Radio Systems newsletter - April 2024

The Radio Systems group of the University of Twente provides expertise in physical layer design of Wireless Communications and Sensing systems. In our research and education, we focus on Radio Propagation and Channel Modelling, Antenna Systems, and Signal Processing with applications in health, sustainability and connectivity. Our aim is to interconnect anything, anywhere, anytime under all conditions and to exploit unobtrusive wireless monitoring.

This is the sixth edition of our biannual newsletter. The aim is to give an update  about our research and educational activities. We also share here more general information concerning interesting conferences and developments.

The Radio Systems group is gradually starting up its activities within the Future Network Services project. The project is split into two phases where the first phase has been granted and the second phase is conditionally granted. Radio Systems participates in the first phase with 2 PhD students and in the second phase with 3 PhD students. PhD students for the first phase are currently being recruited. The research topics are ‘Joint Communication and Sensing’ and ‘Digitally Enhanced Analog’.

In the context of Joint Communication and Sensing (JCAS), a.k.a., Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC), Yang Miao and Andre Kokkeler secured the UT-UW (Waterloo) Strategic Fund aiming at applying ISAC in health monitoring. This is a collaboration with Prof. George Shake and Prof. Alex Wong from UWaterloo, Canada. The project will kick off in May 2024.

Also linked to ISAC activities, Yang Miao co-organized and presented together with other KULeuven researchers a tutorial in IEEE JC&S Symposium on “Integrated Human sensing and Communications: from detection, to localization and tracking, to pose and vital sign monitoring”. She also gave a talk to KIVI (Het Koninklijk Institute Van Ingenieurs) on her activities in URSI GASS 2023 that are associated with her role in COST action INTERACT. She also chaired 3 sessions in EuCAP 2024, one of which was the convened session organized by the ISAC subgroup of COST action INTERACT where Yang is the co-chair. 

Furthermore, Yang Miao participated as a co-supervisor in the "Age of Technology", the study tour of E.T.S.V. Scintilla, in South Korea, with 19 UT students. They visited Doosan Energibility, Pusan National University, Ulsan National IST (UNIST), etc. 

Within the 4TU project “Green Sensors” we welcome Vijaykumaran Alagarsamy as a PhD student. He will start his work on the development of biodegradable sensors and their integration into a wireless communication network. The aim is to implement the networking elements using biodegradable materials as well.

In the past period, we celebrated the defense of 3 PhD theses. On September 22^nd, Alireza Bagherimoghim defended his thesis on “28 GHz Gapwaveguide-base Phased Array Antennas for 5G Applications”. On September 29^th, Zaher Mahfouz defended his thesis “Ultra-Narrowband Communications; A Feasibility Study For The 2.4 GHz Band”, and Wai Yan Yong defended his thesis with title “Array Antennas and Radomes for Millimetre-Wave 5G Applications” on October 6^th.

We are also looking back at a successful 18^th European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP) in Glasgow where the Radio Systems group has presented 4 research papers.

To our regret, Aakash Arora has left the University of Twente as of 1^st of March. Aakash was active in Electrical Engineering bachelor modules 8 (Signal Processing & Communication) and 11 (Electronic System Design). His research focus was on optimization algorithms, statistical signal processing, wireless communications and machine learning.

WELCOME TO

• Vijaykumaran Alagarsamy: PhD student within the Green Sensors project

New projects

• Remote health monitoring enabled by integrating radar sensing and radio communication networks, UTwente-UWaterloo Strategic Fund on Health

Successfull MSc defenses

• November 22, 2023 | Jan Fikse: “Bluetooth Direction Finding using a Uniform Rectangular Array”
• September 27, 2023 | Roy Veld: “Height-adaptive human gait model through radar-driven pipeline with two co-located mmWave MIMO radars”

events, Conferences and Publications

• May 2024 | André Kokkeler has given his inaugural lecture "Radio Systems; Evolution and Revolution"
• November 2023 | Anastasia Lavrenko's paper “Dual-Mode FMCW Harmonic Radar Supporting Auxiliary Transmitter Operation” has been presented at the 2023 Interntaitonal radar Conference in Sydney, Australia
• October 2023 | Matthijs Aanen presented his paper “Evaluation of GNSS-based Time Synchronisation for ToF Localisation with Software-Defined Radio”  at the 2023 IEEE 98th Vehicular Technology Conference in Tung Chung, Lantau Island, Hong Kong
• March 2024 | Six paper have been presented at the 18th edition of the European Conference on Antennas and Propagation in Glasgow, UK
• The following papers have been published in journals:
  • “Empirical Characterization and Modeling of the Propagation Channel Inside the VIRC”,M. Z. Mahfouz, R. Vogt-Ardatjew, A. B. J. Kokkeler and A. Alayón Glazunov. (2024), IEEE Access. 
  •   “Height-Adaptive Human Gait Model Through Radar-Driven Pipeline With Two Co-Located mmWave MIMO Radars”, R. Veld, A. B. J. Kokkeler, A. Chiumento and Y. Miao (2024), IEEE Access.
  • “Modeling the effects of power efficient approximate multipliers in radio astronomy correlators”,  A. B. J. Kokkeler, G. A. Gillani  and A. J. Boonstra  (2024), Experimental Astronomy
  • A Novel Iterative Algorithm for Outlier Robust Phase Retrieval via Majorization Minimization Technique,” A. Saini, A. Arora and P. Babu, IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement.
  • "A UAV-Aided Real-Time Channel Sounder for Highly Dynamic Nonstationary A2G Scenarios," K. Mao et al. (2023), IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement 
  • "Measurement and Estimation Methodology for EMC and OTA Testing in the VIRC," M. Z. Mahfouz, R. Vogt-Ardatjew, A. B. J. Kokkeler and A. A. Glazunov (2023), IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility
  • "Miniaturization of a Fully Metallic Bandpass Frequency Selective Surface for Millimeter-Wave Band Applications," W. Y. Yong and A. A. Glazunov (2023), IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility
  • "Sparse Tiled Planar Array: The Shared Multibeam Aperture for Millimeter-Wave Joint Communication and Sensing," H. Alidoustaghdam, A. B. J. Kokkeler and Y. Miao (2023), Electronics

Education

RADIO SYSTEMS COURSES

• Third quarter 2023-2024 | 5G/6G Communication and Sensing Channels: 202300066.
• Fourth quarter 2023-2024 | Advanced Communication and Radar Systems: 202300065

Miscellaneous    

• On 5^th of October we had our annual day out. It started off with a game of “Boer” golf followed by some teambuilding activities at Zero55. The day finished with a nice dinner and drinks at the Foodclub. Good times had by all!
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• At the end of December, we also had our RS Xmas party! Second year in a row we are having a potluck dinner in our coffee corner area in Carré. Thanks to our international group, we sampled a great variety of dishes from all over the world. Everyone has also received a special gift from a secret Santa!