Chenhong Cao

Associate Professor, USTC

I am currently an Associate Professor with the School of Computer Science and Technology, University of Science and Technology of China (USTC). I am affiliated with the Ubiquitous Battery-free IoT Laboratory led by Prof. Wei Gong.

I received my Ph.D. in Computer Science from Zhejiang University in 2018, under the supervision of Prof. Wei Dong and Academician Chun Chen. Before joining USTC, I conducted postdoctoral research at Zhejiang University and served on the faculty of Shanghai University.

Research Interests: My research focuses on Edge Computing, IoT Systems and Networking, and Wireless and Mobile Computing. I have a particular emphasis on backscatter communication and passive IoT systems. My work centers on system architecture, protocol/physical-layer co-design, and performance optimization for scalable, battery-free intelligent sensing and connectivity.

Recent News

  • [2026.01] Our paper titled "Harnessing collective intelligence of multi-agent LLM systems for sensor failure reasoning in smart manufacturing" was published by Journal of Industrial Information Integration.
  • [2025.11] Our paper titled "Efficient Covert Communication with Ambient OFDM WiFi Backscatter" was accepted by IEEE JSAC.
  • [2025.04] We won the Silver Medal at the International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva.
  • [2025.01] Our paper titled "Real-time Cross-Domain Gesture and User Identification via COTS WiFi" was accepted by IEEE TMC.
  • [2024.12] I was selected for the Mozi Distinguished Young Scholar Special Fellowship.
  • [2024.12] Received the IEEE Outstanding Paper Award at IEEE HPCC 2024.
  • [2024.10] I was selected for the Xiaomi Young Talents Program.

Selected Publications [DBLP] [Google Scholar]

Harnessing collective intelligence of multi-agent LLM systems for sensor failure reasoning in smart manufacturing Wei Gong, Shuang Qiao, Chenhong Cao, Shilei Tan, Junliang Ye, Haoxiang Liu, Si Chen, Xuesong Wang Journal of Industrial Information Integration, Vol. 49, 2026.
Efficient Covert Communication with Ambient OFDM WiFi Backscatter Y Huang, K Yan, Chenhong Cao, L Yuan, Y Fang, A Nayak, W Gong IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (JSAC), 2025.
Real-time Cross-Domain Gesture and User Identification via COTS WiFi Chenhong Cao, Yue Ding, Miaoling Dai, Wei Gong, Xibin Zhao IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (TMC), 2025.
Towards Seamless Single Receiver Backscatter with Uncontrolled Ambient OFDM WiFi Outstanding Paper Award Chenhong Cao, Wei Xi, Shuai Wang, and Wei Gong IEEE High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC), 2024.
Neural Adaptive IoT Streaming Analytics with RL-Adapt Chenhong Cao, Miaoling Dai, Bonan Shen, Guobing Zou, Wei Dong Computer Networks, 2023.
WiEdge: Edge Computing for Audio Sensing Applications with Accurate Wireless Link Prediction Chenhong Cao, Wei Dong, Wenzhao Zhang and Yi Gao IEEE Internet of Things Journal (IoTJ), 2023.
AdSherlock: Efficient and Deployable Click Fraud Detection for Mobile Applications Chenhong Cao, Yi Gao, Yang Luo, Mingyuan Xia, Wei Dong, Chun Chen, Xue Liu IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (TMC), 2021.
Universal Path Tracing for Large-Scale Sensor Networks Yi Gao, Wei Dong, Chenhong Cao, Xiaoyu Zhang IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking (ToN), 2020.
Understanding Path Reconstruction Algorithms in Multihop Wireless Networks Wei Dong, Chenhong Cao, Xiaoyu Zhang, and Yi Gao IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking (ToN), 2019.
Network Measurement in Multihop Wireless Networks with Lossy and Correlated Links Chenhong Cao, Wei Gong, Wei Dong, Jihong Yu, Chun Chen, and Jiangchuan Liu IEEE INFOCOM 2018. (Acceptance Rate: 19.2%)
Accurate Per-Link Loss Tomography in Dynamic Sensor Networks Chenhong Cao, Yi Gao, Wei Dong, and Jiajun Bu Computer Networks, 2018.
TinySDM: Software Defined Measurement in Wireless Sensor Networks Chenhong Cao, Luyao Luo, Yi Gao, Wei Dong*, Chun Chen ACM/IEEE IPSN 2016. (Acceptance Rate: 19.6%)

Professional Experience

  • Associate Professor

    University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) | Feb. 2024 - Present

  • Associate Professor

    Shanghai University | Mar. 2023 - Feb. 2024

  • Lecturer

    Shanghai University | Apr. 2019 - Mar. 2023

  • Postdoctoral Researcher

    Zhejiang University / Alibaba-ZJU Joint Research Institute | July 2018 - Apr. 2019

  • Visiting Scholar

    Simon Fraser University, Canada | Oct. 2016 - June 2017

Education

  • Ph.D. in Computer Science and Technology

    Zhejiang University | 2014 - 2018

  • M.Sc. / B.Sc. in Computer Science and Technology

    Northeastern University | 2007 - 2013

Projects and Funding

  • [PI] National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, No. 62472391), 2025-2028.
  • [PI] Hefei Natural Science Foundation (No. HZR2406), 2024.12-2026.11.
  • [PI] USTC Youth Innovation Fund, 2024.
  • [PI] National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, No. 62002213), Completed.
  • [PI] Shanghai Sailing Program (No. 20YF1413700), Completed.
  • [PI] Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory Open Project (No. AHNIS2023001).

Honors & Awards

  • Silver Medal, International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva, 2025
  • Mozi Distinguished Young Scholar Special Fellowship, USTC, 2024
  • Xiaomi Young Talents Program, 2024
  • IEEE Outstanding Paper Award, IEEE HPCC, 2024
  • Shanghai University Young Talents Sailing Program, 2022
  • Shanghai Science and Technology Young Talents Sailing Program, 2020

Teaching

  • Spring Semester: Fundamentals of Java Software Development (Undergraduate)
  • Spring Semester: Parallel and Distributed Computing (COMP6107P)

Academic Services

Conference Organization
  • Publication Chair: IEEE ICPADS 2025
  • Special Session Co-chair: IEEE WFIoT 2025
  • TPC Member: IEEE HPCC 2024, IEEE UIC 2023, IEEE BigData 2021-2023
Journal & Conference Reviewer

IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (TMC), IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems (TITS), IEEE Internet of Things Journal (IoTJ), ISWC/Ubicomp, etc.

Contact Information

I am always looking for self-motivated students to join our lab. If you are interested in IoT and Edge Computing, please feel free to email me.

  • chcao@ustc.edu.cn
  • School of Computer Science and Technology
  • University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui