Applied AI & Systems Research

Xiangwen (Wayne) Yang

Applied AI Engineer · Research Software Engineer

Environmental Informatics Hub · Monash University

Portrait of Xiangwen (Wayne) Yang

About

I am an applied AI engineer and research software engineer with more than ten years of experience building practical systems across cybersecurity, blockchain, data analytics and enterprise software. I currently work at Monash University’s Environmental Informatics Hub, developing research software and AI-enabled systems that connect data, modelling and practical decision-making for environmental challenges.

My work spans agentic AI for security, graph machine learning, privacy, blockchain applications, IoT analytics and large-scale data modelling. I have temporarily paused my PhD studies in Computer Science at the University of Sydney to focus on applied AI at a pivotal stage in its real-world adoption, staying closely engaged with rapidly evolving capabilities, engineering practices and operational needs.

Research interests

Trustworthy AI & security

Agentic systems for cyber defence, memory-augmented LLMs, zero-day discovery and safeguards for dependable AI.

Blockchain & distributed systems

Network resilience, consensus, decentralised infrastructure and secure on-chain/off-chain applications.

Graph learning & privacy

Adversarial robustness, model extraction, membership inference and responsible use of graph-structured data.

Selected publications

More publications
  1. 2025
  2. 2024
  3. 2023

    Demystifying Uneven Vulnerability of Link Stealing Attacks against Graph Neural Networks

    He Zhang, Bang Wu, Shuo Wang, Xiangwen Yang, et al. · ICML

  4. 2023

    A New Look at Blockchain Leader Election: Simple, Efficient, Sustainable and Post-Quantum

    Muhammed F. Esgin, Oguzhan Ersoy, et al., Xiangwen Yang, Raymond K. Zhao · ACM AsiaCCS

For citation counts and the most recent record, see my Google Scholar profile.

Professional experience

Sep 2019–Present

Senior / Research Software Engineer

Monash University · Melbourne, VIC

  • Currently develop research software and AI-enabled data systems at the Environmental Informatics Hub, supporting environmental research and evidence-based decision-making.
  • Lead two to three concurrent research-software and data projects across blockchain, cybersecurity, agriculture, energy, transport and law enforcement.
  • Architected Algorand provenance prototypes integrating QR, RFID, GPS and IoT data for pharmaceutical and honey supply chains.
  • Built analytics workflows for more than three million crime records and solar-PV telemetry, supporting trend detection, predictive maintenance and an approximate 10% efficiency improvement.
  • Contributed to peer-reviewed security research published at NDSS, ICML, ACM AsiaCCS, IEEE ICDM and ACM CIKM.
Jul 2024–Present

PhD Candidate, Computer Science

University of Sydney · Sydney, NSW · Study currently paused

  • Temporarily paused PhD studies to focus on applied AI during a pivotal period of real-world adoption.
  • Research examines blockchain-network resilience and the security of decentralised infrastructure.
  • Developed reproducible experiments, data-analysis workflows and research software to turn findings into practical tools.
Jul–Dec 2020

Teaching Associate

Monash University · Melbourne, VIC

  • Taught Network Security topics including TLS, VPNs and firewall design.
  • Supported students through practical security exercises and technical problem solving.
Feb 2018–Nov 2019

PHP Developer & Team Leader

EDUPLUS · Melbourne, VIC

  • Designed and developed front-end and back-end components for production web applications.
  • Implemented application logic, data models and integrations while maintaining delivery quality.
  • Reviewed code, coordinated development work and mentored junior developers across projects.
Aug 2013–Apr 2017

Senior Software Engineer

Asiainfo · Shanghai, China

  • Developed backend services for a large-scale telecommunications business platform.
  • Implemented broadband service-change workflows and complex enterprise business logic.
  • Maintained and troubleshot integrations supporting high-volume operational processes.

Selected projects

Memory-Augmented LLM IDS

AI · Security

Designed an agent with short- and long-term memory and code-aware analysis for vulnerability discovery, including a zero-day finding recognised with a USD $10,000 bug bounty.

Honey Provenance

Blockchain · IoT

Built an immutable provenance system using QR, RFID and GPS data for end-to-end traceability, counterfeit prevention and batch recall.

Victoria Police Crime Analytics

Data

Modelled more than three million records using regression and pattern analysis to identify actionable trends for operational planning.

Solar PV Analytics

Machine Learning

Combined telemetry and weather data for anomaly detection and predictive maintenance, producing an approximate 10% efficiency improvement.

Education

PhD, Computer Science

University of Sydney · 2024–Present

Master of Information Technology

Monash University · 2018–2020

Bachelor of Software Engineering

Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications · 2009–2013

Technical skills

Languages
Python, Go, TypeScript, JavaScript, SQL
AI & data
PyTorch, NLP, predictive modelling, anomaly detection
Systems
FastAPI, Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, SQL/NoSQL
Blockchain
Algorand, Ethereum, DApps, consensus protocols