_*Notice and Invitation*_

Oral Defense of Doctoral Dissertation
The Volgenau School of Engineering, George Mason University


*Hossein Roufarshbaf*

Bachelor of Science, Isfahan University of Technology, 1999
Master of Science, Amirkabir University of Technology, 2002


*A Tree Search Approach to Detection and Estimation with Application
to**Communications and Tracking*


Wednesday, July 20, 2011, 1:00pm-3:00pm
Nguyen Engineering Bldg., Room 3507


All are invited to attend.


_*Committee*_

Jill K. Nelson, Chair
Andre Manitius
Kuo Chu Chang
Gerald Cook


_*Abstract*_
A novel approach to detection and estimation problems using tree search 
techniques is presented. The problem is framed as a generalized 
sequential detection problem in
which every possible sequence of system states is mapped to a path 
through the search tree. The stack algorithm and the M-algorithm that 
are originally used in
decoding of the convolutional codes are implemented to reduce the 
computational complexity of the tree search technique. The proposed tree 
search technique can be
viewed as approximating the full Bayesian inference approach by 
computing the posterior distribution only in regions in which it has 
significant mass. Unlike
approaches that build on Kalman filtering techniques, the proposed 
stack-based tracker suffers no performance loss in the presence of 
nonlinear and/or non-
Gaussian system state space model. The proposed algorithm is 
successfully applied to blind channel equalization, modulation 
classification and target trackingproblems.


A copy of this doctoral dissertation is on reserve at the Johnson Center 
Library.