Edit content blocks

Dr Tianhua Xu

Reader - Associate Professor

Tianhua dot Xu at warwick dot ac dot uk
+44 (0) 24 7652 8698

Biography

Dr. Xu received his Ph.D. degree in the area of Optical Communications and Intelligent Signal Processing in School of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), at Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden. Following this, he worked as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at KTH and RISE Acreo Sweden and a visiting Research Fellow at Technical University of Denmark (DTU). After that, he worked as a Senior Research Fellow in Optical Networks Group (ONG) at University College London (UCL). Dr. Xu is a Reader in School of Engineering at University of Warwick, and he is also an Honorary Lecturer in Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at University College London (UCL).

His current research interests include optical communication systems and networks, intelligent signal processing, machine learning techniques, optical sensing systems and opto-electronics. He is a Senior Member of American Physical Society (APS) and a Fellow of Higher Education Academy (HEA). Dr. Xu is an Associate Editor of IEEE Access and Journal of the European Optical Society-RP. He has served as the Chair of Optics in the Digital Systems Technical Group of the Optical Society of America (Optica) and as the TPC co-chair or member of over 20 IEEE conferences, including GLOBECOM and ICC. He is the coordinator of an EU Horizon Europe Grant (€1.8M), the project manager for an EU Horizon 2020 Grant (€1.8M) and the PI for a UK National Grid Project (£285K). He has published over 180 journal and conference papers (including over 30 invited) and 2 invited book chapters.

Office

A419

Advice and feedback hours

Thursdays, 1 pm to 3 pm during term time or by appointment. Microsoft Teams: tianhua.xu@warwick.ac.uk

Write to

School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL

Research Interests

• Intelligent Signal Processing, Machine Learning Techniques
• Optical Communication Networks, Optical Sensing Systems
• Optical Integrated Sensing and Communication
• Advanced Energy Systems, Batteries, Smart Grid

Teaching Interests

• ES4C4 Optical Communication Systems
• ES335 Communications Systems
• ES327/CS351 Undergraduate Student Projects
• ES97N MSc Student Projects

Selected Publications

Full Publication ListLink opens in a new window and my Google ScholarLink opens in a new window (Citations 3512, H-index 34, I10-index 77) pages can be found here.

Machine Learning for Optical Sensing and Advanced Energy Systems

1. “Dual-resonance optical fiber lossy mode resonance immunoprobe for serum PSA detectionLink opens in a new window,” [Elsevier] Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Vol.271, pp.117049, 2025. (IF: 10.5)
2. “Hollow-microsphere-integrated optofluidic immunochip for myocardial infarction biomarker microanalysisLink opens in a new window,” [Elsevier] Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Vol.248, pp.115970, 2024. (IF: 10.5)
3. “Lossy mode resonance optical fiber enhanced by electrochemical-molecularly imprinted polymers for glucose detectionLink opens in a new window,” ACS Sensors, Vol.9, pp.6185-6196, 2024. (IF: 9.1)
4. “Optimally configured optical fiber near-field enhanced plasmonic resonance immunoprobe for the detection of Alpha-FetoproteinLink opens in a new window,” [Wiley] Advanced Science, Vol.10, pp.202207437, 2023. (IF: 14.1)
5. “Liquid crystal -amplified optofluidic biosensor for ultra-highly sensitive and stable protein assayLink opens in a new window,” [Springer Nature] PhotoniX, Vol.2, pp.18, 2021. (IF: 19.1)

Artificial Intelligence and Signal Processing for Optical Communications

1. “A module to enhance the generalization ability of end-to-end deep learning systems in optical fiber communicationsLink opens in a new window,” [IEEE/Optica] Journal of Lightwave Technology, Vol.43(2), pp.596-601, 2025.
2. “Second-order perturbation-based nonlinearity compensation using BiLSTM neural network in optical transmission systemsLink opens in a new window,” [IEEE/Optica] Journal of Lightwave Technology, Vol.43(11), pp.5140-5148, 2025.
3. "A low-cost multi-band waveform security framework in resource-constrained communicationsLink opens in a new window," IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, Vol.23(8), pp.9190-9205, 2024. (IF: 10.7)
4. “Autonomous microlasers for profiling extracellular vesicles from cancer spheroidsLink opens in a new window,” [ACS] Nano Letters, Vol.23, pp.2502-2510, 2023. (IF: 9.1)
5. "Achievable information rate optimization in C-band optical fiber communication systemLink opens in a new window," [Springer] Frontiers of Optoelectronics, Vol.16, pp.17, 2023. (IF: 5.2)

Academic Books

1. “Higher-order modulation formats, constellation design, and DSP for high-speed transmission systems,” Chapter 9 in Optical Fiber Telecommunications VIILink opens in a new window, Academic Press, Oxford, 2020.

Funded Projects and Grants

Professional Activities and Memberships

Research Teams

• Postdoctoral Research Fellows: Dr H Yan
• Current PhD Students: Y Wu, U Hijjawi, Y Wang, F Tian, X Cai, X Zhou, Helen Sun
• Completed PhD Students: Dr W Hu (2023), Dr C Jin (2023), Dr D Alqahtani (2023), Dr C Liu (2024), Dr J Wang (2024), Dr J Uduagbomen (2025)

Vacancies

• PhD applications by excellent overseas candidates towards the Chancellor's International Scholarship (CIS)Link opens in a new window, the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC)Link opens in a new window, the Monash-Warwick Joint PhD scholarshipsLink opens in a new window and the EUTOPIA PhD studentshipsLink opens in a new window.
• Externally-/Industry-/Self-funded applicants to the PhD projects and the MSc by research projects
• Research Fellow applications via EU MSCA FellowshipsLink opens in a new window and EUTOPIA SIF FellowshipsLink opens in a new window
• Visiting PhD Students and Visiting Research Fellows

• Warwick holds a directory of scholarship informationLink opens in a new window for eligible international and national applicants

Topics for PhD Students and Research Fellows

• Machine Learning Techniques in Optical Communication Systems
• Intelligent Signal Processing for Optical Impairments Mitigation and Signal Detection
• Optical Sensing, Optical Fibre Sensing and Optical Biosensing Systems

Topics for Research Visitors

• Physical Layer Management in Optical Communication Systems and Networks
• Machine Learning, Communication and Information Theory in Optical Communications
• Optical Sensing Systems, Optical Fibre Sensing and Opto-Electronics