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Further Enquiries

School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering

Level 3 (Room 3.26), Innova21 Building
The University of Adelaide
SA 5005
AUSTRALIA
Email

Telephone: +61 8 8313 5277
Facsimile: +61 8 8313 4360

Sensing and Processing

Sensing and Processing is one of the two major research themes for the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. The other is Sustainable Energy. The academic and research staff in the School contribute towards this theme through their teaching, research and consulting, through membership of research groups and participation in research projects.

The Sensing and Processing theme is concerned with sensing the world around us and processing the data gathered to extract useful information. Important topics for the School which are embraced by this theme include:

Electromagnetics

Associate Professor Christopher Coleman, Associate Professor Christophe Fumeaux, Dr Thomas Kaufmann, Dr Withawat Withayachumnankul, Dr. Gretel Png

Electromagnetics is the discipline that describes the interactions of electromagnetic fields and waves with matter, and is therefore fundamental to most areas of electrical and electronic engineering. The relevance of the discipline is for example evidenced by today's omnipresence of personal wireless devices such as cell phones or GPS navigation systems.
Research in electromagnetics is crucial to modern electronic technology and has enabled progress in a huge range of applications across the spectrum. Those applications include for example power lines for energy transmission at low-frequency, satellite and mobile communication at radio frequencies, or sensing through the interaction of light with micro/nano-structures at optical frequencies.

The activities related to electromagnetics in our School include

  • Antennas technology (from HF to THz)
  • Radio waves propagation for radar and communication
  • Radio-frequency identification (RFID)
  • Computational electromagnetics

Microelectronics

Professor Derek Abbott, Dr Said Al-Sarawi, Associate Professor Christopher Coleman, Associate Professor Michael Liebelt, Associate Professor Cheng-Chew Lim, Dr Braden Phillips, Dr. Yingbo Zhu

The research in microelectronics encompasses a diverse range of areas including: new microelectronic devices research, mixed analogue-digital VLSI design, high speed digital circuits and systems, computer architectures, parallel computing and algorithms, RF and wireless systems, photonics and vision systems and design verification.
Our broad research activities has allow use to create many collaborative partnerships with wide range of companies.

Examples of projects are:

  • Hardware verification algorithms for complex high performance system-on-a-chip
  • Wireless microvalve for biomedical applications
  • Parallel matrix-vector processor architecture
  • Low power RF IC for GPS
  • Memristive-based CMOS/nano electronics and systems
  • Information Sementics
  • Low power memory architecture for multiprocessors

Radars

Professor Doug Gray, Professor Bevan Bates, Associate Professor Christopher Coleman, Dr. Waddah Al-Ashwal, Mr. Matthew Trinkle

Today, through its many and diverse applications, radar is a key tool for remotely sensing and monitoring the environment and for the tracking and surveillance of both civil and military objects.
The focus of the University of Adelaide Radar Research Centre is in the use of radar for surveillance and environmental monitoring. It brings together research groups from the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and the Discipline of Physics in the School of Science together with various external organizations such as the Australian Defence Science and Technology Organisation, the Bureau of Meteorology, the Australian Antarctic Division and commercial companies such as Raytheon Australia and ATRAD.

Examples of projects are:

  • Soil moisture - PLIS
  • WREN: A Weather Radar Experimental Network
  • Wideband digital phased array receivers for radar, EW and GPS
  • Digital broadcasting passive bistatic radar
  • Fast high resolution direction finding for electronic warfare

Systems and Control

Professor Peng Shi, Associate Professor Cheng-Chew Lim Dr Rastko Zivanovic, Dr Michael Gibbard, Mr David Vowles, Ms Han Vu, Mr Hong-Gunn Chew, Mr Kiet To

Research focuses are on: dynamical systems analysis, filtering and control design; tracking; robustness analysis on system stability and performance, switched systems, stochastic jump systems, fuzzy systems, multi-agent systems, networked control systems, intelligent systems, neural networks, fault tolerant control, wireless sensor networks, machine learning, optimization techniques and applications.

Examples of projects include:

  • Networked Control systems – stability analysis and design
  • Robust control and filtering design on dynamical systems with uncertainties and time-delays
  • Stochastic control design on dynamical systems with partially known information
  • Fault tolerant control on dynamical systems with sensor and actuator faults
  • Fuzzy modelling techniques on dynamical systems
  • Neural-network based control techniques on dynamical systems
  • Tuning of controllers and assisting client with commissioning of power system stabilizers and oscillation dampers
  • Track-before-detect methods
  • Support vector learning on an array processor structure

Signal Processing

Dr Mathias Baumert, Professor Doug Gray, Dr Andrew Allison, Dr Danny Gibbins, Associate Professor Cheng-Chew Lim, Dr Brian Ng, Mr Matthew Trinkle, Professor Lang White, Professor Peng Shi, Dr. Nicolangelo Iannella

Signal and image processing is all around us, from the basic telephone systems to the advance aircraft avionics, from vehicle safety with electronic stability control to memorable 3D pictures of your unborn child. It deals with the gathering of data, extracting the important relevant information, and sending the useful results to the user. Recent advances have resulted in 60GHz digital systems that expands the range and speed of applications, and improved 3D tomography for detailed body scanning.

A few of the important projects in the school includes:

  • GPS signal processing
  • Radar MIMO signal processing
  • Insect vision
  • Stochastic signal processing
  • Analysis of sympathetic nervous system activity

Telecommunications and Wireless Systems

Professor Lang White, Associate Professor Cheng-Chew Lim, Dr Brian Ng, Dr Matthew Sorell

Resarch encompasses a diverse range of ares: wireless ad-hoc and sensor networks, cellular telecommunications, data comparession and coding, protocol design, network optimisation and forensics.

Examples of projects include:

  • Cross-layer design based on network utility maximisation
  • Diversity routing and multipacket reception for ad-hoc networks
  • Image compressed sampling with wireless sensor networks
  • 60 GHz wireless communication
  • Telecommunications and automated planning

TeraHertz (T-Ray) Technology

Professor Derek Abbott, Associate Professor Christophe Fumeaux, Dr Brian Ng, Dr Withawat Withayachumnankulm, Dr. Gretel Png

T-rays are an exciting new area of photonics research, opening up a new region of the electromagnetic spectrum, usually based on advanced laser technology. Spanning 0.1-10 THz (THz stands for 1012 Hz), the radiation promises many fascinating applications from security screening to rapid quality control. Hosting the national facility, our Adelaide T-ray group enjoys a broad range of research topics, including terahertz generation and detection, terahertz waveguides, terahertz near-field microscopy, terahertz metamaterials, and biomolecular sensing. Several challenges are waiting for prospective students in the fields of science and engineering.

Examples of projects include:

  • THz beam characterisation and modelling
  • THz for security and food quality control
  • THz waveguides

More Information

Further details are available, please contact the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering office.