Caixiang Fan

Caixiang Fan

Ph.D., Assistant Professor at The King’s University, Blockchain Researcher

The King's University

University of Alberta

PACS Lab

Biography

Caixiang (Stephen) Fan is an Assistant Professor of Computing Science at The King’s University (Edmonton). He received his Ph.D. and MSc degrees in software engineering from the University of Alberta in 2019 and 2023, respectively. He received his Bachelor’s degree from the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC) in 2012. In between, he worked as an engineer at Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, China for four years.

After his Ph.D. program under co-supervision of Dr. Hamzeh Khazaei and Dr. Petr Musilek, he had one year of postdoctoral research experience at the ENTAIL – ENergy digiTizAtIon Lab led by Dr. Musilek, at the University of Alberta. His research interests include blockchain, distributed ledger systems, transactive energy, performance evaluation and modelling, and zero knowledge machine learning.

Interests

  • Blockchain Systems
  • Performance Analysis
  • Internet of Things
  • Transactive Energy
  • Zero Knowledge Proofs

Education

  • PhD in Software Engineering, 2023

    University of Alberta

  • MSc in Software Engineering, 2019

    University of Alberta

  • B.Mgt. in Information System, 2012

    University of Electronic Science & Tech. of China

Current Research

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All Blockchain ZKML

Zero-Knowledge Machine Learning Models for Blockchain Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading

This project aims to research, design and evaluate zero-knwledge machine learning (ZKML) models for blockchain-based decentralized energy trading. The inherent transparency of blockchain raises concerns about user privacy, which can lead to sensitive energy data leakage. Additionally, the cost of on-chain computation and the limitations of smart contracts hinder the integration of advanced artificial intelligence technologies. In this project, we propose to leverage blockchain and ZKML technologies to design a novel privacy-preserving and intelligent solution for peer-to-peer energy trading. This solution contains three potential models (or structures), i.e., centralized, decentralized, and federated ZKML from the architectural perspective.
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Zero-Knowledge Machine Learning Models for Blockchain Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading

Dependable and Autonomic Computing Platform for Managing Transactive Microgrids

This project aims to research, design and evaluate a dependable decentralized computing and communication platform to support functional and nonfunctional requirements of transactive microgrids with the focus of renewable energies. More specifically, we propose to analyze, leverage and extend DAG-based and chain-based Blockchains, smart contracts and self-adaptive paradigm to realize the proposed platform. Currently, we are building, modelling and optimizing a blockchain-based Web3 platform which aims to ficilitate the peer-to-peer energy trading which will have a great impact on renewable energy industry.
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Dependable and Autonomic Computing Platform for Managing Transactive Microgrids

Experience

 
 
 
 
 

Assistant Professor

The King’s University

Aug 2024 – Present Edmonton, AB, Canada
Assistant Professor in Computing Science, teaching core CS courses, e.g., numerical analysis, object-oriented programming, and database systems, and reseaching blockchain-based data management systems.
 
 
 
 
 

Postdoctoral Fellow

University of Alberta

Jul 2023 – Jul 2024 Edmonton, AB, Canada
Postdoctoral fellow at the ENTAIL – ENergy digiTizAtIon Lab. Leading research on blockchain and zero knowledge machine leanring applications in energy trading.
 
 
 
 
 

Data Analyst Intern

ReWatt Power

Sep 2020 – Jan 2021 Calgary, AB, Canada
Solar energy data analysis and anomaly detection using machine learning techniques.
 
 
 
 
 

Research Assistant

University of Alberta

Jan 2019 – Jun 2023 Edmonton, AB, Canada
Research assistant at Performant and Available Computer Systems (PACS) Lab. Leading research on blockchain system design for distributed energy and perofrmance modelling.
 
 
 
 
 

Graduate Researcher

Future Energy Systems

Jan 2019 – Jun 2023 Edmonton, AB, Canada
Proposing to analyze, leverage and extend DAG-based blockchains and self-adaptive paradigm to realize a dependable decentralized computing and communication platform to support transactive microgrids. Graduate researcher under the Canada First Research Excellence Fund (CFREF).
 
 
 
 
 

Graduate Researcher

University of Alberta

Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 Edmonton, AB, Canada
Conducting smart home research for 3Leafs Inc. under the supervision of Dr. Yuxiang Chen.
 
 
 
 
 

IT Engineer

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd

Apr 2014 – Jul 2016 Beijing, China
Technical engineer to deploy enterprise-level cloud storage system and solve pritical issues in datacenter projects delivery and maintenance.
 
 
 
 
 

Technical Writer

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd

Jul 2012 – Mar 2014 Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Developed storage system scripts to provide documentation (e.g., operation manual, CLI reference, and best practices) to end users.

Recent Publications

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Caixiang Fan, Hamzeh Khazaei, Petr Musilek (2024). BPET: A Unified Blockchain-Based Framework for Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading. In MDPI FI.

PDF Project DOI

Caixiang Fan (2023). Blockchain-based Design for Performant Peer-to-Peer Energy Trading Systems. In Ph.D. Thesis.

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Changyuan Lin, Caixiang Fan, Nima Mahmoudi, Hamzeh Khazaei (2022). Fine-Grained Performance and Cost Modeling and Optimization for FaaS Applications. In IEEE TPDS.

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Caixiang Fan, Changyuan Lin, Hamzeh Khazaei, Petr Musilek (2022). Performance Analysis of Hyperledger Besu in Private Blockchain. In IEEE DAPPS.

PDF Project DOI

Caixiang Fan, Sara Ghaemi, Hamzeh Khazaei, Yuxiang Chen, Petr Musilek (2021). Performance Analysis of the IOTA DAG-based Distributed Ledger. In ACM Trans. Model. Perform. Eval. Comput. Syst..

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Certificates

Professional Scrum Master I

Scrum Nov 2023
The Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I) certification demonstrates a fundamental level of Scrum mastery.
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Docker Mastery (with Kubernetes and Swarm) from a Docker Captain

Udemy Jan 2021
Build, test, deploy containers with the best mega-course on Docker, Kubernetes, Compose, Swarm and Registry using DevOps
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Python for Time Series Data Analysis

Udemy Sep 2020
Learn how to use Python , Pandas, Numpy , and Statsmodels for Time Series Forecasting and Analysis!
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The Complete Python 3 Course - Beginner to Advanced

Udemy May 2020
Learn Python with projects covering game & web development, web scraping, MongoDB, Django, PyQt, and data visualization!
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Huawei Certified ICT Expert - Storage (HCIE-Storage)

Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd May 2015 – May 2021
HCIE-Storage certification aims to storage professionals talents with basic knowledge and skills in the storage field, including plan, design and practice capabilities.
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