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Dr Tianhua Xu

Reader - Associate Professor

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

Biography

Dr. Tianhua Xu is a Reader - Associate Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. He received his PhD in Microelectronics and Applied Physics from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden. He subsequently held research positions as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at KTH and RISE Acreo AB, Sweden, and as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). Prior to joining Warwick, he served as a Senior Research Fellow at University College London (UCL), where he currently also holds an Honorary Lecturer position.

Dr. Xu's research interests include intelligent signal processing, machine learning, optical communications and optical sensing. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and a Senior Member of the American Physical Society (APS). He serves as an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Communications and the Journal of the European Optical Society-RP. He previously chaired the OPTICA (formerly OSA) Optics in Digital Systems Technical Group and has served as a Technical Programme Committee (TPC) Chair or Member for more than 20 IEEE conferences, including IEEE GLOBECOM and IEEE ICC.

Dr. Xu is the Coordinator of two EU Horizon Europe projects, the Project Manager of an EU Horizon 2020 project, and the Principal Investigator of a UK National Grid-funded project, with competitive research funding exceeding £3.8 million secured as Coordinator or Principal Investigator. He has authored over 200 peer-reviewed journal and conference publications, including more than 30 invited papers and two invited book chapters. He has successfully supervised six PhD students to completion and is currently supervising a further eight PhD students.

Office

A419

Advice and feedback hours

Thursdays, 1 pm to 3 pm during Term 2 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
• Semantic Communication over Optical Channels

Teaching Activities

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

Funded Projects and Grants

Selected Publications

Full Publication ListLink opens in a new window and my Google ScholarLink opens in a new window (Citations 4262, H-index 35, I10-index 81) pages can be found here.

Machine Learning for Intelligent Optical Sensing 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: 11.8)
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: 11.8)
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: 10.8)
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: 18.1)

Machine Learning for Optical Communication & Transport Networks

1. “Convolutional autoencoder-enhanced semantic communication in optical fiber systemsLink opens in a new window,” IEEE Transactions on Cognitive Communications and Networking, Vol.12, pp.6942-6954, 2026. (IF: 8.0)
2. "A low-cost multi-band waveform security framework in resource-constrained communicationsLink opens in a new window," IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, Vol.23, pp.9190, 2024. (IF: 10.3)
3. “Autonomous microlasers for profiling extracellular vesicles from cancer spheroidsLink opens in a new window,” [ACS] Nano Letters, Vol.23, pp.2502, 2023. (IF: 9.1)

Machine Learning for Advanced Energy Systems, Batteries, and Smart Grids

1. “Distributed model predictive control strategy for multi-energy virtual power plant based on digital twinLink opens in a new window,” IEEE Transactions on Smart Grid, Vol.17, pp.1971-1984, 2026. (IF: 10.1)
2. “A benchmarking study of instance segmentation methods for photovoltaic cell defect detection using electroluminescence imagesLink opens in a new window,” [Elsevier] Solar Energy, Vol.303, pp.114083, 2026. (IF: 7.9)
3. “A review of automated solar photovoltaic defect detection systems: Approaches, challenges, and future orientationsLink opens in a new window,” [Elsevier] Solar Energy, Vol.266, pp.112186, 2023. (IF: 7.9)

Academic Books

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

Professional Awards and Activities

Research Teams

• Postdoctoral Research Fellows: Dr H Yan
• Current PhD Students: Y Wu, U Hijjawi, Y Wang, F Tian, X Cai, X Zhou, Helen S, L Tian
• 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 and Optical Sensing
• Integrated Sensing and Communication Systems
• Optical Semantic Communications (OSC)
• Advanced Energy, Batteries, Smart Grid Systems

Topics for Research Visitors

• Machine Learning and Intelligent Signal Processing for Sensing and Communications
• Optical Communication Systems and Networks, Optical Semantic Communications
• Optical Sensing Systems and Optical Fibre Sensing
• Advanced Energy, Batteries, Smart Grid Systems