— Profile —

— About —

Xiao Tang is a Distinguished Research Fellow, Associate Professor, and Ph.D. Supervisor at the School of Information and Communications Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University. He received the B.Eng. and Ph.D. degrees from Xi'an Jiaotong University in 2011 and 2018, respectively. From 2015 to 2016, he was a visiting Ph.D. student at the University of Houston under the supervision of Prof. Zhu Han, IEEE Fellow and AAAS Fellow. From 2018 to 2024, he was with the School of Electronics and Information, Northwestern Polytechnical University, where he served as an Associate Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of Communication Engineering. In 2024, he was selected for the Young Top Talent Support Program of Xi'an Jiaotong University.

His research focuses on B5G/6G communications, low-altitude networks, information security, and wireless AI. He has led three national-level projects or project tasks and four provincial or ministerial-level projects, and has participated in national key R&D projects, defense-related key projects, and industry-collaboration projects. He has published more than 100 scientific papers, including more than 50 IEEE journal papers in venues such as IEEE JSAC, TWC, TMC, TIFS, and TCOM. His work includes two ESI Highly Cited Papers. He has an H-index of 25, has published one translated book and two academic book chapters, and has been listed among the Stanford / Elsevier world's top 2% scientists.

Selected honors include the 2024 IWCMC Best Paper Award, the 2022 Second Prize of the Science and Technology Progress Award of the Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the 2022 Shaanxi Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Award, the 2021 Xi'an Jiaotong University Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Award, and the China Postdoctoral Innovative Talent Support Program.

— Experience —

— Research —

Wireless AI

This direction studies AI-enabled wireless communication systems under high-dimensional network states, dynamic topology, time-varying channels, multi-user interference, and multi-agent interaction. The focus is to embed wireless topology, channel evolution, interference coupling, optimization iterations, and security constraints into learning models for secure UAV communications, anti-jamming communications, networked over-the-air computation, UAV AirComp, blockchain-assisted trusted data collection, and generative secure beamforming.

Space-Air-Ground Integrated Networks

This direction studies cross-domain communication, computation, security, and resource coordination in future networks composed of satellites, UAVs, aerial platforms, terrestrial base stations, edge nodes, and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces. The research addresses dynamic topology, rapidly varying air-ground links, uncertain channel states, limited energy and computing resources, and multi-platform coordination.

Wireless Information Security

This direction studies physical-layer security, anti-jamming communications, active eavesdropping defense, RIS-assisted secure transmission, UAV network security, low-altitude network security, and secure resource allocation in open, dynamic, and untrusted wireless environments.

Game Theory and Robust Optimization

This direction develops game-theoretic and robust optimization methods for competition, adversarial behavior, uncertainty, and multi-agent decision-making in wireless networks, including Stackelberg games, hierarchical games, variational inequalities, distributionally robust optimization, and multi-agent learning.

— Projects (Sel.) —

• Shaanxi Key R&D Program, Key Core Technologies Project, 2025CG-GJHX-06, 2025-present, Co-Principal Investigator, ongoing

• Young Top Talent Support Program, Xi'an Jiaotong University, 2024-present, Principal Investigator, ongoing

• Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation, Youth Enhancement Project, 2024A1515030215, 2024-present, Principal Investigator, ongoing

• National Natural Science Foundation of China, Young Scientists Fund, 61901378, Principal Investigator, completed

• National Natural Science Foundation of China, Special Project, 61941119, Co-Principal Investigator, completed

• China Postdoctoral Innovative Talent Support Program, BX20190287, Principal Investigator, completed

— Publications (Sel.) —

[1] Xiao Tang, Xunqiang Lan, Lixin Li, Yan Zhang, Zhu Han, "Incentivizing Proof-of-Stake Blockchain for Secured Data Collection in UAV-Assisted IoT: A Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning Approach," IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 40, no. 12, pp. 3470-3484, 2022.

