João F. C. Mota

About Me

I am Assistant Professor of Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering, within the School of Engineering & Physical Sciences, at Heriot-Watt University.

My research interests lie in foundational tools for machine learning and imaging problems, including optimization theory and algorithms, learning theory, and data science, and their multiple applications, including autonomous systems, medical imaging, art investigation, approximate computing, sensor networks, and several imaging modalities (medical, hyperspectral, super-resolution, compression). I am also interested in developing algorithms for multimodal signal processing, distributed processing of information, control of systems, network science, and statistical inference.

For more information, see Google Scholar and Heriot-Watt research profile.

I am serving as Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing.

Alumni

• Anis Hamadouche (PhD student), Research Associate, Heriot-Watt University
• Victor Müller (EngD student), Research Engineer at Canon Medical Imaging Europe
• Natalie Flaherty (EngD student), Lead Algorithms Engineer, Thales, UK
• Rahul Mourya (postdoc), Lecturer in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, University of Wolverhampton
• Yun Wu (postdoc), Lecturer at Queen's University Belfast
• Marija Vella (PhD student), financial consultant at ER

Journal publications

• Estimating Fog Parameters from a Sequence of Stereo Images .
  Y. Ding, J. F. C. Mota, A. M. Wallace, S. Wang .
  submitted, 2024

• The Rate-Distortion-Perception-Classification Tradeoff: Joint Source Coding and Modulation via Inverse-Domain GANs .
  J. Fang*, J. F. C. Mota*, B. Lu, W. Zhang, X. Hong .
  IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, Vol. 72, pp. 3076-3090, 2024 .
  link, arxiv, preprint .
  * equal contribution

• Sharper Bounds for Proximal-Gradient Algorithms with Errors .
  A. Hamadouche, Y. Wu, A. M. Wallace, J. F. C. Mota .
  SIAM Journal on Optimization, Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 278-305, 2024 .
  link, arXiv, preprint

• Classification-Driven Discrete Neural Representation Learning for Semantic Communications .
  W. Hua, L. Xiong, S. Liu, L. Chen, X. Hong, J. F. C. Mota, X. Cheng .
  IEEE Internet of Things, Vol. 11, No. 9, pp. 16061-16073, 2024 .
  link, preprint

• Progressive Deep Image Compression for Hybrid Contexts of Image Classification and Reconstruction .
  Z. Lei, P. Duan, X. Hong, J. F. C. Mota, J. Shi, C.-X. Wang .
  IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications, Vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 72-89, 2023 .
  link, preprint

• Parallel Block Compressive LiDAR Imaging .
  A. Aßmann, J. F. C. Mota, A. M. Wallace, B. Stewart .
  IEEE Transactions on Computational Imaging, Vol. 8, pp. 385-396, 2022 .
  link, preprint

• Efficient Reconfigurable Mixed Precision L1 Solver for Compressive Depth Reconstruction .
  Y. Wu, A. Wallace, J. Mota, A. Aßmann, B. Stewart .
  Journal of Signal Processing Systems, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 1-17, 2022 .
  link

• Robust RGB-Guided Super-Resolution of Hyperspectral Images via TV^3 Minimization .
  W. Wan, B. Zhang, M. Vella, J. F. C. Mota, W. Chen .
  IEEE Signal Processing Letters, Vol. 29, pp. 957-961, 2022 .
  link, preprint

• Robust Single-Image Super-Resolution via CNNs and TV-TV Minimization .
  M. Vella, J. F. C. Mota .
  IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, Vol. 30, pp. 7830-7841, 2021 .
  link, preprint, arXiv, code

• Multimodal Image Super-resolution via Joint Sparse Representations induced by Coupled Dictionaries .
  P. Song, X. Deng, J. F. C. Mota, N. Deligiannis, P. L. Dragotti, M. R. D. Rodrigues .
  IEEE Transactions on Computational Imaging, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 57-72, 2020 .
  link, preprint, arXiv

• Coupled Dictionary Learning for Multi-contrast MRI Reconstruction .
  P. Song, L. Weizman, J. F. C. Mota, Y. C. Eldar, M. R. D. Rodrigues .
  IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 621-633, 2020 .
  link, preprint

• Heterogeneous Networked Data Recovery from Compressive Measurements Using a Copula Prior .
  N. Deligiannis, J. F. C. Mota, E. Zimos, M. R. D. Rodrigues .
  IEEE Transactions on Communications, Vol. 65, No. 12, pp. 5333-5347, 2017 .
  link, preprint, arXiv

