The Department of Signals and Systems consists of eleven research groups all of which represent key applications in Information Technology. Research and education at Signals and Systems cover important parts in all these areas. We work with applications in, for example:

• automotive electronics
• biomedical engineering
• sensor systems
• telematics
• wireless communications.

Our research is often done in close co-operation with industry and society. 

We are all surrounded by signals and systems in our daily life. Examples of signals are your voice and the smell of a flower, and an example of a system is the set of roads, vehicles and traffic signs. In order to use a signal in a system, a sensor is normally used to convert the signal from one form to another. A typical sensor for a voice signal is a microphone, which converts an audio signal to an electric voltage. Once a signal is converted into a proper form, it can be used to control the behaviour of a system or to extract information from the signal. In many cases signals can also be used to carry information from one point to another. An audio broadcasting system is such an example, where the voice signal is converted into an electric voltage, which is then converted into an electromagnetic field and transmitted through an antenna. At the other end, an antenna picks up the electromagnetic signal and converts it back to an audio signal (in several steps).

One of the main roles of research at Signals and Systems is to develop algorithms, components, and sensors for extracting and transmitting information, as well as for planning and control. Mathematical models at various abstraction levels are used for complex practical systems in order to design the algorithms and study their properties and performance. The researchers at Signals and Systems deal with a diverse set of signals in different kinds of systems, but quite often the tools for design and analysis are very similar. We usually say that we have the toolbox in common and that this toolbox can be used for various problem areas. The toolbox is mainly based on mathematics, statistics and physical modelling.