Biography

Shunqiao Sun is a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Alabama, where he directs the Laboratory for Intelligent Sensing and Computing (LISC). His tenure dossier was submitted in Fall 2025, with the final university decision expected in Spring 2026. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Rutgers University in January 2016 and previously spent three and a half years with Aptiv’s Radar Core Team in Malibu, California, developing advanced radar signal processing and machine learning algorithms for production automotive radars. His work on direction-of-arrival estimation has been deployed in over 120 million automotive radar units worldwide.

Dr. Sun’s research focuses on radar-first autonomy—integrating mmWave MIMO radar sensing, physics-informed machine learning, radar-centric SLAM, and large-model-driven reasoning to enable resilient autonomy in complex, adverse, and unstructured environments. His research group develops high-resolution radar imaging, 4D radar odometry, multimodal sensor fusion, and intelligent radar–AI agents. These methods are validated on two full-scale field platforms: a Lexus RX450h autonomous vehicle for urban and adverse-weather autonomy, and an AgileX Bunker Pro unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) for off-road, rural, and disaster-resilient autonomy.

Dr. Sun’s research is supported by over $2.1M in external funding, including the NSF CAREER Award (2024), NSF CRII Award (2022), NOAA funding, and more than $1.2M in direct industry support from partners such as NXP Semiconductors, Spartan Radar, and MathWorks.

He received the 2016 IEEE AESS Robert T. Hill Best Dissertation Award for his thesis on sparse MIMO radar, and the Best Student Paper Award at the 2020 IEEE Sensor Array and Multichannel Signal Processing Workshop (SAM). He is a Senior Member of IEEE, an elected member of the IEEE Sensor Array and Multichannel (SAM) Technical Committee (2024–2026) and the IEEE SPS Integrated Sensing and Communication Working Group (2025–2027), and serves as Vice Chair of the IEEE Signal Processing Society Autonomous Systems Initiative (2023–2025).

He has co-organized the first three IEEE Workshops on Signal Processing for Autonomous Systems (SPAS) at ICASSP 2023 (Rhodes), ICASSP 2024 (Seoul), and EUSIPCO 2025 (Palermo), and has co-organized more than fifteen special sessions on radar, machine learning, and sparse arrays at flagship IEEE conferences. He is an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, IEEE Signal Processing Letters, and the IEEE Open Journal of Signal Processing.

Honors and Awards

• University of Alabama Hewson Engineering Faculty Fellows (2025)
• NSF CAREER Award (2024)
• NSF Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Research Initiation Initiative (CRII) Award (2022)
• Best Student Paper Award at IEEE Sensor Array and Multichannel Signal Processing Workshop (SAM) (as coauthor, 2020)
• IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society Robert T. Hill Best Dissertation Award (2016)
• Rutgers University ECE Department Graduate Program Academic Achievement Award (2015-2016)

