ABOUT

Francisco António Taveira Branco Nunes Monteiro
(Short “bio”, from the group’s page)

This page is no longer updated. My new webpage is iul.pt/~frmo . I have read for the PhD degree in Cambridge from April 2005 until October 2009 (with 4 months at the Univ. of Toronto, Canada). I had the Viva Exam in December 2011 and the degree was officially conferred in the July 2012 Congregation. I am with the Digital Technology Group at The Computer Laboratory of the University of Cambridge. Though, my affiliation is with the Department of Engineering, Information Division. Within the Group, I am with the Wireless Communication Engineering Team. (Some asides about our location.) I am supervised by Dr. Ian Wassell (Computer Lab. and Churchill College). In 2008 I have been a visiting scholar at the University of Toronto, Canada, under the guidance of Professor Frank Kschischang during 4 months. My Advisor during my probationary period and also my examiner for the registration in the PhD degree was Professor Nick Kingsbury (Engineering Department and Trinity College).   I am a life member of Fitzwilliam College since 2005. In 2007/2008 I was a College Senior Scholar. My personal academic diary in Cambridge	On the 800th Annivers4ary of the University. In front of the Senate House, wearing my college scarf. (1209 is not when I started my PhD!)
Degrees: o    M.Sc. in Electrical and Computer Engineering (2 years degree) at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal. (See thesis title in publications.) Examiners for the viva: Prof. Carlos Salema, Prof. Augusto de Albuquerque, Dr. Gusmão Correia and Dr. António Rodrigues (supervisor). Highlight: Courses average score: 5 (maximum of 5). o    Licenciatura in Electrical and Computers Engineering (Telecommunications and Electronics profile) at IST (5 years degree). Highlight: Final Year Project mark: 19 (maximum of 20). Examiners: Prof. José M. Leitão and Dr. Francisco Cercas (supervisor)
Prizes, awards, distinctions o    Jan. 2008 – Scholarship from the Royal Academy of Engineering to be a Visiting Scholar at the University of Toronto, Canada, working with Prof. Frank Kschischang. (Combined with Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation one, as listed bellow, and one from the Cambridge Philosophical Society.) o    Nov. 2007 – Awarded a College Senior Scholarship “on the basis of first class work” by the Tutorial Committee of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, UK (Fitz news, p.24). o    Oct. 2007 – Best Paper Award (Conference Prize) at the 10th European Conference on Wireless Technology at the European Microwave Week 2007, Munich, Germany, for the paper " Euclidean Distances in Quantized Spaces with Pre-stored Components for MIMO Detection". Prize from the European Microwave Association. (Photos) (CL news; Fitz news, p.9; IT News) o    Oct. 2007 – Research Scholarship from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to be a Visiting Scholar at the University of Toronto, Canada, working with Prof. Frank Kschischang. o    PhD Scholarship from the Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) to read for the PhD degree at the University of Cambridge, UK o    Oct. 2004 – Best Student Paper Award (Young Engineer Prize) at the European Conference on Wireless Technology at the European Microwave Week 2004, Amsterdam, Netherlands, for the paper "Limits for CPM Signals Representation by Walsh Functions". Prize from the European Microwave Association. o    Dec. 2002 – Innovation Young Engineer Prize (3rd place ) from the Portuguese Engineers Institution (“Ordem dos Engenheiros”). o    Jun. 1992 – Medal of Best Student Graduating from Colégio Salesiano Oficinas São José. Not listed above are the numerous travel grants obtained both from the UK (Cambridge Philosophical Society; Fitzwilliam College; Engineering Department; The Computer Laboratory; Digital Technology Group and Wireless Team funds) and from Portugal (Telecommunications Institute; Luso-American Foundation for Development (FLAD); Foundation for Science and Technology). Non academic fun stuff: o    2008 – Commendation Certificate in the UK entrepreneur’s competition “The Big Idea” as one of the 75 finalists out of 1,000 competitors from Imperial College London, Cambridge and Oxford universities (Group’s news). o    2007 – Featured in the Portuguese public television in one of the documentaries “Scientist Generation” (which presented bio profiles of young Portuguese researchers). Introduction and videos (also here: Part1 , Part2) o    2006 – Included in the Marquis Who's Who in the World.
Teaching and other affiliations: I am also with the Instituto de Telecomunicações (IT) in the  Wireless Communications research line (my official page at IT). I am also a teaching assistant (“assistente”) at the Department of Information Science and Technology at the University Institute of Lisbon. Courses I have taught so far: •   Modulation and Coding, 2nd Semester (LETI, 2nd year) 2001/2002, 2002/2003, 2003/2004, and then 2010/2011 and 2011/2012; •   Signal Theory 1st Semester (LETI, 2nd year) 2011/2012; •   Transferable Skills (Advanced Excel), both Semesters (offered to students from all departments) in 2010/2011 and 2011/2012; •   Physics, 1st Semester (LETI, 1st year) from 2001/2002, 2002/2003, 2003/2004, and then 2009/2010 and 2010/2011; •   Information and Communication Technologies for Management, 1st Semester (Business School courses and International Program students, taught in English), 2009/2010 and 2010/2011; •   Guided Communication Systems, 1st Semester (LETI, 3rd year), 2004/2005.   From May 1998 to June 2000, I was a teaching assistant ("monitor" and then "assistente estagiário") at the Telecommunications Division of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical University of Lisbon, teaching: •   Integrated Communication Systems I, 1999/2000 (LEIC, 3rd year); •   Intro. to Electrical and Computer Engineering, 1999/2000 (LEEC, 1st year) •   Fundamentals of Telecommunications I, 1998/1999 (LEEC, 3rd year) •   Fundamentals of Telecommunications, 1997/1998 (LEEC, 3rd year) I have joined the following societies: •   IEEE Broadcasting Technology Society, Student Member, since Jan. 2012 •   IEEE Vehicular Technology Society, Student Member, since Jan. 2011 •   IEEE Signal Processing Society, Student Member, since Oct. 2008 •   IEEE Communications Society, Student Member, since Oct. 2008 •   IEEE Information Theory Society, Student Member, since Aug. 2008 •   Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences, Junior Member, since Oct. 2007 •   IEEE, Student Member, since Aug. 2007 •   Cambridge Philosophical Society, Fellow, since May 2006 •   Trinity Mathematical Society, Life Member, since Feb.2006 •   Cambridge University Scientific Society, Life Member, since Oct. 2005 •   Portuguese Engineers Institution (Ordem dos Engenheiros), Probationary Member, Sep. 2001 – Sep. 2010 (lo longer a member) •   Portuguese Musical Youth, Member since 2000

