Hiiiiiiii! This is Yanwen Mao. I joined University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China on June 2025 as an assistant professor. Before that, I received my Bachelor's degree from Shanghai Jiaotong University in 2017, my master's and Ph.D. degree from University of California, Los Angeles in 2019 and 2022, respectively. From 2022 to 2025, I joined Huawei as a member of the top talent program.

During my Ph.D., I published eight publications in top conferences and journals, including IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control and Automatica, as first author. At Huawei, I developed an optimization algorithm for a massive-scale 5G network that delivered 4.87% energy savings over a week-long operational period. This achievement was recognized with the prestigious Huawei President Award, one of the company's highest honors.

My research interest  is two-fold:

(1)  Security and communication-efficiency aspects of federated learning, and their applications to financial areas.

(2)  Applying generative and non-generative models to develop blockchain strategies.

Federated learning and blockchain techniques enable model training across decentralized devices while keeping data localized. In today’s world, where privacy concerns and data regulations are paramount, FL allows AI systems to learn without compromising sensitive user information and reduces the need for massive centralized datasets, computational powers, and enhancing security.

Also, please let me know if you are interested in Diffusion Policy.

Teaching:

I teach in the areas of  Databases and Interfaces (DBI) and Software Engineering (SE). I also have a passion for math-related modules.

Modules: 

• Databases and Interfaces (COMP1048)
• Software Engineering