Chen Wang The O’Donnell Foundation Professor Associate Professor MIST Lab Department of Computer Science Lyle School of Engineering Southern Methodist University Address: 3145 Dyer Street, Suite 439 Dallas, TX 75205 Email: cwang6 AT smu.edu

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About Me

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Research News

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Publications

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Honors &Awards

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MIST Lab

About Me

I am an associate professor at SMU Lyle. I lead the Mobile and Internet SecuriTy Lab (MIST LAB). My research interests include Cyber Security and Privacy, Robotics Security, Sensing, Smart Health Care, Mixed Reality, Internet of Things, and Machine Learning.

 

Chen Wang received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University and he worked at WINLAB. He obtained his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from University of Electronic and Science of Technology of China (UESTC). [Google Scholar]

NSF SaTC Project on Smartphone Security

NSF Career Project on Video Call Security

Research News

·       [May 2026] One paper will be presented at IEEE S&P 2026, and one paper will be presented at IEEE Euro S&P 2026.

·       [Sep 2025] My student, Jingwei Zhang, has been awarded the highly competitive O'Donnell Institute Graduate Fellowship (selection rate: 4/33=12%). Congratulations to Jingwei!

·       [May 2025] One paper will be presented at IEEE S&P 2025 and one paper will be presented at IEEE DySPAN 2025.

·       [April 2025] My Ph.D. student, Ruxin Wang will join University of Texas San Antonio as a tenure-track assistant professor this fall.

·       [September 2024] I received the O’Donnell Foundation Endowed Professorship and was featured in SMU News.

·       [June 2024] I received the prestigious NSF Career Award.

·       [May 2024] My Ph.D. student, Ruxin Wang, received the 2024 NSF CPS Rising Stars Award and was featured in LSU News.

·       [May 2023] View the teaser video of our IEEE S&P 2023 paper “Low-effort VR Headset User Authentication Using Head-reverberated Sounds with Replay Resistance” here.

·       [May 2022] View the teaser video of our IEEE S&P 2022 paper “PCR-Auth: Solving Authentication Puzzle Challenge with Encoded Palm Contact Response” here.

·       [Feb 2022] View the demo video of our Mobicom 2021 paper “Notification Privacy Protection via Unobtrusive Gripping Hand Verification Using Media Sounds” here.

Honors and Awards

·       Sam Taylor Fellowship, 2026

·       The O’Donnell Foundation Professorship, 2024

·       NSF Career Award, 2024

·       NSF SaTC Small, 2022

·       BOR RCS Award, 2020

·       Best Paper Award ($1000) in 14th International Workshop on Wireless Sensor, Robot and UAV Networks (IEEE WiSARN), 2021.

·       Best Paper Award in the EAI International Conference on IoT Technologies for HealthCare, 2019.

·       IEEE COMSOC Phoenix ISS Award ($3000), 2019.

·       Best Paper Award in the IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (IEEE CNS), 2018. - First author

·       Best Poster Award Runner-up at ACM Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (ACM MobiCom), 2018. - First author

·       Best Paper Award in the ACM Symposium on Information, Computer and Communications Security (ASIACCS), 2016. – First author

·       Best Paper Award in the IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (IEEE CNS), 2014. – Second author

·       First Place Winner - IEEE North Jersey Cybersecurity Poster Award at 4th Annual Symposium on Cybersecurity & Internet of Things, September 2016. – First author

·       ECE Graduate Program Award - Best Teaching Assistant of the Spring 2018 Semester at Rutgers University, 2019.

·       ECE Outstanding Research Assistant Award at Stevens Institute of Technology, 2016.

·       Third price in the poster competition at North Jersey Advanced Communications Symposium (IEEE NJACS), 2015.  

Media Coverage

                                                                                                                                          

Ph.D. Students:

Long Huang (B.S., University of Electronic Science and Technology of China) - Best Paper Award (WiSARN)

Zeyu Deng (B.S., Huazhong University of Science and Technology & Birmingham University) - Best Paper Award (WiSARN)

Ruxin Wang  (M.S., Syracuse University) – NSF CPS Rising Stars 2024, now an assistant professor at UTSA

Jingwei Zhang (M.S., Stevens Institute of Technology) - O'Donnell Institute Graduate Fellowship

Wen Liu  (M.S., George Washington University)

Sihang Wang (B.S., Shanghai Jiao Tong University, M.S., Colorado School of Mines)

Selected Publications

Journal Papers, Conference Papers and Posters:

[1] Long Huang, Chen Wang, “Sniffing Location Privacy of Video Conference Users Using Free Audio Channels”, in Proceedings of the 46rd IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (IEEE S&P Oakland), May 2025. (Acceptance rate: 257/1740 = 14.8%). [PDF]

[2] Long Huang, Zeyu Deng, Jingwei Zhang, Chen Wang and Huaxia Wang, “Adversarial OFDM Spectrum Modification to Manipulate Channel State Information Systems”, in Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks (IEEE DySPAN), May 2025.