 

RESEARCH AREA

 

I have been focused on techniques and algorithms to reduce the complexity of digital receivers while preserving near-optimum performance.

 

- Detection algorithms for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO);
- Signal processing in multidimensional lattices;
- Algorithmic Number Theory, Geometry of Numbers and Group Theory approaches to lattice problems;
- Coded Modulation (continuous phase modulation and lattice coded modulation).

 

I would like to know more on Information Theory, applications of Communication Engineering to Computational Biology and Computational Neuroscience.

At Cambridge (and Toronto), I attended these courses, talks,  and seminars according to these intellectual interests.

Previously to the research leading to the M.Sc. thesis, I read the following postgraduate courses at IST: Communication Theory with Prof. José M. Leitão ; Mobile Communications with Dr. Luis M. Correia ; Channel Coding with Dr. A. Gusmão Correia ; Microwave Electronics, with Dr. João Costa Freire (other page) ; Advanced Personal Communications with Dr. António J. Rodrigues ; Integrated Services Digital Networks (ISDN) with Dr. Mário Serafim Nunes

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

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Science writing for a wider audience:

•   F. Monteiro, “Faster and Faster: A look at the remarkable achievements in error-free digital communications”, in BlueSci, Issue 15, pp. 14-15, Cambridge, UK, April 2009. (BlueSci is a science magazine run by Cambridge students and postdocs and distributed in UK universities. Check PDF article in issue 15 in BlueSci link. Copyright forbids direct link to PDF.)

