Postgraduate Students

This page provides a list of students who are studying or who have studied postgraduate degrees under my supervision. In most cases my students are jointly supervised and I think this works well for all concerned. If you are interested in finding out more about postgraduate study then please email me, or drop by my office. The first forty two visitors will win a set of steak knives.

Current Students

Samiru Gayan received his Bachelor of Science in Engineering and Master of Philosophy in Telecommunication from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka in 2011 and 2015 respectively. He is a Lecturer (on study leave) at the same university. He received an international research scholarship from the University of Melbourne to pursue his PhD in February 2017. He is currently focusing on wireless communications with low-resolution quantization. He has not yet convinced his principal supervisor that Sri Lanka is the world's best cricket team.

Trang Ngoc Cao received the Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Telecommunications in 2012 from the Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology, Vietnam and the Masters in Electronics and Radio Engineering in 2015 from Kyung Hee University, Korea. She then worked as a researcher in her old university in Vietnam for a year, before moving to Melbourne to pursue her PhD. She is currently attracted by molecular communication and by the Australian bush.

Bhathiya Pilanawithana received his Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka in 2013. He worked for a leading Telecomm provider in Sri Lanka for two and half years as an access network planning engineer, before getting an international research scholarship from Monash University to do the PhD. In February 2016 he transferred to the University of Melbourne with his supervisor. His current research is focused on energy harvesting in relay networks. He still dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian.

Amanthi Thudugalage received her Bachelor of Science in Engineering from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka in 2013. She worked as a temporary lecturer in the same university for a year, before she was offered an international research scholarship from Monash University to pursue her PhD. She is currently focusing on radio frequency energy harvesting networks (RF-EHNs). Amanthi was Chair of the local IEEE Monash student branch in 2015. She tried very hard not to let the power go to her head. In February 2016 she transferred to the University of Melbourne with her supervisor.

Anand Sivamalai received his Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Systems Engineering) and Bachelor of Applied Science (Computer Science) from RMIT university, Melbourne, Australia in 2001. After graduating, he spent the following 13 years in industry working on modem handset development for WCDMA and LTE/A technologies, primarily in the physical layer, for companies such as NEC, NXP Semiconductors, Ericsson and Intel Mobile Communications. He has just returned to Melbourne to pursue his Phd after a 10 year stint in Germany. His current research interests include wireless baseband signal processing, and massive MIMO. Anand grew up in Ballarat and while you can take the boy out of Ballarat ... you can't take the Ballarat out of the boy.

Past Students

Yeqing Hu completed her PhD at Monash University in 2017 on Location Dependent Interference Modelling in Cellular Networks. She now works as a Senior Research Engineer at Samsung Research in Dallas, Texas (in the same group as another past student Boon Ng!) She is yet to be persuaded by her supervisor to support the mighty North Melbourne Kangaroos.

Dinuka Kudavithana completed his PhD at the University of Melbourne in 2015 on Energy Efficient Wireless System Design. He is now an IC Design Engineer (R&D) at Broadcom Limited in Sydney. He was a better bowler than Murali and a better batsman than Mahela but decided to pursue his studies instead of becoming the greatest cricketer in the world.

Rajitha Senanayake completed her PhD at the University of Melbourne in 2015 on Performance Analysis of Base Station Cooperation. She now works as an Australian Research Council DECRA Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne. Rajitha makes the best Kiri Bath in the southern hemisphere.

Chamath Divarathne completed his PhD at Monash University in 2015 on chipless RFID systems. He now works as an Associate Design Engineer at Unico Computer Systems in Melbourne.

Meng Wang completed his Ph.D. at the University of Melbourne in 2014 on Multiuser MIMO Techniques for Cellular Systems. He now works for Empirics, a leading provider in data analytics for the superannuation industry in Australia. He also has a Grade 10 piano performance certificate from the Royal Conservatory of Music achieving First Class Honours with Distinction. His ex-supervisor is tone deaf but is a genius on the triangle.

Nikeeth Ramanathan completed a Masters degree at the University of Melbourne in 2013 in the area of multiuser MIMO systems with limited feedback. He has no idea that one of his supervisors once came 3rd in the world dishwasher stacking championships. Nikeeth is now working for Redflex Traffic Systems, developing software for speed and ranging radars.

Rusdha Muharar completed his Ph.D. at the University of Melbourne in 2012 on the topic of Multiuser Precoding in Wireless Communication Systems. He is currently an academic at Syiah Kuala University in Indonesia. Rusdha loves large random matrices more than life itself. His name is an anagram of 'Hurrah as a drum'.

Tharaka Nilantha Samarasinghe completed his Ph.D. at the University of Melbourne in 2012 on Opportunistic Beamforming in Wireless Networks. He is currently working at the University of Moratuwa in Sri Lanka. Tharaka has never forgiven Darryl Hair for no-balling Murali for chucking.

Liang Chen completed his Ph.D. at the University of Melbourne in 2012 in the area of optical OFDM. He was awarded a prestigious Victoria Fellowship in 2011 based on his Ph.D. studies. He is now working for National Australia Bank. He used to be a crazy basketball player, until he realised that he was never going to make it in the NBA. He is now just crazy.

Nasreen Badruddin completed her Ph.D. at the University of Melbourne in 2010 on Optimal Power Allocation in Interference-Limited Communication Networks. She then returned to Malaysia where she is now an Associate Professor at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS. Nasreen's world revolves mostly around food and her favourite thing in the world is durian.

Huan Deng completed his Ph.D. at the University of Melbourne in 2010 on the erasure correction capability of convolutional codes. Huan believes that Melbourne is the thirty-seventh most livable city in the world. He is now working for a telecommunications company in China.

Felix Li completed his Ph.D. at the University of Melbourne in 2010 on distributed detection and estimation in wireless sensor networks. After a stint as a research fellow at the University of Melbourne, Felix now works as a senior quantitave analyst for a bank. When he gets rich, Felix has promised to give a great deal of money to his Ph.D. supervisor.

Jian Wang completed a research Masters at the University of Melbourne in 2008. His thesis focused on adaptive resource allocation in OFDM-based cellular networks. Jian loves soccer, although he is a better fan than player. His favourite team is AC Milan because it is an anagram of "ina calm".

Alex Leong completed his Ph.D. at the University of Melbourne in 2008. His thesis looked at signal processing problems in wireless sensor networks. Alex is now working as a Research Scientist at the University of Paderborn. He believes that is is hard to be humble when you own a Border Collie.

Boon Ng completed his PhD at the University of Melbourne in 2007. His thesis title was "Cellular Networks with Cooperating Base Stations: Performance Analysis and Distributed Algorithms." Like most Malaysians, footy and cricket were a complete mystery to to him when he arrived in Australia. It took him seven years to develop an appreciation for these fine sports, a feat that is considered to be one of his greatest achievements by many of his Malaysian peers. It should come as no surprise that his favourite cricketer is David Boon. He now works as a Senior Staff Research Engineer for Samsung in Dallas, Texas (Boon Ng that is, not David Boon).

Muhammad Naeem Bacha is from Rawalpindi in Pakistan, the home of the cricketer Shoaib Akhtar (who was known as the Rawalpindi Express). Naeem completed his PhD at the University of Melbourne in 2007. His work concerned the design of wireless networks where transmitters and receivers are equipped with multiple antennas. Naeem thinks that Ricky Ponting was a better batsman than Sachin Tendulkar. Naeem now works at Audinate.

Vivian Chen graduated with a PhD from the University of Melbourne in 2007. Her thesis title was "Signal Processing for Optical Performance Monitoring and Impairment Mitigation". Vivian won a 2006 Excellent Chinese Overseas Student Award however her greatest achievement was learning to say "G'day Mate" with a perfect Australian accent. Vivian does not like to eat Koalas. She is now a Professor at Fudan University.

John Papandriopoulos completed his PhD at the University of Melbourne in 2006. His thesis looked at resource optimization in multiuser communication networks. He was awarded the Chancellor's Prize for his PhD Thesis and he was also awarded a prestigious Victoria Fellowship in 2005. John's nickname is `JPap' which I reckon is derived from `Journal Papers'. John is an entrepreneur currently working on his second startup in San Francisco.

Nam Nguyen completed a Masters degree at the University of Melbourne in 2003. His thesis examined the optimization of pilot assisted modulation schemes in Rayleigh fading channels. He went on to complete his Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This was rather unfortunate as Nam is allergic to corn. He now works at Research in Motion.

Kegen Yu completed his PhD at the University of Sydney in 2002. His thesis focused on synchronization and channel estimation for fast-fading CDMA channels. After graduating he was a research fellow in the Centre for Wireless Communications at the University of Oulu, Finland. He is now a Professor at Wuhan University in China.

Louis Trichard completed his PhD at the University of Sydney in 2001. His thesis looked at the design and analysis of multiuser receivers for CDMA systems. After graduating, he worked for about a year as a research fellow at Yokohama National University in Japan. Louis is now a patent attorney in London.