• Compressed Sensing with Prior Information: Strategies, Geometry, and Bounds .
  J. F. C. Mota, N. Deligiannis, M. R. D. Rodrigues .
  IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, Vol. 63, No. 7, pp. 4472-4496, 2017 .
  link, preprint, arXiv, code

• Multi-Modal Dictionary Learning for Image Separation With Application In Art Investigation .
  N. Deligiannis, J. F. C. Mota, B. Cornelis, M. R. D. Rodrigues, I. Daubechies .
  IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 751-764, 2017 .
  link, preprint, arXiv

• Adaptive-Rate Reconstruction of Time-Varying Signals with Application in Compressive Foreground Extraction .
  J. F. C. Mota, N. Deligiannis, A. C. Sankaranarayanan, V. Cevher, M. R. D. Rodrigues .
  IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, Vol. 64, No. 14, pp. 3651-3666, 2016 .
  link, paper, arXiv, code

• Fast Desynchronization For Decentralized Multichannel Medium Access Control .
  N. Deligiannis, J. F. C. Mota, G. Smart, Y. Andreopoulos .
  IEEE Transactions on Communications, Vol. 63, No. 9, pp. 3336-3349, 2015 .
  link, preprint, arXiv

• Distributed Optimization With Local Domains: Applications in MPC and Network Flows .
  J. F. C. Mota, J. M. F. Xavier, P. M. Q. Aguiar, M. Püschel .
  IEEE Transactions on Automatic Control, Vol. 60, No. 7, pp. 2004-2009, 2015 .
  link, preprint, arXiv, code for solver, code

• D-ADMM: A Communication-Efficient Distributed Algorithm For Separable Optimization .
  J. F. C. Mota, J. M. F. Xavier, P. M. Q. Aguiar, M. Püschel .
  IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, Vol. 61, No. 10, pp. 2718-2723, 2013 .
  link, preprint, arXiv, code

• Distributed Basis Pursuit
  IEEE SPS Young Author Best Paper Award (2015) .
  J. F. C. Mota, J. M. F. Xavier, P. M. Q. Aguiar, M. Püschel .
  IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, Vol. 60, No. 4, pp. 1942-1956, 2012 .
  link, arXiv, preprint, code

Conference publications

• Uniform Linear Arrays with Hybrid Beamforming: To Overlap or Not to Overlap? .
  M. Pellet, G. Goussetis, J. Mota, H. Legay, G. Toso, P. Angeletti .
  European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), 2025 .
  preprint

• Overlapping Direct Radiating Arrays with an Interleaved Layer of Tiles for Satellite Communications .
  M. Pellet, G. Goussetis, J. Mota, H. Legay, G. Toso, P. Angeletti .
  IEEE Int. Symposium Phased Array Systems and Technology (ARRAY), 2024 .
  link

• Multibeam Phased Arrays Exploiting Frequency Dispersion For Massive MIMO Satellite Communications .
  M. Pellet, G. Goussetis, H. Legay, J. F. C. Mota, P. Angeletti, G. Toso .
  European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), 2024 .
  link

• Multibeam Coverage Optimization for Broadband Satellites with Hybrid Beamforming Direct Radiating Arrays .
  M. Pellet, G. Goussetis, J. Mota, H. Legay, F. Vidal .
  IEEE Int. Symp. Antennas and Propagation and USNC-URSI Radio Science Meeting (USNC-URSI), 2023 .
  link

• MCNet: Measurement-Consistent Networks via a Deep Implicit Layer for Solving Inverse Problems .
  R. Mourya, J. F. C. Mota .
  IEEE Intern. Conf. Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), 2023 .
  link, preprint, arxiv, code

• A New Antenna Array Architecture with Hybrid Beamforming for Broadband Satellite Communications .
  M. Pellet, G. Goussetis, H. Legay, J. F. C. Mota, B. Cortazar, G. Toso .
  European Conference on Antennas and Propagation (EuCAP), 2023 .
  link, preprint

• The topology-overlap trade-off in retinal arteriole-venule segmentation .
  A. V. J. Müller, J. F. C. Mota, K. Goatman, C. Hoogendoorn .
  SPIE Medical Imaging, San Diego, 2023 .
  link

• Towards Tumour Graph Learning for Survival Prediction in Head & Neck Cancer Patients .
  A. V. J. Müller, J. F. C. Mota, K. Goatman, C. Hoogendoorn .
  HECKTOR 2022: Head and Neck Tumor Segmentation and Outcome Prediction, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 178-191, 2023 .
  preprint, link, arxiv

• Semantics-Guided Contrastive Joint Source-Channel Coding For Image Transmission .
  W. Hua, D. Chen, J. Fang, J. F. C. Mota, X. Hong .
  IEEE Int. Conf. Wireless Communications and Signal Processing (WCSP), pp. 505-510, 2022 .
  link, preprint

• Automatic Approximation for 1-Dimensional Feedback-Loop Computations: A PID Benchmark.
  Y. Wu, Y. Zhang, A. Hamadouche, J. F. C. Mota, A. M. Wallace.
  IEEE Sensor Signal Processing for Defence (SSPD), London, UK, 2022 .
  link .

