electronics, information and communication systems project

Electronics, Information and

Communication Systems

Project Overviews

and

Expertise

1. Image and Signal Processing Research

1.1. Overview

Signal processing is a broad field that encompasses theacquisition of data from the world around us, manipulating orprocessing that data into a useful form, the extraction ofinformation from that data, and the interpretation of thatinformation. The breadth and power of signal processing iswhat makes it one of the key enabling technologies of theinformation age.

The interests of the Image and Signal Processing ResearchGroup cover the full range of signal processing techniques, with particular interests ininstrumentation, speech processing, and image processing. We are active indeveloping theoretical aspects of signal processing as well as applying thesetechniques to a broad range of practical problems. Many of the applications involve acomplete systems engineering approach in which to achieve the desired outcome, allelements from data acquisition, processing, information extraction, and interpretationmust be carefully integrated.

1.2. Technology Context

Application areas of particular interest, where there is significant expertise within thegroup include:

Characterising and correcting lens and perspective distortion

Multiple image super-resolution

Image and video coding, and codec quality assessment

Robot vision, including multi-agent collaborative systems and control

Mapping of signal and image processing algorithms onto high-speed FPGAimplementation

Microcontroller based embedded system design

Signal processing within digital communications systems

Digital television

Real-time machine vision applications

Video processing for coastal resource monitoring

Automated palynology – pollen classification and counting

Sensorless motor control for inductance and switched reluctance motors

2. Telecommunications and Networking Research

2.1. Overview

The telecommunications industry is continuallyundergoing radical changes. Within the last few years,telecommunications administrations have seen dramaticshifts in the nature and volume of communications trafficbeing generated in their networks. Demands frombusiness and corporations have grown substantially withthe advent of electronic commerce and the use of theInternet as a sales medium. Web browsing has alsogrown dramatically and the demands for higher capacitylinks and faster connections have been almost insatiablefor business and residential subscribers. The use of theInternet for real-time services has led to the need for

smart methods of forwarding this information in such a way as to ensure that quality can bemaintained for users of real-time audio, video and voice services.

Traditionally, high bandwidth demand has been met through a fixed wire infrastructure, butthis has also been undergoing radical changes through the advent of advanced wirelesstechnologies. Although mobile telephony applications have traditionally been limited by thebandwidth available in the analogue wireless access network, they are now moving to so-called 3G (3rd Generation) systems. These new digitally based systems are setting out todeliver both voice and high-speed data with a promise of "Anywhere, anytime".

2.2. Technology context

A major requirement of service providers in the current volatile environment is the capabilityto efficiently manage their networks. In particular, traffic needs to be managed in an optimalway to ensure efficient utilisation of capacity and to provide Quality of Service guarantees tocustomers. A major focus of the research work in this program is the development oftechniques for optimally routing Internet traffic, development of techniques for managementof networks in the presence of failures and overloads and methods for ensuring that delay andjitter on real-time traffic streams are kept to acceptable limits.

Since radio spectrum has become a precious commodity, there is an intense research effort indeveloping technology that uses the spectrum efficiently. Research in this area hasinvestigated techniques for seamless mobility between technologies in a spectrum efficientmanner. As new services evolve in the wireless area, there is increasing use of packet-switched technology, even for voice applications. New applications such as Push-to-Talk (likea walkie-talkie using a mobile phone) have been proposed and these push new limits ofperformance from packet services employed on mobile networks. Research on performanceissues related to this application area is underway in a PhD project.

The following topics fall within the scope of this group:

Interneto Routing for quality of serviceo Planning tools for networks transporting IP traffic.o Call Centre based on the Internet.o IP and Frame Relay over ATM

ATM Network Planningo Performance models for ATM traffico Dimensioning and optimisation techniques

Dynamic Routingo Dynamic routing methodso Automatic generation of paths in a network

o Multicast communications Dynamic Capacity Allocation / Reconfiguration

o Algorithms and protocols Optimal Design of Call Centres

o Algorithms and scheduling techniques Network Planning - Generic

o Reliable design of communication networkso Design of networks with time zones and uncertainty in traffic forecasts.o Algorithms for Ring Network structureso Measurement of traffic parameters

Mobile Communication Networkso Planning of new generation mobile communication networkso Optimal allocation of channels to cellso Smart antennas for increased capacity in mobile communications networks.o Performance analysis of Wireless Application Protocol and underpinning

transport protocols such as General Packet Radio System (GPRS) and HighSpeed Circuit Switched Data (HSCSD) and UMTS.

o Push to Talk Performance analysiso Seamless mobility LAN/Bluetooth/GSMo Mobility prediction techniques

3. Embedded Systems Design

3.1. Overview

Mixed-Signal Embedded Microcontrollers are commonly used inintegrating analogue components needed to control non-digitalelectronic systems. They are used in automatically controlleddevices and products, such as automobile engine control systems,wireless remote controllers, office machines, home appliances,power tools, and toys. Microcontrollers make it economical todigitally control even more devices and processes by reducing the

size and cost, compared to a design that uses a separate microprocessor, memory, andinput/output devices. In many undergraduate and post-graduate courses, teaching of mixed-signal microcontrollers and their use for project work has become compulsory.

