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Xiao Zhang

Office: 212 CIS Bld. | Lab: 108 CIS Bld. 4901 Evergreen Road, Dearborn, MI 48128

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, where I lead the Trustworthy AI-boosted IoT Lab (TAI Lab). Before joining UM-Dearborn, I was a Postdoctoral Associate at Duke University. I obtained my Ph.D. degree in the Computer Science and Engineering at Michigan State University, my M.S. degree at Northwestern Polytechnical University and B.E. degree with honor at Taiyuan University of Technology. I am looking for highly self-motivated students (Ph.D., master, undergraduate, visiting, intern, and high school) to join my group. If you are passionate about related research topics, please email me with your CV, transcripts, and several sentences about your research interests.

My current research interests are mobile computing, AIoT, Cyber Physical Systems, AI-assisted sensing/localization, and HCI. My previous work focused on exploring spatial-temporal diversities in Optical Wireless Communication (OWC) for its improved communication performance and enabled sensing/localization. My vision is that light can provide the secure and location-aware communication for Internet-of-Things and human-centered mobile computing. With explored OWC's spatial-temporal diversities and machine learning, we can use light as promising medium for next-generation wireless networks with broad applications (e.g., LiFi, V2X networks, underwater navigation, digital health, smart city, HCI, and AR/VR).

Umich Email / Google Scholar / Michigan Experts

News

Research

I am interested in next-generation wireless communication and networking, particularly in the areas of optical wireless communication (OWC) and mmWave technologies. My interests also extend to underwater optical communication, localization, and navigation, as well as mobile computing. Additionally, I am intrigued by vehicle-to-everything (V2X) networks, AI-assisted novel applications, the Internet of Things (IoT), digital health, cyber-physical systems (CPS) security, and the Metaverse.

Conference Papers

  1. HoloCube: 3D Opitcal IoT Connections via Software Defined Pepper's Ghost
    Xiao Zhang, Li Xiao, and Matt W. Mutka
    ICNP 2024 | paper

  2. WavePurifier: Purifying Audio Adversarial Examples via Hierarchical Diffusion Models
    Hanqing Guo, Guangjing Wang, Bocheng Chen, Yuanda Wang, Xiao Zhang, Xun Chen, Qiben Yan, Li Xiao
    MobiCom 2024 | paper

  3. RadCloud: Real-Time High-Resolution Point Cloud Generation Using Low-Cost Radars for Aerial and Ground Vehicles
    David Hunt, Shaocheng Luo, Amir Khazraei, Xiao Zhang, Spencer Hallyburton, Tingjun Chen, Miroslav Pajic
    ICRA 2024 | paper

  4. RoFin: 3D Hand Pose Reconstructing via 2D Rolling Fingertips
    Xiao Zhang, Griffin Klevering, Juexing Wang, Li Xiao, and Tianxing Li
    MobiSys 2023 | paper

  5. PATCH: A Plug-in Framework Of Non-blocking Inference For Distributed Multimodal System
    Juexing Wang, Guangjing Wang, Xiao Zhang, Li Liu, Huacheng Zeng, Li Xiao, Zhichao Cao, Lin Gu, and Tianxing Li
    Ubicomp 2023 | paper

  6. Boosting Optical Camera Communication via 2D Rolling Blocks
    Xiao Zhang, Griffin Klevering, James Mariani, Li Xiao, and Matt Mutka
    IWQoS 2023 | paper

  7. PoseFly: On-site Pose Parsing of Swarming Drones via 4-in-1 Optical Camera Communication
    Xiao Zhang, Griffin Klevering, and Li Xiao
    WoWMoM 2023 | paper

  8. U-Star: An Underwater Navigation System based on Passive 3D Optical Identification Tags
    Xiao Zhang, Hanqing Guo, James Mariani, and Li Xiao
    MobiCom 2022 | paper

  9. LiFOD: Lighting Extra Data via Fine-grained OWC Dimming
    Xiao Zhang, James Mariani, Li Xiao, and Matt Mutka
    SECON 2022 | paper

  10. Effective Subcarrier Pairing for Hybrid Delivery in Relay Networks
    Xiao Zhang, Li Xiao
    MASS 2020 | paper

  11. k-Labelsets for Multimedia Classification with Global and Local Label Correlation
    Yan Yan, Shining Li, Xiao Zhang, et.al
    MMM 2018 | paper