• Joint Undervolting and Overclocking Power Scaling Approximation on FPGA.
  Y. Wu, J. F. C. Mota, A. M. Wallace.
  IEEE Sensor Signal Processing for Defence (SSPD), London, UK, 2022 .
  link.

• Deep Supervoxel Segmentation for Survival Analysis in Head and Neck Cancer Patients .
  A. V. J. Müller, J. F. C. Mota, K. Goatman, C. Hoogendoorn .
  HECKTOR 2021: Head and Neck Tumor Segmentation and Outcome Prediction, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, pp. 257-265, 2022 .
  link

• Approximate Proximal-Gradient Methods.
  A. Hamadouche, Y. Wu, A. M. Wallace, J. F. C. Mota.
  IEEE Sensor Signal Processing for Defence (SSPD), Edinburgh, UK, 2021 .
  link .

• Segmentation of Skin Lesions by Superpixel Classification with Graph-Context CNN.
  A. V. J. Müller, J. F. C. Mota, C. Hoogendoorn .
  Medical Image Understanding and Analysis (MIUA), Virtual, 2021 .
  link

• Enhanced Hyperspectral Image Super-Resolution Via RGB Fusion and TV-TV Minimization.
  M. Vella, B. Zhang, W. Chen, J. F. C. Mota.
  IEEE Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), Anchorage, Alaska, US, 2021 .
  link arxiv, preprint, code

• Overcoming Measurement Inconsistency in Deep Learning for Linear Inverse Problems: Applications in Medical Imaging.
  M. Vella, J. F. C. Mota.
  IEEE Intern. Conf. Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), Virtual, 2021 .
  link, arxiv, preprint

• Approximate LASSO Model Predictive Control for Resource Constrained Systems.
  Y. Wu, J. F. C. Mota, A. M. Wallace.
  IEEE Sensor Signal Processing for Defence (SSPD), Virtual, 2020 .
  link, preprint

• Compressive Super-Pixel LiDAR for High-frame rate 3D Depth Imaging.
  A. Aßmann, B. Stewart, J. F. C. Mota, A. M. Wallace.
  IEEE Global Conference on Signal and Information Processing (GlobalSIP), Ottawa, 2019.
  slides

• Single Image Super-Resolution via CNN Architectures and TV-TV Minimization.
  M. Vella, J. F. C. Mota.
  British Machine Vision Conference (BMVC'19), Cardiff, 2019.
  link, arXiv, preprint, code

• Robust Super-Resolution via Deep Learning and TV Priors.
  M. Vella, C. Rickman, J. F. C. Mota.
  International Workshop on Signal Processing with Adaptive Sparse Structured Representations (SPARS'19), Toulouse, 2019.
  link, preprint

• Coupled Dictionary Learning for Multi-Contrast MRI Resolution.
  P. Song, L. Weizman, J. F. C. Mota, Y. C. Eldar, M. R. D. Rodrigues.
  IEEE Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), Athens, Greece, 2018.
  link, preprint, supplementary material

• Data Aggregation and Recovery for the Internet of Things: A Compressive Demixing Approach.
  E. Zimos, J. F. C. Mota, E. Tsiligianni, M. R. D. Rodrigues, N. Deligiannis.
  IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC), Barcelona, Spain, 2018.
  link, preprint

• A framework for learning affine transformations for multimodal sparse reconstruction.
  J. F. C. Mota, E. Tsiligianni, N. Deligiannis.
  Wavelets and Sparsity XVII, SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, San Diego, 2017.
  link, preprint

• Reweighted L1-norm minimization with guarantees: An incremental measurement approach to sparse reconstruction .
  J. F. C. Mota, L. Weizman, N. Deligiannis, Y. C. Eldar, M. R. D. Rodrigues.
  International Workshop on Signal Processing with Adaptive Sparse Structured Representations (SPARS'17), Lisbon, 2017.
  link, preprint