The interests of the Embedded Systems Design cover the full range of interfacing ofsensors signal, digital signal processing techniques, with particular interests ininstrumentation, wireless techniques. The group is active in designing and fabricatingdifferent sensors, signal processing as well as applying these techniques to make acomplete sensing system to a broad range of practical problems. A few examples onwhich the group is working are: home monitoring system, smart sensors, wirelesscommunication etc.



o Analogue and Digital Signal Processingo Interfacing sensors and transducerso Smart sensorso Wireless Sensorso Signal communications

4. Smart Sensors, Wireless Sensors and Sensor Networks

4.1. Overview

In general terms Smart Sensors, i.e., sensing devices havingintelligent aspects can be considered as an extension of conventionalsensors with advanced learning and adaptation capabilities. The smartsensors, wireless sensors and sensing networks can perform variousdata collection and processing functions, including data interpretation,fusion of data from multiple sources, validation of local and remotelycollected data, error compensation, etc., as well as provide support forpost-sensing information processing, communication and integration.From the application point of view the smart sensors can becategorised by their ability to (i) operate in a multi-modal fashion aswell as to conduct active autonomous sensing, (ii) detect and respond

to changes in the network environment through self-diagnostic routines, self-calibration andadaptation, (iii) to evaluate the validity of collected data, compare it with that obtained byother sensors and confirm the accuracy of any data variation, (iv) process information usingefficient feature extraction techniques, and (v) incorporate particular strategies formeasurements and data processing, facilitate synergy between hardware and software,improve balance between process costing and sensing equipment price, etc.

The interests of the Smart Sensors, Wireless Sensors and Sensor Network cover thefull range of sensing, signal processing techniques, with particular interests ininstrumentation, wireless techniques. The group is active in designing and fabricatingdifferent sensors, signal processing as well as applying these techniques to make acomplete sensing system to a broad range of practical problems. A few examples onwhich the group is working are: non-invasive fat detection in meat, leather qualityestimation, bio-toxin detection in seafood, pathogen detection in meat, measurementof chemicals in contaminated water and home monitoring system etc.



o Sensors and transducerso Analogue and Digital Signal Processingo Embedded Controllero Wireless Sensorso Signal communications

5. Micro-electronics, VLSI and Integrated Circuits Research

An UWB LNA in 130nm IBM CMOS A LNA in 180nm TSMC CMOS

5.1. Overview

Microelectronics, VLSI, IC Design and Micro-chip design is an area encompassingwide applications in all modern information, communication, computer and industrialinfrastructure. Microchips are today used in almost all categories of consumer goodsfrom washing machines to mobile phones, to rice-cookers. The breadth and power oftoday’s CMOS micro-chips in real-time computation, control, sensing and signalprocessing is what makes it the key enabling technology of the information age.Integrated Circuit Design is enriched by new applications in such diverse areas asnanopore DNA analysis, Photonics and modelling of Biological systems.

Massey University, SEAT, Albany houses the Center for Research in Analog andVLSI microsystem design (CRAVE) which carries out world-class research in micro-chip design, which is proven by publications in the leading IEEE journals in ICDesign and VLSI design. There is advanced design software and testing equipmentincluding a wafer probing laboratory available for projects, research and advanceddesign. There are several Ph.D. and Masters students working in IC Design research.Recently pioneering work on “Integrated Circuit Modeling of gene-proteininteraction” carried out at CRAVE has been cited by the analog VLSI and Biologicalsystems research group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in USA.

5.2. Technology context


Analogue and mixed-signal IC Design

o Sigma-delta and pipe-line data-converterso Operational amplifiers, Trans-impedance amplifierso Magnetic field sensorso Communication signal processors

RFIC Design

o Narrow-band RF LNA, image-reject mixer, quadrature oscillatoro UWB RF LNA

VLSI design

o Data encryption processoro Application specific real-time parallel processoro Anti-lock braking system controller

o Fuzzy logic controller chip for consumer applications

Bioelectronics

o Modelling biological systems using integrated circuitso Lab-on-a-chipo Nano-pore DNA analyzer chip

6. Cluster Personnel and Expertise

6.1. Academic Staff Profiles

6.1.1. Professor Richard Harris - Telecommunications and NetworkEngineering

Professor and Chair of Telecommunications and Network Engineering, Director ofthe Electronic and Communication Design Centre – ECDC.

Richard Harris graduated with a B.Sc.(Hons) from theUniversity of Adelaide in 1971 and this was followed by a Ph.D.(in the area of optimal design of telephone networks) under thesupervision of Professor R.B. Potts in 1974. Upon completion ofhis thesis, he joined the Headquarters Traffic EngineeringSection of the Australian Post Office. He became deputy head ofthe Network Analysis Section in the Switched NetworksResearch Branch in 1987. In April 1989, he took up anappointment with Bond University as an Associate Processor inthe School of Information and Computing Sciences and wasDeputy Director of the Centre for Telecommunication Network

Research. He moved to RMIT in early 1993 as Director of the Centre for AdvancedTechnology in Telecommunications (CATT) and Professor of CommunicationSystems. In 2005 he took up an appointment as Chair in Telecommunications andNetwork Engineering at Massey University in New Zealand. He is currently teachingstudents in the fields of teletraffic engineering, communication switching, Internetengineering and conducting research in a variety of topics including network designand optimisation, network traffic management and network performance.

