Prof Cheng-Chew Lim
Professor
School of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering
College of Engineering and Information Technology
Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.
Dr Cheng-Chew Lim is a professor at the University of Adelaide in the electrical & electronic engineering discipline. His research interests include control theory and applications, trusted autonomous systems decision and control, and multi-agent reinforcement learning.He has published over 300 research articles, supervised to completion 50 PhD and research masters candidates, and received a number of research grants and research agreements nationally and internationally.Among the masters and undergraduate university courses that he has taught are control, advanced control, autonomous systems, engineering systems - avionics, real-time systems, engineering project management, and design and innovation.He has served as an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics: Systems, an Editorial Board Member for the Journal of Industrial and Management Optimization, a panel member for Accreditation of Engineering Degree Programs of Engineers Australia, an external member for reviewing Engineering Programs of numerous universities in Australia and overseas, and Chair of the IEEE Control and Aerospace Electronic Systems Joint Chapter in SA, Australia.
Research areas
- Distributed control
- Trusted autonomous systems
- Secure cyber-physical sensor networks
Current research projects
- Physics-Informed Neural Networks for Quantum Graph-Based Medical Imaging Devices [ANA Partnership Grant Scheme]
- Intelligent Information Technologies for Secure Distributed Autonomous Systems [Industry Research Awards and Multi-year Agreements]
- Decentralised Partially Observable No-Regret Decision Models for Multi-player Game Environment [Industry Research Awards and Agreements]
- Distributed Team-based Learning for Zone Defence under Uncertainty [Industry Research Awards and Agreements]
- Low-Cost EMP Unmanned Aerial Systems [NGTF-CIT Grand Challenge Projects]
- Fuzzy Modelling and Analysis of Complex Networked Systems [ARC Discovery Projects]
Key recently-completed research projects
- Intelligent Multi-agent Coordination and Learning [Industry Research Agreements]
- Development of Decentralised Reinforcement Learning for Coordinating Multiple Systems [Industry Research Agreements]
- A Robotic Testbed for Comparison of Collaborative Localisation Algorithms in Contested Environments [Industry Research Agreements]
- Secure Machine Learning against Denial of Service Induced by Poisoning Attacks [Cyber Security CRC Project]
- Security in Wireless Sensor Networks [International Research Collaboration]
- Machine learning: investigated support vector machine learning capability for target detection and object recognition [Industry Research Agreements]
- System-on-chip verification: software-centric and interaction-oriented approaches [ARC Linkage Projects]
- Software defined radio: multi-channel ASIC-FPGA HF communication systems [ARC Linkage Projects]
- Muti-core processors: developed a mesh architecture for matrix computations [ARC Large Grants and Industry Research Agreements]
Research supervision
- PhD supervision (current): 4 UoA candidates
- PhD and Research Masters (completion): 42 PhD and 9 masters research candidates supervised to completion
- Postdoc and Research Associate supervision: 1 postdoc fellow and 2 research associates
| Date | Position | Institution name |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 - 2022 | Associate Head - Research | University of Adelaide |
| 2017 - ongoing | Professor | The University of Adelaide |
| 2017 - 2022 | Director of Research | University of Adelaide |
| 2010 - 2016 | Head of School EEE | The University of Adelaide |
| 2008 - 2008 | Acting Head of School EEE | The University of Adelaide |
| 2004 - 2008 | Associate Dean International ECMS | The University of Adelaide |
| 2003 - 2016 | Reader & Associate Professor | The University of Adelaide |
| 1999 - 2010 | Director CHiPTec Centre | The University of Adelaide |
| 1990 - 2002 | Senior Lecturer | The University of Adelaide |
| 1987 - 1989 | Lecture B | The University of Adelaide |
| 1987 - 1987 | Senior Lecturer | National University of Singapore |
| 1981 - 1986 | Lecturer | National University of Singapore |
| 1980 - 1981 | Research Engineer | Hawker Siddeley SG Brown Ltd (UK) |
| 1976 - 1977 | Trainee Technologist | Hawker Siddeley SG Brown Ltd (UK) |
| 1972 - 1973 | Electronic Technician | Texas Instrument (Singapore) |
| Date | Type | Title | Institution Name | Country | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Research Award | Competitive Evaluation Research Agreement (CERA) on Swarm Intelligence and Genetic Fuzzy Decision for Resource Allocation | DST | Australia | - |
