On June 1, Professor Zhengyuan Xu, Founding Director of the Optical Wireless Communication and Network Center, Founding Director of Wireless-Optical Communications Key Laboratory of Chinese Academy of Sciences, visited the University of Michigan-Shanghai Jiao Tong University Joint Institute (UM-SJTU JI) and gave a seminar entitled “Building a Better Connected World by Light “.
Future wireless communications will face severe spectrum crunch to support emerging services such as Internet of Vehicles and Internet of Things in addition to traditional mobile broadband services. Broad optical spectra, both visible and invisible, offer great potentials for seamless high-speed connections of mobile devices and terminals, from the ground to underwater and deep space, including smartphones, laptops, robots, underwater/ground/aerial vehicles, satellites and so on.
Professor Xu presented the state-of-the-art optical wireless communication technologies and applications, by either line-of-sight beaming or non-line-of-sight photon scattering, using either lasers or LEDs as transmitters. He demonstrated that the communication functions are able to be overlaid with indoor and outdoor LED lighting, displaying, traffic signaling and imaging, over broad spectra. Professor Xu also pointed out technological advantages and challenges for future research and applications.
Pursuing the mission of exploring the great potential of Sino-US educational cooperation and building a world-class teaching and research institution in China, JI recently launched a series of distinguished speaker seminars, inviting domestic and foreign master-class scientists and outstanding young experts in science and technology to share cutting-edge knowledge in various fields with JI faculty and students, thereby improving JI’s interdisciplinary exploration and academic level. Professor Xu’s lecture is the first of this series.
BIOGRAPHY
Professor Zhengyuan Xu received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Tsinghua University, China, in 1989 and 1991, respectively, and Ph.D. degree from Stevens Institute of Technology, USA, in 1999. From 1991 to 1996, he was with Tsinghua Unisplendour Group Corporation, as a system engineer and department manager. In 1999, he joined the University of California, Riverside, first as Assistant Professor and then tenured Associate Professor and Professor. He was the Founding Director of the multi-campus Center for Ubiquitous Communication by Light (UC-Light), University of California. In 2010, he appointed as Professor at Tsinghua University and then joined University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in 2013. He is the Founding Director of the Optical Wireless Communication and Network Center, Founding Director of Wireless-Optical Communications Key Laboratory of Chinese Academy of Sciences, in USTC. He is also a chief scientist of the National Key Basic Research Program (973 Program) of China. His research focuses on optical wireless communications and networking, geolocation, intelligent transportation and signal processing. He has published over 270 journal and conference papers and co-authored a book titled “Visible Light Communications: Modulation and Signal Processing” to be published by Wiley. He has served as an Associate Editor and Guest Editor for different IEEE (The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and OSA (Optical Society of America) journals. He was the Founding Chair of IEEE Workshop on Optical Wireless Communications in 2010.