Presentations

• Sept. 23, 2025: “Model-based learning for DOA estimation and radar imaging in autonomous vehicles”, Invited Talk at Automotive Forum along with European Microwave Week (EuMW) 2025, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
• Feb. 21, 2025: “High-resolution radar imaging for autonomous vehicle perception: Signal processing and machine learning approaches”, Seminar at The University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI.
• Feb. 10, 2025: “High-resolution radar imaging for autonomous vehicle perception: Signal processing and machine learning approaches”, Seminar a The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN.
• Jan. 24, 2025: “High-resolution radar imaging for autonomous vehicle perception: Signal processing and machine learning approaches”, Seminar at New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ.
• Nov. 18, 2024: “Sparse antenna array design for high-resolution automotive radar imaging”, presentation at University of Applied Sciences and Arts Dortmund.
• Oct. 21, 2024: “High-Resolution Automotive Radar Imaging for Autonomous Driving”, presentation at University of Delaware, Newark, DE
• Oct. 18, 2024: “Redefining Millimeter-Wave Automotive Radar for Autonomous Driving: Advanced Signal Processing and Machine Learning Approaches”, Seminar at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA
• Sept. 19, 2024: “Recent Advances in Automotive Radar Signal Processing for Autonomous Driving,” Seminar at Auburn University, Auburn, AL
• June 4, 2024: Invited to give an IEEE SPS webinar together with Prof. Athina Petropulu and Prof. H. Vincent Poor on ‘‘The Past, Present and Future of Automotive Radar for Active Safety and Autonomous Driving”. [Webinar Slides]
• April 14, 2024: ‘‘Integrated Signal Processing and Deep Learning for Automotive Radar,” Invited talk at The Workshop on Signal Processing and Machine Learning Advances in Automotive Radars, held at ICASSP 2024, Seoul, Korea.
• Jan. 26, 2024: ‘‘Integrating Signal Processing and Deep Learning: The Path to High-Resolution Imaging Radar for Autonomous Driving,” Seminar at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX.
• Nov. 10, 2023: invited to give a seminar on ‘‘Automotive Radar for Autonomous Driving: Signal Processing Meets Deep Learning” jointly at TU Delft and IEEE Benelux Section
• Oct. 24, 2023: ‘‘Advanced Signal Processing and Machine Learning Algorithms for Autonomous Vehicles”, presentation at NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) – Center for Efficient Vehicles and Sustainable Transportation System (EVSTS), Fall 2023 Industry Advisory Board Meeting, Tuscaloosa, AL.
• Sept. 26, 2023: Invited to give an IEEE SPS webinar together with Prof. Yimin D. Zhang on “Redefining Radar Perception for Autonomous Driving: The Role of Sparse Array and Waveform Design in 4D Automotive Radar”. [Webinar Slides]
• EuRAD 2023 — 1 + 1 is greater than 2: Collaborative automotive radar imaging exploiting spatial diversity
• Sept. 19-20, 2023: ‘‘Automotive Radar for Autonomous Driving: Signal Processing Meets Deep Learning”, Seminars at TU Delft, The Netherlands
• Sept. 18, 2023: Invited to give a talk on ‘‘Automotive Radar for Autonomous Driving: Signal Processing Meets Deep Learning” at The Automotive Forum along with European Microwave Week (EuMW), Berlin, Germany.
• EUSIPCO 2023 —​ Deep learning based computationally efficient unrolling IAA for direction-of-arrival estimation
• Sept. 5, 2023: ‘‘Automotive Radar for Autonomous Driving: Signal Processing Meets Deep Learning”, GM Cruise Munich, Munich, Germany. 
• June 14, 2023: ‘‘Automotive Radar for Autonomous Driving: Signal Processing Meets Deep Learning”, Aptiv, Wuppertal, Germany. 
• June 12, 2023: ‘‘Automotive Radar for Autonomous Driving: Signal Processing Meets Deep Learning”, Hella, Lippstadt, Germany. 
• RadarConf 2023 — Fast forward-backward Hankel matrix completion for automotive radar DOA estimation using sparse linear arrays
• April 13, 2023: ‘‘Automotive Radar for Autonomous Driving: Signal Processing Meets Deep Learning”, Seminar at University of California, Davis
• April 12, 2023: ‘‘Automotive Radar for Autonomous Driving: Signal Processing Meets Deep Learning”, Seminar at University of California, Irvine 
• April 3, 2023: ‘‘Automotive Radar for Autonomous Driving: Signal Processing Meets Deep Learning”, Seminar at University of Illinois Chicago 
• Feb. 3, 2022: Invited Talk on 4D automotive radar sensing for autonomous vehicles, Seminar at GM Cruise.
•  Jan. 26, 2022: ​​Invited Seminar on​ 4D automotive radar sensing for autonomous vehicles, Seminar at The University of Alabama.
• RadarConf 2019  — Target estimation by exploiting low rank structure in widely separated MIMO radar
• Mar. 29, 2019: Invited talk on ‘‘The Advantages and Challenges of MIMO Radar for Autonomous Driving’’ at California State University, Long Beach, CA.
• July 24, 2018: Invited IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc) webinar on ‘‘MIMO Radar and Its Role in Autonomous Driving’’. 
• Mar. 19, 2018: Invited to give a talk on ‘‘Make Self-Driving Cars See! The Key MIMO Radar Technology for Autonomous Driving’’ at Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI. 
• Nov. 28, 2017: Invited talk on ‘‘MIMO Radar: Fundamentals, Sparse Sensing and its Application in Autonomous Driving (Part II)’’ at IEEE Buenaventura Section Seminar, Skyworks Solutions, Newbury Park, CA.
• Sept. 26, 2017: Invited talk on ‘‘MIMO Radar: Fundamentals, Sparse Sensing and its Application in Autonomous Driving (Part I)’’ at IEEE Buenaventura Section Seminar, Skyworks Solutions, Newbury Park, CA. 
• Asilomar 2015  — On waveform conditions in MIMO radars using matrix completion
• SPIE 2013 Compressive Sensing for Radar  — A Capon beamforming method for clutter suppression in colocated compressive sensing based MIMO radar
• CISS 2013  —  Robust beamforming via matrix completion
• SAM 2012  —  Power allocation for CS-based colocated MIMO radar systems
• ICC 2011  —  Robust power control in cognitive radio networks: A distributed way
• WCSP 2010  —  Distributed power control based on convex optimization in cognitive radio networks

PhD Dissertation

Shunqiao Sun, ‘‘MIMO Radars with Sparse Sensing,’’ Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, Jan. 2016. 
IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society Robert T. Hill Best Dissertation Award

Professional Membership and Services

• Vice Chair of IEEE Signal Processing Society Autonomous Systems Initiative (ASI), for period of 1/1/2023 – 12/31/2025
• Elected Member of IEEE Sensor Array and Multichannel Technical Committee for period of 1/1/2024 – 12/31/2026
• Elected Member of IEEE SPS Integrated Sensing and Communication Technical Working Group (ISAC TWG) for period of 1/1/2025 – 12/31/2027
• IEEE Senior Member, 2018 – Present