| 2017 | Research Award | Competitive Evaluation Research Agreement (CERA) on Swarm Intelligence and Multi-Mission in Urban Areas | DST | Australia | - |
| 2017 | Research Award | ARC Discovery Projects Research Grant on Novel Fuzzy Modelling and Design of Complex Networked Systems | Australian Research Council | Australia | - |
| 2014 | Research Award | GIST Research Project Grant on Malicious Actitity Detection in Wireless Sensor Networks | GIST | Korea, Republic of | - |
| 2004 | Research Award | ARC Linkage Projects Research Grant on Hardware Verification for System-on-a-chip | Australian Research Council and Motorola Australia | Australia | A$228,905 |
| 2002 | Research Award | ARC Linkage Projects Research Grant on Multichannel High Performance Digital Receiver | Australian Research Council, Ebor Computing, and DSTO | Australia | A$390,385 |
| 1996 | Research Award | ARC Large Projects Research Grant on A Very High Performance Matrix and Tensor Processor | Australian Research Council | Australia | - |
| 1992 | Research Award | ARC Large Projects Research Grant on Architecture for Very High Speed GaAs Processing Engine for Matrix Computations. | Australian Research Council | Australia | - |
| 1989 | Research Award | ARC Large Projects Research Grant on Architecture for Very High Speed GaAs Processing Engine, | ARC | Australia | - |
| 1989 | Research Award | ARC Large Projects Research Grant on Control in Multi-version Computation Systems, Chief Investigators | Australian Research Council | Australia | - |
| Language | Competency |
|---|---|
| Chinese (Mandarin) | Can read, write, speak and understand spoken |
| English | Can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review |
| Date | Institution name | Country | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| Loughborough University | United Kingdom | Ph.D. | |
| Loughborough University | United Kingdom | B.Sc.(Hons) | |
| Loughborough University | United Kingdom | Dip in Industrial Studies |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2018 | Nguyen, D. D. (2018). Adaptive Reinforcement Learning for Heterogeneous Network Selection. (PhD Thesis, The University of Adelaide). |
| 2013 | Chew, H. G. (2013). Support Vector Machines with Dual Error Extensions for Target Detection and Object Recognition. (PhD Thesis, The University of Adelaide). |
| 2003 | Britton, M. S. (2003). Stochastic Task Scheduling in Time-Critical Information Delivery Systems. (PhD Thesis, The University of Adelaide). |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Simpson, L., Costanza, F., Millar, K., Cheng, A., Lim, C. -C., & Chew, H. G. (2025). Algebraic Adversarial Attacks on Explainability Models. |
| 2025 | Simpson, L., Costanza, F., Millar, K., Cheng, A., Lim, C. -C., & Chew, H. G. (2025). Tangentially Aligned Integrated Gradients for User-Friendly Explanations. |
| 2025 | Simpson, L., Millar, K., Cheng, A., Lim, C. C., & Chew, H. G. (2025). Graph-based Integrated Gradients for Explaining Graph Neural Networks. DOI |
| 2024 | Simpson, L., Costanza, F., Millar, K., Cheng, A., Lim, C. -C., & Chew, H. G. (2024). Algebraic Adversarial Attacks on Integrated Gradients. |
| 2024 | Simpson, L., Millar, K., Cheng, A., Lim, C. -C., & Chew, H. G. (2024). Probabilistic Lipschitzness and the Stable Rank for Comparing Explanation Models. |
| 2023 | Simpson, L., Millar, K., Cheng, A., Chew, H. G., & Lim, C. -C. (2023). A Testbed for Automating and Analysing Mobile Devices and their Applications. |
Key research grants and funding [2017-2025]
- ARC Discovery Projects Grant: Novel Fuzzy Modelling and Design of Complex Networked Systems
- NGTF-CIT Grand Challenge: Low-Cost EMP Equipped Predatory Unmanned Aerial Systems
- ANA Partnership Grant Scheme: Physics-Informed Neural Networks for Quantum Graph-Based Medical Imaging Devices
- Industry Research Agreement: Intelligent Information Technologies for Secure Distributed Autonomous Systems
- Industry Research Agreement: Decentralised Partially Observable No-Regret Decision Models for Multi-player Game Environment
- Industry Research Agreement: Distributed Team-based Learning for Zone Defence under Uncertainty
- Competitive Evaluation Research Agreement: Collective Intelligence and Genetic Fuzzy Trees for Decision Making
- Competitive Evaluation Research Agreement: Swarm Intelligence for Multi-mission in Urban Areas
- Cyber Security CRC Project: Secure Machine Learning against Denial of Service Induced by Poisoning Attacks
- GIST International Collaborative Research Grant: Malicious Jammer Detection in Wireless Sensor Networks
- Industry Research Agreement: Intelligent Multi-agent Coordination and Learning
- Collaborative Research Agreement: A Robotic Testbed for Comparison of Collaborative Localization in a Contested Environment.
