Research scholarships

This scholarship is part of an Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) project led by Dr Thanh Tung Vu (DE260100816, “Cell-Free Wide-Area Millimetre-Wave Communications”).

Next-generation wireless networks demand significantly higher data rates and wider coverage. Millimetre-wave (mm-wave) frequencies offer enormous bandwidth but suffer from severe signal blockage, requiring precise beam alignment and dynamic network management.

This project develops innovative transmission algorithms for wide-area mm-wave communications using cell-free network architecture, where a large number of distributed access points collaboratively serve users without traditional cell boundaries.

The successful candidate will contribute to:

• beam alignment algorithm design for cell-free mm-wave networks
• joint beamforming and AP-user association under mm-wave signal blockage
• machine learning methods for scalable network optimisation.

The work involves:

• mathematical optimisation (convex optimisation, mixed-integer programming)
• machine learning (deep neural networks, reinforcement learning)
• implementation in MATLAB and Python.

The student will be supervised by Dr Thanh Tung Vu (primary), with associate supervisors:

• Professor Stephen Hanly
• Professor Iain Collings
• Professor Hazer Inaltekin.

Availability

This scholarship is available to eligible candidates to undertake a direct entry three-year PhD program.

Awards will only be available to applicants who, at the time of application are an Australian citizen, an Australian permanent resident, or a New Zealand citizen (domestic student).

The ideal candidate will have:

• a background in one or more of:
  • electrical engineering
  • telecommunications
  • signal processing
  • applied mathematics
  • computer science
• strong mathematical skills
• experience with MATLAB and/or Python programming
• knowledge of digital communications or signal processing.

Components

The scholarship comprises:

• a tuition fee offset/scholarship
• a living allowance stipend.

The value of this stipend scholarship is $39,700 per annum (full time, indexed) for three years.

How to apply

Before submitting your application, submit an expression of interest (EOI) to Dr Thanh Tung Vu at thanhtung.vu@mq.edu.au.

Your EOI should include:

• your Curriculum Vitae (CV)
• academic transcripts (undergraduate and postgraduate)
• a brief statement of research interests (one page maximum)
• contact details of two academic referees.