InfoQ Launches AI Security and Agent Verification Cohorts

InfoQ has announced two new five-week online certification cohorts scheduled for October 2026, designed to provide hands-on training for senior software architects and engineers. The first program, AI-Assisted Engineering, begins on October 19, 2026, and addresses the verification of coding agents. The second program, AI Security & Privacy Engineering, starts on October 26, 2026, and focuses on safeguarding sensitive data within artificial intelligence workflows.

The security cohort is facilitated by Katharine Jarmul, author of Practical Data Privacy. Participants in this track will bring real-world problems to analyze how sensitive information flows through an AI system. Using threat modeling and red teaming, attendees will evaluate system architectures, test security controls, and identify potential failure points. For their final capstone project, participants must assess an AI product's architecture and outline the identified risks, chosen controls, and decision-ownership structure.

The engineering cohort is co-facilitated by Thoughtworks executives Zichuan Xiong, Head of AIOps, and Premanand Chandrasekaran, Head of Technology. This program tasks participants with managing autonomous coding agents within a shared brownfield repository. Engineers will learn to restrict agent permissions, build context, implement tests, and establish continuous integration checks. The capstone requires presenting a testing harness and comparing five weeks of logged operational results against initial performance predictions.

For practitioners, these cohorts offer a collaborative environment to test safety guardrails before deploying AI tools in production. By working in confidential peer groups, senior engineers can validate their architectural choices against diverse organizational constraints. This practical approach helps teams move away from manual code reviews toward automated, scalable verification systems that ensure AI-generated code is safe and compliant.