Hello!

With a Ph.D. in Computer Science, I combine deep technical insight with strategic oversight, staying attuned to the fast-evolving AI landscape. I thrive in multidisciplinary environments and am passionate about helping organizations adopt AI responsibly with confidence.

My expertise lies in operationalizing AI governance throughout the AI lifecycle, from model evaluation and risk assessment to quality assurance and regulatory compliance. Currently serving as Principal AI Expert at AIQURIS, I advise organizations on enterprise AI readiness, risk frameworks, and policy development. I work cross-functionally with legal, compliance, and technical teams to ensure that AI deployments are not only innovative but aligned with business objectives, risk appetites, and emerging regulations.

As a member of Singapore’s AI Technical Committee (AITC), I actively contribute to the development of national AI standards, including SS ISO/IEC 42001:2024, which I helped launch as a keynote speaker.

Experiences

Principal AI Expert

2024 - Present
AIQURIS (A TÜV SÜD Venture), Singapore
  • Founding team member leading the design of an intelligent SaaS platform for responsible AI adoption. I translate AI governance expertise into scalable product features, covering risk profiling, regulatory mapping, and compliance automation. I have integrated expert systems and LLMs to the product, reducing risk assessment effort by up to 70%. The platform is adopted by leading financial institutions and government agencies. I also provide expert consulting on AI risk, compliance, and policy alignment.

Principal Consultant

2022 - 2024
TÜV SÜD's Asia Pacific, Singapore
  • Advised clients on AI readiness, data governance, and regulatory compliance. Led cross-sector AI assessments, developed governance policies aligned with ISO/IEC standards, and streamlined regulatory audits using LLMs.
  • Trainer for AI Quality Certification Program (AIQCP).

Senior Researcher

2018 - 2022
Huawei International, Singapore
  • Led research bridging trustworthy AI innovations with commercial deployment. Conducted performance, fairness, and security testing on advanced AI models. Developed adversarial robustness features for Huawei’s MindSpore AI framework. Created ML-driven dynamic malware detection solutions enhancing mobile device security.

Research Scientist

2017 - 2018
Institute for Infocomm Research, A*STAR, Singapore
  • Collaborated with government agencies on AI and blockchain initiatives supporting Singapore’s Smart Nation Programme. Developed AI models for power demand forecasting and anomaly detection in smart grids for the Energy Market Authority. Contributed to blockchain solutions enhancing security in intelligent transportation systems with the Land Transport Authority.

Research Fellow

2015 - 2017
Singapore Management University, Singapore
  • Conducted advanced research on mobile security and privacy, focusing on developing practical security solutions for mobile and wearable devices. Conducted vulnerability analyses and designed user-friendly authentication methods that balance security with usability.

