Seminar: Towards Software-Defined Hardware: Past, Present and Prospective
Seminar by Professor Jack (Xuejun) Li, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
Title: Towards Software-Defined Hardware: Past, Present and Prospective
Date: Wednesday, 21 January 2026, 10am.
Venue: COSMO Lab meeting Room, School of EEE S2-B3b-10, NTU
Host: Prof Guan Yong Liang, EEE NTU
Synopsis (45 minutes): The past three decades have witnessed a shift from rigid, hardware-specific wireless systems to flexible, software-defined radios. Yet, the analog RF frontend remains a bottleneck, limiting adaptability across emerging standards such as 6G, IoT, and beyond. This seminar explores the evolution towards software-defined hardware—where antennas, filters, power amplifiers, and other RF components become programmable and reconfigurable in real time. Drawing on examples from reconfigurable antennas and low noise amplifiers, I will discuss both the technological advances and the remaining challenges. The talk will conclude with a forward-looking vision of fully software-defined hardware ecosystems in 2035 and their implications for wireless networking research and practice.
Biography: Xuejun Li is a Full Professor and Programme Director for the Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) Programme at the School of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Auckland University of Technology (AUT), New Zealand. He received his B.Eng (First Class Honors) and PhD in electrical and electronic engineering from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, in 2004 and 2008, respectively. Between November 2007 and July 2008, he worked as a Research Engineer and then as a Research Fellow at the Network Technology Research Centre, NTU. Between August 2008 and September 2008, he worked as a Research Scientist in Temasek Laboratories @ NTU. From September 2008 to May 2011, he was with the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, NTU as a faculty member. Between June 2011 and January 2013, he worked as a Research Scientist at the Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore. Since January 2013, he has been with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, School of Engineering, Computer and Mathematical Science, AUT. His research interests include design/analysis of wireless networking protocols, modelling/design of radio frequency integrated circuits, system optimizations, video compression and artificial intelligence.
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