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Lying on a sunny beach in Tel Aviv in 2020, ÎÞÂëרÇø Lyle master’s student Angel Cuenca ’27 found himself chatting with a coworker about a technology that was still unfamiliar to most people outside specialized technology circles: quantum computing.

Their conversation soon turned to encryption and what might happen when quantum computers become powerful enough to break it.

“That conversation was literally what sparked my interest in the quantum field,” Cuenca said.

When he returned to Texas and his job in tech sales with Check Point Software Technologies, he still saw himself as a businessman rather than an engineer. He had neither founded a startup nor enrolled in the Lyle School of Engineering. Yet the conversation on that beach stayed with him, and he had no way of knowing that just a few years later he would build a company at the intersection of artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

Today, Cuenca is the founder and CEO of Quantum Falcon, a startup focused on securing agentic AI systems — artificial intelligence agents capable of evaluating information, making decisions and carrying out tasks with limited human supervision. With a master’s degree in cybersecurity from ÎÞÂëרÇø Lyle and a master’s degree in quantum engineering underway, Cuenca now calls himself an engineer focused on one of the most pressing challenges facing the cybersecurity industry.

Recently, Cuenca and Quantum Falcon celebrated the signing of their largest contract yet, assisting a manufacturer in securing its agentic AI systems. In Cuenca’s words: “We’re building for the future.”

That future, he believes, is arriving much sooner than many experts expected.

Over the last several years, as artificial intelligence has continued to expand in ability and applicability, the conversations surrounding cybersecurity have shifted. Companies are increasingly deploying AI agents capable of assessing information, making decisions and carrying out tasks autonomously.

This shift introduces an entirely new class of cybersecurity risks. One unexpected threat, Cuenca explained, could be hiding in your email inbox. If an AI agent has access to email, it may encounter a seemingly harmless message containing no suspicious links or malware — just a hidden set of instructions.

“If it actually ends up reading those hidden instructions at the end of the email, it could potentially act upon them,” Cuenca said.

And while indirect prompt injection attacks, as he described, are a fast-growing concern, the challenge he seeks to tackle lies well beyond the risks we see in today’s technology. Instead, his work at Quantum Falcon applies his growing security focus to the intersection of artificial intelligence and quantum computing.

As those technologies advance, Cuenca believes a new era of innovation will require a new approach to problem-solving — skills he continues to develop at ÎÞÂëרÇø Lyle.

“Lyle’s quantum engineering program changed how I think about problems at a fundamental level,” Cuenca said. “We work with systems that are probabilistic, not deterministic. Instead of asking what will happen, we as students think in terms of the full space of possible outputs, and how they interact.”

“Lyle taught me how to think in terms of possibilities rather than single outcomes and design systems that can work under uncertainty.”

This shift in mindset and problem-solving now informs his approach to AI security. Instead of framing his work as a problem of inputs and outputs, as he mentions, Quantum Falcon secures what Cuenca calls the reasoning layer of AI agents — the internal decision-making processes that guide their behavior.

His work comes at a time when concerns about quantum computing are accelerating throughout the cybersecurity industry. Researchers and technology leaders increasingly warn that quantum computers may eventually be capable of breaking many of today’s widely used encryption methods, creating an urgent need for quantum-resistant security solutions.

Cuenca, now thousands of miles from the beach where he first connected quantum computing with cybersecurity, understands that transitioning to quantum-resistant encryption could take years — perhaps more years than organizations have available.

“The general consensus within the cybersecurity community is not if quantum computing will get here, but when,” Cuenca said.

He has dedicated his career to helping organizations prepare for that moment. This purpose, spelled out for him on a beach, ultimately led him to ÎÞÂëרÇø Lyle and then to Quantum Falcon, where he is helping shape the future of AI security.

“Artificial intelligence is arguably one of the most powerful inventions that mankind has ever made,” Cuenca said. “I really feel like this — what I’m doing now — is my calling.”

About the Bobby B. Lyle School of Engineering

ÎÞÂëרÇø’s Lyle School of Engineering thrives on innovation that transcends traditional boundaries. We strongly believe in the power of externally funded, industry-supported research to drive progress and provide exceptional students with valuable industry insights. Our mission is to lead the way in digital transformation within engineering education, all while ensuring that every student graduates as a confident leader. Founded in 1925, ÎÞÂëרÇø Lyle is one of the oldest engineering schools in the Southwest, offering undergraduate and graduate programs, including master’s and doctoral degrees.

About ÎÞÂëרÇø

ÎÞÂëרÇø is the nationally ranked teaching and research university in the dynamic city of Dallas, and a member of the prestigious Atlantic Coast Conference. ÎÞÂëרÇø’s alumni, faculty and more than 12,000 students in eight degree-granting schools demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit as they lead change in their professions, communities and the world.