- Industry Research Agreement: Development of Decentralised Reinforcement Learning for Coordinating Multiple Systems
Masters & Undergraduates Courses Taught
- Control (2021-present)
- Principles of Control Systems (2021-present)
- Autonomous Systems (2017-present)
- Project Management
- Design and Innovation
- Engineering Systems: Avionics
- Control IV
- Advanced Control
- Circuit Analysis & Synthesis
- Real-time Systems
- Capstone Projects (Masters)
- Capstone Projects (Honours)
| Date | Role | Research Topic | Program | Degree Type | Student Load | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Co-Supervisor | Advancing Building Energy Management: A Study of Knowledge-Embedded Optimization Strategies | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Yu Qiao |
| 2024 | Principal Supervisor | Uncertainty-aware Scene Understanding for the Tactical Edge | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Part Time | Ms Hsan Sandar Win |
| 2024 | Principal Supervisor | Uncertainty-aware Scene Understanding for the Tactical Edge | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Ms Hsan Sandar Win |
| 2024 | Co-Supervisor | Advancing Building Energy Management: A Study of Knowledge-Embedded Optimization Strategies | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Yu Qiao |
| 2022 | Principal Supervisor | Characterisation of devices within private and encrypted networks | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Lachlan Connor Simpson |
| 2022 | Principal Supervisor | Characterisation of devices within private and encrypted networks | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Lachlan Connor Simpson |
| 2021 | Co-Supervisor | Cooperative Control and Optimization of Multi-Agent Systems with External Disturbances | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Yize Yang |
| 2021 | Co-Supervisor | Cooperative Control and Optimization of Multi-Agent Systems with External Disturbances | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Yize Yang |
| Date | Role | Research Topic | Program | Degree Type | Student Load | Student Name |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 - 2025 | Co-Supervisor | Secure and Safe Control of Cyber-Physical Systems | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Daotong Zhang |
| 2020 - 2022 | Co-Supervisor | Robust and Cooperative Formation Control of Nonlinear Multi-Agent Systems | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Yang Fei |
| 2019 - 2022 | Co-Supervisor | Security Issues for Cyber-Physical Systems | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Miss Zhi Lian |
| 2019 - 2022 | Principal Supervisor | Autonomous Navigation of Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Dr Kamal Mammadov |
| 2019 - 2022 | Co-Supervisor | Distributed Formation Control for Multi-agent Systems and Its Applications | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Ms Bing Yan |
| 2018 - 2019 | Principal Supervisor | Deep Learning for Bipartite Assignment Problems | Master of Philosophy | Master | Full Time | Mr Daniel Steve Gibbons |
| 2018 - 2022 | Principal Supervisor | Graph-Based Machine Learning for Passive Network Reconnaissance within Encrypted Networks | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Part Time | Mr Kyle Alexander Millar |
| 2018 - 2022 | Co-Supervisor | Towards an Improved Understanding of Software Vulnerability Assessment Using Data-Driven Approaches | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Dr Triet Huynh Minh Le |
| 2018 - 2022 | Co-Supervisor | Consensus Control of Multi-Agent Systems Under Constraints | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Yuan Sun |
| 2017 - 2021 | Co-Supervisor | Adaptive Algorithms Design for Active Noise Control Systems with Disturbance at Reference and Error Microphones | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Muhammad Saeed Aslam |
| 2016 - 2020 | Principal Supervisor | Energy Management System Design for Fuel Cell Vehicles | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Di Shen |
| 2016 - 2019 | Co-Supervisor | Reconfigurable Antennas Based on Varactor-Loaded Stubs | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Miss Siti Nailah Mastura Zainarry |
| 2015 - 2019 | Co-Supervisor | Fuzzy Functional Observer Based Controller Design and Fault Detection for Nonlinear Systems | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Syed Imranul Islam |
| 2015 - 2020 | Co-Supervisor | Formation Control and Reconfiguration Strategy of Multi-Agent Systems | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Ms Yutong Liu |
| 2014 - 2018 | Co-Supervisor | Adaptive Reinforcement Learning for Heterogeneous Network Selection | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Duong Duc Nguyen |
| 2013 - 2017 | Co-Supervisor | Formation Control of Localised and Decentralised Robotic Swarms | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Dr Hongjun Yu |
| 2013 - 2015 | Principal Supervisor | Track-Before-Detect for Active Sonar | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Ms Han Xuan Vu |
| 2012 - 2016 | Principal Supervisor | Efficient Methods for Novel Passive Structures in Waveguide and Shielded Transmission Line Technology | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Cheng Zhao |
| 2009 - 2011 | Principal Supervisor | Energy-Efficient Data Gathering and Aggregation for Wireless Sensor Networks | Master of Engineering Science | Master | Full Time | Mr Yuexian Wang |
| 2007 - 2009 | Principal Supervisor | Design Study of Energy-Efficient Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks | Master of Engineering Science | Master | Full Time | Mr Lifang Lu |