Selected Publications

  • Backdoor Online Tracing With Evolving Graphs.
  • Chengyu Jia, Jinyin Chen, Shouling Ji, Yao Cheng, Haibin Zheng, Qi Xuan.
    IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, vol. 19, pp. 10314-10327, 2024.
  • A Miss Is as Good as A Mile: Metamorphic Testing for Deep Learning Operators.
  • Jinyin Chen, Chengyu Jia, Yunjie Yan, Jie Ge, Haibin Zheng, Yao Cheng.
    Proceedings of the ACM on Software Engineering 1, no. FSE (2024), 2005-2027.
  • EdgePro: Edge Deep Learning Model Protection via Neuron Authorization.
  • Jinyin Chen, Haibin Zheng, Tao Liu, Jiawei Liu, Yao Cheng, Xuhong Zhang, Shouling Ji.
    IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (2024).
  • FedRight: An effective model copyright protection for federated learning.
  • Jinyin Chen, Mingjun Li, Yao Cheng, Haibin Zheng.
    Computers & Security 135 (2023), 103504.
  • Understanding Real-world Threats to Deep Learning Models in Android Apps.
  • Zizhuang Deng, Kai Chen, Guozhu Meng, Xiaodong Zhang, Ke Xu, and Yao Cheng.
    In Proceedings of the 2022 ACM SIGSAC Conference on Computer and Communications Security, pp. 785-799. 2022.
  • NeuronFair: Interpretable White-Box Fairness Testing through Biased Neuron Identification.
  • Haibin Zheng, Zhiqing Chen, Tianyu Du, Xuhong Zhang, Yao Cheng, Shouling Ji, Jingyi Wang, Yue Yu, Jinyin Chen.
    In Proceedings of the 44th International Conference on Software Engineering (ICSE 2022).
  • DeepMnemonic: Password Mnemonic Generation via Deep Attentive Encoder-Decoder Model.
  • Yao Cheng, Chang Xu, Zhen Hai, and Yingjiu Li.
    In IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC), vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 77-90, 1 Jan.-Feb. 2022.
  • Android-based Cryptocurrency Wallets: Attacks and Countermeasures.
  • Cong Li, Daojing He, Shihao Li, Sencun Zhu, Sammy Chan, Yao Cheng.
    In 2020 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain (Blockchain), pp. 9-16. IEEE, 2020.
  • Designing Leakage-Resilient Password Entry on Head-Mounted Smart Wearable Glass Devices.
  • Yan Li, Yao Cheng, Weizhi Meng, Yingjiu Li, Robert H. Deng.
    IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security, 16, pp.307-321.
  • PowerNet: A Smart Energy Forecasting Architecture Based on Neural Networks.
  • Yao Cheng, Chang Xu, Daisuke Mashima, Partha P. Biswas, Geetanjali Chipurupalli, Bin Zhou, Yongdong Wu.
    ET Smart Cities, 2(4), pp.199-207.
  • Where Does the Robustness Come from? A Study of the Transformation-based Ensemble Defence.
  • Chang Liao, Yao Cheng, Chengfang Fang, and Jie Shi.
    In Proceedings of the 13th ACM Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Security (CCS workshop AISec'20).
  • NativeX: Native Executioner Freezes Android.
  • Qinsheng Hou, Yao Cheng, and Lingyun Ying.
    In Proceedings of the 15th ACM Asia Conference on Computer and Communications Security (AsiaCCS), pp. 458-470. 2020.
  • Keyed Non-parametric Hypothesis Tests.
  • Yao Cheng, Cheng-Kang Chu, Hsiao-Ying Lin, Marius Lombard-Platet, and David Naccache.
    In International Conference on Network and System Security (NSS), pp. 632-645. Springer, Cham, 2019.
  • Securing Intelligent Transportation System: A Blockchain-Based Approach with Attack Mitigation.
  • Le Su, Yao Cheng, Huasong Meng, Vrizlynn Thing, Zhe Wang, Linghe Kong, and Long Cheng.
    In International Conference on Smart Blockchain, pp. 109-119. Springer, Cham, 2019.
  • Password Enhancement Based on Semantic Transformation.
  • Daojing He, Xiao Yang, Beibei Zhou, Yu Wu, Yao Cheng, and Nadra Guizani.
    IEEE Network 34, no. 1 (2019): 116-121.
  • Detecting Promotion Attacks in the App Market Using Neural Networks.
  • Daojing He, Kai Hong, Yao Cheng, Zongli Tang, and Mohsen Guizani.
    IEEE Wireless Communications 26, no. 4 (2019): 110-116.
  • A scalable and extensible framework for android malware detection and family attribution.
  • Li Zhang, Vrizlynn LL Thing, Yao Cheng.
    Computers & Security 80 (2019): 120-133.
  • A Survey of Android Exploits in the Wild.
  • Huasong Meng, Vrizlynn L.L. Thing, Yao Cheng, Li Zhang, Zhongmin Dai.
    Computers & Security 76 (2018): 71-91.
  • Towards Quantitative Evaluation of Privacy Protection Schemes for Electricity Usage Data Sharing.
  • Daisuke Mashima, Aidana Serikova, Yao Cheng, Binbin Chen.
