Alvin C. Valera, Ph.D.
I am currently a Senior Lecturer at the School of Engineering and Computer Science, Victoria University of Wellington. I am a member of the Wireless Networks (WiNe) Research Group and Therapeutic and Rehabilitative Designed Environments.
Biosketch
Alvin completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the areas of computer engineering and computer science, respectively, and Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering. In his doctoral thesis, he tackled the problem of energy-neutral data delivery in enivornmentally-powered wireless sensor networks. Alvin held teaching and research positions in the Philippines and Singapore. He also had a five-year stint in the industry as a software engineer and systems analyst.
Research Interests
Internet of Things (IoT) applications require sensing, sense-making, and actuating capabilities in order to deliver the promise of “freeing humans from mundane tasks”. Alvin’s research looks at new paradigms and inspirations to design networks that satisfy the unique requirements of IoT applications and scale up to support the envisaged billions of connected devices. His current research interests focus on the use of information-centric networking in the context of resource-constrained IoT networks. This includes the design of schemes (i) to efficiently collect, filter, and disseminate messages; (ii) to manage the operation of the network; and (iii) optimize and control the performance of the network.
Currently, Alvin is also working in inter-disciplinary projects involving the application of IoT. He has research collaborators from other disciplines such as architecture, biology, design, education, health, and mathematics.
Prospective Ph.D. Students
If you are keen to pursue Ph.D. research in VUW under my supervision, please visit this link for more information.