Prof. Zhou Wanlei, vice rector of City University of Macau (CityU) and dean of the Faculty of Data Science, recently attended the 2024 CCF China Block Chain Summit (CBCS) in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, and delivered a keynote speech titled “Blockchain-Empowered IoT and Federated Learning: Enhancing Security, Privacy, and Efficiency.”

The summit was hosted by the China Computer Federation (CCF) and co-organized by the CCF Blockchain Technical Committee, Inner Mongolia University of Technology, and its School of Data Science and Application (School of Cybersecurity). The event aimed to further promote the development and application of blockchain technology, technology and application, and facilitate digital economy empowered by blockchain.

In his presentation, Professor Zhou Wanlei explored innovative applications of blockchain technology in the Internet of Things (IoT) and Federated Learning, addressing how public and private blockchains can tackle privacy, security, and efficiency challenges across various fields.

He pointed out that the rapid growth and wide application of IoT posed challenges in data management, privacy, and security. He highlighted that federated learning, as a privacy-preserving machine learning method, could allow collaborative model training without sharing raw data, making it increasingly adopted in IoT applications.

Prof. Zhou Wanlei emphasized numerous challenges faced by IoT and federated learning. He introduced blockchain-powered solutions and its advantages as a promising mechanism for secure and efficient data management, data protection, and collaborative learning.

Prof. Zhou Wanlei shared case studies on the application of blockchain in crowdsourcing, multi-agent systems, and federated learning. He delved deeper into the emerging field of blockchain-enhanced Large Language Models (LLMs) training and machine unlearning. Finally, he shared his insights on the current progress and future directions of blockchain-supported IoT and machine learning systems.

The three-day forum featured keynote speeches, as well as technical and industrial integration thematic forums. It brought together experts across various fields to discuss cutting-edge blockchain theories, key technologies, and industrial applications, contributing to the construction of a more secure, efficient, and trustworthy blockchain ecosystem, aiming to drive the digital economy and high-quality development of the new quality productive forces.