Dr. Fangtian Zhong (钟方天)
Faculty member
School of Computer Science & Technology, Shandong University (山东大学)
Dr. Fangtian Zhong's research focuses on Cybersecurity, Software Engineering, Program Analysis, and AI/ML for Software Security. He enjoys developing statistically and mathematically elegant solutions to software security challenges across various architectures, with a particular focus on native code analysis without source access.
Biography & Background
Dr. Fangtian Zhong is currently a faculty member at Shandong University (山东大学). Previously, he served as an Assistant Professor at Montana State University (U.S.) from 2023 to 2026. He earned his Ph.D. in Computer Science from The George Washington University in 2021， advised by Dr. Xiuzhen Cheng. From 2021 to 2023, he worked as a postdoctoral scholar at The Pennsylvania State University and the University of Notre Dame.
He has published two ESI 1% highly cited papers and received the Best Paper Award at IEEE CARS 2024 and Best Poster Award at IEEE S&P 2025. Additionally, he serves as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management (TNSM) and IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics (TII).
Primary Research Domains
📢 Prospective Students (招收硕博研究生)
I am actively looking for highly motivated Ph.D. and Master's students (招收硕士、博士研究生) interested in Cybersecurity, Program Analysis, and AI for Software Security. If you are interested in joining our research team at Shandong University, please feel free to send your CV and transcripts to fzhong@sdu.edu.cn.
Recent News & Honors
🏆 Received the Best Poster Award at IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy (IEEE S&P 2025)!
📄 Paper on "Unveiling Malware Visual Patterns: A Self-analysis Perspective" accepted by IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (TIFS).
🏆 Awarded Best Paper Award at the IEEE Cyber Awareness and Research Symposium (CARS 2024).
📄 Paper "Enhancing Malware Classification via Self-Similarity Techniques" published in IEEE TIFS.
Selected Publications
* Corresponding Author (✉) / ESI Highly Cited Papers highlighted.
Semantic Validation of Packer Identification Tools: Characterization, Repair, and Downstream Impact
Fangtian Zhong, Zhuoyun Qian✉, Mengfei Ren, Yili Jiang, Jiaqi Huang, Yunming Pang, Xiuzhen Cheng
IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC), 2026
Detecting Call Graph Unsoundness without Ground Truth
Fangtian Zhong, Ollie Wold, Joseph Windmann
IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (TIFS), 2026
Unveiling Malware Visual Patterns: A Self-analysis Perspective
Fangtian Zhong, Qin Hu, Yili Jiang, Jiaqi Huang, Xiuzhen Cheng✉
IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (TIFS), 2025
Enhancing Malware Classification via Self-Similarity Techniques
Fangtian Zhong, Qin Hu, Yili Jiang, Jiaqi Huang, Dinghao Wu✉
IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (TIFS), 2024
MalFox: Camouflaged Adversarial Malware Example Generation Based on Conv-GANs Against Black-Box Detectors
Fangtian Zhong, Xiuzhen Cheng, Dongxiao Yu, Bei Gong, Shuaiwen Song, Jiguo Yu✉
IEEE Transactions on Computers (TC), 2023
Malware-on-the-Brain: Illuminating Malware Byte Codes with Images for Malware Classification
Fangtian Zhong, Zekai Chen, Minghui Xu, Guoming Zhang, Dongxiao Yu, Xiuzhen Cheng✉
IEEE Transactions on Computers (TC), 2022
Reinforcement Learning based Adversarial Malware Example Generation against Black-box Detectors
Fangtian Zhong, Pengfei Hu, Guoming Zhang, Hong Li, Xiuzhen Cheng✉
Computers & Security, 2022
DCAP: Deep Cross Attentional Product Network for User Response Prediction
Zekai Chen, Fangtian Zhong, Zhumin Chen, Xiao Zhang, Robert Pless, Xiuzhen Cheng✉
Proceedings of the 30th ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM 2021)
Teaching
Introduction to Malware Analysis
Foundational principles of malicious software analysis, static and dynamic reverse engineering concepts.
Malicious Code Analysis
In-depth analysis techniques for malware execution behavior, disassembly, and countermeasure mechanisms.
Introduction to C Programming
Core C language syntax, pointer management, memory layout, data structures, and system-level interactions.
Mobile App Programming with Android
Android application architecture, UI/UX components, mobile permissions, API integrations, and app security.
Professional Service & Editorial Roles
Editorial Boards
- • Associate Editor: IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management (TNSM)
- • Associate Editor: IEEE Transactions on Industrial Informatics (TII)
TPC & Journal Reviewer
IEEE Transactions on Computers (TC), IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Security (TIFS), IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing (TDSC), IEEE INFOCOM, ACM ASE.
Contact & Location
School of Computer Science & Technology
Shandong University (山东大学)
Shandong, China
fzhong [at] sdu.edu.cn