He has participated in many consultancy projects and R & D contracts related to CallCentre design; telephone, ATM and IP network design and optimisation. He has beenpart of several groups involved in building network planning tools includingMINDER (Telecom Australia) and network-planning tools for advanced networkssuch as ATM (Telekom Malaysia - APTNet) and IP network-planning for QoS. Inrecent years, he has been involved in the analysis of routing methods for ATM and IPnetworks including methods for optimal routing in OSPF and MPLS networks.

Areas of technical expertise: Telecommunications network design. Network traffic management. Network reliability. Optimal design of customer queueing centres. Modelling, performance and design of ATM networks. Routing and planning of Next Generation IP networks.

6.1.2. Professor Serge Demidenko - Professor of Electronic Engineering

Professor SERGE DEMIDENKO is Chair of Electronic Engineeringat Massey University, Wellington Campus.

Serge Demidenko received his M.E. (Computer Engineering) from theBelarusian State University of Informatics & Radio Electronics (1977)and Ph.D. (Engineering Cybernetics & Information Theory) from theBelarusian Academy of Sciences (1984). During his career in Belarushe progressed from an Electronic Design Engineer position to a Headof Joint (industry-academy) Test Laboratory (department) of a largeelectronic manufacturing company (around 12,000 staff) and Head ofDepartment posts by working for academia and industry. He

specialized in electronics, testing and diagnostics, signal processing and generation withapplication for automotive, aerospace, defence and computer manufacturing industries.

Since 90s he has been on the academic and research staff of institutions of higher learningof several countries including Belarus (Associate Professor of the Belarusian StateUniversity of Informatics and Radio Electronics - 1985-1992), UK (Visiting ResearchFellow of Brunel, The University of West London – 1990), Italy (Visiting CNR ResearchFellow at the Polytechnic of Milan – 1992-1993), Singapore (R&D Manager & Lecturerof Singapore Polytechnic – 1993-1999), New Zealand (Associate Professor of MasseyUniversity – 1999-2003), Malaysia (Chair of Electrical & Computer Systems Engineeringof Monash University – 2003–2006) and recently back at Massey University (2006 –present).

Professor Serge Demidenko is a Fellow of IEEE and IEE, and UK Chartered Engineer.He is an Associate Editor of the JETTA: Journal of Electronic Testing: Theory andApplications (since 1990), IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement(since 2003), IJISTA: International Journal of Intelligent Systems Technologies &Applications (since 2005), IREE: International Review of Electrical Engineering (since2005) and TSSD: Transactions on Signals, Systems and Devices (since 2006). For over15 years he has been also a reviewer for a number of reputable professional journals

Serge Demidenko was a Vice-Chair of the Test Technology Technical Council (TTTC) -Asia & Pacific Activities of the IEEE Computer Society (CS) (1998-2003) and a Memberof the Technical Meetings Review Committee of the IEEE CS TTTC (2000-2003).Currently he is a Co-Chair of TC-32 of the IEEE I&M Society; Member of Board ofDirectors of IMTC (IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference);Chair of the Steering Committee of DELTA (IEEE International Workshop on ElectronicDesign, Test & Applications) and Member of the Steering Committee of ATS (IEEEAsian Test Symposium). He was a Program Chair of IMTC’2004, DELTA’2004,ATS’98; a General Chair of DELTA’2006, DELTA’2002, ISMA’2000,MICRO/MEMS’99 and served as a Member of the Organizing and Program Committeesof numerous conferences.

Areas of research interests of Professor Demidenko include Electronic Design & Test,Fault-Tolerance, and Signal Generation & Processing. The list of his publicationsincludes 4 books, more than 100 papers. He is also a co-author of 25 engineering patents.

6.1.3. Professor Bastiaan Kleijn - Professor of Multimedia

Bastiaan Kleijn is a Professor at the School of ElectricalEngineering at KTH (the Royal Institute of Technology) inStockholm, Sweden and heads the Sound and Image ProcessingLaboratory. He is also a founder and former Chairman of Global IPSolutions where he remains Chief Scientist. He holds a Ph.D. inElectrical Engineering from Delft University of Technology(Netherlands), a Ph.D. in Soil Science and an M.S. in Physics, bothfrom the University of California, and an M.S. in ElectricalEngineering from Stanford University. He worked on speech

processing at AT&T Bell Laboratories from 1984 to 1996, first in development and laterin research. Between 1996 and 1998, he held guest professorships at Delft University ofTechnology (Netherlands), Vienna University of Technology, and KTH (Royal Instituteof Technology), Stockholm. During the spring of 2005 he was Otto Nussbaumer visitingProfessor at Graz University of Technology (Austria), and during the following winter hewas a visiting Professor at Massey University (New Zealand).

He is on the Editorial Board of Signal Processing and has been on the Editorial Boards ofthe IEEE Transactions of Speech and Audio Processing, IEEE Signal Processing Letters,IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, and the EURASIP Journal of Applied SignalProcessing. He has been a member of several IEEE technical committees, and a TechnicalChair of ICASSP-99, the 1997 and 1999 IEEE Speech Coding Workshops, and a GeneralChair of the 1999 IEEE Signal Processing for Multimedia Workshop. He is a Fellow ofthe IEEE.

