Research Interests  

My research interests are mainly in Computer Modeling and Simulation, and increasingly in Self Learning Systems. My aim is to combine these two areas together to produce software that can then be used in the design of an artifact or to design an automation algorithm. Therefore this work most often is targeted to specific applications such as autonomous communication systems and antennas for wireless communications, as you will see from the published papers and research dissertations.

 

Following is a list of past and current themes

Current

  • Cognitive Radio
  • Distributed routing Protocols
  • Radio resource management
  • Modeling of road transport networks

Past

  • Heuristic techniques in the design of antennas

  • Electromagnetic Modelling

  • Antenna Intelligent Design Aids

  • Novel Telecommunications Tariff schemes

 

Current supervision

  1. ‘Game Theory techniques for frequency and power control functions in ad-hoc networks’, Clara Delia, MSc

  2. ‘Routing Algorithms in ad-hoc networks’, Eric Galea, Mphil

  3. ‘WLAN antennas’, Edith Debono, MPhil

 

Past supervision

  1. 'The susceptibility of a MIMO Channel Equilisation Algorithm to Changes in Impulse Response Characteristics', Jeremy Scerri, MSc, September 2006

  2. 'Self Organising Networks – A Study Using NS-2', Dennis Vella, MSc, September 2006

  3. 'Distributed Road Traffic Control System', Blasio Muscat, MSc, September 2006

  4. 'Optimising Radio Resources in CDMA Cellular Systems', Christopher Sant, MSc, September 2006.

  5. 'Biomedical Signal Processing: Techniques in the Analysis of Cardiac Activity', Karl Farrugia, MSc, September 2004.

  6. 'Dynamic Tariff Allocation for Tele-Traffic Load Balancing', Louis Aquilina, MSc, 2003.

  7. 'Planar antenna for 5 GHz WLAN, Etienne DePasquale', MSc, September 2003.

  8. 'Design of the RF Analogue Front-End of a Software Radio', Leslie Spiteri, MSc, September 2002.

  9. 'Self-Tunable Antennas For 3G Mobile Phones', Andrew Portelli, MSc, September 2002

  10. 'A Study on Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Wireless Communication Systems', Reuben B. Mifsud, MSc, September 2002.

 

Publications

Thesis and Dissertations

A. Muscat. “The design of planar low-gain, wide-band and multi-band antennas employing optimisation techniques’, PhD Thesis, Queen Mary University of London, 2002.

A. Muscat, “Assessment of MESFET behaviour under pulsed conditions”, MSc. Thesis, University of Bradford, Yorkshire, UK, September 1996.

 

Academic Conferences

  1. E. Debono, A. Muscat, C.J. Debono, "Dual Frequency 2.4 GHz T-Shaped and 5.2 GHz L-Shaped Monopole Antenna for WLAN Applications," Proc. of the 16th Int. Conf. on Microwaves, Radar and Wireless Communications (MIKON 2006), ISBN 83-906662-8-6, 2006.

  2. L. Spiteri, C.J. Debono, A. Muscat, "A Planar Antenna for UWB Applications," Proc. of the 16th Int. Conf. on Microwaves, Radar and Wireless Communications (MIKON 2006), ISBN 83-906662-8-6, 2006.

  3. A. Muscat, C.J. Debono, E.V. Depasquale, "A Polarisation Diversity PCB Antenna for WLAN Applications," Proc. of the Loughborough Antennas & Propagation Conference, pp. 185 - 188, 2005.

  4. A. Muscat, C. G. Parini, “A Novel Cost Function for Heuristic-Based Design of Compact Antennas”, CEM 2004, Stratford Upon Avon, April 2004.

  5. E V Depasquale, A. Muscat, C.J. Debono “Simulations Of The Diversity Performance Of A Diversity Antenna”, CEM 2004, Stratford Upon Avon, April 2004.

  6. K. Farrugia, C.J. Debono, A. Muscat, "Detection and Classification of Ventricular Tachycardia and Ventricular Fibrillation Episodes using Continuous Wavelet Tranforms," Proc. of the IEE 2nd Int. Conf. on Advances in Biomedical Signal and Information Processing, pp. 66 - 69, 2004

  7. A. Muscat, C. G. Parini, “A Hybrid Coupled Dual-Band Quad L-Antenna”, JINA 2002, Nice.

  8. A. Portelli, A. Muscat, J. Muscat, “Tunable Patch Antennas for integration in a mobile phone: simulation and measurement”, JINA 2002, Nice.

  9. A. Muscat and  C. G. Parini, “Novel Compact Handset Antenna Design”, Eleventh International Conference on Antennas and Propagation, Manchester, UK, 17th-20th April 2001.

  10. A. Muscat and C. G. Parini, “Design of Novel Microstrip Antenna Structures Using Knowledge Intensive CAD”, AP2000 Millennium Conference on Antennas and Propagation, Davos, Switzerland, 9-14 April, 2000.

  11. A. Muscat, C. G. Parini and A. D. Olver,  “Synthesis of Patch Antenna Elements Using Various Optimisation Routines”, 26th URSI General Assembly, Toronto, Canada, 13-21 August, 1999, pp.56.

  12. A. Muscat and C. G. Parini, “Mutual Coupling in Aperture Fed Patch Antennas : Theory and Experiment”, IEE Conference on Antennas and Propagation, University of York, UK, 31st March-1st April 1999, pp.359-362.

 

Academic Journals

 

Professional Journals

  1. A. Muscat, ‘Genetic Algorithms in the design of planar antennas’,  Engineering Today, 2002.
  2. A. Muscat, ‘Engineering education: how relevant is it to the labour market’, Engineering Today, 2004.

Books