Secure and Intelligent Distributed Computing (SIDC) Lab
Secure and Intelligent Distributed Computing (SIDC) Lab
Zhen Zeng, Ph.D., Computer Science
Zhen Zeng, Ph.D. has led the Secure and Intelligent Distributed Computing Lab (SIDC Lab) at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) since 2023. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science. Dr. Zeng received her Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Arizona State University, under the supervision of Dr. Guoliang Xue and Dr. Dijiang Huang. Before joining UWM, she gained valuable industry experience in the high-tech sector, with a focus on power management and cloud-native technologies.
Dr. Zeng’s general research interest lies in secure compound AI systems, with an emphasis on integrating trustworthiness and resilience into the AI service lifecycle, spanning development, deployment, and operation, to deliver high performance in cloud, edge, and on-premises environments. Her current research focuses on edge intelligence and edge security and privacy, including AI-powered cyber-physical systems (CPS). Equally committed to education, she works on cybersecurity and AI education for both professionals and the broader workforce. Her recent research project focuses on AI in manufacturing in close collaboration with industry partners.
[10/2025] Our paper on a lightweight edge backdoor defense has been accepted at the Eighth ACM/IEEE Workshop on Security and Privacy in Edge Computing (EdgeSP 2025).
[10/2025] Our paper on a pruning-based edge backdoor defense has been accepted for poster presentation at the Tenth ACM/IEEE Symposium on Edge Computing (SEC'25).
[10/2025] Our paper on investigating resource utilization on edge distributed AI infrastructure has been accepted at the Second Workshop on Edge Intelligence/SEC'25.
[09/2025] Honored to be one of the contributors for the LEVEL UP AI full report, which details challenges, opportunities, and strategies for building AI education capacity across U.S. higher education.
[07/2025] Invited to serve as the reviewer for ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE TC'2026)
[06/2025] Invited to serve as the student travel grant chair for the IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM 2026)
[06/2025] Congratulations to our lab students, Mr. Gabriel Taveira and Mr. Zijian Zhang, for presenting research work at the ACM SIGMETRICS 2025 poster session.
[05/2025] Invited to serve as a panelist for an NSF OAC Proposal Review Panel.
[04/2025] Invited to participate in the NSF LEVEL UP AI Roundtable Discussion on AI Education hosted by the Computing Research Association.
[04/2025] Invited to serve as a panelist for an NSF CISE Proposal Review Panel.
[01/2025] Congratulations to our lab students, Mr. Liang Wu (NMDSI Student Scholar Award recipient in 2025 Spring) and Mr. Jagger Vicente and Mr. Jack Harmer (UWM SURF Award recipient in 2025 Spring)! Thanks, NMDSI and UWM OUR!
NSF NeTS Early Career Workshop, Alexandria, VA, 2025
"The Teacher Excellence Award" at UWM, 2024 Spring
NSF CAREER Workshop Mock Panel, Virtual, 2024
NSF SaTC Aspiring PI Workshop, Chicago, IL, 2024
NSF Directions for Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace (SaTC) EDU workshop, Dallas, TX, 2023
CRA (Computing Research Association) Early & Mid Career Mentoring Workshop, Chicago, IL, 2023
UW System Alliance for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Advancement in STEM workshop, Wisconsin Dells, WI, 2023
Faculty mentor at Wisconsin Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (WiscAMP) STEM-Inspire Program, 2023 - 2025
NSF Broaden Engineering Teaching with Theory-based Educational Resources (BETTER) workshop, Milwaukee, WI, 2023
Grant Panelist
NSF Proposal Review Panels, 2025
NSF Proposal Review Panels, 2024
Technical Program Committee
CCS 2024 workshop on Adaptive and Autonomous Cyber Defense (AACD 2024)
NDSS 2024 workshop on AI System with Confidential Computing (AISCC 2024)
CCS 2023 workshop on Moving Target Defense (MTD 2023)
Organizing Committee
Student Travel Grant Chair, IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM 2025, INFOCOM 2026)
Social Media Chair, IEEE International Conference on Cloud Engineering (IC2E 2024)
Reviewer
Journal:
IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC), IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management (TNSM), IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing (TMC), IEEE Transactions on Reliability, ACM Transactions on Cyber-Physical Systems, IEEE Transactions on Education (ToE)
Conference:
IEEE International Conference on Parallel and Distributed Systems (ICPADS'22), ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE TC'19, SIGCSE TC'26), ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE'17, ITiCSE'18)