 

•   F. Monteiro, “Baffling Points”, March 2009 (submitted to the 2009 math writing competition of Plus Magazine – was not the winner. Copyright belongs to Plus Magazine though.)

 

Journal papers:

•F. A. Monteiro, A. J. Rodrigues; "Phase error resilience to I/Q mismatch of a simplified CPM receiver", IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, Vol. 15, No. 9, pp. 549 - 551, Sep. 2005. [Paper]

 

•F. A. Monteiro, A. J. Rodrigues; " Limits for CPM signals representation by Walsh functions", Proceedings of the European Microwave Association, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 82 - 86, Mar. 2005. [Invited paper; see also ECWT´04 paper bellow]

 

Conference papers

•   F. A. Monteiro, I. J. Wassell, “Dual-Lattice-Aided MIMO Detection for Slow Fading Channels”, in Proceedings of the 11^th IEEE International Symposium on Signal Processing and Information Technology, Bilbao, Spain, 2011. [Paper]

 

•   F. A. Monteiro and F. R. Kschischang, “Trellis Detection for Random Lattices”, in Proceedings of ISWCS’11 – The 8^th International Symposium on Wireless Communication Systems 2011, Aachen, Germany, November 2011. [Paper]

 

•   F. A. Monteiro and I. J. Wassell, “Recovery of a Lattice Generator Matrix from its Gram Matrix for Feedback and Precoding in MIMO”, in Proceedings of the 4^th International Symposium on Communications, Control and Signal Processing, Limassol, Cyprus, March 2010. [Paper]

 

•   F. :A Monteiro, I. J. Wassell, “Progressive Hypercube Decoding”, in Proceedings of ISWCS’07 – The 4th IEEE International Symposium on Wireless Communication Systems 2007, Trondheim, Norway, Oct. 2007. [Paper]

 

•   F. A. Monteiro, I. J. Wassell, “Euclidean Distances in Quantized Spaces with Pre-stored Components for MIMO Detection”, in Proceedings of ECWT' 07 – 10th European Conference on Wireless Technology – 10th European Microwave Week, Munich, Germany, Oct. 2007. [Paper]

 

•   F. Monteiro, I. J. Wassell, “Efficient Scalar Quantization for MIMO Spatial Multiplexing Receivers”, in Proceedings of ISCTA' 07 – 9th International Symposium on Communication Theory and Applications, Ambleside, Lake District, UK, July 2007. [Paper]

 

•   F. A. Monteiro, A. J. Rodrigues, “The M-algorithm on the Detection of CPM Schemes on the Minimum Euclidian Distance Upper Bound”, in Proceedings of ECWT' 04 – 7^th European Conference on Wireless Technology – 7^th European Microwave Week, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Oct. 2004. [Paper]

 

•   F. A: Monteiro, A. J: Rodrigues, “Limits for CPM Signals Representation by Walsh Functions”, in Proceedings of ECWT ' 04 – 7^th European Conference on Wireless Technology – 7^th European Microwave Week, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Oct. 2004. [Paper]

 

•   F. A: Monteiro, A. J. Rodrigues, “CPM Reception Combining Complexity Reduction Techniques for Schemes on Minimum Euclidian Distance Upper Bound and MSK”, in Proceedings of ISIT 2004 – The 2004 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory, Chicago, USA, Jun. 2004. [Paper]

 

•   F. A: Monteiro, A. J. Rodrigues, “Assessment of a Quasi-Optimum Very Low Complexity CPM Receiver over Flat Rayleigh Fading Channels”, in Proceedings of VTC 2004 Spring – IEEE Semi-annual Vehicular Technology Conference, Milan, Italy, May 2004. [Paper]

 

•   F. A: Monteiro, A. J. Rodrigues, "Simple Metrics Derivation for a Discrete Time Continuous Phase Modulation Receiver", in Proceedings of WPMC’ 01- The 4^th International Symposium on Wireless Personal Multimedia Communications, Aalborg, Denmark, Sept. 2001. [Paper]

 

