Born and grew up in Shandong, China, I went to Chongqing when it came time for college. After graduation, I relocated to Delaware, USA for postgrad studies and work. In 2022, I returned to China and joined the faculty at XJTLU in Suzhou. My research interests include blockchain, cryptography, distributed AI, and smart transportation. In my free hours, I've been into hip-hop music and sneaker collection since the early 2000s.

Accepting Ph.D. Students. Please email me with your resume, transcript, and any other supporting materials you believe will strengthen your application.

• 04/2024: Invited as a TPC member at ACM Blockchain and Internet of Things Conference (BIOTC 2024).
• 03/2024: Paper accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems (T-ITS).
• 03/2024: Joined the editorial board of IET Blockchain (Special Issue on Blockchain Evolution: Architecture and Applications).
• 02/2024: Paper accepted at IEEE/ACM International Conference on Connected Health: Applications, Systems and Engineering Technologies (CHASE 2024).
• 01/2024: Invited as a TPC member at ACM International Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain Conference (AIBC 2024).
• 11/2023: Paper accepted at ACM International Conference on Blockchain Technology and Applications (ICBTA 2023).
• 10/2023: Invited as a reviewer for the U.S. CUTC best Ph.D. dissertations.
• 10/2023: Paper accepted at IEEE International Conference on Blockchain (Blockchain 2023).
• 09/2023: Paper accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Services Computing (TSC).
• 07/2023: Received the Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation Award 2022 from IEEE TEMS.
• 05/2023: Received a grant from XJTLU Research Development Fund (RDF).
• 04/2023: Paper accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems (T-ITS).
• 03/2023: Paper accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management (TNSM).
• 01/2023: Received a grant from XJTLU Teaching Development Fund (TDF).
• 12/2022: Received the Best Dissertation Award 2022 from IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society (ITSS).
• 12/2022: Paper published in Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies (TR_C).
• 09/2022: Paper published in IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management (TNSM).
• 08/2022: Joined Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University.
• 05/2022: Received the Graduate Research Award from the University of Delaware.
• 03/2022: Defended my Ph.D. dissertation at the University of Delaware.
• 02/2022: Paper accepted at IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Cluster, Cloud and Grid Computing (CCGrid 2022).

• CAN402: Social Web Programming
• CAN301: Mobile Computing

Recruiting Teaching Assistants. I am seeking multiple Teaching Assistants with experience in JavaScript and PHP to support the CAN402 module during every Spring semester. If you are interested in this position, please email me for further details.

• IEEE ITSS Best Dissertation Award 2022
• IEEE TEMS Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation Award 2022
• Graduate Research Award, University of Delaware, 2022
• Professional Development Award, University of Delaware, 2019
• Excellent Graduate Leadership, Chongqing University, 2015
• Yangtze Power Scholarship, China Yangtze Power, 2014

• Master's Students (4): Jiaxuan Li (MS, 2023-), Jiachen Wang (MS, 2023-), Zijie Wang (MS, 2023-), and Tianyou Wang (MS, 2023-)


• Undergraduate Students (1): Jiayun Yu (BS, 2023-)

• Master's Students (5): Yujun Deng (MS, 2024), Sheng Fang (MS, 2024), Yiran Tian (MS, 2024), Wenze Xiong (MS, 2024), and Yutong Zhang (MS, 2024)


• Undergradute Students (6): Wenrui Liu (BS, 2023, University College London, UK), Yuntao Nie (BS, 2023), Bo Wang (BS, 2023), Haoyu Wang (BS, 2023), Yetong Wang (BS, 2023, Australian National University, Australia), and Bocheng Zhang (BS, 2023, University of Edinburgh, UK)

• Editorial Board Member
• Guest Lead Editor of IET Blockchain


• Technical Program Committee Member
• ACM Blockchain and Internet of Things Conference (BIOTC), 2024
• ACM International Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain Conference (AIBC), 2024
• ACM International Conference on Blockchain Technology and Applications (ICBTA), 2023


• Journal Reviewer
• IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology (TVT)
• IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems (T-ITS)
• IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management (TNSM)
• IEEE Internet of Things Journal (IoT-J)
• IEEE Access
• Information Processing & Management
• Blockchain: Research and Applications


• Conference Reviewer
• ACM International Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain Conference (AIBC), 2024
• ACM International Conference on Blockchain Technology and Applications (ICBTA), 2023
• IEEE International Conference on Blockchain (Blockchain), 2023
• IEEE International Performance Computing and Communications Conference (IPCCC), 2023
• IEEE International Conference on Blockchain (Blockchain), 2022
• IEEE International Conference on Blockchain (Blockchain), 2021
• International Congress on Blockchain and Applications (BLOCKCHAIN), 2021


• Fellow of UK Higher Education Academy
• Member of IEEE, ACM and IET
• Student Awards Committee of U.S. Council of University Transportation Centers (CUTC), 2023
• Blockchain Committee of China Computer Federation (CCF), 2023-
• School Year 1 Promotion Leader at XJTLU, 2023-

• Frontiers in Blockchain for Secure Information Sharing in Next Generation Transportation Systems
  • IEEE ITSS Best Dissertation Award 2022
  • IEEE TEMS Outstanding Ph.D. Dissertation Award 2022

