About Me

I am a PhD student with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, under the supervision of Prof. Haibo Hu (ASTAPLE). I received the Master’s degree in computer technology with the School of Cyber Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, China, in 2022, under the supervision of Dr. Guyue Li. From April 2021 to September 2021, I worked as a Research Assistant with the Department of Computing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, under the supervision of Prof. Bin Xiao.

Feel free to drop me an email if you want to collaborate or have a discussion!

Research interests

Physical-layer security, especially secret key generation [IoT-J’2022, TVT’2024].
Blockchain [ICC’2023, ICC’2024].
Trustworthy machine learning (Currently focused on)
- Model Extraction Attacks [WWW’2025]
- Large Multi-Modal Models’ Security, Privacy, and Safety

2025.01: Our paper, MER-Inspector: Assessing Model Extraction Risks from An Attack-Agnostic Perspective, has been accepted by The ACM Web Conference (WWW) 2025.
2024.02: Our paper, Enabling Deep Learning-based Physical-layer Secret Key Generation for FDD-OFDM Systems in Multi-Environments, has been accepted by IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology.
2024.01: Our paper, A Secure and Reliable Blockchain-based Audit Log System, has been accepted by IEEE ICC’24.
2023.12: My Master’s Thesis is rated as “Excellent Master Dissertation Award of Jiangsu Province.”
2023.06: My Master’s Thesis is rated as “Excellent Master Dissertation Award of Southeast University.”
2023.01: Our paper, DBE-voting: A Privacy-preserving and Auditable Blockchain-based E-voting System, has been accepted by IEEE ICC’23.

2021.09: Our paper, Deep Learning-based Physical-Layer Secret Key Generation for FDD Systems, has been accepted by IEEE Internet of Things Journal.
2021.07: Our paper, Secret Key Generation for FDD Systems Based on Complex-Valued Neural Network, has been accepted by IEEE VTC-2021FALL.
2021.01: Our paper, Secret Key Generation Scheme Based on Generative Adversarial Networks in FDD Systems, has been accepted by IEEE INFOCOM WKSHPS.

([⋅]* is the corresponding author)

ACM WWW 2025

MER-Inspector: Assessing Model Extraction Risks from An Attack-Agnostic Perspective
X. Zhang, H. Hu*, Q. Ye, L. Bai, H. Zheng
In Proc. The ACM Web Conference (WWW), 2025. (Acceptance rate=19.8%)
[Code] [PDF.]

IEEE TVT 2024

Enabling Deep Learning-based Physical-layer Secret Key Generation for FDD-OFDM Systems in Multi-Environments
X. Zhang, G. Li*, J. Zhang, L. Peng, A. Hu, X. Wang
IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology (TVT), vol. 73, no. 7, pp. 10135-10149, July 2024.

IEEE IoT-J 2022

Deep Learning-based Physical-Layer Secret Key Generation for FDD Systems
X. Zhang, G. Li*, J. Zhang, A. Hu, Z. Hou, B. Xiao
IEEE Internet of Things Journal (IoT-J), vol. 9, no. 8, pp. 6081-6094, April 2022.
[code]

A Secure and Reliable Blockchain-based Audit Log System
Z. Liu, X. Zhang, G. Li, H. Cui, J. Wang, B. Xiao*
In Proc. IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), 2024.
DBE-voting: A Privacy-preserving and Auditable Blockchain-based E-voting System
Z. Liu, X. Zhang, L. Lao, G. Li, B. Xiao*
In Proc. IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), 2023.
Secret Key Generation for FDD Systems Based on Complex-Valued Neural Network
X. Zhang, G. Li*, Z. Hou and A. Hu
In Proc. 2021 IEEE 94th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC), 2021.
Secret Key Generation Scheme Based on Generative Adversarial Networks in FDD Systems
Z. Hou and X. Zhang*
In Proc. IEEE Conference on Computer Communications Workshops (INFOCOM WKSHPS), 2021.

Excellent Master Dissertation Award of Jiangsu Province, 2023. (Bonus: 3,000 RMB)
Excellent Master Dissertation Award of Southeast University, 2023.
Outstanding Master’s Graduate, 2022.
National Scholarship, 2021. (Bonus: 20,000 RMB)
Third prize of “National Big Data Creativity and Practice Competition of Electromagnetic Environment”, 2020. (Bonus: 10,000 RMB)
Outstanding Graduates, 2018.
University Scholarship, 2016. (Bonus: 1,000 RMB)

Sep. 2023- Aug. 2026 (expected), Ph.D., The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Supervisor: Prof. Haibo Hu.
Sep. 2019- June 2022, Master of Engineering, Computer Technology, Southeast University, Supervisor: Dr. Guyue Li (PLS-LAB). (Outstanding Graduates)

Teaching Assistant:
- 2023-Fall: EIE3117 Integrated Project
- 2024-Spring: EIE4118 Intrusion Detection and Penetration Test
- 2024-Fall: EIE3117 Integrated Project
- 2025-Spring: EIE3117 Integrated Project
May 2023- Aug. 2023, Research Assistant, Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Supervisor: Prof. Haibo Hu.
Sep. 2022- Dec. 2022, Research Assistant, School of Computer Science, Northwestern Polytechnical University (NWPU), Supervisor: Prof. Helei Cui.
Apr. 2021- Sep. 2021, Research Assistant, Department of Computing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Supervisor: Prof. Bin Xiao (IEEE Fellow).

IEEE Student Member.
ACM Student Member.
Journal/Conference reviewer:
- ACM WWW, ACM MM, IEEE INFOCOM, ICDCS, VTC, etc
- IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics & Security (TIFS), IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communication (TWC), IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology (TVT), IEEE Internet of Things Journal (IoT-J), International Journal of Information Security, IEEE Systems Journal, etc