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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Foremost, I wish to express my sincerest gratitude to my advisor, Professor Joel W
Burdick, for his tremendous support during my last six years at Caltech. The keen scientific
insight of Professor Burdick has incessantly shaped my horizon on the research subjects. It
is his wise elicitations that pave the way for the final materialization of every detail in this
thesis. Off the research field, Professor Burdick also encourages and guides me to explore
diverse interesting topics, and provides kind support to my daily life. I feel so happy to
have lived my past years in this fertile and liberal environment. I cannot thank my advisor
enough for all he has done for me.
Besides my advisor, I specially would like to thank Dr. Naoki Mitsumoto, who organized
an absolutely enjoyable team research, and provided me valuable support and instructive
suggestions all the way. The corporation with the talented team members in the radar
project marks a happy memory for me. My special thanks go to Dr. Chris Assad, whose
smart ideas resulted in an important radar signal preprocessing, and Dr. SangHyun Chang,
from whom I gained understanding on multipath radar reflection. Additionally, I must
thank Dr. Wissam Musallam and Dr. Eunjung Wang who kindly offered their experimental
neural data, which granted me a precious algorithm test bed.
I also thank my friends for their selfless help throughout my time at Caltech. Finally, my
particular gratitude is owed to my parents and my wife, Hongying Sha. Their unconditional
support, encouragement and patience accompany me all the way from the past to the future.