Sensor Array Signal Processing (SASP): Representative Research Developments and Future Directions
Prof. Wei Liu, Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Abstract: In this talk, a review of the advances made in the past twenty-five years in sensor array signal processing (SASP) is first presented. As it is not possible to give an exhaustive list for all of them, we will focus on five major topics and introduce the corresponding progresses made in tackling their respective technical challenges:  beamforming (including robust adaptive beamforming and frequency invariant beamforming), direction of arrival (DOA) estimation (including sparsity based and underdetermined DOA estimation), sensor location optimization, target/source localization based on sensor arrays, and multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) arrays (including MIMO radar and MIMO for wireless communications). The first two are classic SASP topics from the very beginning, while the latter three were only studied systematically in the past decades. Then, six new developments in the SAM area are introduced to give an indication about possible future research directions, including tensor based SASP, quaternion-valued SASP, one-bit and non-coherent SASP, autonomous sensing based on moving arrays, machine learning and artificial intelligence for SASP, and SASP for next-generation communication systems.

Speaker's Bio: Wei Liu received his BSc and LLB degrees from Peking University, China, in 1996 and 1997, respectively, MPhil from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University of Hong Kong in 2001, and PhD from the School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, UK, in 2003. He then worked as a postdoc first at Southampton and later at Imperial College London. From 2005 to 2023, he was a Lecturer/Senior Lecturer at the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Sheffield, UK and from 2023 to 2024, a Reader at the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London (Visiting Professor from 2024). Since 2024, he has been a Professor at the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He has published 500+ journal and conference papers, six book chapters, and two research monographs titled "Wideband Beamforming: Concepts and Techniques" (Wiley, 2010) and "Low-Cost Smart Antennas" (Wiley, 2019), respectively. His research interests are mainly focused on sensor array and multichannel signal processing and its various applications, such as robotics and autonomous systems, human computer interface, radar, sonar, and wireless communications. He is a member of the Applied Signal Processing Systems Technical Committee (Chair for 2026-2027) of the IEEE Signal Processing Society (SPS), the Digital Signal Processing Technical Committee (Chair for 2022-2024) of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society, and the IEEE SPS Education Board (2024-2026, Chair of its Educational Conference Program Committee), and a former member of the Sensor Array and Multichannel Signal Processing Technical Committee of the IEEE SPS (Chair for 2021-2022), the IEEE SPS Technical Directions Board (2021-2022, 2026-2027), and the IEEE SPS Conference Board and its Executive Subcommittee (2022-2023). He also acted as an associate editor for IEEE Trans. on Signal Processing, IEEE Access, and Journal of the Franklin Institute, and an Executive Associate Editor-in-Chief of the journal Frontiers of Information Technology and Electronic Engineering; currently he is an associate editor for IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers and IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters. He is an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer for the Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society (2023-2026).