[3] Ruxin Wang, Kaitlyn Madden, Chen Wang, “Enhancing QR Code System Security by Verifying the Scanner's Gripping Hand Biometric,” in Proceedings of 17th ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks (ACM WiSec), May 2024. (Acceptance rate: 21.1%)

[4] Zeyu Deng, Long Huang, Chen Wang, “Enhanced In-air Signature Verification via Hand Skeleton Tracking to Defeat Robot-level Replays”, in Proceedings of the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC), December 2023. (Acceptance rate: 24.0%)

[5] Ruxin Wang, Long Huang, Chen Wang, “Low-effort VR Headset User Authentication Using Head-reverberated Sounds with Replay Resistance”, in Proceedings of the 44th IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (IEEE S&P or Oakland), May 2023. (Acceptance rate: 17.1%). [PDF]

[6] Long Huang, Chen Wang, “PCR-Auth: Solving Authentication Puzzle Challenge with Encoded Palm Contact Response”, in Proceedings of the 43rd IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (IEEE S&P or Oakland), May 2022 (Acceptance rate: 15.2%). [PDF]

[7] Long Huang, Chen Wang, “Unobtrusive Pedestrian Identification by Leveraging Footstep Sounds with Replay Resistance”, in Proceedings of ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing (ACM UbiComp), (published at ACM IMWUT). September 2022. [PDF]

[8] Huang, Long, Zhen Meng, Zeyu Deng, Chen Wang, Liying Li, and Guodong Zhao. “Towards Verifying the User of Motion-controlled Robotic Arm Systems via the Robot Behavior”. IEEE Internet of Things Journal (IEEE IoT) 2021. [PDF]

[9] Long Huang, Chen Wang, “Notification Privacy Protection via Unobtrusive Gripping Hand Verification Using Media Sounds”, in Proceedings of The 27th Annual International Conference On Mobile Computing And Networking (ACM MOBICOM), 2021. (Acceptance rate: 17.4%) [PDF]

[10] Long Huang, Zhen Meng, Zeyu Deng, Chen Wang, Liying Li, and Guodong Zhao. "Robot Behavior-Based User Authentication for Motion-Controlled Robotic Systems," in Proceedings of the 14th International Workshop on Wireless Sensor, Robot and UAV Networks (IEEE WiSARN), 2021

– Best Paper Award [PDF]

[11] Ruxin Wang, Long Huang, Chen Wang, “Preventing Handheld Phone Distraction for Drivers by Sensing the Gripping Hand”, in Proceedings of 18th IEEE International Conference on Mobile Ad-Hoc and Smart Systems (IEEE MASS), 2021. [PDF]

[12] S Abhishek Anand, Chen Wang, Jian Liu, Nitesh Saxena, Yingying Chen, “Spearphone: A Lightweight Speech Privacy Exploit via Accelerometer-Sensed Reverberations from Smartphone Loudspeakers,” in Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Security and Privacy in Wireless and Mobile Networks (ACM WiSec), June-July 2021. (Acceptance rate: 27/121 = 22.3%)

[13] S Abhishek Anand, Jian Liu, Chen Wang, Maliheh Shirvanian, Nitesh Saxena, Yingying Chen, EchoVib: Exploring Voice Authentication via Unique Non-Linear Vibrations of Short Replayed Speech, in Proceedings of the 16th ACM ASIA Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ACM AsiaCCS), 2021. (Acceptance rate: 29/157=18.4%).

[14] Xin Yang, Song Yang, Jian Liu, Chen Wang, Yingying Chen, Nitesh Saxena, “Enabling Finger-touch-based Mobile User Authentication via Physical Vibrations on IoT Devices”, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (IEEE TMC), 2021.

[15] Chen Wang, Yan Wang, Yingying Chen, Hongbo Liu, Jian Liu, “User Authentication on Mobile Devices: Approaches, Threats and Trends”, Computer Networks, 2020. [PDF]

[16] Long Huang, Chen Wang, WalkID: Towards Context Awareness of Smart Home by Identifying Walking Sounds, In 2020 IEEE 6th World Forum on Internet of Things (WF-IoT), pp. 1-6. IEEE, 2020. [PDF]

[17] Zhenzhe Lin, Yucheng Xie, Xiaonan Guo, Chen Wang, Yanzhi Ren and Yingying Chen, in Proceedings of EAI International Conference on IoT Technologies for HealthCare, December 2019. [PDF]

- Best Paper Award

[18] Chen Wang, S Abhishek Anand, Jian Liu, Payton R. Walker, Yingying Chen and Nitesh Saxena. “Defeating Hidden Audio Channel Attacks on Voice Assistants via Audio-Induced Surface Vibrations.” In Proceedings of the Annual Computer Security Applications Conference (ACSAC), December 2019. (Acceptance rate: 60/266 = 22.6%)

[19] Chen Wang, Jian Liu, Xiaonan Guo, Yan Wang and Yingying Chen. “WristSpy: Snooping Passcodes in Mobile Payment Using Wrist-worn Wearables”. in Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (IEEE INFOCOM), April 2019. (Acceptance rate: 288/1464 = 19.7%) [PDF]

[20] Yanzhi Ren, Chen Wang, Yingying Chen, Jie Yang, Continuous and Noninvasive Fine-grained Sleep Monitoring: Hearing Your Breathing Leveraging Smartphones, in IEEE Internet of Things Journal (IEEE IoT), 2019. [PDF]

[21] Jian Liu, Hongbo Liu, Yingying Chen, Yan Wang, Chen Wang, “WiFi Sensing for Human Activity: A Survey”, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 2019.

