Profile

Dr Muhammad Bilal is a Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor, in the School of Computing and Communications at Lancaster University. His research focuses on intelligent, secure, and autonomous networked systems, with particular interests in computer networks, distributed systems, cybersecurity, the Internet of Things, intelligent transportation systems, edge and cloud computing, and artificial intelligence for networked infrastructure.

His current research examines how future digital infrastructure can sense, reason, and act while remaining safe, verifiable, and resilient. This work includes trustworthy autonomous networks, certified control for intelligent network systems, agentic network operations, AI-enabled cybersecurity, spiking and neuromorphic models for networking, and secure low-altitude and 6G infrastructures. A central theme across his work is the design of networked systems that can adapt under uncertainty while preserving safety, performance, privacy, and operational trust.

Dr Bilal received his PhD in Information and Communication Network Engineering from the University of Science and Technology, Korea, at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute campus, in 2017. He was then a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Korea University, where he worked with the Smart Quantum Communication Center. Before joining Lancaster University in 2023, he held an academic position at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, South Korea, in the Division of Computer and Electronic Systems Engineering. He also holds a distinguished professorial appointment at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, China.

Dr Bilal has contributed to a range of international and national research projects supported by bodies including the Korean Institute for Information & Communications Technology Promotion, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy of Korea, the BK21 programme, the National Research Foundation of Korea, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. His research has produced more than 200 peer-reviewed publications in international journals and conferences, alongside granted patents in the United States and Korea.

He serves on the editorial boards of several international journals, including IEEE Transactions on Cybernetics, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, IEEE Internet of Things Journal, IEEE Future Directions in Technology, Policy, and Ethics Newsletter, Alexandria Engineering Journal, and Physical Communication. He is also Co-Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Smart Vehicles and Smart Transportation. Dr Bilal is serving as a Symposium Chair for ACM SIGTrust 2026 and as a Track Chair for IEEE AIoT 2026. He has also contributed to the technical programme committees of major international conferences, including IEEE ICC, IEEE VTC, IEEE CCNC, and ACM SIGCOMM-related venues.