cv
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Basics
| Name | Zihan (Tomson) Li |
| Label | Ph.D. Candidate |
| tomson.li@tomson.li | |
| Url | https://bio.tomson.li |
| Summary | Research focus on real-time system security, cyber-physical systems, CPS testing. |
Education
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Aug 2023 - Present St. Louis, MO, USA
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Aug 2020 - Dec 2022 St. Louis, MO, USA
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Aug 2020 - May 2023 St. Louis, MO, USA
Work
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May 2022 - Present Research Assistant
Washington University in St. Louis
Focus: Real-Time Systems Security.
PI: Prof. Ning Zhang -
Jul 2020 - Sept 2020 Backend Development Intern
Youme.im
Developed an end-to-end encryption module for audio and video real-time communication
Awards
- Oct 2022
2022 Dean's Select PhD Fellowship
Washington University in St. Louis
Nominated for the 2022 Dean's Select PhD Fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis.
Publications
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2026 Balancing Security and Schedulability: WCET Evaluation and Security Optimization in CPS
Zihan Li, Marion Sudvarg, Ching-Hsiang Chan, Ryan Burrow, Nathan Burow, Cailani Lemieux-Mack, Sanjoy Baruah, Ning Zhang, Bryan C. Ward
To Appear in 2026 IEEE 32nd Real-Time and Embedded Technology and Applications Symposium (RTAS)
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2026 Sensing and Stopping Interfering Secondary Users: Validation of an Efficient Spectrum Sharing System
Meles G. Weldegebriel, Zihan Li, Dustin Maas, Gregory Hellbourg, Ning Zhang, Neal Patwari
To Appear in 2026 IEEE International Symposium on Dynamic Spectrum Access Networks (DySPAN)
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2025 Resilient Federated Learning on Embedded Devices with Constrained Network Connectivity
Zihan Li, Han Liu, Ao Li, Ching-hsiang Chan, Yevgeniy Vorobeychik, William Yeoh, Wenjing Lou, Ning Zhang
2025 62nd ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference (DAC)
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2025 A Unified Hardware Performance Profiling Infrastructure to Measure and Manage Uncertainty
Ao Li, Marion Sudvarg, Zihan Li, Sanjoy Baruah, Chris Gill, Ning Zhang
19th USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI 25)
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2025 Tintin: PMU Scheduling to Minimize Uncertainty
Marion Sudvarg, Ao Li, Zihan Li, Sanjoy Baruah, Chris Gill, Ning Zhang
The 19th Annual Workshop on Operating Systems Platforms for Embedded Real-Time Applications (OSPERT 25)
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2024.08.14 Your Firmware Has Arrived: A Study of Firmware Update Vulnerabilities
Yuhao Wu, Jinwen Wang, Yujie Wang, Shixuan Zhai, Zihan Li, Yi He, Kun Sun, Qi Li, Ning Zhang
33rd USENIX Security Symposium (USENIX Security 24)
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2022.12.05 Work-in-Progress: Measuring Security Protection in Real-time Embedded Firmware
Yuhao Wu, Yujie Wang, Shixuan Zhai, Zihan Li, Ao Li, Jinwen Wang, Ning Zhang
2022 IEEE Real-Time Systems Symposium (RTSS)
Services
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Assistant in Instruction
CSE 5619 Spring 2026: Recent Advances in Computer Security and Privacy @ Washington University in St. Louis
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Artifact Evaluation Program Committee (AE PC) Member
ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS)
Skills
| Languages | |
| C/C++, Python, Java, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, VHDL, Assembly, SQL, PHP |
| Framework | |
| React, Node.js, ROS, ROS2 |
| Developer Tools | |
| Git, Cmake, Docker, VS Code, Visual Studio, Eclipse, Wireshark, Xcode, Ghidra, Gazebo |
| Libaries | |
| pandas, NumPy, Matplotlib, Tkinter, pytorch |
Languages
| Mandarin Chinese | |
| Native speaker |
| English | |
| Fluent, Professional proficiency |
Projects
- Jan 2022 - May 2022
RichArduino V4
FPGA microcontroller with RISC-based architecture
- I2C/UART serial communication
- VHDL programming
- PCB design
- Nov 2025 - Jan 2026
EMILY: Electro Magnetic Interference Ledger & registrY
A collaborative platform designed to record, analyze, and share radio-frequency interference (RFI) events affecting radio astronomy observations.
- Full-stack development
- Java, Node.js, PostgreSQL, Springboot
- Data visualization