Prof. Martin Haardt appointed EURASIP Fellow

In recognition of their outstanding achievements in the broad field of digital signal processing, the European Association for Signal Processing (EURASIP) appoints up to four scientists as "EURASIP Fellows" each year. This is the highest honor awarded by the association. Prof. Martin Haardt, Head of the Communications Engineering Group at TU Ilmenau, is one of the EURASIP Fellows in 2024, making him only the sixth scientist in Germany to receive this award since it was first presented in 2007. The award ceremony will take place in August 2024 in Lyon, France, as part of the European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO 2024).

Prof. Martin Haardt is being honored in particular for his achievements in the fields of wireless multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication systems with multiple participants and tensor-based signal processing. MIMO communication systems are used in mobile communications, for example, and describe communication with several antennas on the transmitting and receiving side. Prof. Haardt was one of the first scientists in the world to deal with general MIMO downlink beamforming for multiple subscribers. This describes how different radio signals from the network are distributed simultaneously to several end devices on the same transmission frequency. Prof. Haardt did particularly pioneering work here, as he included several receiving antennas on the end devices. His comprehensive approach to solving this problem led to a paradigm shift that advanced the field of multi-user MIMO communication and is regarded worldwide as a turning point in the realization of MIMO communication systems, achieving system optimality with linear (and thus relatively simple) spatial pre-processing (precoding) and traditional coding.

In addition, Prof. Martin Haardt developed efficient tensor-based signal processing algorithms for multidimensional high-resolution parameter estimation, data fusion and various other multidimensional signal processing tasks, which are used for the analysis of biomedical data or wireless communication and radar applications, among others. Tensors are an important mathematical tool that generalizes matrices to more than two dimensions. Prof. Haardt has also successfully used them as a tool for learning the statistical behaviour of general discrete random vectors from their partial realizations. Tensor-based algorithms are also used in image processing to describe and manipulate multidimensional signals. The multidimensionality can arise, for example, from the fact that the signals are recorded by several sensors that measure different variables. Prof. Haardt's work makes it possible to estimate the dominant signal components in multidimensional - often very noisy - measurements.

The European Association for Signal Processing (EURASIP) is an international scientific society for the theory and application of signal processing. It was founded on 1 September 1978 and organizes the European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO), which has been held annually at various European locations since 1993. It also publishes a series of scientific journals, which are freely accessible.