Minhao Cui

self

I am currently a fourth-year Ph.D. student at Manning College of Information and Computer Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst under supervision of Prof. Jie Xiong. I also closely work with Prof. Qing Wang from TU Delft.

My reserach topic is Visible Light Communication, especially for the side-channel of Visible Light Communication systems and Wireless Sensing.

Email: minhaocui at cs.umass.edu

News!

Publications

  • DancingAnt: Body-empowered Wireless Sensing Utilizing Pervasive Radiations from Powerline
    Minhao Cui, Binbin Xie, Qing Wang, Jie Xiong
    In Proceedings of ACM Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (MobiCom), 2023. (Full paper, Acceptance rate: 92/377=24.4%)

  • LeakageScatter: Backscattering LiFi-leaked RF Signals
    Muhammad Sarmad Mir*, Minhao Cui*, Borja Genoves Guzman, Qing Wang, Jie Xiong, Domenico Giustiniano (*Equal contribution)
    In Proceedings of ACM Conference on Theory, Algorithmic Foundations, and Protocol Design for Mobile Networks and Mobile Computing (MobiHoc), 2023. (Full paper, Acceptance rate: 30/136=22.1%)

  • Boosting the Long Range Sensing Potential of LoRa
    Binbin Xie, Minhao Cui, Deepak Ganesan, Xiangru Chen, Jie Xiong
    In Proceedings of ACM Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services (MobiSys), 2023. (Full paper, Acceptance rate: 41/198=20.7%)

  • Bracelet+: Harvesting the Leaked RF Energy in VLC with Wearable Bracelet Antenna
    Minhao Cui, Qing Wang, Jie Xiong
    In Proceedings of ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SenSys), 2022. (Full paper, Acceptance rate: 52/208=25%)[Best Paper Award (1/208)]

  • RadioInLight: Doubling the Data Rate of VLC Systems
    Minhao Cui, Qing Wang, Jie Xiong
    In ACM International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (MobiCom), 2021.(Full paper, Acceptance rate: 60/299=20.1%)

  • Breaking the limitations of visible light communication through its side channel
    Minhao Cui, Qing Wang, Jie Xiong
    In Proceedings of ACM Conference on Embedded Networked Sensor Systems (SenSys), 2020. (Full paper, Acceptance rate: 43/213=20.2%)

  • Sniffing visible light communication through walls
    Minhao Cui, Yuda Feng, Qing Wang, Jie Xiong
    In ACM International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking (MobiCom), 2020. (Full paper, Acceptance rate: 62/384=16.1%) [Honourable Mention Award (3/384)]

Projects

sensys_bracelet

We utilize the human body to improve the energy harvesting performance. The wearable bracelet antenna is designed to harvest more leaked energy from the VLC systems with the help of human body.

SenSys 2022 paper




radioinlight_led

We utilize the leaked side channel signals of VLC to transmit additional data bits for communication. Without too much hardware modification and energy cost, we can double the data rate of the VLC systems with our novel design.

MobiCom 2021 paper




 
 
sensys_led

We utilize the side channel of VLC - a Radio Frequency (RF) channel created unintentionally during the transmission process of VLC - to break the VLC limitations:i) surrounding objects can easily block VLC links, and ii) intense ambient light can saturate the photodiodes of VLC receivers.

SenSys 2020 paper


 
 

In this paper, for the first time, we show that VLC is not as secure as people thought: VLC can be sniffed through walls! The key principle behind this is that in VLC transmissions, a VLC transmitter not only emits visible light signals but also leaks out `side channel RF signals'.

MobiCom 2020 paper, 5 min elevetor pitch video, Full presentation video


Awards

  • Best Paper Award in SenSys 2022
  • Student Travel Grants in MobiCom 2021
  • Honourable Mention Award in MobiCom 2020
  • National Scholarship in China, 2017 and 2018

TA Experience

  • Fall 2020: COMPSCI 240 - Reasoning Under Uncertainty.
  • Spring 2021: COMPSCI 240 - Reasoning Under Uncertainty.
  • Fall 2021: COMPSCI 240 - Reasoning Under Uncertainty.
  • Spring 2022: COMPSCI 240 - Reasoning Under Uncertainty.