[22] Chen Wang, Jian Liu, Xiaonan Guo, Yan Wang and Yingying Chen. “Poster: Inferring Mobile Payment Passcodes Leveraging Wearable Devices”, in Proceedings of the 24th Annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (ACM MobiCom), New Delhi, India, October/November 2018. [PDF]

- Best Poster Award Runner-up

[23] Chen Wang, Jian Liu, Yingying Chen, Hongbo Liu, Yan Wang, “Towards In-baggage Suspicious Object Detection Using Commodity WiFi”, [PDF] in Proceedings of IEEE International Communications and Network Security (IEEE CNS 2018), Beijing, China, May/June 2018. (Acceptance rate: 51/181 = 28.2%) 

- Best paper award

[24] Yanzhi Ren, Chen Wang, Yingying Chen, Mooi Choo Chuah, and Jie Yang, Signature Verification Using Critical Segments for Securing Mobile Transactions, in IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (IEEE TMC), 2018.

[25] Chen Wang, Xiaonan Guo, Yingying Chen, Yan Wang, Bo Liu, “Personal PIN Leakage from Wearable Devices," in IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (IEEE TMC), 2018. [PDF]

[26] Jian Liu, Chen Wang, Yingying Chen, and Nitesh Saxena. “Good vibrations: accessing ‘smart’ systems by touching any solid surface”, Biometric Technology Today 2018, no. 4 (2018): 7-10.

[27] Jian Liu, Chen Wang, Yingying Chen, Nitesh Saxena, “VibWrite: Towards Finger-input Authentication on Ubiquitous Surfaces via Physical Vibration”, [PDF]

in Proceedings of the 24th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS 2017), Dallas, USA, October 2017. (Acceptance rate: 151/843 = 17.9%)

[28] Chen Wang, Chuyu Wang, Yingying Chen, Lei Xie and Sanglu Lu, “Smartphone Privacy Leakage of Social Relationships and Demographics from Surrounding Access Points”, [PDF]

in Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Distributed Computing (ICDCS 2017), Atlanta, GA, USA, June 2017. (Acceptance rate: 90/531 = 16.9%)

[29] Chen Wang, Xiuyuan Zheng, Yingying Chen, Jie Yang, “Locating Rogue Access Point using Fine-grained Channel Information”, in IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (IEEE TMC), 2017. [PDF]

[30] Chen Wang, Xiaonan Guo, Yan Wang, Yingying Chen, Bo Liu, Friend or Foe? Your Wearable Devices Reveal Your Personal PIN,

in Proceedings of the 11th ACM Symposium on Information, Computer and Communications Security (ASIACCS), Xi'an, China, May 2016. (Acceptance rate: 20.9%)

- Best Paper Award [PDF]

[31] Yanzhi Ren, Chen Wang, Yingying Chen, Mooi Choo Chuah, Jie Yang, “Critical Segment Based Real-time E-Signature for Securing Mobile Transactions”,  in Proceedings of IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (IEEE CNS), Florence, Italy, September 2015. [PDF]

[32] Yanzhi Ren, Chen Wang, Jie Yang, Yingying Chen, Fine-grained Sleep Monitoring: Hearing Your Breathing with Smartphones, [PDF]

in Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (IEEE INFOCOM), Hong Kong, China, April 2015(Acceptance rate: 316/1640 = 19%).

[33] Xiuyuan Zheng, Chen Wang, Yingying Chen, Jie Yang, “Accurate Rogue Access Point Localization Leveraging Fine-grained Channel Information”, in Proceedings of IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (IEEE CNS), San Francisco, CA, USA, Oct. 2014.

-Best Paper Award [PDF]

[34] Ming Zhan, Liang Zhou, Chen Wang, “A New Algorithm without Exponential and Logarithmic Computations in Iterative Decoding for Double Binary Convolutional Turbo Code”. In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Wireless Communications, Networking and Mobile Computing. Wuhan, China, pp. 1-4, 2011.

Patents

[35] Yingying Chen, Chen Wang, Jian Liu, Hongbo Liu, Yan Wang, In-Baggage Object Detection Using Commodity Wi-Fi, U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/828,151, April 2019.

[36] Yingying Chen, Nitesh Saxena, Jian Liu, Chen Wang, Systems and methods for user input and authentication using vibration analysis, U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/680,970, 2018.

[37] Chen Wang, Liang Zhou, Ming Zhan, Lili Zeng, Fast Two-Way Parallel Decoding Algorithm for Convolutional Turbo Code, Chinese Patent Application No. CN102340320 B, 2013.

Last updated: October 2024.

 

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