Journal Editorship

• Associate Editor: IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems (2025 – present)
• Associate Editor: IEEE Signal Processing Letters (2023 – present)
• Associate Editor: IEEE Open Journal of Signal Processing (2023 – present)

Organization of Journal Special Issues

• Guest Editor, Special Issue on “Advances in Signal Processing for Automotive Radar: Robustness, Performance, and Emerging Techniques”, EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing, submission deadline: Nov. 13, 2025.
• Guest Editor, Special Issue on “State-of-the-Art and Future Developments: Short-Range Radar”, Remote Sensing, submission deadline: Dec. 31, 2024. 

Workshop Organizer

• Co-organize and Co-Chair of “The Third Workshop on Signal Processing for Autonomous Systems (SPAS)” held in conjunction with European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO), Palermo, Italy, Sept. 8-12, 2025.
• Co-organize and Co-Chair of “The Second Workshop on Signal Processing for Autonomous Systems (SPAS)” held in conjunction with The Intl. Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), Seoul, Korea, April 14-19, 2024.
• Co-organize and Co-Chair of “Workshop on Signal Processing for Autonomous Systems (SPAS)” held in conjunction with The Intl. Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), Rhodes Island, Greece, June 5, 2023.

​Organization of Conference Special Sessions

• Asilomar 2025 – “Invited Session: Advanced Signal Processing and Machine Learning for Automotive Radar Sensing”, Annual Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers, Oct. 2025.
• EuRAD 2025 – “Focused Session on AI/ML in mmWave Radar”, European Radar Conference (EuRAD), Sept. 2025.
• EUSIPCO 2025 – “Special Session on Radar Sensing for Autonomous Vehicles”, 33rd European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO), Sept. 2025.
• ICASSP 2025 – “Special Session on Advances in Automotive Radar Signal Processing”, The Intl. Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), April 2025.
• SAM 2024 – “Special Session on Automotive Radar Signal Processing for Autonomous Vehicles”, The IEEE Sensor Array and Multichannel Signal Processing Workshop (SAM), July 2024.
• SAM 2024 – “Special Session on Exploiting Sparsity in Sensor Arrays and Signal Waveforms​”, The IEEE Sensor Array and Multichannel Signal Processing Workshop (SAM), July 2024.
• ICASSP 2024 – “Special Session on Automotive Radar Signal Processing for Autonomous Driving”, The Intl. Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), April 2024.
• Asilomar 2023 – “Recent Advances in Signal Processing Approaches for Automotive Radar and Networks”, Annual Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers, Nov. 2023.
• EUSIPCO 2023 – “Special Session on Advanced Signal Processing Approaches for High-Resolution Automotive Radar Systems”, European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO), Sept. 2023.​
• ICASSP 2023 – “Special Session on Automotive Radar Signal Processing and Machine Learning for Autonomous Driving”, The Intl. Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), June 2023.
• RadarConf 2023 – “Special Session on Advanced Signal Processing Approaches for Next Generation Automotive Radar”, IEEE Radar Conference, May 2023.
• SAM 2022 – “Special Session on Advanced Signal Processing Methods in Automotive Radar Sensing for Autonomous Vehicles”, The IEEE Sensor Array and Multichannel Signal Processing Workshop (SAM), June 2022.
• ICAS 2021 – “Special Session on Automotive Radar Imaging”, The Intl. Conference on Autonomous Systems (ICAS), Aug. 2021.
• ICASSP 2021 – “Special Session on Recent Advances in mmWave Radar Sensing for Autonomous Vehicles”, The Intl. Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), June 2021.
• ICASSP 2020 –  “Special Session on Recent Advances in Automotive Radar Systems”, The Intl. Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), May 2020.
• Asilomar 2019 – “Special Session on Automotive Radar”, Annual Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers, Nov. 2019.​​

Session Chair Activity 

• Session Chair of Sparse Modeling and Learning Methods, IEEE International Workshop on Computational Advances in Multi-Sensor Adaptive Processing (CAMSAP), Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, Dec. 14-17, 2025.
• Session Chair of Autonomous Vehicle Perception 7, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), Atlanta, GA, May 19-23, 2025.
• Session Chair of Array Processing for Automotive Radar, IEEE Radar Conference, Denver, CO, May 6-10, 2024. 
• Session Chair of Estimation Theory and Computational Advances, IEEE International Workshop on Computational Advances in Multi-Sensor Adaptive Processing (CAMSAP), Los Sueños, Costa Rica, Dec. 10-13, 2023. 
• ​Session Chair of Radar/Array Signal Processing, Networks and Communications, IEEE 48th International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), Rhodes Island, Greece, June 4-9, 2023.
• Session Chair of MIMO and Cognitive Radars, 56th Annual Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems, and Computers, Pacific Grove, CA, Nov. 2022.