Professor Liu

Abstract: 

Extremely large-scale antenna arrays, tremendously high frequencies, and new types of antennas are three clear trends towards the sixth-generation (6G) networks. These three trends introduce a paradigm shift in the electromagnetic characteristics of the wireless system, namely from the far-field planar wave to the near-field spherical wave, leading to active discussion about near-field communication (NFC) recently. Despite the growing interest, a thorough understanding of how near-field spherical waves affect wireless radio sensing remains elusive. This talk introduces the concept of near-field sensing (NISE) for 6G networks by discussing its fundamentals, motivations, challenges, and key technologies. This talk first introduces the basics of sensing, revealing the impact of system parameters on sensing resolution. It then delves into the basic modelling of NISE, followed by the key motivations and challenges. Furthermore, this talk investigates two key applications of NISE: 1) enabling distance sensing in the spatial domain beyond the bandwidth limitations of conventional far-field systems, and 2) enabling the determination of full motion states—both radial and transverse velocities—of moving targets, thereby streamlining the process of target tracking. Finally, this talk concludes with a discussion of the potential opportunities and unresolved challenges in the field of NISE.

Biography:

Yuanwei Liu has been a (tenured) full Professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) at The University of Hong Kong (HKU)  and a visiting professor in the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL)  since September 1st, 2024. Prior to that, he was a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) (Aug. 2021- Aug. 2024) and a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) (Sept. 2017- July 2021) at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), London, U.K, and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Sep. 2016- Aug. 2017) at King's College London (KCL), London, U.K. He received the Ph.D. degree from QMUL in 2016. He currently serves as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of IEEE ComSoc TC NewsLetter, an Area Editor of IEEE Transactions on Communications and IEEE Communications Letters, an Editor of serval IEEE top journals, such as IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, and IEEE Transactions on Network Science and Engineering. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, a Fellow of AAIA, a Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher, an IEEE Communication Society Distinguished Lecturer, and an IEEE Vehicular Technology Society Distinguished Lecturer. He was listed as one of [35 Innovators Under 35 China in 2022 by MIT Technology Review], is the recipient of the [2024 Early Career Researcher Award from Queen Mary Research and Innovation],the [2020 IEEE ComSoc Outstanding Young Researcher Award for the Europe, Middle East and Africa Region], the [2020 Early Achievement Award of the IEEE ComSoc - Signal Processing and Computing for Communications (SPCC) Technical Committee], and the recipient of the [2021 IEEE CTTC Early Achievement Awards]. He is the co-recipient of the [2024 IEEE Communications Society Heinrich Hertz Award], the Best Student Paper Award in IEEE VTC2022-Fall, the Best Paper Award in ISWCS 2022, the 2022 IEEE SPCC-TC Best Paper Award, the 2023 IEEE ICCT Best Paper Award, and the 2023 IEEE ISAP Best Emerging Technologies Paper Award. More information can be found in Google Scholar and Linkedin.

Email:

Address:Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong., University of Maryland, Hong Kong, Hong Kong