  12. Directional Monitoring of Multiple Moving Targets by Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
    Yan Pan, Shining Li, Xiao Zhang, et.al
    GLOBECOM 2017 | paper

  13. Multi-label Learning with Label-Specific Feature Selection
    Yan Yan, Shining Li, Zhe Yang, Xiao Zhang, et.al
    ICONIP 2017 | paper

Journal Papers

  1. Exploiting Fine-grained Dimming with Improved LiFi Throughput
    Xiao Zhang, James Mariani, Li Xiao, and Matt W. Mutka
    ACM Transactions on Sensor Networks 2024 | paper

  2. The Security in Optical Wireless Communication: A Survey
    Xiao Zhang, Griffin Klevering, Xinyu Lei, Yiwen Hu, Li Xiao, and Guan-Hua Tu
    ACM Computing Surveys 2023 | paper

  3. Handling Data Heterogeneity for IoT Devices in Federated Learning: A Knowledge Fusion Approach
    Xu Zhou, Xinyu Lei, Cong Yang, Yichun Shi, Xiao Zhang, and Jingwen Shi
    IEEE Internet of Things Journal 2023 | paper

  4. Survey for Soil Sensing with IOT and Traditional System
    Juexing Wang, Xiao Zhang, Li Xiao, and Tianxing Li
    MDPI Network 2023 | paper

Workshop/Poster/Demo Papers

  1. Holographic Optical Tag enabled Omindirectional IoT Connection
    Xiao Zhang, Li Xiao, and Matt W. Mutka
    SIGCOMM Poster 2024 | paper

  2. Integrated On-site Localization and Optical Camera Communication for Drones
    Xiao Zhang, Griffin Klevering, Kanishka Wijewardena, and Li Xiao
    WoWMoM Demo 2023 | paper

  3. Exploring Rolling Shutter Effect for Motion Tracking with Objective Identification
    Xiao Zhang, Griffin Klevering, Li Xiao
    SenSys Poster 2022 | paper

  4. Lighting Extra Data via OWC Dimming
    Xiao Zhang, Li Xiao
    CoNEXT Workshop 2020 | paper

  5. RainbowRow: Fast Optical Camera Communication
    Xiao Zhang, Li Xiao
    ICNP Workshop 2020 | paper

  6. Effective Subcarrier Pairing Scheme in mmWave-based Relay System
    Xiao Zhang, Li Xiao
    mmWaveRCN Poster 2019 | paper

Teaching

  • At UM-Dearborn
          CIS 400 Programming Languages
          CIS 437/537 Advanced Networking

  • At MSU
          CSE 331 Algorithms and Data Structures
          CSE 260 Discrete Structures
          CSE 232 Introduction to Programming II

    • Students

  • Ph.D.
          Deniz Acikbas

  • master
          Ashwin Sarvadey
          Jaskirat Sudan
          Rohit Raval
          Nishaant Madhankumar

  • undergraduate
          Christian Nwobu （NSF STEM Scholar）
          Fatima Qasem （NSF STEM Scholar）
          Fatima Mohammed （NSF STEM Scholar）
          Syed Gilani （UM SURE Scholar）

  • intern
          Hasky Fynn

    • Awards

  • 2025, OE Creation Grant, UM-Dearborn

  • 2025, NeTS ECI Travel Grant, NSF

  • 2023/2021/2019, Graduate Office Fellowship, MSU

  • 2023, Dissertation Completion Fellowship, MSU

  • 2022, Graduate Travel Fellowship, MSU

  • 2019, Student Travel Grant, NSF-mmWaveRCN

  • 2016-2018, Postgraduate Scholarship, NPU

  • 2016, Outstanding Graduate, TUT

  • 2015, President Scholarship, Top 10, TUT

  • 2013/2014, National Encouragement Scholarship, China

    • Services

  • Program Committee

    INFOCOM DeepWireless 2025, ICNC 2025, MSN 2024, ICPADS 2024

  • External Reviewer

    ICSC 2025, INFOCOM 2020-2024, MobiCom 2024, MEDES 2024, ICC 2023, CVPR 2023, MASS 2019, GLOBECOM 2019, IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems (THMS), IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (TMC), IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (JSAC), IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC), ACM Transactions on Cyber-Physical Systems, IEEE Communication Letters