Francisco A. T. B N. Monteiro

Research Areas

• Signal processing for wireless communications | Communication engineering | Modulation & Coding:
• Detection and precoding algorithms for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO)   |   Massive MIMO  |  Cell-free MIMO;
• Ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC)
• Fast decoding of short error-correction codes;
• Massive random access for massive machine-type communications (mMTC)
  
• Lattice problems (applications of the closest vector problem, lattice reduction, Diophantine/integer problems);
• Quantum information:
• Decoding of quantum error correction codes with noisy gates;
• Post-quantum cryptography (lattice-based);
• Entanglement routing in quantum networks.

Applications

• Noise-guessing decoders for wireless 6G and for quantum computing;
  
• MIMO precoding for wireless energy transfer (WET);
• Signature sequences and uniquely-decodable codes;
  
• Interference suppression and in-band full-duplex;
• Integer-forcing for distributed source coding;
• Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) and superposition coding;
• Physical-layer network coding;
• Physical-layer security;
• Quantum internet;
  
• Continuous phase modulation.

I am also interested in lattice-based cryptography (known as post-quantum cryptography).  I participated in many of the seminars that took place at Imperial College London (The London-ish Lattice Coding & Crypto Meetings), innitially funded by my projects, and then kindly funded by the Imperial College to participate in the Meetings.

During my PhD years I learned a lot on the applications of Communication Engineering and Computational Biology and Computational Neuroscience. Both Cambridge and Toronto I attended these courses, talks,  and seminars according to these intellectual interests.

Projects

• Quantum Internet Alliance , EU flagship project, national co-PI, 10M€ (whole project), 160.8k€ (IT budget), Dec. 2018 - Mar. 2022

• Large-Dimensional MIMO Physical Layer Network Coding (L-DimM-NetCod), principal investigator (PI), IT/FCT funded, 32k€, Sept. 2014 - Sept. 2016
  

• Network error control for Rapid and Reliable  Data Delivery (R2D2), external colaborator, January 2014 - July 2015

• COST Action IC1104:  Random Network Coding and Designs over GF(q), member, Sept. 2012 - April 2016
  Check all the Meetings / Schools / Workshops in this action;
  Below are the events that I attended:
  

• Network Coding and Designs, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 4 – 8 April 2016
• DARNEC - Design and Application of Random Network Codes:  in November 2015, Istambul, Turkey [Keynote speaker].
• Recent Advances in Practical Network Coding and Distributed Storage Meeting, 1–2 June 2015, Novi Sad, Serbia
• ALCOMA'15 - Conference on algebraic combinatorics and applications, 15–20 March 2015, Banz, Germany
  
• The 4th International Castle Meeting on Coding Theory and Applications, 15–18 Sept. 2014, Castle of Palmela, Portugal
• Algebra, Codes and Networks Conference, 16–20 June 2014, Bordeaux, France
• ESIT 2014 - European School of Information Theory, 14–18 April 2014, Tallinn, Estonia
• Workshop on Algebraic Approaches to Storage and Network Coding, 7th Feb. 2014, Barcelona, Spain
• International Workshop on Coding and Cryptography, 15–19 April, 2013, Bergen, Norway
• 1st European Training School in Network Coding, 4–8 February 2013, Barcelona
  

Research students

PhD:

As supervisor:

• Sahar Allahkaram [Iscte profile]  [IT profile]. PhD thesis title: "Signal Processing and Coding Techniques for 6G Ultra-reliable Low-latency Wireless Machine-type Communications". [Iscte record] [pdf]
  Approved with Distrinction. Viva on 28th July 2026 - Iscte agenda. Started in Jan. 2022- submitted in March 2026.
  Evaluation committe: Prof. Muriel Médard (MIT, IEEE Fellow and IEEE Hamming Medal), Prof. Marco Gomes (U. Coimbra), Prof. Nuno Souto (Iscte - Univ. Inst. of Lisbon). Committe Chair: Prof. Américo Correia (Iscte - Univ. Inst. of Lisbon).
  Sahar is currently with the Research and Development Layer-1 (physical layer) Group at Nokia, Lisbon.