•   F. A: Monteiro, A. J. Rodrigues, "Sub-Optimum Detection of Coded Continuous Phase Modulation in Radio Channels", in Proceedings of ConfTele2001- 3^th Conference on Telecommunications, Figueira da Foz, Portugal, April 2001. [Paper]

 

•   F. A: Monteiro, L. M. Correia, “Mobility Effects on Telegraphic in GSM”, in Proceedings of URSI 2000 - XV Simposium Nacional de la Union Cientifica Internacional de Radio, Zaragoza , Spain, Sep.2000. [Paper]

 

•   F. A. Monteiro, F. A. Cercas, “Understanding Digital Communication Physical Layer”, in Proceedings of URSI 2000 - XV Simposium Nacional de la Union Cientifica Internacional de Radio, Zaragoza , Spain, Sep. 2000. [Paper]

 

•   F. A. Monteiro, F. A: Cercas, "Digital Transmissions Simulation Tool", (in Portuguese), in Proceedings of JETC’ 99 - Jornadas de Engenharia de Telecomunicações e Computadores, Lisbon, Portugal, Oct. 1999. [Paper]

 

Recent poster presentations

•Digital communications: fundamentals, limits and present challenges, at Fitzwilliam College Graduate Conference, Cambridge, UK, 25th October 2008 and also at FISTA – Forum of the IUL School of Technology and Architecture, May 2010, Lisbon, Portugal.

 

•Quantized lattices in MIMO, at ISIT 2007 –The 2007 IEEE International Symposium on Information Theory (recent results poster session), Nice, France, June 2007.

 

•Contour detection for digital communications, Industrial Showcase, Division of Information Engineering, Engineering Department, Univ. of Cambridge, UK, 29th Nov. 2006.

 

•Contour modulation, Digital Technology Group, The Computer Lab., Univ. of Cambridge, UK, 10th Jan. 2006.

 

Thesis and projects

•F. Monteiro, Detection Techniques for Multiple-input Multiple-output Spatial Multiplexing, from Complex Contours to Quantized Lattices, Report for admission to candidacy to the PhD degree, Engineering Department, University of Cambridge, March 2007.

 

•F. Monteiro, Complexity Reduction of CPM Receivers on Wireless Communications Systems, M.Sc. Thesis, (in Portuguese), DEEC, IST/UTL, Portugal, Jan. 2003.

 

•F. Monteiro, Sónia Pinto, Analysis and Efficient Simulation of Digital Modulations: Channel Coding and Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum in Radio Communications (in Portuguese), Final Year Project, DEEC, IST/UTL, Portugal, Feb. 1999.

Recent talks

•  Structure in n-dimensional communications, Security and Quantum Information Group Meetings, Instituto de Telecomunicações and IST Dep. of Mathematics, Lisbon, Scheduled for Feb. 2012.

 

•Nice detectors for ugly lattices, Digital Technology Group Meetings, The Computer Lab., Univ. of Cambridge, UK, 8^th Jun. 2009.

 

•Orthogonal subsets in random lattices, Communications Team Meetings, The Computer Lab., Univ. of Cambridge, UK, 27^th March 2009.

 

•Ubiquitous digital communications: from wireless networks to probes on Mars, Graduate Talks, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, UK, 27^th November, 2008.

 

•Rethinking the nearest neighbour problem, Communications Team Meetings, The Computer Lab., Univ. of Cambridge, UK, 4^th April 2008.

 

•Rethinking the nearest neighbour problem, Communications Group, The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Canada, 28^th February 2008.

 

•Distinctive features of MATLAB, Digital Technology Group Meetings, The Computer Lab., Univ. of Cambridge, UK, 5^th Nov. 2007.

 

•MIMO in academia and MIMO in industry, Digital Technology Group Meetings, The Computer Lab., Univ. of Cambridge, UK, 22^nd Oct. 2007.

 

•Proposals for the detection of MIMO Spatial Multiplexing: 2^nd year PhD, Digital Technology Group Meetings, The Computer Lab.,Univ. of Cambridge, UK, 30^th April 2007.

