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Profile

Dr Zhihua Lai

Zhihua Lai


Dr Zhihua Lai obtained his PhD on Wireless Propagation Modelling at University of Bedfordshire in June, 2010 (aged 25). He obtained his first computer when he was aged 13. At that time, he was addicted to DOS, Logo, and Foxbase 2.1 but, after he was given a book on 'Pascal', he fell in love with programming.

In high school, he participated in Information Olympic competitions and won the national third prize twice.

In 2002, Zhihua spent a happy year at the International College in Beijing. This year of study boosted his computing knowledge.

For his second and third years of bachelor studies he relocated to the UK, and completed his BSc with First Class (GPA 15.5125 out of 16, the highest grade of the year) in Computer Science (September 2006) at the University of Bedfordshire.

When he was aged 22, Zhihua was offered the opportunity to start a PhD with a fee-waiver studentship. For the first 7 months, his research project title was "Grid-enabled Optimisation Algorithms for Network Planning". However, he turned his research interests into wireless propagation algorithms. Thanks to various studentships, he has been given more time to concentrate on research. In 2009, he continued research in Fribourg, Switzerland, where he developed parallel propagation algorithms in a distributed grid environment. During the three years of research, Zhihua has also taken a programming role in many European projects (such as "LHDL" 2007).

His propagation model 'IRLA' has been cited in the book "Femtocells - Technologies and Deployment", Wiley, January 2010 by Professor Jie Zhang and Dr Guillaume de la Roche.

Dr Lai loves programming. He thinks every good program should be a piece of art. He has been an active Pascal programmer for more than 10 years. He is also a Linux C++ and Assembly programmer. Programming has greatly changed his life, e.g. he usually decomposes things into binary codes. He says: "Programming is the fundamental skill to do research, especially for subjects on computer science or engineering." However, he is usually considered a programmer rather than a researcher.

Currently, Dr Lai continues the research in fast and accurate propagation models for wireless network planning and optimisation.

Research Interests

  • Radio channel/propagation modelling/tools
  • Wireless network planning tools
  • Parallel simulation/algorithms

Internal Activities

  • Member of Centre for Wireless Network Design (2006-) 
  • Department of Computing and Information System Research Student Representative (2008-2009)
  • Teaching Assistant in the CIS Labs (2005-2008)

External Activities

  • Design, Maintenance and Ownership of the web site www.zhihua-lai.com
  • Programmer at acm.timus.ru and phpclasses.org

Professional Activities   

  • Membership

    - The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE) 

    - The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET)

    - COST Action 2100 Pervasive Mobile & Ambient Wireless Communications (COST2100)

    - European Association on Antennas and Propagation (EurAAP)

  • Session Chair

    - ICWMC 2009

  • Technical Program Committee

    - ICWMC 2010

Awards

  • 22/February/2010, Best Abstract Award, International mini-Conference on Applicable Computer Science and Technology, ICACST
  • 2006-2009, PhD Fee-wavier Studentship
  • 2008-2009, MPhil Research Studentship
  • 2009-2010, Marie Curie Fellowship for Transfer of Knowledge

Thesis

  • Zhihua Lai, The Development of an Intelligent Ray Launching Algorithm for Wireless Network Planning, Ph.D Thesis, University of Bedfordshire, 2010.
  • Zhihua Lai, Chinese Chess, Bachelor in Computer Science (First Class), University of Bedfordshire (Luton), 2006.

Journals

  • Zhihua Lai, Nik Bessis, Guillaume de la Roche, Pierre Kuonen, Jie Zhang and Gordon Clapworthy, The Development of a Parallel Ray Launching Algorithm for Wireless Network Planning, Internation Journal of Distributed Systems and Technologies, IGI, 2010.
  • Nik Bessis, Alfredo Gaitan, Mitul Shukla and Zhihua Lai, Sharing Experiences with using Next Generation Technologies for Advancing Web Communities, International Journal of Web Based Communities, InterScience, Volume 6, Number 1, 2009.

