20 Sep

IEEE Distinguished Lecture by Prof. Henry Pfister

 

On Friday September 16th Prof. Henry Pfister from Duke University had a DLT lecture at the Department of Electrical and Information Technology, Lund University. The topic of the lecture was “Graphical Models and Inference: Insights from Spatial Coupling”.

The slides of the lecture can be found here.

Abstract

This talk focuses on recent theoretical and practical advances in coding, compressed sensing, and multiple-access communication based on spatially-coupled graphical models.  The goal is to introduce the key ideas and insights using concrete examples.  First, we introduce factor graphs and belief propagation (BP) as tools for understanding large systems of dependent random variables.  Then, we describe how these techniques are applied to problems in signal processing and communications.  Next, we use the example of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes on the binary erasure channel to introduce the idea of density-evolution analysis.  A key result is that BP decoding algorithms have a noise threshold below which recovery succeeds with high probability.  Finally, we discuss how extrinsic-information transfer (EXIT) functions can be used to compare the performance between BP and optimal decoding.

Biography

Henry D. Pfister received his Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 2003 from the University of California, San Diego and he is currently an associate professor in the electrical and computer engineering department of Duke University.  Prior to that, he was a professor at Texas A&M University (2006-2014), a post-doctoral fellow at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (2005-2006), and a senior engineer at Qualcomm Corporate R&D in San Diego (2003-2004).
He received the NSF Career Award in 2008, the Texas A&M ECE Department Outstanding Professor Award in 2010, the IEEE COMSOC best paper in Signal Processing and Coding for Data Storage in 2007, and a 2016 STOC Best Paper Award.  He is currently an associate editor in coding theory for the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory (2013-2016) and a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Information Theory Society (2015-2016).
His current research interests include information theory, communications, probabilistic graphical models, and machine learning.
14 Sep

IEEE Technical Seminars at Chalmers

In conjunction to a PhD defence at Chalmers on Thu Sep 15, 2016, (http://www.chalmers.se/en/departments/s2/calendar/Pages/Yutao-Sui,-Signals-and-Systems.aspx), a mini-workshop on 5G consisting of three IEEE Technical Seminars as follows. The seminars are organized by the Department of Signals and Systems, Chalmers University of Technology.The seminars will be held as follows.

Location: EDIT building, Hörsalsvägen 11, Campus Johanneberg, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg

Room: See link to respective seminar below

 

Note: If the PhD defence takes long, there might be a slight delay in the start of the seminars.

 

Time: Thu Sep 15, 2016, at 14:00-15:00

Speaker: Dr. Patrick Marsch, Nokia Bell Labs Wroclaw

Title: “Nokia´s view on 5G mobile communications, and specific 5G challenges addressed in Nokia Bell Labs Wroclaw”

Further details: https://www.chalmers.se/en/departments/s2/calendar/Pages/Seminar-Nokias-view-on-5G-mobile-communications,-and-specific-5G-challenges-addressed-in-Nokia-Bell-Labs-Wroclaw.aspx

 

Time: Thu Sep 15, 2016, at 15:00-16:00

Speaker: Prof. Raymond Knopp, Eurecom

Title: “Challenges in Data-Center Technologies for Distributed Radio Signal Processing“

Further details: https://www.chalmers.se/en/departments/s2/calendar/Pages/Challenges-in-Data-Center-Technologies-for-Distributed-Radio-Signal-Processing-.aspx

 

Time: Thu Sep 15, 2016, at 16:00-17:00

Speaker: Prof. Jens Zander, KTH

Title: “5G – Is the “Killer Application” back?”

Further details: https://www.chalmers.se/en/departments/s2/calendar/Pages/5G–Is-the-Killer-Application-back.aspx

 

Biographies:

Patrick Marsch received his Dipl.-Ing. and Dr.-Ing. degrees from Technische Universität Dresden, Germany, in 2004 and 2010, respectively. After leading a research group at TU Dresden, Germany, he is now heading a research department within Nokia Bell Labs, Wroclaw, Poland. He has published 60+ journal or conference papers, obtained 4 best paper awards, and received the Philipp Reis Prize for pioneering work in the field of Coordinated Multi-Point. Patrick was the technical coordinator of the project EASY-C, where the world’s first large-scale testbeds for LTE-A techniques were established, and is the technical manager of the 5G PPP project METIS-II.

 

Raymond Knopp is professor in the Mobile Communications Department at EURECOM. He received the B.Eng. (Honours) and the M.Eng. degrees in Electrical Engineering from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, in 1992 and 1993, respectively. From 1993-1997 he was a research assistant in the Mobile Communications Department at EURECOM working towards the PhD degree in Communication Systems from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), Lausanne. From 1997-2000 he was a research associate in the Mobile Communications Laboratory (LCM) of the Communication Systems Department of EPFL. His current research and teaching interests are in the area of digital communications, software radio architectures, and implementation aspects of signal processing systems and real-time wireless networking protocols. He has a proven track record in managing both fundamental and experimental research projects at an international level and is also General Secretary of the OpenAirInterface.org open-source wireless radio platform initiative which aims to bridge the gap between cutting-edge theoretical advances in wireless communications and practical designs.

 

Jens Zander is a full professor, co-founder and Scientific Director of Wireless@KTH at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden). Dr Zander has authored several textbooks on radio communication and radio resource management. He is on the board of directors of the Swedish National Post and Telecom Agency (PTS) and a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences. He has been TPC Chair of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Conferences in 1994 and 2004, General Chair for Crowncom 2012 and IEEE DySPAN 2015, and is one of the organizers of the Johannesberg Summits on 5G and Future Wireless Systems. His current research interests include architectures, resource and flexible spectrum management regimes as well as economic models for future wireless infrastructures.