Divisions

The activities of the Division concern electroacoustics and digital audio techniques, including investigations, measurements and applications. They are focused on:

• fundamentals of acoustics;
• electroacoustics;
• psychoacoustics;
• digital audio;
• design and measurements of electroacoustic transducers;
• investigation and modeling of acoustic field distribution;
• noise control and active noise reduction;
• architectural and industrial acoustics;
• sound studio techniques;
• hearing protection.

Current research topics include:

• digital audio signal processing;
• low-level acoustic signals measurements and analysis;
• objective and subjective methods of sound quality evaluation;
• detection of auditory warning signals in the presence of industrial noise;
• elaboration of computation methods for acoustic field radiated in free space by surface acoustic sources and their implementation on a PC.

The other field of interest concerns fundamental and applied research associated with metrology, instrumentation and measuring systems. It is focused on design of automated computer-based measuring systems. Current research topics include:

• modern information technologies, e.g. LabVIEW, Java, XML, and modern communication technologies, e.g. the Internet, GSM, Bluetooth, ZigBee in distributed control and measuring systems;
• virtual instrumentation, plug-in boards for data acquisition, IEEE-488 equipment;
• artificial intelligence methods in diagnostics of analog systems;
• non-invasive methods for monitoring and analysis of electricity consumption around the end users.

The Division is equipped with an anechoic chamber and sound studio with two control rooms.

The Microwave and Radiolocation Engineering Division conducts scientific and applied research around electromagnetic field theory, microwave theory and techniques, and measurement techniques for very high frequency ranges. This includes the subjects of computer-aided design, data acquisition and data processing. Specific research topics included:

• design of Front-Ends for wireless system;
• radar applications (oscillators, synthesizers, modulators, amplifiers, transmitter/receiver modules);
• high-power high frequency stability sources for microwave heating and GaN HEMT structure topology design;
• methods of synthesis and computer-aided design of passive and active microwave circuits (couplers, power combiners and dividers, switches, transistor circuits);
• analysis and design of multielement planar in-phase radar antenna arrays intended to work at high power level;
• numerical electromagnetic compatibility analysis;
• methods for measurements of electric and magnetic properties of materials at microwave frequencies;
• development of numerical methods and implementation of computer programs for full-wave analysis and design of two- and three-dimensional microwave circuits (filters, periodic guiding structures, matching circuits, structures incorporating dispersive and anisotropic media, antennae);
• methods of coupled electromagnetic-thermodynamic simulations, design of microwave heating applicators for material science applications;
• methods of coupled electromagnetic-optical modeling;
• radio-frequency identification and wireless sensing;
• development of multithread and distributed programming techniques, non-linear programming, and artificial intelligence methods for application in automated design of microwave circuits.

The research and teaching activities carried out in the Nuclear and Medical Electronics Division are concentra ted on two areas: biomedical engineering and nuclear electronics. Research in the interdisciplinary area of biomedical engineering covers a broad range of topics and integrates sophisticated electronics and information technology with elements of medical knowledge. The activity in the area of nuclear engineering is concentrated on the design of electronics systems and data processing software for high energy physics experiments. The Division’s research is focused on the following topics:

• nuclear medicine (emission tomography: SPECT, PET);
• magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), functional MRI, advanced applications of MRI;
• quantitative computer-aided tomography;
• tomographic dynamic studies;
• process tomography, impedance tomography;
• analogue and digital radiography;
• medical image processing and recognition;
• methods and instrumentation for electrocardiography;
• medical applications of isotope techniques;
• telemedicine;
• design of apparatus and software for high energy physics experiments;
• data analysis in genetics and proteomics;
• mathematical modelling of physiological and disease processes.

Areas of recent studies include:

• advanced applications of MRI and CT imaging systems, covering: dynamic scanning protocols, a new methodology and instrumentation for functional MRI, fMRI image analysis methods;
• a new contrast media for MRI: functional lung imaging with hyper-polarized agents;
• multi-modal imaging of topographic, tomographic and functional studies in medicine;
• electrical instability of heart study research, high resolution ECG systems;
• digital structural radiography, modelling of radiographic imaging systems;
• optical tomography applications in medicine;
• algorithms for image reconstruction for electrical and process tomography;
• construction of capacitance thomographs and sensors for medical and industrial applications;
• study of a bioelectrical activity of a pregnant uterus and using EHG for telemetric monitoring of upcoming labor;
• application of non-linear predictive algorithms to control of insulin dosing in diabetic patients;
• algorithms for the data analysis in genomics and proteomics;
• characterization and modelling of photosensors for high energy physics and astronomy experiments;
• development of detectors, front-end electronics, and test devices for high energy physics experiments;
• applications of “soft-computing” methods (neural networks, evolutionary algorithms, etc.) for data processing and analysis in high energy physics experiments.

The research and teaching activities of the Radiocommunications Division are related to radiocommunication systems and networks, including antennas, signal processing and measurement techniques. The research is focused on analog and digital radio transmission. It includes system design with advanced CAD software, particularly cellular and short-range systems, as well as some aspects of electromagnetic compatibility, numerous measurements issues and deep insight into antenna techniques. The most important research topics include analysis, development and investigation of:

• radiocommunication systems and networks – cellular networks, short range systems, ad-hoc networks, satellite systems and broadband access networks, MIMO systems, Radio-over-Fiber links, wireless optic systems, energy harvesting devices;
• wireless ultra-wideband systems (UWB) – methods and systems for communication and localization, systems for road safety, microwave imaging systems;
• antennas and propagations – electrodynamics modeling and design of various types of microwave, millimeter, submillimeter and terahertz antennas, including electronically controlled and reconfigurable antennas, photonic antennas, integrated antennas, rectennas, metamaterial based antennas, time-modulated antennas; channel modeling and simulation for MIMO, UWB, and cellular systems;
• measurements – spectrum monitoring methods and systems; channel and antenna including automatic far and near-field measurements of antennas characteristics in time and frequency domain, antenna and channel pulse response, transfer functions of UWB antennas, transient states in reconfigurable antennas;
• material characterization (including ferroelectric) in range up to 500 GHz;
• RF circuits and microwave devices – high-efficiency resonant power amplifiers (class D, DE, E, F and G), linear wide-band HF amplifiers, high-power amplitude modulators, high-efficiency power supplies, power factor correctors, LNA, microwave filters and phase shifters and their applications in radio transmitters, receivers, and industrial electronics;
• digital radio broadcasting systems – MF and HF DRM transmitters and receivers;
• theory of signals and modulations – multidimensional Hilbert transform and its applications, “time-frequency” transformations for RF signal processing, applications of “time-frequency” techniques in audio watermarking;
• environmental, biological and social problems – the influence of radiocommunication systems on a human health and environment as well as on electronic equipment, protection zones planning, radio systems for aid and support of disabled persons.

Activities of the Television Division focus on media compression, object recognition in images, and media searching. Moreover, media security, extracting 3D models from video streams, the augmented reality for TV applications, and novel multimedia applications based on deep, convolution, and recurrent artificial neural networks – extend the traditional area of research and teaching in the Television Division.

Digital Processing of Measurement Signals Group is active in the field of measurement science and technology. Its research activities are focused on improving the quality of measurements by means of digital signal processing. The current research topics include:

• general-purpose algorithms for reconstruction of measurands and for calibration of measuring channels;
• portable sound-and-vibration analyzers for applications in technical diagnostics and in the environmental monitoring;
• radar-based systems for monitoring of disabled and elderly persons;
• ethical aspects of measurement-based empirical research.