Areas of research interest

Image processing Information Theory Source coding

6.1.4. Professor Peter Driessen - Professor of Multimedia SystemsEngineering

Peter Driessen is Professor of Electrical and ComputerEngineering at the University of Victoria, Canada. Hereceived his PhD from the University of British Columbia,Canada.

He worked for 5 years in various companies in VancouverCanada designing modems for data communications. Hethen joined the University of Victoria, Canada where he isnow Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, withcross appointments in Music and Computer Science. He

spent two years plus 8 summers at AT&T Bell Laboratories, New Jersey USAworking on wireless communications systems. He was Editor of IEEE PersonalCommunications Magazine, IEEE Journal of Selected Areas in Communications, andIEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, each for a 3 year term. He waspapers co-chair for the International Computer Music Conference held in Cuba. Hehas been elected as a Senior Member of IEEE.

He is currently at Massey University Wellington on a visiting appointment asProfessor of Multimedia Systems Engineering.

Areas of research interest:

Audio and video compression Microphone array signal processing Wireless communications systems Radio propagation Synchronization Computer music

6.1.5. Dr Subhas Mukhopadhyay – Associate Professor

Dr. Subhas Chandra Mukhopadhyay graduated fromthe Department of Electrical Engineering, JadavpurUniversity, Calcutta, India with a Gold medal andreceived the Master of Electrical Engineering degreefrom Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. Hehas PhD (Eng.) degree from Jadavpur University,India and Doctor of Engineering degree fromKanazawa University, Japan.

Currently he is working as an Associate professorwith the School of Engineering and Advanced Technology, Massey University,Palmerston North, New Zealand. He has over 20 years of teaching and researchexperiences.

His fields of interest include Sensors and Sensing Technology, Wireless Sensors andSensors Network, Electromagnetics, control, electrical machines and numerical fieldcalculation etc.

He has authored/co-authored over 220 papers in different international journals andconferences. He has edited eight conference proceedings. He has also edited sixspecial issues of international journals as guest editor and seven books out of whichfive are with Springer-Verlag.

He is a Fellow of IET (UK), a senior member of IEEE (USA), an associate editor ofIEEE Sensors journal and IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurements.He is in the editorial board of e-Journal on Non-Destructive Testing, Sensors andTransducers, Transactions on Systems, Signals and Devices (TSSD), Journal on thePatents on Electrical Engineering, Journal of Sensors. He is the co-Editor-in-chief ofthe International Journal on Smart Sensing and Intelligent Systems (www.s2is.org).He is in the technical programme committee of IEEE Sensors conference, IEEEIMTC conference and IEEE DELTA conference and numerous other conferences. Hewas the Technical Programme Chair of ICARA 2004, ICARA 2006 and ICARA 2009.He was the General chair/co-chair of ICST 2005, ICST 2007, IEEE ROSE 2007,IEEE EPSA 2008, ICST 2008 and IEEE Sensors 2008. He has recently organized theIEEE Sensors conference 2009 at Christchurch, New Zealand as General Chair inwhich around 550 people attended from 41 countries.

Areas of technical expertise: Sensors and Sensing Technology Wireless Sensors and Sensors Network Embedded Controller Electrical and Electronics Engineering: Electromagnetics, Magnetic Sensors and Actuators, Magnetic Bearing, Electrical Machines, Current Limiting Aspects etc.

6.1.6. Dr Donald Bailey - Associate Professor

Associate Professor Donald Bailey is the leader of the Image andSignal Processing Research Group.

Donald Bailey received his BE(Hons) in 1982 and PhD in Electricaland Electronic Engineering in 1985, both from University ofCanterbury, New Zealand. After spending 2 years applying imageanalysis techniques to the wool and paper industries within NewZealand, he spent 2½ years as a visiting researcher at the Electrical

and Computer Engineering Department at the University of California at SantaBarbara. In 1989, he returned to New Zealand as Director of the Image Analysis Unitat Massey University. Since his time at Massey, Donald Bailey has had a number ofvisiting research positions: University of Cardiff, Wales (6 months, 1996); Universityof California at Santa Barbara (8 months, 2001); Centre for Advanced Robotics andIntelligent Control, Singapore (2 months, 2007); and Imperial College, London (9months, 2008). He is currently an associate professor within the School ofEngineering and Advanced Technology at Massey University.

Donald Bailey is a senior member of the IEEE. He has participated on the organisingcommittee and programme committee of several conferences. He has nearly 200publications in both conferences and journals, and regularly serves as a reviewer for anumber of journals. He has taught short courses on image analysis (2 day course atMassey University), high-level image understanding (½ day course at SPIE’sInternational Symposium & Education Program on Intelligent Systems & AdvancedManufacturing), digital signal processing and applications (series of 2 day coursesfunded by Technology New Zealand), digital signal processing (2 day industrial shortcourse), image processing using FPGAs (½ day tutorial at IEEE Region 10 conference,and IEEE International Conference on Image Processing). He has given a number ofinvited presentations including “Adapting connected components analysis for FPGAimplementation” at the Embedded Systems Workshop (2007) and “Design forembedded vision on FPGAs” at the International Conference on Sensing Technology(2008).

