Haowen Xu

Haowen Xu

I am Haowen Xu, currently a second-year Ph.D. student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), where I am fortunate to be advised by Prof. Xiaoyan Sun and co-advised by Prof. Jun Dai. Prior to joining WPI, I earned my B.S. degree from Nanjing University in 2024.

My research focuses on Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence and Cyber-Physical System Security. I am passionate about building AI systems that are not only intelligent but also reliable, secure, and deployable in safety-critical applications. My work explores the challenges at the intersection of machine learning robustness and the security of interconnected physical systems.

📚 Education

  • Expected 2029, Ph.D. in Computer Science, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA.

  • 2020 - 2024, B.Eng in Communication Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.

📣 News

  • 03/20/2026 Talk Our work EMPalm has been accepted for a talk at New England Security Day (NESD).

  • 01/29/2026 Paper Our work EMPalm has been accepted for publication at ACM SenSys 2026 (Acceptance rate: 52/263 = 19.8%).

📄 Publications

Here are some selected publications. For a full list, please visit my Google Scholar profile.

Selected Conference Publications

[SenSys ‘26] Haowen Xu, Tianya Zhao, Xuyu Wang, et al., “EMPalm: Exfiltrating Palm Biometric Data via Electromagnetic Side-Channels”, Saint-Malo, France, May 2026. (Acceptance rate: 52/263 = 19.8%)

[MILCOM ‘25] Junye Jiang, Jingcheng Ju, Haowen Xu, Zhenlu Tan, Duohe Ma, Jun Dai, Xiaoyan Sun, “VibLeak: Towards Practical Covert Data Leakage via Phone Vibrations”, IEEE Military Communications Conference (MILCOM), October 2025, pp. 999-1004. Paper

[ICICS ‘25] Haowen Xu, Tianya Zhao, et al., “MagWatch: Exposing Privacy Risks in Smartwatches through Electromagnetic Signals”, Nanjing, China, October 2025. (Acceptance rate: 39/139 = 28%) Paper

Teaching

  • Teaching Assistant, Responsible Artificial Intelligence, Fall 2024

Services

CV

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