Conferences

  • Zhihua Lai, Nik Bessis, Pierre Kuonen, Guillaume de la Roche, Jie Zhang and Gordon Clapworthy, On the Use of an Intelligent Ray Launching for Indoor Scenarios, The Fourth European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, EuCap, IEEE, Barcelona, Spain, April 12-16, 2010.
  • Zhihua Lai, Nik Bessis, Guillaume de la Roche, Pierre Kuonen, Jie Zhang and Gordon Clapworthy, The Characterisation of Human-body Influence on Indoor 3.5 GHz Path Loss Measurement, Second International Workshop on Planning and Optimization of Wireless Communication Networks, IEEE WCNC Workshop, PlanNet, IEEE, Sydney, Australia, April 18, 2010, ISBN: 978-1-4244-6405-0.
  • Zhihua Lai, Nik Bessis, Guillaume de la Roche, Pierre Kuonen, Jie Zhang and Gordon Clapworthy, A New Approach to Solve Angular Dispersion of Discrete Ray Launching for Urban Scenarios, 2009 Loughborough Antennas & Propagation Conference, LAPC, IEEE, Burleigh Court Conference Centre, Loughborough University, United Kingdom, November 16-17, 2009, ISBN: 978-1-4244-2721-5, p.p.:133-136.
  • Zhihua Lai, Nik Bessis, Pierre Kuonen, Guillaume de la Roche, Jie Zhang and Gordon Clapworthy, A Performance Evaluation of a Grid-enabled Object-Oriented Parallel Outdoor Ray Launching for Wireless Network Coverage Prediction, The Fifth International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Communications, ICWMC, IEEE & ACM, Cannes/La Bocca, French Riviera, France, August 23-29, 2009, ISBN: 978-0-7695-3750-4, p.p.:38-43.
  • Zhihua Lai, Nik Bessis, Guillaume de la Roche, Hui Song, Jie Zhang and Gordon Clapworthy, An Intelligent Ray Launching for Urban Propagation Prediction, The Third European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, EuCap, IEEE & VDE, Berlin, Germany, March 23-27, 2009, ISBN: 978-3-8007-3152-7, p.p.:2867-2871.
  • Zhihua Lai, Nik Bessis, Jie Zhang and Gordon Clapworthy, Some Thoughts on Adaptive Grid-enabled Optimisation Algorithms for Wireless Network Simulation and Planning, UK e-Science, All Hands Meeting, AHM, NeSC, Nottingham, United Kingdom, September 10-13, 2007, ISBN: 978-0-9553988-3-4, p.p.:615-620.
  • Guillaume de la Roche, Paul Flipo, Zhihua Lai, Guillaume Villemaud, Jie Zhang and Jean-Marie Gorce, Combination of Geometric and Finite Difference Models for Radio Wave Propagation in Outdoor to Indoor Scenarios, The Fourth European Conference on Antennas and Propagation, EuCap, IEEE, Barcelona, Spain, April 12-16, 2010.
  • Guillaume de la Roche, Paul Flipo, Zhihua Lai, Guillaume Villemaud, Jie Zhang and Jean-Marie Gorce, Combined Model for Outdoor to Indoor Radio Propagation, In 10th COST2100 Management Meeting, TD(10)10045, Athens, Greece, February 3-5, 2010.
  • Nik Bessis, Alfredo Gaitan, Mitul Shukla, Zhihua Lai and John Stephens, Using Next Generation Service Oriented Technologies to Assess Cultural Handling of Information Communication Technology, International Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems, Web Based Communities, International Association for Development of the Information Society, IADIS, Amsterdam, Netherlands, July 24-26, 2008, ISBN: 978-972-8924-65-2, p.p.:261-266.
  • Nik Bessis, Tim French and Zhihua Lai, Using Grid Technologies to Support Intelligence by Providing a Higher Level of Accuracy in Financial Decision Making, e-Society, International Association for Development of the Information Society, IADIS, Lisbon, Portugal, July 3-6, 2007, ISBN: 978-972-8924-35-5, p.p.:89-96.
  • Nik Bessis, Mitul Shukla and Zhihua Lai, Sharing Experiences with using Web 2.0 and Knowledge Portals for Advancing Web Communities, e-Society, International Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems, IADIS, Algarve, Portugal, July 21-23, 2009, ISBN: 978-972-8924-82-9, p.p.:43-50.

Presentations

  • Zhihua Lai, Nik Bessis, Jie Zhang and Gordon Clapworthy, The Development of an Intelligent Ray Launching Algorithm for Wireless Networking Planning, International mini-Conference on Applicable Computer Science and Technology, ICACST, Luton, United Kingdom, February 22, 2010. (Best Abstract Award)
  • Zhihua Lai, Nik Bessis, Pierre Kuonen, Guillaume de la Roche, Jie Zhang and Gordon Clapworthy, On the Use of an Intelligent Ray Launching for Indoor Scenarios, Bridging the Gaps, University of Bedfordshire Conference 2010, Luton, United Kingdom, July 6-7, 2010.
  • Zhihua Lai, Nik Bessis, Guillaume de la Roche, Pierre Kuonen, Jie Zhang and Gordon Clapworthy, The Characterisation of Human-body Influence on Indoor 3.5 GHz Path Loss Measurement, Bridging the Gaps, University of Bedfordshire Conference 2010, Luton, United Kingdom, July 6-7, 2010.

Contact details

Dr Zhihua Lai
T: +44(0)1582743101

E: zhihua.lai@beds.ac.uk

W: www.zhihua-lai.com

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