Experience:

He has participated on several research and development projects. A highlight was thedevelopment of a system for high speed "weighing" of asparagus being graded andpacked for export. The weight of each asparagus spear was estimated to an accuracyof better than 1g at a rate of 15 spears per second. For other projects, specialisedimage processing software has been developed for areas as diverse as documentimaging, coastal resource monitoring, and number plate recognition.

Areas of expertise:

Mapping of signal and image processing algorithms onto FPGAs Characterisation and correction of lens and perspective distortion Super-resolution from multiple images Image analysis Machine vision systems engineering Colour analysis and segmentation Digital signal processing

6.1.7. Dr. Rezaul Hasan – Senior Lecturer

Rezaul Hasan received his B.S.E.E. from the BangladeshUniversity of Engineering and Technology in 1980 (ranked FirstClass First in the university in all the departments combined), hisM.S.E.E. from the State University of New York at Buffalo in1981 and his Ph.D. in Electronics Engineering from the Universityof California Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1985. From 1983 to 1986 hewas a VLSI design engineer at Xerox Microelectronics Center in

El Segundo, California, where he worked in the design of CMOS VLSImicroprocessors. In 1986 he moved to the Asia-Pacific region and served severalinstitutions including Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (1986-1988),Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia (1990-1991) andUniversity Sains Malaysia, Perak, Malaysia (1992-2000). At University SainsMalaysia he held the position of Associate Professor and was the coordinator of theAnalog and VLSI research laboratory. He spent the next four years (2000-2004) inthe West Asia-Gulf region where he served as an Associate Professor ofMicroelectronics, Integrated Circuit Design and VLSI Design in the Department ofElectrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UnitedArab Emirates. While in Sharjah he received the National Bank of Sharjah Award foroutstanding research publication in Integrated Circuit Design. Presently he is theDirector of the Center for Research in Analog and VLSI microsystems dEsign(CRAVE) at Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand. He is also a SeniorLecturer in Electronics and Computer Engineering teaching courses in AdvancedMicroelectronics and Integrated Circuit Design. He has published over 100 papersin international journals and conferences in the areas of Analog, Digital, RF andMixed-Signal Integrated Circuit Design and VLSI Design. Dr. Hasan has also servedas consultant for many electronics companies. His present areas of interest includeAnalog, Digital, Mixed-signal and RF Integrated Circuit Design, CMOSBioelectronics and Biological (gene-protein) Circuit Design. He is an editor of theJournal of Active and Passive Electronic Components, and, the editor-in-chief of anew Journal on Analog Circuits, VLSI and Bioelectronics. He is also a senior memberof the IEEE. Recently his pioneering work on “Integrated Circuit Modeling of gene-protein interaction” has been cited by the analog VLSI and Biological systemsresearch group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in USA.

Areas of technical expertise and interest:

Analogue, Digital, Mixed-signal, Photonic and RF Integrated Circuit Design VLSI system design Integrated Circuit Modelling of Biological Systems CMOS Bioelectronics CMOS sensors Nanoelectronics, nanobiotechnology and molecular electronics.

6.1.8. Dr Ibrahim Al-Bahadly - Senior Lecturer

Ibrahim Al-Bahadly received a B.Sc. (Eng.) degree from BaghdadUniversity of Technology in 1987, followed by M.Sc. and Ph.D. fromNottingham University, in 1990 and 1994, respectively, all in electrical andelectronic engineering. From 1994 to 1996, he was a research associate

with the electric drives and machines group at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne,UK. Since 1996, he has been with Massey University, where he is currently seniorlecturer in electrical and electronic engineering. His research interests include powerelectronic applications, variable speed drives, digital signal processor applications,instrumentation and automation.

He acted as a consultant to a number of companies including Latelax Ltd andTeknatool International. He had conducted a number of collaborative industrialprojects including a TBG funded project to design and develop a novel electronicvariable speed drives for wood working machines.

Areas of technical expertise:

Power Electronics, Variable Speed Drives, Electric Motors, Electronic Instrumentation Digital Signal Processor Applications.

6.1.9. Dr Liyanage De Silva - Senior Lecturer

Liyanage C De Silva was born in Sri Lanka in 1962.He received BScEng.(Hons) degree from the University of Moratuwa Sri Lanka in1985, M.Phil. Degree from The Open University of Sri Lanka in 1989,MEng. and PhD degrees from the Univ. of Tokyo, Japan in 1992 and1995 respectively.

He was with the University of Tokyo, Japan, from 1989 to 1995. FromApril 1995 to March 1997 he pursued his postdoctoral research as a

researcher at ATR (Advanced Telecommunication Research) Laboratories, Kyoto,Japan. In March 1997 he joined The National University of Singapore as a Lecturerwhere he was an Assistant Professor until June 2003. Currently he is a SeniorLecturer at Massey University, New Zealand.

He was a visiting scientist at the University of Tokyo Japan in the summer of 1999. Inthe summer of 2001 he was an invited visiting Associate Professor at the Universityof Tokyo, Professor Aizawa Laboratory in the Department of Frontier Informatics fora period of 3 months.