Research collaborations leading to joint publications:

• Diogo da Silva Duarte Cruz.  [webpage] . PhD thesis title: Solving Nonlinear Equations and Correcting Errors on Quantum Computers. Instituto Superior Técnico, viva on 15th July 2026 - IST agenda. Supervisor: prof. Yasser Omar] [IST record] [pdf].
  Co-authored 2 of the 3 journal papers that make Diogo's dissertation and co-authored a 3rd journal paper, also listed in the dissertation. All are Q1 journals (see list of publications).
  

MSc:

As supervisor or co-supervisor

• João Pedro Massi Real Figueiredo, Research topic: Routing protocols for quantum networks, IUL, MSc student and a research scholar within the project QIA, supervisor (IT co-supervisor: Dr. Bruno Coutinho), started in October 2020 - left for industry.

• Pedro Jorge Martins Teixeira. MSc thesis title: "Distributed Source Coding Based on Integer-Forcing", IST MSc student, co-supervisor (IST supervisor: prof. João Xavier), started in Sep. 2017 (submitted in May 2018, viva exam on 28^th June 2018). [pdf]

• Nuno Bettencourt Coelho. MSc thesis title: "Implementation of Linear Network Coding Over a Flexible Emulator". IUL MSc student and a research scholar within the project L-DimM-NetCod, supervisor (IUL co-supervisor: prof. Rui Lopes), started in October 2015, viva exam on 6^th Dec. 2016. [pdf]

• Ricardo José Neves Alberto. MSc thesis title: "Assessment of Non-orthogonal Multiple Access for 5G Systems". IST MSc student and a research scholar within the project L-DimM-NetCod, co-supervisor (IST supervisor: prof. António Rodrigues), started in January 2016, viva exam on 29th Nov. 2016. [pdf]

• João Sande Lemos. MSc thesis title: "In-band Full-duplex Architectures for Future 5G Multi-hop Networks". IST MSc student and a research scholar within the project L-DimM-NetCod, co-supervisor (IST supervisor: prof. António Rodrigues),  started in Oct. 2014, viva exam on 26^th November 2015. [pdf]  [ Luís Vidigal Prize 2015 (ex aequo) - see below.]

• Francisco Rosário. MSc thesis title: "Massive MIMO Processing for 5G Systems: Efficient Detection Algorithms and Applications", IST MSc student and a research scholar within the project L-DimM-NetCod, co-supervisor (IST supervisor: prof. António Rodrigues), started in Oct. 2014, viva exam on 21^st July 2015. [pdf]
  [ Luís Vidigal Prize 2015 (ex aequo).  This prize awards the Best MSc Thesis of the Year at IST in the fields of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Compute Science, and related fields, completed in 2015.]

• Pedro Valério Catarino Miguel. MSc thesis title: "The Limits of MIMO with Large Antenna Arrays".  IST MSc student, co-supervisor (IST supervisor: prof. António Rodrigues), started in Oct. 2013, viva exam on 12^th Dec. 2014. [pdf]

• Filipe Ennes Ferreira. MSc thesis title: "Physical Layer Wireless Techniques for Improved Network Throughput: Network Coding, MIMO, and Full-Duplex". IUL MSc student with a scholarship funded by IT, supervisor, started in Oct. 2013, viva exam on 11^th Dec. 2014. [pdf]

• Flávio André Silva Brás. MSc thesis title: "Interference Suppression using MIMO and Physical Layer Network Coding". IST MSc student, co-supervisor (IST supervisor: prof. António Rodrigues), started in Oct. 2013, viva exam on 22^nd April 2014. [pdf]

Research collaborations leading to joint publications:

• Maria Carolina Rodrigues Boavida Fernandes, MSc thesis title: "GPU-Accerelated Noise Guessing Decoding of Quantum Low Density Parity Check Codes". Carolina supervised by Prof. Gabriel Gomes, U. Coimbra, Portugal, and New York University at Aby Dahbi, UAE, and co-supervised by Dr. Bruno Coutinho, DLR, Munich, Germany. Started in Oct. 2025, submitted in Sep. 2026.
  Co-Authored one journal paper. To be submitted in 2026 (see list of publications).

• Lucas Nunes dos Santos, MSc thesis title: "Complexity Reduction of Decoding Modern Codes with Noise-Guessing Techniques", IST MSc student, MSc student and a research scholar at Instituto de Telecomunicações, co-supervising team with prof. Marco Gomes from Univ. of Coimbra; IST supervisor: Prof. Marko Beko, started in Oct. 2025, to be submitted in Oct.2026.

