Dr. Zhao received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 2002. He is a full professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Cleveland State University. Dr. Zhao has been doing research in the area of dependable distributed systems for more than two decades. His research has been sponsored by the US federal and state agencies such as US National Science Foundation, the US Department of Energy (DoE), the US Department of Transportation, and the Ohio Department of Higher Education. Dr. Zhao is currently working on a blockchain-related project supported by DoE. Dr. Zhao has more than 200 academic publications. He is an Associate Editor for IEEE Access and MDPI Computer. He regularly gives keynote speeches and tutorials in various international conferences.