 

•Detection Techniques for Multiple-input Multiple-output Spatial Multiplexing, Communications Team Meetings, The Computer Lab., Univ. of Cambridge, UK, 27^th April 2007.

 

•Non-circular phase modulations: a bad paper, Digital Technology Group Meetings, The Computer Lab., Univ. of Cambridge, UK, 5^th Feb. 2007.

 

•PhD Research at the Computer Laboratory, Conference on Computer Science, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, UK, 11^th March 2006 (invited talk).

 

•From Computational Biology to Contour Detection: First Year PhD, Digital Technology Group Meetings, The Computer Lab., Univ. of Cambridge, 6^th March 2006.

 

•Capacity Limits of MIMO Channels: a good paper, Digital Technology Group Meetings, The Computer Lab., Univ. of Cambridge, UK, 5^th Feb. 2006.

 

•Overview of the Capacity Limits of MIMO Channels, Communications Team Meetings, Digital Technology Group, The Computer Lab., Univ. of Cambridge, UK, 3^rd Feb. 2006.

 

•Computational Biology links to Information Theory and Communication Engineering, Communications Team Meetings, Digital Technology Group, The Computer Lab., Univ. of Cambridge, 21^st Oct. 2005.

Other

•Some transparencies and texts for taught courses both at IST and ISCTE-IUL.

Relevant reviewer activity (dates at the end are in respect to the reviews of one paper)

•IEEE Transactions on Information Forensics and Secutity (June 2012)

•Wireless Personal Communications, Springer (May 2012)

•EURASIP Journal on Wireless communications and Networking (Dec 2011, April 2012)

•IEEE ISIT'12 – IEEE International Symp. on Information Theory – Boston, USA (March 2012)

•Wiley International Journal on Communication Systems (Sep. 2011).

•IEEE Transactions on Information Theory (Aug. 2010, June 2011).

•IEEE ISIT’11 – IEEE International Symp. on Information Theory – Saint Petersburg, Russia (March 2011).

•IEEE GLOBECOM – Global Communications conference 2011, Houston, Texas, USA (April 2011).

•IEEE VTC´10 Spring - IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference – Taipei, Taiwan (Dec.2009).

•IEEE JSAC – IEEE Journal on Selected Areas on Communications (March 2009).

•IEEE WCNC’09 - Wireless Communications and Networking Conference – Budapest (Nov. 2008).

•IEEE VTC´08 Fall - IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference – Calgary, Canada (March 2008).

•IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, November 2007 (Feb. 2008).

•IEEE VTC´08 Spring - IEEE Vehicular Technology Conference – Singapore (Nov. 2007).

•IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology (July 2007).

•IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing (May 2007).

•IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (November 2006, January 2007, March 2007).

•IEEE ICC´06 - IEEE International Conf. on Communications - Istanbul 2006 (Oct. 2005).

•Kluwer Wireless Personal Communications Journal (March 2005).

•IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (June 2004).

 

LINKS

 

Some good research groups in the USA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): LIDS and SIA groups Princeton University Stanford University California Institute of Technology (Caltech) Harvard University Spincom Group, University of Minnesota University of Michigan University of California - Berkeley University of California - San Diego Carnegie Mellon University in Canada: Communications Group, University of Toronto Coding and Signal Transmission Laboratory, University of Waterloo

in Europe: ETH, Zürich, Switzerland EPFL, Lausane, Switzerland Chalmers University, Sweden: Comms Syst. And Information Theory and Telec. Theory Group Eurecom, France University of Lund, Sweden Linköping University, Sweden: Dep of Electrical Eng. Aalborg University, Dennmark: Centre for Telec. University of Oulu, Finland: Center for Wireless Communications University of Parma, Italy Imperial College, UK: Comms and Sig. Processing Group UCL - University College London, UK: Comms Group CLUSTER

 

• ECDU- Estatuto da Carreira Docente Universitária (Ordinances of the academic career in public Portuguese universities)
• Photos of my previous workplaces during my undergrad and masters in Lisbon and of some events there.

 

CONTACT

 

 

This page will no longer be updated.
(Last update in July 2012)