No Safety Net, No Answer Key: Engineering a Startup in the Age of AI
#EngineeringStudents
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#IEEE
Abstract
Engineering school teaches us to solve difficult problems. The uncomfortable truth you discover after leaving is that the most important problems often have no answers.
In this talk, I’ll share some lessons from my own journey from engineer to CTO, founder, and CEO: taking over and restructuring a startup when survival mattered more than the plan; challenging industry standards dominated by companies much larger than mine; building and selling a new agentic cybersecurity product for a problem that barely existed a year earlier; and confronting new questions about identity, trust, and security created by autonomous AI.
There is no safety net in a startup—you can run out of money. There is no answer key when you’re building something new—the future hasn’t been written yet. Standards don’t necessarily save you, because the organizations defining them have their own interests. And people are wonderfully inconsistent: we resist change we need while embracing other changes we barely understand.
AI is now accelerating all of this. It is creating entirely new engineering problems while fundamentally changing how we solve them. I’ve gone from using AI to write software to using it to explore unfamiliar engineering disciplines, design physical systems, and help me build an experimental airplane.
I’ll argue that this changes what it means to be an engineer. Deep expertise still matters, but as the cost of crossing disciplinary boundaries collapses, systems thinking, curiosity, judgment, and the willingness to build may become even more valuable.
The future isn’t written. That’s the opportunity.
Speaker:
Dr. Jasson Casey
Co-Founder and CEO
Beyond Identity
Time & Location:
Thursday, October 15, 2026 | 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
ENGR 4201, College of Engineering and Computing, George Mason University
** This event is exclusively for George Mason University students. **
IEEE GMU Student Branch
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- 4400 University Dr
- Apt 512
- Fairfax, Virginia
- United States 22030
- Building: College of Engineering and Computing
- Room Number: 4201
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- Co-sponsored by ECE Department, George Mason University
Speakers
Jasson Casey of Beyond Identity
Topic:
Engineering a Startup in the Age of AI
Biography:
Dr. Jasson Casey is the Co-Founder and CEO of Beyond Identity and a recognized leader in cybersecurity innovation. His career has spanned pioneering research, national security contributions, and building technologies that shape the way people connect and protect critical systems.
Jasson earned his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from Texas A&M University, where his research in formal methods and systems security was supported by the National Science Foundation and the Air Force Research Laboratory. Earlier in his career, he helped design the world’s first carrier-grade VoIP firewall, deployed by Tier-1 operators across Asia, Europe, and North America. In 2008, he designed and built the world’s largest outdoor WiFi network, with more than 25,000 contiguous radios offering seamless mobile roaming. He has held leadership roles including CTO of SecurityScorecard and VP of Engineering at IronNet Cybersecurity, where he worked alongside General (Ret.) Keith Alexander to deliver advanced defense capabilities to governments and enterprises worldwide. His technical contributions include patents on attestation technologies, widely cited research in software-defined networking, and leadership in Internet security standards.
Outside of work, Jasson is a pilot, diver, builder, and cook; whether it’s flying aerobatics, designing drones, or perfecting a new recipe, he brings the same spirit of curiosity and craftsmanship to everything he does.
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