Langford White

Professor Langford White

Professor of Electrical Engineering

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Faculty of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.

Casual Research Employment Opportunity

There is an opportunity for a casual research associate (RA) to work on a short project (6 months, renewable, approx 10 hrs/week) in partnership with Defence Science and Technology (DST). Problems of interest include

  • Models for multi-agent dynamic resource allocation
  • Distributed adaptive learning
  • Game theoretic techniques

You should have a Ph D in electrical and electronic engineering, Computer science or applied mathematics with some experience in signal processing, control, optimisation or game theory. Programming skills (c/c++/python) are also an advantage. Please contact Professor White directly.

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Ph D scholarship opportunity

Funded by the South Australian Government and the Region Bretagne (France), there is an exciting opportunity available for a Ph D candidate in the area of Artificial Intelligence. This inter-disciplinary project is concerned with the analysis and design of dialogue systems which are aimed at developing a common understanding between humans and AI agents operating in teams. Candidates should have a honours degree in Electrical/Electronic Engineering, Mathematics or Computer Science. There are opportunities for study in France and the project is jointly supervised by myself and staff from LAB-STICC, a CNRS laboratory in France.

This position is restricted to AUS/CAN/UK/US/NZ or NATO nationals only.

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Ph D top-up

A top-up scholarship of $10k per year (for up to 3 years) is available for Australian permanent residents in receipt of an Australian government Ph D scholarship. The study involves modelling of context-sensitive languages and associated inference methods. Applications include speech recognition and automatic language translation which are topics of considerable interest and importance in artificial intelligence. Travel and exchanges are available with CNR Italia, Rome, Italy.

Applicants must be AUS/CAN/UK/US/NZ or NATO nationals.

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Nicolas Baudin Internships in France

In partnership with the French Embassy, the University is offering fully funded internships for undergraduate, postgraduate and HDR students. I have a project "On the design of shared waveforms for communication and radar functions" which is an important current research topic. The position is located in Toulouse at the Institut supérieur de l'aéronautique et de l'espace (ISAE-SUPAERO). Please consult https://au.ambafrance.org/Nicolas-Baudin-Program-Internships-in-France-initiative for more details or contact me.

 

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Professor White's research interests and activities lie in the general areas of statistical signal processing and control. Current projects include :

1. Statistical modelling and estimation for hidden reciprocal chains (HRCs)

HRCs are non-causal generalisations of hidden Markov chains and are one-dimensiona Markov random fields, although reciprocal processes are not, in general, Markovian. In this research, we investigate modelling, optimal state estimation, parameter estimation and model classification for HRCs. Applications addressed include "destination-aware" target tracking and the forensic analysis of "pattern-of-life" problems. This work is a collaboration with Dr Francesco Carravetta (IASI-CNR, Italy).

2. Signal subspace methods for sensor array processing of temporally correlated signals

This research is motivated by the question of whether temporal correlation in signals incident of a sensor array can be used to improve source localisation and classification. Advances in computational power mean that previously neglected techniques such as maximum likelihood estimation now become feasible. Recent results concerning the asymptotic consistency of certain estimators (Generalised Statistical Analysis) has also raised the question of whether these approaches can be used in signal subspace based methods such as ESPRIT. This project investigates a range of questions related to these two problems. Collaborators : Prof Peter Sherman (Iowa State Univ., USA), Defence Science and Technology Organisation Australia.

3. Markov Decision Processes and State Aggregation

This work is concerned with the development of sub-optimal control strategies for very large Markov decision processes, where state aggregation is used to reduce dimensionality. Models considered include Quasi Birth-Death processes and optimally lumped processes.

4. Signal processing for GPS interference mitigation

Funded by an ARC Linkage grant, and building on previous work conducted in the School, this work is concerned with localisation and mitigation of jammers/spoofers in the GPS bands. Much critical infrastructure (e.g. aviation, ports, mining) relies on GPS localisation and the issue of dealing with deliberate or unintentional interference is very important. This project teams with the University of NSW and GPSat Systems.

More recent work focuses on the development of software-defined radio (SDR) technology in the GPS space.

5. Adaptive games and applications to Communications Systems

In this work, we consider resource allocation in communications networks from a game theoretic point of view. In particular, we examine regret-based reinforcement learning algorithms which, although primarily decentralised, do allow both limited feedback from the resource providers, and the ability for users to form coalitions (i.e. co-operate) to improve performance. These techniques are generic and can be applied in other applications, for example energy markets. Collaboration with Dr Duong Nguyen, the University of Adelaide.

6. Bayesian rationality in satisfaction games

In a satisfaction game, players seek only to attain a satisfactory level of utility rather than competitively maximise their utilities. This research combines the set theoretic specification of satisfaction games and the concept of Bayesian rationality proposed by Robert Aumann (Nobel prize 2005) to develop a new paradigm in game theory. Research is focused on characterisation of equilibria and adaptive algorithms for finding equilibria. Application in resource allocation games are of significance.