| 2007 - 2009 | Principal Supervisor | Software-Centric and Interaction-Oriented System-on-Chip Verification | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Xiao Xi Xu |
| 2006 - 2011 | Principal Supervisor | Random Access Schemes for Multichannel Communication and Multipacket Reception in Wireless Networks | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Part Time | Mr Hyuk Lee |
| 2005 - 2009 | Co-Supervisor | Modular Multiplication in the Residue Number System | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Yinan Kong |
| 2004 - 2014 | Principal Supervisor | A Mesh Architecture for Data Management of Matrix Computations | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Adam Burdeniuk |
| 2003 - 2007 | Co-Supervisor | Low-Density Parity-Check Codes: Construction and Implementation | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Gabofetswe Malema |
| 2003 - 2010 | Principal Supervisor | Verification of System-on-Chips using Genetic Evolutionary Test Techniques from a Software Applications Perspective | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Dr Adriel Cheng |
| 2003 - 2010 | Principal Supervisor | Capacity of Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Wireless Communication Systems Operating in the HF Band | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Nigel Brine |
| 2002 - 2004 | Principal Supervisor | Chip Level Decision Feedback Equalizer for CDMA Downlink Channel | Master of Engineering Science | Master | Full Time | Mr Agus Santoso |
| 2002 - 2004 | Co-Supervisor | Low-Power Low-Phase Noise LC Oscillators in Silicon-on-Sapphire CMOS Technology | Master of Engineering Science | Master | Full Time | Mr Wan Kong |
| 2002 - 2007 | Principal Supervisor | Downlink Resource Allocation for Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access Systems | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Kit Chee |
| 2001 - 2005 | Principal Supervisor | Architectures for Floating-Point Division | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Dr Hooman Nikmehr |
| 1998 - 2002 | Principal Supervisor | Content-Based Representation of Sign Language Video Sequences | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Nariman Habili |
| 1998 - 2013 | Principal Supervisor | Support Vector Machines with Dual Error Extensions for Target Detection and Object Recognition | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Dr Hong Gunn Chew |
| 1997 - 2003 | Principal Supervisor | Stochastic Task Scheduling in Time-Critical Information Delivery Systems | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Part Time | Dr Matthew Britton |
| 1996 - 2002 | Principal Supervisor | MatRISC: A RISC Multiprocessor for Matrix Applications | Doctor of Philosophy | Doctorate | Full Time | Mr Andrew James Beaumont-Smith |
| Date | Role | Board name | Institution name | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 - 2007 | Board Member | NNTTF Facility Board | National Networked Tele-Test Facility for Integrated Systems (NNTTF) | Australia |
| 2001 - 2004 | Director | AMN Board of Directors | Australian Microelectronics Network (AMN) | Australia |
| Date | Role | Committee | Institution | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 - ongoing | Member | Centre for Advanced Derence Research in Robotics and Autonomous Systems | The University of Adelaide | Australia |
| 2017 - ongoing | Member | ECMS Faculty Research Committee | The University of Adelaide | - |
| 2010 - 2016 | Member | ECMS Heads of School | The University of Adelaide | - |
| 2010 - 2016 | Member | ECMS Faculty Board | Faculty of Engineering Computer and Mathematical Sciences, The University of Adelaide | Australia |
| 2010 - 2016 | Member | ECMS Faculty Research Committee | Faculty of Engineering Computer and Mathematical Sciences, The University of Adelaide | Australia |
| 2004 - 2008 | Member | University International Committee | The University of Adelaide | Australia |
| 2004 - 2008 | Chair | ECMS Faculty International Committee | Faculty of Engineering Computer and Mathematical Sciences, The University of Adelaide | Australia |
| Date | Role | Membership | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 - ongoing | - | IEEE Life Senior Member | United States |
| 2001 - 2016 | - | Senior Member, The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers | United States |
| Date | Role | Editorial Board Name | Institution | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 - ongoing | Associate Editor | IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics: Systems | IEEE | - |
| 2012 - 2022 | Editor | Journal of Industrial and Management Optimization (JIMO) | The American Institute of Mathematical Sciences | United States |
| 2011 - 2011 | Editor | Guest Editor, Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems Series B, Special Issue | - | - |
| 2009 - 2017 | Associate Editor | Journal of Industrial and Management Optimization | - | - |
| 2009 - ongoing | Associate Editor | Journal of Industrial and Management Optimization | - | - |
| 2008 - 2008 | Editor | Guest Editor, Journal of Industrial & Management Optimization, Special Issue | The University of Adelaide | Australia |
| Date | Office Name | Institution | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 - 2016 | Chair - IEEE Chapter Control and Aerospace Electronic Systems | IEEE Chapter Control and Aerospace Electronic Systems | Australia |
| 2010 - 2013 | Chair - IEEE Chapter Control and Aerospace Electronic Systems | IEEE Control and Aerospace Electronic Systems Chapter in South Australia | Australia |
| 1999 - 2001 | Chair - IEEE Chapter Control and Aerospace Electronic Systems | IEEE Control and Aerospace Electronic Systems Chapter in South Australia | Australia |