System Identification and Data Modelling of Complex Nonlinear and Nonstationary Processes

Many real-world systems in engineering and science are inherently nonlinear and nonstationary in nature. However, the analysis and modelling techniques commonly used to study many types of typically complex nonlinear and nonstationary processes often assume linearity and stationarity. Conventional signal processing techniques include non-parametric approaches (e.g. statistics and power spectral estimation) and linear parametric modelling approaches (e.g. linear time-invariant and simply time-varying models). It has been noticed that complex signals may contain hidden information which cannot be sufficiently revealed and characterised by using traditional analysis methods. This project is primarily aimed to investigate, adapt and develop system identification and data modelling methods and algorithms for the analysis of nonlinear and nonstationary complex dynamical processes in the time, frequency, time-frequency and spatio-temporal domains.

There are many potential private and public beneficiaries and a broad range of potential impact arising from this project. 1. Who Will Benefit from the Research and How? 1) Academic Communities: Researchers from a broad range of areas (engineering, neuroscience, life science etc) can benefit from New Methods and Algorithms for example researchers can take up the basic ideas and methods proposed in this project to adapt and extend into new application areas; 2) Medical and Healthcare Communities: Clinical neurophysiology is still suffering from a lack of effective and efficient tools for predicting and detecting impending abnormalities (e.g. epileptic seizures) with sufficient specificity and reliability. One goal neurophysiologists want to achieve is to develop new tools that can automatically detect and predict epileptic seizures; this would enable a possibility to design implantable seizure warning devices that can provide valuable information for specific patients and associated drug delivery. The medical and healthcare community will benefit from the outcomes of the project by means of: a) New knowledge and expertise - The developed methods and algorithms will be applied to neuroimaging data analysis, from which the understanding about the inherent mechanisms of neurological dysfunctions and the associated dynamic interactions between different regions of the human brain can be significantly improved. b) New Medical Device Design. Biomedical systems engineers can design devices that: i) Can be used to predict, detect and diagnose epileptic seizures and other neurological dysfunctional disorders; ii) Can provide clinically important valuable information for specific patients and the associated drug delivery; iii) Can be used to investigate the dynamic interactions of different activated brain areas and thus significantly facilitate studies in cognitive science. 3) Team Members of this Project: They will directly, immediately benefit from the proposed research via Research and Academic Training - The project will be carried out in an internationally leading university, department and research group. The proposed project will provide a research and academic training platform for members involved in the proposed research. It can be envisaged that with a period of research and academic training within an excellent research and academic environment it will significantly facilitate and promote a future career development for research members here. 2. Plans to Maximise Potential Impacts 1) Enhancement of Interdisciplinary Co-operations: Interdisciplinary co-operations (e.g. with hospital or industry) will facilitate and promote knowledge delivery and transfer. 2) Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications: One of the most effective routes for communication with academics is by means of international peer-review journals. 3) Conference Presentations: General conferences, meetings, symposiums etc. are a good place to exchange information and ideas with researchers in interdisciplinary fields. 4) Web Presence: It will also utilise a web resource to provide a document repository e.g. pre-prints, multimedia presentations and illustrations. It will sufficiently make use of departmental and university webpage to communicate the project outcomes to a broad audience including our undergraduate and postgraduate students. 5) Other Routes: Other routes for communicating our work and findings include: internal and external seminars, workshops, within and inter-research-group meetings and discussions, inter-group day off visit and study.