In her PhD, Xiao Cai studied how wireless signals can be designed and interpreted to unlock extra information from the wireless channel. Instead of treating noise, fading, and reflections as obstacles, her work develops methods that use these physical effects to improve communication performance while enabling sensing tasks such as detection and localization. The research combines mathematical modeling with algorithm design, aiming to make wireless systems more reliable and resource-efficient. These insights can support emerging applications where connectivity and awareness of the environment must work hand in hand.
The PhD study was completed at Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Aarhus University.

This summary was prepared by the PhD student.

Time: Friday, 20 March 2026 at 13:00 pm
Place: Building 5123, room 313, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aarhus University, Helsingforsgade 10, 8200 Aarhus
Title of PhD thesis: Intelligent Wireless Sensing and Communication: Exploiting the Physical Channel via Theory and Algorithms
Contact information: Xiao Cai, e-mail: xiao.cai@ece.au.dk, tel.: +45 50305908
Members of the assessment committee:
Professor Hien Quoc Ngo, School of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Queen University Belfast, UK.
Associate Professor Italo Atzeni, Centre for Wireless Communications, University of Oulu, Finland.
Professor Rune Hylsberg Jacobsen, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aarhus University, Denmark (chair)
Main supervisor: Professor Daniel E. Lucani, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aarhus University, Denmark
Co-supervisor: Assistant Professor Hei Victor Cheng, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aarhus University, Denmark
Language: The PhD dissertation will be defended in English

The defence is public.
The PhD thesis is available for reading at the Graduate School of Technical Sciences/GSTS, Ny Munkegade 120, building 1521, 8000 Aarhus C.