[2] Xiao Tang, Pinyi Ren, Zhu Han, "Hierarchical Competition as Equilibrium Program with Equilibrium Constraints Towards Security-Enhanced Wireless Networks," IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, vol. 36, no. 7, pp. 1564-1578, 2018.

[3] Xiao Tang, Huirong Xiao, Chao Shen, Li Sun, Qinghe Du, Dusit Niyato, Zhu Han, "Unfolded Deep Graph Learning for Networked Over-the-Air Computation," IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, vol. 24, no. 11, pp. 9296-9310, 2025.

[4] Xiao Tang, Kexin Zhao, Chao Shen, Qinghe Du, Yichen Wang, Dusit Niyato, Zhu Han, "Deep Graph Reinforcement Learning for UAV-Enabled Multi-User Secure Communications," IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, vol. 24, no. 9, pp. 8780-8793, 2025.

[5] Xiao Tang, Zhen Ma, Limeng Dong, Yichen Wang, Qinghe Du, Dusit Niyato, Zhu Han, "Uncertainty-Aware Jamming Mitigation With Active RIS: A Robust Stackelberg Game Approach," IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, vol. 21, pp. 2858-2872, 2026.

[6] Xunqiang Lan, Xiao Tang*, Ruonan Zhang, Qinghe Du, Tony Q.S. Quek, "Time-Slotted Multi-Cluster UAV AirComp with Energy-Awareness: A Pointer Network-Assisted Soft Actor-Critic Learning Framework," IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing, online access, 2026.

[7] Xunqiang Lan, Xiao Tang*, Ruonan Zhang, Bin Li, Qinghe Du, Dusit Niyato, Zhu Han, "Distributionally Robust Game for Proof-of-Work Blockchain Mining Under Resource Uncertainties," IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, vol. 21, pp. 1036-1049, 2026.

[8] Zhaole Wang, Xiao Tang*, Naijin Liu, Jinxin Liu, Qinghe Du, Lei Chen, Tingwu Lin, "Distributionally Robust Physical-Layer Security for Satellite Communication via Aerial Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface," IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 74, pp. 9729-9741, 2026.

[9] Xunqiang Lan, Xiao Tang*, Ruonan Zhang, Bin Li, Yichen Wang, Dusit Niyato, Zhu Han, "UAV-Assisted Integrated Communication and Over-the-Air Computation with Interference Awareness," IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 73, no. 11, pp. 10647-10661, 2025.

[10] Chen Wang, Xiao Tang*, Zehui Xiong, Daosen Zhai, Ruonan Zhang, Dusit Niyato, Zhu Han, "UAV-Assisted Federated Learning with Robust Resource and Trajectory Optimization Under Location Uncertainties," IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking, vol. 12, pp. 1282-1296, 2026.

— Services —

Editorial Service

• Editor, Sensors, 2026-2028

• Young Editorial Board Member, Journal of Network and Information Security, 2023-2027

• Young Editorial Board Member, Journal of Naval Aviation University, 2024-2026

Conference Organization

• Symposium Co-Chair, International Wireless Communications and Mobile Computing Conference, IWCMC 2026

• Workshop Co-Chair, ICCSI 2024 / 2025; IEEE VTC 2020 / 2023; IEEE IPCCC 2022; IEEE HPSR 2019

Invited Talks and TPC

• Invited talks at the 2026 Seminar on Aerospace Science and Technology Applications in Practice and Innovation, ICCCAS 2025, and ICECE 2025

• TPC Member: IEEE ICC, IEEE WCNC, IEEE PIMRC, IEEE GLOBECOM, IEEE VTC, and IEEE / CIC ICCC

— Openings —

Prospective master's and Ph.D. students for 2027 are welcome to contact the group. Undergraduate students with strong motivation and sufficient time for research are also welcome to join early.

Students interested in wireless AI, information security, UAV networks, integrated communication and computation, RIS communications, game theory, and robust optimization are encouraged to refer to the C.V., Google Scholar, and ResearchGate profiles for more details.