Hongliang Zhang
Peking University, China
Hongliang Zhang is currently an Endowed Boya Young Fellow Assistant Professor with School of Electronics, Peking University. His current research interests include intelligent surfaces, aerial access networks, and Internet of Things. He is the recipient of IEEE VTS Early Career Award, IEEE ComSoc Asia-Pacific Outstanding Young Researcher Award, IEEE ComSoc Best Tutorial Paper Award, IEEE ComSoc Heinrich Hertz Award for Best Communications Letters, IEEE Neal Shepherd Memorial Best Propagation Paper Award, IEEE ComSoc TCCN Publication Award, IEEE ComSoc Asia-Pacific Outstanding Paper Award, IEEE GLOBECOM Best Paper Award, and IEEE/CIC ICCC Best Demo Award. He currently serves as an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking, IEEE Internet of Things Journal, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, IEEE Communications Letters, and IET Communications. He is an exemplary editor for IEEE Communications Letters in 2023.
Battery-free Internet of Things (IoT) devices have the advantage of zero energy consumption and easy deployment, and thus are regarded as the key technology to achieve billions of IoT connections. However, traditional battery-free IoT networking is enabled by backscatter communication techniques. However, existing battery-free IoT devices suffer from restricted transmission ranges and limited sensing diversity, making their deployment in practical systems a significant challenge. Metamaterial is an artificial sub-wavelength two-dimensional structure, which makes the radiation energy of battery-free IoT devices more concentrated, leading to a longer transmission range. Moreover, it can also be incorporated with material-sensitive to the environment, providing multiple sensing functions. In this talk, we will present the background on meta-backscatter sensing and communications and show our recent research progress.