Liyanage’s current research interests are audio and video based (bimodal) humanemotion recognition for human computer interaction (computer games, internet basedteaching for younger children etc.), human tracking for surveillance, human activitydetection and recognition for eldercare (smart homes concept for elder people) andautomatic speech signal classification for call centre quality assurance.

He has expertise in Digital Image Processing, Speech Processing and Communicationtheory. He has published over 100 technical papers in these areas in internationalconferences, journals and Japanese national conventions and holds one Japanesenational patent, which is successfully sold to Sony Corporation Japan for commercialutilization. This particular patent is in the area of bimodal emotion recognition andwill be utilized in human computer interaction in computer game interfaces.

He has received the Best Student Paper Award from SPIE (The International Societyfor Optical Engineering) for an outstanding paper contribution to the InternationalConference on Visual Communication and Image Processing (VCIP) in 1995. He hasalso received National University of Singapore, the Department of ECE Teachingcommendation award in 2001 and 2002 consecutively. He is a senior member of IEEEUSA.

Areas of technical expertise: Digital Signal Processing, Digital and Mobile Communication, Image and Speech Processing, Computer Vision Visual Communication.

6.1.10.Dr Gourab Sen Gupta – Senior Lecturer

Gourab Sen Gupta received his B.E (Electronics) from theUniversity of Indore, India in 1984, Masters in ElectronicsEngineering (MEE) from Philips International Institute,Eindhoven, Holland in 1984 and PhD in Computer SystemsEngineering in 2008 from Massey University.

From 1984 to 1989, he has worked as a Software Engineer(Automation) in Philips India in the Consumer ElectronicsFactory at Pune, India. From 1989 to 2002 he was a SeniorLecturer at the School of Electrical and ElectronicsEngineering, Singapore Polytechnic. Since 2002 he has been

with Massey University, New Zealand. His current teaching is in the area of DigitalSystems Design, Microcontrollers and Embedded Systems, Design for Computer andCommunication Systems, and Control Engineering.

He has published over 80 papers in various conferences and journals. He has co-authored two books on programming, edited five conference proceedings, and editedtwo special issues of international journals (IEEE Sensors Journal and IJISTA) asguest editor. He is currently involved in consultancy projects and R&D contractsrelated to embedded systems. He is active in the organisation of several internationalconferences such as ICARA (General Chair) and ICST (Technical Program Chair).

He is a senior member of IEEE. In the past, he has held the post of Treasurer andsubsequently Chairman of the Computer Chapter of the IEEE Singapore Section.Presently he is the Treasurer of the IEEE New Zealand Central Section.

He has keenly contested in several international robotic competitions, including RobotWorld Cups, organised by RoboCup and FIRA (Federation of International RobotSoccer Association) in the past several years.

Areas of research and technical expertise-

Embedded Systems and programming Sensors applications Real-time Vision Processing Multi-agent collaborative (robotic) systems Real-time process control and monitoring

6.1.11. Dr Xiang Gui – Senior Lecturer

Xiang Gui received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Shanghai JiaoTong University, China, in 1991 and 1994, respectively, and thePhD degree from the University of Hong Kong in 1998, all inelectrical engineering.

In 1994, he was an assistant lecturer in the Department of ElectricalEngineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. From 1998 to2003, he worked at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore,

first as a Research Fellow then as an Assistant Professor. In 2003, he joined MasseyUniversity as a Lecturer at the Institute of Information Sciences and Technology,Palmerston North, New Zealand. Currently he is a Senior Lecturer with the School ofEngineering and Advanced Technology at Massey University teaching fundamentaland advanced courses in the area of Electronic and Computer Engineering includingcommunication systems, signals and information, and advanced digital system design.His research interests include wireless and mobile communications & applications,multicarrier OFDM & spread spectrum systems, and communication networks.

He is Senior Member of IEEE and serves as a regular reviewer for a number ofreputable professional journals and international conferences. He is also a foundingmember of the Joint Chapter on Communication, Signal Processing and InformationTheory of the IEEE New Zealand Central Section.

Areas of technical expertise: Wireless Communications OFDM, MIMO, and Cooperative Communications Digital Signal Processing Embedded Systems

6.1.12.Dr Amal Punchihewa - Senior Lecturer

AMAL Punchihewa obtained his B.Sc. Engineering degreewith honours, specialising in Electronic andTelecommunication Engineering from the University ofMoratuwa, Sri Lanka in 1986. He received the Master ofElectronics Engineering degree majoring in Digital SignalProcessing from the Technical University of Eindhoven, TheNetherlands in 1991. Amal has worked as an engineer inboth academia and industry over the past twenty-four years,starting as a computer engineer in 1986. After three years hemoved to the broadcast industry, working as a researchengineer for the national television broadcaster in Sri Lanka.In 1994 he became a Senior Lecturer at the University of

Moratuwa, before migrating to New Zealand in 2002, where he joined MasseyUniversity in Palmerston North. His PhD was on framework for rapid objectiveevaluation of image and video compression artefacts. He was employed as a computerhardware engineer from 1986 to 1989 in Sri Lanka. From 1991 to 1994, he held a postas the engineer research & planning at the national TV broadcaster in Sri Lanka. From1994 to March 2002 he served as a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Engineering atUniversity of Moratuwa. During the period of June 1997 to May 2001, he wasseconded to the national TV broadcaster in Sri Lanka to serve as the head ofengineering (Deputy Director General/Engineering). During his tenure, he wasinstrumental in introducing many new technologies and infrastructure developmentsHe provided leadership and expertise to introduce the second programme channel fornational television in Sri Lanka. From 1996 to 2002, he also spearheaded the nationaltelevision training institute in Sri Lanka as the CEO/Director.

