Dr. Yanxiao Zhao is currently an Associate Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), where she joined in fall 2018. She received her Ph.D. degree from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Old Dominion University. Prior to joining VCU, Dr. Zhao was Assistant Professor at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Dr. Zhao's research interests include, but not limited to: machine learning, Internet of things (IoT), cyber security, wireless networks including intelligent reflecting surface, wireless body area networks, software-defined networks, energy harvesting based communications and networking, power management and communications in smart grid. Dr. Zhao's research has been supported by different agencies including NSF, NASA, Air Force, CCI (Commonwealth Cyber Initiative) and VCU Internal Grants. Dr. Zhao has published over 80 papers in prestigious journals and international conferences including IEEE INFOCOM, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Internet of Things Journal, IEEE Access Journal, IEEE GLOBECOM, IEEE ICC, etc. She was the recipient of the Best Paper Award for international conferences WASA2009, ChinaCom2016 and ICMIC2019. She has been actively organizing international conferences by serving as TPC Co-chair for MOBIMEDIA 2019, Workshop Chair for DSCI 2022, Publicity Chair for GreenCom 2019, and TPC members for many conferences. She is an IEEE Senior Member.