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Universiti Teknologi Malaysia — ASCEND 2030Universiti Teknologi Malaysia — ASCEND 2030
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Research areas & interest

Networks that hold together in difficult places.

Pervasive computing, motion planning and underwater wireless sensor networks, with an emphasis on work that has direct human use. Six active themes, one common question: how does a system stay reliable when the environment refuses to cooperate?

Research · connected themes

Six directions.
One system of inquiry.

Each theme is a node in a wider programme concerned with reliable intelligence in difficult physical environments.

01 / PERVASIVE
Connected computing

IoT and context-aware systems embedded in real places.

02 / NETWORKS
Wireless sensing

Resilient routing, topology, deployment and scalable control.

03 / UNDERWATER
Acoustic networks

Communication, routing and autonomy below the surface.

04 / ROBOTICS
Motion planning

Robot navigation and bio-inspired optimisation.

05 / POSITIONING
Indoor intelligence

WiFi, camera-based localisation and hybrid positioning.

06 / HERITAGE
Applied AI

Intelligent tools supporting research in the built environment.

01 — Anchor area
The thread through everything

Wireless sensor networks

Resilient sensing, routing and deployment — protocols and topology control for networks that must hold together with scarce energy, unstable links and no maintenance window. Software-defined approaches, energy-efficient opportunistic routing and scalable control all sit here.

Routing & topologyEnergy modelsSDWSNDeployment
Pervasive and connected computingIoT & context-aware systems
Underwater acoustic networksUWASN / IoUT
Motion planningBio-inspired optimisation
Indoor positioningWiFi / camera / hybrid
AI for built heritageUTM KALAM
02 — The six themes
Theme 01

Pervasive and connected computing

Intelligent environments, IoT and context-aware systems — computing that recedes into the background of a real place.

Theme 02

Wireless sensor networks

Resilient sensing, routing and deployment, including software-defined and scalable control architectures.

Theme 03

Underwater acoustic networks

Communication and networking in difficult underwater environments: greedy and opportunistic routing, AUV path planning, the Internet of Underwater Things.

Theme 04

Motion planning

Robot navigation, path planning and bio-inspired optimisation — the line that runs back to my doctoral work on foraging ant strategies.

Theme 05

Indoor positioning

WiFi, camera-based localisation and hybrid positioning, including pedestrian navigation and emergency rescue location.

Theme 06

AI for built heritage

Sensing and exploratory analysis for heritage buildings, with links to UTM KALAM — microclimate monitoring and maintenance-priority research.

03 — Where the work goes

Network security has become a large part of what my group does: intrusion detection for mobile ad-hoc networks, trust-aware routing, federated learning for distributed defence, and drift-aware detection for industrial IoT. Several current doctoral projects sit in this space.

The other half stays physical. Positioning research needs a real, awkward space to fail in before it works anywhere — which is why the heritage-building work with KALAM matters more than it looks on paper.

Interested in working on one of these?

murtadha@utm.my