He is currently teaching students in the fields of broadcast engineering, frequencyspectrum management, broadcast network design and planning, microwave linkdesign, satellites in broadcasting, digital radio and television broadcasting, local areanetworks (LAN), wireless LAN, data acquisition systems and design, digital filterdesign and conducting research in a variety of topics including wireless networkdesign, advanced signal processing for communications, channel coding, and imageand video coding. He is a Member of Institution of Professional Engineers NewZealand (IPENZ), a Fellow of Institution of Electrical Engineers UK (FIET) and amember of Computer Society of Sri Lanka (MCS).

He has participated in many consultancy projects and media training related todigitisation of broadcasting; transmission networks, measurement, and operations. Hehas contributed to Asia-Pacific broadcast training programmes over 20 years as atrainer, lecturer, course designer, course director and as an evaluator. He has been aspeaker at the Broadcast Asia conference over many years.

His recent consultancies were performed in Papua New Guinea and Mauritius in theareas of digital radio and television broadcasting.

Areas of technical expertise: Multi-media signal processing

IPTVImage and Video codec benchmarkingImage and Video Quality assessment and monitoring.Multi-media networks

Signal ProcessingAnalogue signal processingDigital Signal ProcessingAudio and Video Signal ProcessingAdvanced Signal processing for Communication

RF EngineeringRF Engineering for BroadcastingMicrowave link designFrequency Spectrum Planning and Management.

BroadcastingAnalogue radio and Television broadcastingDigital Radio and Television BroadcastingRadio and Video Broadcast network design and planningImage and Video compression and encodingVideo and Audio Engineering (coding, conversions, measurements).

Telecommunications and NetworkingComputer NetworkingElectrical, Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering

Automation and RoboticsHuman Computer InterfaceRobotics

Educational Technologiese Learning Technologies

Test, Measurement and Instrumentation

Smart EnvironmentsSmart-homes and Eldercare

6.1.13. Dr Edmund Lai – Senior Lecturer

Dr Edmund Lai received the BE (Hons) and PhD degrees inElectrical and Electronic Engineering from The University ofWestern Australia in 1982 and 1991 respectively. He joined theSchool of Engineering and Advanced Technology, MasseyUniversity as a Senior Lecturer in 2006. He was previously aLecturer with the Department of Information Engineering, TheChinese University of Hong Kong from 1990 to 1995, a ResearchFellow at the Australian Telecommunications Research Institute,

Curtin University of Technology in 1995, a Lecturer in the School of Mathematicsand Engineering, Edith Cowan University from 1996 to 1998, an Associate Professorin the School of Computer Engineering, Nanyang Technological University,Singapore from 1999 to 2006.

Between January 1998 and November 1999, he was an independent consultant toindustry for two years. During that time, he developed a 3-day short course on digitalsignal processing (DSP) which has been delivered throughout Australia and SouthAfrica as well as for in-house training by organizations including Raytheon E-Systems Inc., the Australian Geological Survey and the audio-visual unit of theAustralian Parliament. It also resulted in a textbook on DSP which has beenpublished by Elsevier in English and also translated into Russian. He has also helpeddevelop an automated scheduling and optimization software called MineMax for themining industry which is now used by several major mining companies.

Edmund’s PhD research is in automatic speech recognition. Since then, he hasbroadened his research scope to include digital signal processing theory, applicationsand system implementations in multimedia signal processing and digitalcommunications. His current research projects include the development of a non-bandlimited sampling theory with applications to ultra-wideband signal processing,fuzzy neural networks for diabetes modelling and control, and software-defined radioand cognitive radio signal processing. He has supervised 6 PhD and 10 Masters byresearch students.

He is a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE), a Fellow of theInstitution of Engineers, Australia (IEAust), and a Senior Member of the Institute ofElectrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE).

Areas of technical expertise:

Multimedia signal processing theory and implementations Software defined radio and Cognitive radio Ultra-wideband radio communications Artificial neural network for biomedical applications Information theory Automated scheduling and optimization

6.1.14.Dr Frans Weehuizen - Senior Lecturer

Dr Frans Weehuizen has a BSc(Eng), MSc(Eng) and a PhD inElectrical Engineering from the University of Cape Town, SouthAfrica. He was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Cape Town inthe late 1970s before moving to a government developmentlaboratory where he was a senior engineer and then project leader inthe development of the control system for two injector and a mainaccelerator cyclotron which is used for physics research, cancertherapy and radio isotope production. In 1999 he moved to New

Zealand where he was appointed as Senior Lecturer and later Programme Director forthe Bachelor of Engineering Technology in the then Institute of Information Sciencesand Technology at Massey University. He is now a Senior lecturer in the School ofEngineering and Advanced Technology.