1. Adaptive Traffic Prediction at the ITS Edge with Online Models and Blockchain-based Federated Learning
   C. Meese, H. Chen, W. Li*, D. Lee, H. Guo, C. Shen and M. Nejad, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 2024, accepted


2. B²SFL: A Bi-level Blockchained Architecture for Secure Federated Learning-based Traffic Prediction [DOI / PDF]
   H. Guo, C. Meese, W. Li*, C. Shen and M. Nejad, IEEE Transactions on Services Computing, vol. 16, no. 6, pp. 4360-4374, 2023


3. Aggregated Zero-knowledge Proof and Blockchain-Empowered Authentication for Autonomous Truck Platooning [DOI / PDF]
   W. Li, C. Meese, H. Hao and M. Nejad, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, vol. 24, no. 9, pp. 9309-9323, 2023


4. A Hybrid Blockchain-Edge Architecture for Electronic Health Records Management with Attribute-based Cryptographic Mechanisms [DOI / PDF]
   H. Guo, W. Li*, M. Nejad and C. Shen, IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 1759-1774, 2023


5. Traffic Prediction using Artificial Intelligence: Review of Recent Advances and Emerging Opportunities [DOI / PDF]
   M. Shaygen, C. Meese, W. Li, X. Zhao and M. Nejad, Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, vol. 145, 103921, 2022


6. A Hierarchical and Location-aware Consensus Protocol for IoT-Blockchain Applications [DOI / PDF]
   H. Guo, W. Li* and M. Nejad, IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, vol. 19, no. 3, pp. 2972-2986, 2022


7. Proof-of-Event Recording System for Autonomous Vehicles: A Blockchain-based Solution [DOI / PDF]
   H. Guo, W. Li, M. Nejad and C. Shen, IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 182776-182786, 2020


8. Privacy-Preserving Traffic Management: A Blockchain and Zero-Knowledge Proof Inspired Approach [DOI / PDF]
   W. Li, H. Guo, M. Nejad and C. Shen, IEEE Access, vol. 8, pp. 181733-181743, 2020

1. Decentralized Electronic Health Records Management via Redactable Blockchain and Revocable IPFS
   H. Guo, W. Li, C. Meese and M. Nejad, IEEE/ACM International Conference on Connected Health: Applications, Systems and Engineering Technologies (CHASE 2024), Wilmington, DE, USA, June 19-21, 2024, accepted


2. ZK-BFT: A Zero-knowledge and Byzantine Fault Tolerant Consensus for Permissioned Blockchain Networks
   W. Li, C. Meese, M. Nejad and H. Guo, ACM International Conference on Blockchain Technology and Applications (ICBTA 2023), Xi'an, China, December 15-17, 2023, in press


3. Pricing Mechanism of Non-Fungible Token (NFT) Driven by Rarity Design [DOI / PDF]
   W. Xiong, Y. Wang, W. Li*, J. Zhang and H. Guo, IEEE International Conference on Blockchain (Blockchain 2023), Hainan, China, December 17-21, 2023


4. BFRT: Blockchained Federated Learning for Real-time Traffic Flow Prediction [DOI / PDF]
   C. Meese, H. Chen, S. Asif, W. Li, C. Shen and M. Nejad, IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Cluster, Cloud and Internet Computing (CCGrid 2022), Taormina, Italy, May 16-19, 2022


5. A Location-based and Hierarchical Framework for Fast Consensus in Blockchain Networks [DOI / PDF]
   H. Guo, W. Li and M. Nejad, IEEE International Conference on Hot Information-Centric Networking (HotICN 2021), Nanjing, China, November 25-27, 2021


6. P-CFT: A Privacy-preserving and Crash Fault Tolerant Consensus Algorithm for Permissioned Blockchains [DOI / PDF]
   W. Li, C. Meese, M. Nejad and H. Guo, IEEE International Conference on Hot Information-Centric Networking (HotICN 2021), Nanjing, China, November 25-27, 2021


7. Location-aware Verification for Autonomous Truck Platooning Based on Blockchain and Zero-knowledge Proof [DOI / PDF]
   W. Li, C. Meese, Z. Zhong, H. Guo and M. Nejad, IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC 2021), Sydney, Australia, May 3-6, 2021


8. Blockchain-enabled Identity Verification for Safe Ridesharing Leveraging Zero-Knowledge Proof [DOI / PDF]
   W. Li, C. Meese, H. Guo and M. Nejad, IEEE International Conference on Hot Information-Centric Networking (HotICN 2020), Hefei, China, December 12-14, 2020


9. Attribute-based Multi-Signature and Encryption for EHR Management: A Blockchain-based Solution [DOI / PDF]
   H. Guo, W. Li, E. Meamari, M. Nejad and C. Shen, IEEE International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC 2020), Toronto, Canada, May 2-6, 2020


10. Access Control for Electronic Health Records with Hybrid Blockchain-Edge Architecture [DOI / PDF]
    H. Guo, W. Li, M. Nejad and C. Shen, IEEE International Conference on Blockchain (Blockchain 2019), Atlanta, USA, July 14-17, 2019


11. A Blockchain-based Architecture for Traffic Signal Control Systems [DOI / PDF]
    W. Li, M. Nejad and R. Zhang, IEEE International Congress on Internet of Things (ICIOT 2019), Milano, Italy, July 8-13, 2019