The next generation of smart systems and the availability of robust, secure, and cost-effective communication infrastructure is influencing and changing every facet of human activity. These systems are changing the way we produce, consume, learn, shop, bank, entertain, travel, and connect around the globe.
The research in this theme connects with theme six of the Queen’s Strategic Research Plan (“Interdisciplinary research in materials, computational analytics, and human-machine interactions”).
Much of our intelligent systems research will be carried out in Queen’s new Ingenuity Labs institute, an interdisciplinary engineering research initiative focused on the design and use of intelligent systems and robotic machines to enhance human productivity, creativity, safety, performance, and quality of life. The institute operates across a continuum of expertise — from artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cyber-human systems, to robot control, smart sensors, and mechatronic devices that facilitate the inherently complex interactions between humans, engineered machines and infrastructure, and their natural environments. Ingenuity Labs brings together researchers from engineering and across the university to cultivate new ideas, energize education, foster external collaborations, and create new partnerships for greater good.
Research in communications and information technology is carried out by two interdisciplinary research groups based in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Their interests include smart antennas for 5G wireless networks, opto-electronic transceivers that support submarine optical fibre cables, algorithms and protocols for data compression, error correction, low-latency transmission, massive MIMO and beamforming wireless networks, network router architecture topology, network security and reliability, natural language processing, and artificial intelligence.