ExperienceHe has participated in the development of a centralised control system and later ledthe development of a distributed control system of 35 computers controlling 1800variables for a cyclotron facility. In New Zealand he has supervised post graduateresearch in collaboration with industry for distributed automation of factoryproduction facilities.

Areas of Interest Industrial automation Implementation of the IEC 61499 Function Blocks for distributed control Distributed control Real time operating systems Microcontroller applications Use of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) for control applications

6.1.15.Dr Tom Moir - Senior Lecturer

Tom.J.Moir Received the BSc and Ph.D degrees fromSheffield Hallam University in 1979 and 1984 respectively.From 1983-1984 he was an EPSRC researcher in the IndustrialControl Unit, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow Scotlandworking on dynamic ship positioning using optimal controltheory.

From 1984-1999 he was a lecturer/senior lecturer at PaisleyCollege (becoming Paisley University),Paisley, Scotland. AtPaisley he researched on adaptive self-tuning filters as applied

to speech enhancement and taught in the Dept of Electrical and ElectronicEngineering. Other work at Paisley included a unified approach to optimal filteringand control using the Wiener theory and later work with Ampsys Electronics Ltd ofPaisley on a new type of radio receiver for commercial broadcast FM radio. Thefounding work at Ampsys Electronics included the invention of a new circuit calledthe “Amplitude-Locked Loop” which is the dual of the well-known “Phase-LockedLoop” but works on amplitude rather than phase. This work was later patented and anASIC has been designed and ready for commercial purposes.

Moving to New-Zealand in 2000, he joined the Massey University Institute ofInformation of Mathematical Sciences (IIMS) Auckland and then moved to theInstitute of Technology and Engineering in 2006 which, after the merger of severalinstitutes ,became the School of Engineering and Advanced Technology (SEAT). AtMassey he has continued his work on adaptive filtering and developed several newmethods including a Kolmogorov equation power-series (Kepstrum) approach toacoustic adaptive filters and beamformers and applied some of this work to speech-recognition in a noisy automobile environment. He has currently developed a new fastfeedback method of Multivariable polynomial-matrix Spectral Factorization whichcan be applied to the area of blind-source separation of non-stationary signals. He hasrecently became involved with the development of Virtual Humans for smart-housedesign in collaboration with Guile-3D technology of Brazil. He has made numerousinternational radio and TV appearances whilst investigating a mysterious low-frequency noise in the Auckland area. Dr Moir has published around 90 refereedpapers including around 50 Journal papers, many of them sole-authored. He is amember of IPENZ New-Zealand, a member of the IET and a European Engineer(Eur-Ing).

At University level he has taught for around 26 years in the areas of classical andmodern control systems, signal processing and digital and analogue electronics.


Self-tuning and adaptive estimators and controllers for multivariable systems. Smart House design Multi-path interference in FM reception.

6.1.16.Dr Fakhrul Alam - Senior Lecturer

Fakhrul Alam is a senior lecturer at the School of Engineeringand Advanced Technology, Massey University, Auckland, NewZealand. He is the major leader of Computer and ElectronicEngineering of the Albany campus. He holds a BSc inElectrical & Electronic Engineering (First Class with Honours)and MS and Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering. Dr. Alam hasworked and collaborated with Lucent technologies USA, LGElectronics Korea and the US Defense Advanced ResearchProjects Agency (DARPA). Dr. Alam serves as a regular

reviewer for top international conferences and journals. He is an elected member ofSigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society.


wireless sensor network

protocol development for wireless network

adaptive signal processing for wireless communication systems

cognitive radio

intelligent traffic systems

6.1.17.Dr Mohammad Rashid - Senior Lecturer

Dr. Mohammad Abdur Rashid received M.Sc.Eng. degree inElectronics Engineering specializing in Engineering CyberneticsSystems from the Wroclaw University of Technology in 1978 andPh.D. from the University of Strathclyde, UK in 1986.

Currently, Dr. Rashid is a Senior Lecturer of Computer andCommunications Engineering at Massey University, NewZealand. Prior to his current position he served as an AssociateProfessor of Dhaka University, as a senior lecturer of Computer

Science at the University Brunei Darussalam and also as an Associate Professor of Computerand Information Engineering and Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at theInternational Islamic University, Malaysia. Dr. Rashid is a co-author of two books: EnterpriseResource Planning: Global Opportunities and Challenges published in 2002, Handbook ofResearch on Enterprise Systems published by Information Science Reference, USA in 2008.He has publications in international journals and conferences covering his areas of research.

His research interests are, Embedded Systems Design, Network Protocols and PerformanceStudies, Mobile Wireless Multimedia Communication, MANET security and Keymanagement, and ERP Systems.

Areas of technical expertise: Multimedia over Wired and Wireless Communication Networks

Embedded Systems Design

Network Protocols and Performance Studies

Mobile Wireless Multimedia Communication

MANET Security and Key Management

ERP Systems,

6.1.18.Mr Ken Mercer - Senior Tutor / Technical Officer

Areas of technical expertise: Analogue Electronics, Digital Electronics, Microcontrollers

electronics, information and communication systems project

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