Another application domain involves the modelling of the interactions between humans and AI in human-autonomy teaming. In particular, a satisfaction framework is developed using measurable spaces and stopping-time sigma-algebras. Collaboration with Lab_STICC (France) and the School of Psychology, The University of Adelaide.

7. Equilibria in search markets

A search market involves agents with different search costs seeking providers for transacting the sale of a good or service. In this research, we address the problem of defining various kinds of equilibrium behaviour and the development of algorithms for finding equilibria. Of particular interest is how sellers can adaptively learn equilibrium strategies through repetition. There is a relationship with Stackelberg games. Collaboration with Prof Roger Waldeck, IMT-Atlantique, France.

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  • Appointments
    Date Position Institution name
    1999 Professor The University of Adelaide
    1986 - 1999 Principal Research Scientist Defence Science and Technology Organisation

  • Awards and Achievements
    Date Type Title Institution Name Country Amount
    1994 Distinction Australian Telecommunications and Electronics Research Board Medal ATERB Australia n/a

  • Education
    Date Institution name Country Title
    1989 University of Queensland, Brisbane Australia Ph D
    1985 The University of Queensland Australia B. Eng. (Hons)
    1984 University of Queensland, Brisbane Australia B. Sc. (maths)

I receive funding from the Defence Science and Technology Group (Australia) and the Australian Research Council (Linkage Projects).

I teach undergraduate and Masters Control Systems Engineering and Master level Adaptive Signal Processing.

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  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2014 Principal Supervisor Hidden Reciprocal Models - A New Framework for Intelligent Target Tracking Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time George Stefan Stamatescu

  • Past Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2015 - 2015 Other Analysis and Design on Hybrid Dynamical Systems: Stability, Control and Filtering Doctor of Engineering Higher Doctorate Full Time Prof Peng Shi
    2014 - 2018 Principal Supervisor Forgetting Properties of Finite-State Reciprocal Processes Master of Philosophy Master Full Time Mr Riley Bruce-Doust
    2014 - 2018 Principal Supervisor Adaptive Reinforcement Learning for Heterogeneous Network Selection Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Duong Duc Nguyen
    2010 - 2014 Principal Supervisor Techniques for Quality of Service Improvement in Internetworks Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Jianghe Zhou
    2009 - 2014 Principal Supervisor Towards Unsupervised Online Band Selection in Hyperspectral Imaging Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Gautam Balasubramanian
    2009 - 2014 Co-Supervisor Design of bi-orthogonal rational Discrete Wavelet Transform and the associated applications Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Si Tran Nguyen Nguyen
    2008 - 2013 Principal Supervisor MANET Routing with Prediction Master of Engineering Science Master Part Time Miss Raymee Wai Ming Chau
    2007 - 2012 Co-Supervisor Throughout Management for CSMA/CA Networks IEEE 802 11e Wireless LAN Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Shafiqul Karim
    2007 - 2012 Principal Supervisor Signal Processing and Optimisation of MIMO Radar Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Luke Balzan
    2005 - 2010 Co-Supervisor A Spatial Scalable Video Coding with Selective Data Transmission using Wavelet Decomposition Master of Engineering Science Master Full Time Miss Lakshmi Veerapandian
    2004 - 2010 Principal Supervisor Laplace-Domain Analysis of Fluid Line Networks with Applications to Time-Domain Simulation and System Parameter Identification Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Aaron Zecchin
    2004 - 2009 Co-Supervisor Bandwidth Allocation for Quality of Service Provision in IEEE 802.16 Systems Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Tze Tang
    2004 - 2008 Principal Supervisor Directed Unfolding: Reachability Analysis of Concurrent Systems and Applications to Automated Planning Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Sarah Hickmott
    2003 - 2007 Principal Supervisor Wireless Optimisation Based on Economic Criteria Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Ms Siew Hew
    2003 - 2007 Principal Supervisor A Wavelet Approach to Doppler-Robust Broadband Communication System Design Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Miss Limin Yu
    2002 - 2006 Principal Supervisor Decision-Feedback Equalisation with Fixed-Lag Smoothing in Nonlinear Channels Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mr David Wayne Bartel
    2002 - 2007 Principal Supervisor An Admission Control Problem for 802.11 Wireless Networks Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Mr Jack Sudarev
    2002 - 2004 Principal Supervisor Signal Processing Techniques for Wireless Communication Systems Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Dr Van Nguyen
    2001 - 2004 Co-Supervisor Lost VOIP Packet Recovery in Active Networks Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Mohammad Yousef Darmani
    1998 - 2002 Principal Supervisor The Design Analysis and Implementation of a Novel TCP Congestion Control Scheme Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Full Time Mr Wei Xu
  • Position: Professor of Electrical Engineering
  • Phone: 83135055
  • Email: langford.white@adelaide.edu.au
  • Fax: 8313 4360
  • Campus: North Terrace
  • Building: Ingkarni Wardli, floor 2
  • Room: 2 21
  • Org Unit: School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
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