During my research visit at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), I had the opportunity to collaborate with Prof. Palomar on the development of false discovery rate (FDR) controlling methods for dependent variables. To address this challenge, we extended our recently developed T-Rex framework to handle large-scale data sets with highly dependent variables. We applied the developed methods to various domains, including time series, genomics, and radar data, with a particular focus on radar applications.

The expertise of Prof. Palomar, a world-renowned expert in convex optimization, has been invaluable for the development of fast localization methods that allow users to control the FDR while maintaining high statistical power. These methods are currently undergoing testing using through-the-wall radar data from the emergenCity rescue robot. Our objective is to empower the rescue robot to identify all individuals in crisis situations while significantly reducing false detections. This will enable rescue teams to allocate their resources effectively to locations where people are in danger.

Our collaboration with Prof. Palomar has resulted in three conference publications with emergenCITY acknowledgement. Also, one major journal publication is currently under preparation and will be submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering by the end of this year. In addition to our collaborative research work, I was lucky to experience the great hospitality of Prof. Palomar and his group. We had group dinners and a barbecue was organized to welcome me into the group.

I also got the opportunity to explore Hong Kong, a large and vibrant city that is well-known for its many skyscrapers, delicious Cantonese cuisine, and iconic hiking trails. All in all, my stay in Hong Kong is one of my most memorable academic and personal experiences. This would not have been possible without the organizational and financial support of emergenCity and my supervisor Prof. Muma. Therefore, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to the emergenCity Team and Prof. Muma for making this enriching experience possible.

Author:

[Jasin Machkour] (https://www.emergencity.de/de/members/jmachkour/) is a scien-tist at TU Darmstadt in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology since 2019. He is a member of the [Robust Data Science Group at the Institue of Telecommunications] (https://www.etit.tu-darmstadt.de/rds/rds/machkour.de.jsp) at the TU Darmstadt.