Keynote Speakers
Prof. Kemal Akkaya (IEEE Fellow)
Virginia Commonwealth University, USA
Dr. Kemal Akkaya is the Professor and Chair of the Computer Science Department at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). He received his PhD in Computer Science from University of Maryland Baltimore County in 2005. Prior to VCU, he was the Eminent Chaired Scholar Professor in the School of Computer and Information Sciences and Director for Center for Integrated Security, Privacy and Trustworthy AI (CIERTA) at Florida International University (FIU). He held several other positions before FIU. He was a faculty in the department of Computer Science at Southern Illinois University until 2014. Dr. Akkaya was also a visiting professor at The George Washington University in 2013, a Faculty Fellow at Airforce Research Lab in Summer 2020, visiting faculty at the University of Florida Nelms Institute of Connected World in 2021. He was also affiliated with Florida Institute of Cybersecurity. At FIU, Dr. Akkaya was the director of the Advanced Wireless and Security Lab (ADWISE) where he conducted research on security and privacy, IoT, cyber-physical systems and blockchain. His research was funded by many federal and state agencies and industries including NSF, DoE, AFRL, DHS, DoT, DoL, NSA, INL, CyberFlorida, Cisco, and TrendMicro. Dr. Akkaya’s research and training activities have been featured in many local and national news outlets including NPR, Wall Street Journal, Miami Herald, NBC6 Miami, and Forbes Magazine. Dr. Akkaya is a Fellow of IEEE and senior member of ACM. He serves as the associate editor of IEEE Transactions on Security and Forensics journal, area editor of Elsevier Adhoc Network and Computer Networks Journals. Dr. Akkaya was the editor-in-chief of Springer Nature Computer Science journal (2022-2023), the General Chair of IEEE LCN 2018, General Co-chair of IEEE NOMS 2023, and TPC Chair for IEEE ICC Smart Grid Communications in 2019. He was listed among the top 2% scientists in the world according to a Stanford University study from 2020 to 2024. Dr. Akkaya received FIU Faculty Senate Excellence in Research Award, FIU College of Engineering and Computing Research Award both in 2020 and FIU Top Scholar Award in 2023. He has also received many other awards including ``Top Cited'' articles and best papers.
Speech Title: LNMesh: Offline Bitcoin Payments on Community Wireless Mesh Networks using the Lightning Network
Speech Abstract: Bitcoin’s scalability as an alternative payment system has been significantly improved by the Lightning Network (LN), which enables fast, low-cost, and censorship-resistant off-chain transactions. However, LN nodes typically require an active Internet connection to operate securely, which may not always be available or feasible, especially during natural disasters, power outages, or infrastructure failures. In this talk, we present LNMesh, a solution for enabling offline Lightning Network payments over community wireless mesh networks. In LNMesh, users in a neighborhood or community can establish a local wireless mesh network and use it as an alternative communication infrastructure to perform LN payments when Internet connectivity is unavailable. We first present proof-of-concept implementations demonstrating successful offline LN payments using Bluetooth Low Energy and WiFi. For larger and mobile networks, where users may move around and channel liquidity must be used efficiently, LN channel assignments need to be made strategically. We therefore present graph-theoretic channel assignment approaches for constructing efficient LN topologies over mobile wireless mesh networks. Finally, we share evaluation results from large-scale simulations of realistic offline LN payments. Our results show that success rates of up to 95% are achievable with the proposed channel assignment approaches when channels have sufficient liquidity.
Prof. Chin-Chen Chang (IEEE Fellow/ IEE Fellow)
Feng Chia University, Taiwan
Professor C.C. Chang obtained his Ph.D. degree in computer
engineering from National Chiao Tung University. He's first degree
is Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics and master degree is
Master of Science in computer and decision sciences. Both were
awarded in National Tsing Hua University. Dr. Chang served in
National Chung Cheng University from 1989 to 2005. His current title
is Chair Professor in Department of Information Engineering and
Computer Science, Feng Chia University, from Feb. 2005.
Prior to joining Feng Chia University, Professor Chang was an
associate professor in Chiao Tung University, professor in National
Chung Hsing University, chair professor in National Chung Cheng
University. He had also been Visiting Researcher and Visiting
Scientist to Tokyo University and Kyoto University, Japan. During
his service in Chung Cheng, Professor Chang served as Chairman of
the Institute of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Dean
of College of Engineering, Provost and then Acting President of
Chung Cheng University and Director of Advisory Office in Ministry
of Education, Taiwan.
Professor Chang's specialties include, but not limited to, data
engineering, database systems, computer cryptography and information
security. A researcher of acclaimed and distinguished services and
contributions to his country and advancing human knowledge in the
field of information science, Professor Chang has won many research
awards and honorary positions by and in prestigious organizations
both nationally and internationally. He is currently a Fellow of
IEEE and a Fellow of IEE, UK. On numerous occasions, he was invited
to serve as Visiting Professor, Chair Professor, Honorary Professor,
Honorary Director, Honorary Chairman, Distinguished Alumnus,
Distinguished Researcher, Research Fellow by universities and
research institutes. He also published over 1,100 papers in
Information Sciences. In the meantime, he participates actively in
international academic organizations and performs advisory work to
government agencies and academic organizations.
Invited Speaker
Dr.
Ching-Chun Chang
National Institute of Informatics, Japan
CHING-CHUN CHANG received his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Warwick, UK, in 2019. He participated in a short-term scientific mission supported by European Coop- eration in Science and Technology Actions at the Faculty of Computer Science, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg, Germany, in 2016. He was granted the Marie-Curie fellowship and participated in a research and innovation staff exchange scheme supported by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA, in 2017. He was a Visiting Scholar with the School of Computer and Mathematics, Charles Sturt University, Australia, in 2018, and with the School of Information Technology, Deakin University, Australia, in 2019. He was a Research Fellow with the Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, China, in 2020. He is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the National Institute of Informatics, Japan. His research interests include steganography, forensics, biometrics, cybersecurity, computer vision, computational linguistics and artificial intelligence.