Professional, Vol. 24, Issue 5
2021

DeFake: Decentralized ENF-Consensus-based DeepFake Detection in Video Conferencing

IEEE 23rd International Workshop on Multimedia Signal Processing (MMSP) 2021
2021

Decentralized Video Input Authentication as an Edge Service for Smart Cities

IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine, 2021
2019

Detecting Malicious False Frame Injection Attacks on Surveillance Systems at Edge using Electrical Network Frequency Signals

Sensors (MDPI), Vol. 19, Issue 11, Article 2424

From non-dilutive validation
to defense procurement.

DARPA's $150M deepfake R&D investment (MediFor, SemaFor) has concluded. The DoD is now buying operational tools — as demonstrated by the Defense Innovation Unit's first dedicated deepfake detection contract in December 2024. CerVa is positioned at this transition point.

Active

SUNY Technology Accelerator Fund (TAF)

Core technology build and prototype development. Mobile deepfake detection algorithms, Android app deployment, dataset development (17,000+ images), and defense integration framework. September 2025 – August 2026.

$50,000
Active

SUNY STRP Award

Scaling mobile detection technology for defense and civilian market entry. Prototype stabilization, expanded validation, pilot deployments, and business infrastructure development. February 2026 – January 2028.

$100,000
Foundation

NSF EAGER Grant

Foundational research in ENF-based authentication and environmental fingerprint analysis supporting the core science behind CerVaLens technology (CNS-2039342). 2020 – 2023.

Federal Research
Submitted

AFRL RNMA Stage 1

Air Force Research Laboratory Rapid Networked Multi-Modal Authentication. Operational requirements definition, interoperability spec, and proof-of-concept demonstration with DVIDS and AARO media. Submitted April 2026; pitch round expected May 2026.

$100,000
Final Round

BLDC-EAP Business Plan Competition

Binghamton-Local Development Corporation Economic Acceleration Program. Advanced to the final round; oral presentation May 2026.

Up to $7,000
Recognition & Competitive Validation
Selected for the 2025 Defense TechConnect Pitch (co-located with the SBIR/STTR Innovation Summit). xTechDisrupt Competition participant demonstrating CerVaLens for Electronic Warfare applications. NSF I-Corps customer discovery program graduate. Supported by Binghamton University's $6M NSF EXCEED program for research translation. The December 2024 DIU contract award to Hive AI ($2.4M) — the first dedicated DoD operational deepfake detection procurement, selected from 36 companies — demonstrates active DoD procurement interest in the market CerVa is entering.
Now → Month 9
Foundation

Formalize AFRL collaboration agreement, SBIR Phase I / Direct-to-Phase-II submission, RB780 utility patent conversion

Month 9–18
Production SDK

SBIR Phase II execution ($750K–$1.5M), production Android SDK, C2PA interoperability, seed round ($1–3M) targeting defense-focused investors aligned with edge-native dual-use technology

Month 18–36
Market Entry

AFWERX STRATFI bridge, DIU OTA prototype contract, commercial vertical launch (media, financial KYC, election integrity), Series A

References to U.S. Government agencies, federally funded research programs, federal personnel, federal advisory boards, and academic publications on this page are provided for informational purposes only and do not constitute or imply endorsement, recommendation, or favoring of CerVa, LLC or its products by the U.S. Government, the Department of War, the Department of Defense, the Science, Technology and Innovation Board (STIB), the Air Force Research Laboratory, the National Science Foundation, or any other federal entity. Service by individual advisors on federal advisory boards is reflected for biographical context only and does not represent the views of those boards or their sponsoring agencies.