    ICT Express 4, no. 1 (2018): 35-41.
  • SCLib: A Practical and Lightweight Defense against Component Hijacking in Android Applications.
  • Daoyuan Wu, Yao Cheng, Debin Gao, Yingjiu Li and Robert H. Deng.
    In Proceedings of the Eighth ACM Conference on Data and Application Security and Privacy, pp. 299-306. ACM, 2018.
  • Attack and Countermeasure on Interlock-based Device Pairing Schemes.
  • Yongdong Wu, Binbin Chen, Zhigang Zhao and Yao Cheng.
    IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security 13, no. 3 (2018): 745-757.
  • Secure Smart Metering Based on LoRa Technology.
  • Yao Cheng, Hendra Saputra, Leng Meng Goh, Yongdong Wu.
    In 2018 IEEE 4th International Conference on Identity, Security, and Behavior Analysis (ISBA), pp. 1-8. IEEE, 2018.
  • User-Friendly Deniable Storage for Mobile Devices.
  • Bing Chang, Yao Cheng, Bo Chen, Fengwei Zhang, Wen Tao Zhu, Yingjiu Li, Zhan Wang.
    Computers & Security 72 (2018): 163-174.
  • PowerLSTM: Power Demand Forecasting Using Long Short-Term Memory Neural Network.
  • Yao Cheng, Chang Xu, Daisuke Mashima, Vrizlynn L. L. Thing and Yongdong Wu.
    In International Conference on Advanced Data Mining and Applications, pp. 727-740. Springer, Cham, 2017.
  • What You See is Not What You Get: Leakage-Resilient Password Entry Schemes for Smart Glasses.
  • Yan Li, Yao Cheng, Yingjiu Li, Robert H. Deng.
    In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM on Asia Conference on Computer and Communications Security, pp. 327-333. ACM, 2017.
  • A Study on a Feasible No-Root Approach on Android.
  • Yao Cheng, Yingjiu Li, Robert Deng, Lingyun Ying, Wei He.
    Journal of Computer Security 25, no. 3 (2017): 231-253.
  • Dissecting Developer Policy Violating Apps: Characterization and Detection.
  • Su Mon Kywe, Yingjiu Li, Jason Hong, Yao Cheng.
    In MALWARE 2016: Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Malicious and Unwanted Software: Fajardo, Puerto Rico, October 18, vol. 21, pp. 10-19.
  • Exploiting Android System Services Through Bypassing Service Helpers.
  • Yacong Gu, Yao Cheng, Lingyun Ying, Yemian Lu, Qi Li and Purui Su.
    In International Conference on Security and Privacy in Communication Systems, pp. 44-62. Springer, Cham, 2016.
  • A Feasible No-Root Approach on Android.
  • Yao Cheng, Yingjiu Li, and Robert H. Deng.
    In Australasian Conference on Information Security and Privacy, pp. 481-489. Springer, Cham, 2016.
  • Attacks and Defence on Android Free Floating Windows.
  • Lingyun Ying, Yao Cheng, Yemian Lu, Yacong Gu, Purui Su, and Dengguo Feng.
    In Proceedings of the 11th ACM on Asia Conference on Computer and Communications Security, pp. 759-770. ACM, 2016.
  • Automated User Profiling in Location-based Mobile Messaging Applications.
  • Yao Cheng, Chang Xu, Yi Yang, Linyun Ying, Purui Su and Dengguo Feng.
    In 2014 IEEE 13th International Conference on Trust, Security and Privacy in Computing and Communications, pp. 18-26. IEEE, 2014.
  • Bind Your Phone Number with Caution: Automated User Profiling Through Address Book Matching on Smartphone.
  • Yao Cheng, Lingyun Ying, Sibei Jiao, Purui Su, Dengguo Feng.
    In Proceedings of the 8th ACM SIGSAC symposium on Information, computer and communications security, pp. 335-340. ACM, 2013.
  • An Anti-Obfuscation Method for Detecting Similarity among Android Applications in Large Scale. [Chinese]
  • Sibei Jiao, Lingyun Ying, Yi Yang, Yao Cheng, Purui Su, Dengguo Feng.
    Journal of computer research and development 51, no. 7 (2014): 1446-1457.
  • Research on User Privacy leakage in Mobile Social Messaging Applications. [Chinese]
  • Yao Cheng, Lingyun Ying, Sibei Jiao, Purui Su, Dengguo Feng.
    Chinese Journal of Computers 37, no. 1 (2014): 87-100.
  • [Patent] A hardware-based emulator malicious code online analysis method and system. [Chinese]
  • Yao Cheng, Rui Wang, Purui Su, Dengguo Feng, Yi Yang, Meining Nie.
    Chinese Patent No. CN102999719 B, August 26, 2015.
  • [Patent] A network security emergency response method. [Chinese]
  • Yao Cheng, Dengguo Feng, Lingyun Ying, Purui Su.
    Chinese Patent No. CN102594783 B, October 22, 2014.

    Areas of Expertise

    Responsible AI adoption

    AI risk assessment and mitigation

    AI governance framework and policy development

    AI-driven applications

    Leadership and strategic consulting