• Luís Pedro Morais Bugalho, MSc thesis title: "Towards quantum sensor networks". Instituto Superior Técnico, Dec. 2025. Supervised by prof. Yasser Omar.
  Co-authored 2 journal papers. One accepted and one under review. Both are Q1 journals (see list of publications).

Tutoring:

• Raul Pombo Monteiro, Project title: "Connectivity Characterisation in Quantum Networks". Gulbenkian Foundation scholarships program Young Talents in Quantum Technologies, Oct. 2019 - Jul. 2020

• Sara Isabel Alves Dos Santos, Project title: "Routing algorithms for the quantum internet". Gulbenkian Foundation scholarships program Young Talents in Quantum Technologies, Sep. 2018 - Jul. 2019

Research collaborators

Current:

• Dr. Ioannis Chatzigeorgiou, Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University, UK
• Dr. Bruno Coutinho, senior researcher at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Munich, Germany.
• Dr. Ioannis Krikidis (IEEE Fellow), Full Prof. at the University of Cyprus

Past:

• Dr. Onel Alcaraz López, Associate Prof. at the University of Oulu, Finland
• Prof. Hirley Alves, MTC group, Full Prof. at the University of Oulu, Finland
• Prof. Angel Lozano (IEEE Fellow), Full Prof. at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona
• Dr. João Xavier, researcher at ISR and Associate prof. at IST, University of Lisbon, Portugal
• Prof. Güneş K. Kurt, Full Prof. at Polythechnique Montreal, Québec, Canada (previously at Istanbul Technical University, Turkey)
• Dr. Danilo Silva, Associate Prof. at Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil
• Dr. Dzevdan Kapetanovic, researcher at Ericsson Labs, Lund, Sweden (previously researcher at SnT, University of Luxembourg)

Supervisors and hosts (from whom I learnt so much)

Sabbatical hosts:

• Prof. Angel Lozano (IEEE Fellow), Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona (host in 2019)
• Prof. Hirley Alves and Prof. Markku Juntti (IEEE Fellow), University of Oulu, Finland (hosts in 2019)
• Prof. Ioannis Krikidis (IEEE Fellow), University of Cyprus, Nicosia, Cyprus (host in 2019)

Supervisors:

• Prof. Frank R. Kschichang, (IEEE Hamming Medal [1] [2] and IEEE Fellow), University of Toronto, Canada (research host in 2007/2008, during my PhD)
  
• Prof. Ian J. Wassell (PhD Supervisor), Full Prof. of Wireless Communications, Digital Technology Group, Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge, UK (previously was with the Department of Engineering).
• Prof. Albert Guillén i Fàbregas (IEEE Fellow), University of Cambridge, Dep. of Eng., UK, and Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona (PhD Advisor, 2007 onwards)
• Prof. Nick Kinsbury (IEEE Fellow), University of Cambridge and Trinity College, Cambridge, UK (1st year PhD Advisor, 2005/2006)
  
• Dr. António Rodrigues, (MSc Supervisor), Associate Prof., DEEC, IST, University of Lisbon
  
• Prof. Francisco Cercas (Degree Final Year Project Supervisor), (in 1999 was with DEEC, IST, University of Lisbon), now retired Full Prof. from Iscte.

Lecturers:

• I had the great priviledge of attending, as a PhD research student, the lectures on Information Theory, Inference, and Coding by Prof. Sir David MacKay. I was also profoundly touched by interacting with him during various research seminars and conversations on Digital Transmission and on Error Correction Codes.

Academic examiners

PhD:	Prof. Alister Burr (PhD viva examiner in December 2011), University of York, UK Dr. Jossy Sayir [ 1 ] [ 2 ] (PhD viva examiner in December 2011), University of Cambridge, UK (Dr. Sayir was supervised by James Massey, Shannon Award 1988) Prof. Nick Kinsbury (Examiner in the Registration as a Candidate for the PhD degree in December 2006 after the Probationary Period of the PhD), Full Professor, Dep. of Engineering and Trinity College, Cambridge, UK
MSc:	Prof. Carlos Salema (Emeritus), IST, University of Lisbon Prof. Augusto Afonso de Albuquerque, ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon Dr. Gusmão Correia, DEEC, IST, University of Lisbon
Degree Final Project:	Prof. José Leitão, Full Prof., DEEC, IST, University of Lisbon

Last update in September 2026