• Joint Multicontrast MRI Reconstruction .
  L. Weizman, J. F. C. Mota, P. Song, N. Deligiannis, Y. C. Eldar, M. R. D. Rodrigues.
  International Workshop on Signal Processing with Adaptive Sparse Structured Representations (SPARS'17), Lisbon, 2017.
  link, preprint

• Coupled Dictionary Learning For Multimodal Image Super-Resolution .
  P. Song, J. F. C. Mota, N. Deligiannis, M. R. D. Rodrigues.
  IEEE Global Conference on Signal and Information Processing (GlobalSIP), Washington D.C., 2016.
  link, preprint

• Measurement Matrix Design For Compressive Sensing With Side Information at the Encoder .
  P. Song, J. F. C. Mota, N. Deligiannis, M. R. D. Rodrigues.
  IEEE Statistical Signal Processing Workshop (SSP), Palma de Mallorca, 2016.
  link, preprint

• Internet-of-Things Data Aggregation Using Compressed Sensing with Side Information .
  E. Zimos, J. F. C. Mota, M. R. D. Rodrigues, N. Deligiannis.
  IEEE International Conference on Telecommunications (ICT), Thessaloniki, Greece, 2016.
  link, preprint

• X-Ray Image Separation via Coupled Dictionary Learning .
  N. Deligiannis, J. F. C. Mota, B. Cornelis, M. R. D. Rodrigues, I. Daubechies.
  IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), Phoenix, Arizona, 2016.
  link, preprint, arXiv

• Bayesian Compressed Sensing with Heterogeneous Side Information .
  E. Zimos, J. F. C. Mota, M. R. D. Rodrigues, N. Deligiannis, .
  Data Compression Conference (DCC), pp. 191-200, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2016.
  preprint

• Reference-Based Compressed Sensing: A Sample Complexity Approach .
  J. F. C. Mota, L. Weizman, N. Deligiannis, Y. C. Eldar, M. R. D. Rodrigues.
  IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), Shanghai, 2016.
  link, preprint

• Dynamic Sparse State Estimation Using L1-L1 Minimization: Adaptive-Rate Measurement Bounds, Algorithms and Applications .
  J. F. C. Mota, N. Deligiannis, A. C. Sankaranarayanan, V. Cevher, M. R. D. Rodrigues.
  IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), Brisbane, 2015.
  link, preprint

• Decentralized Multichannel Medium Access Control: Viewing Desynchronization as a Convex Optimization Method .
  N. Deligiannis, J. F. C. Mota, G. Smart, Y. Andreopoulos.
  ACM/IEEE International Conference on Information Processing (IPSN), Seattle, 2015.
  link

• Decentralized time-synchronized channel swapping .
  G. Smart, N. Deligiannis, J. F. C. Mota, Y. Andreopoulos .
  ACM/IEEE International Conference on Information Processing (IPSN), Seattle, 2015.
  link

• Compressed Sensing with Side Information: Geometrical Interpretation and Performance Bounds .
  J. F. C. Mota, N. Deligiannis, M. Rodrigues.
  IEEE Global Conference on Signal and Information Processing (GlobalSIP), Atlanta, 2014.
  Session: Information Processing for Big Data.
  link, preprint, arXiv

• D-ADMM Based Distributed MPC with input-output models .
  R. P. Costa, J. M. Lemos, J. F. C. Mota, J. M. F. Xavier.
  IEEE Conference on Control Applications (CCA), Antibes, France, 2014.
  Part of IEEE Multi-Conference on Systems and Control.
  link, preprint

• A Unified Algorithmic Approach to Distributed Optimization .
  J. F. C. Mota, J. M. F. Xavier, P. M. Q. Aguiar, M. Püschel.
  IEEE Global Conference on Signal and Information Processing (GlobalSIP), Austin, 2013.
  link, preprint

• Distributed Compressed Sensing Algorithms: Completing the Puzzle .
  J. F. C. Mota, J. M. F. Xavier, P. M. Q. Aguiar, M. Püschel.
  IEEE Global Conference on Signal and Information Processing (GlobalSIP), Austin, 2013.
  link, preprint

• Efficient Distributed Algorithms For Structured Optimization Problems .
  J. F. C. Mota, J. Xavier, P. Aguiar, M. Püschel.
  Workshop on Signal Processing Advances in Sensor Networks, CPSWeek, Philadelphia, 2013.
  extended abstract

• Distributed ADMM for Model Predictive Control and Congestion Control .
  J. F. C. Mota, J. M. F. Xavier, P. M. Q. Aguiar, M. Püschel.
  51st IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), pp. 5110-5115, Maui, 2012.
  link, preprint

• ADMM For Consensus On Colored Networks .
  J. F. C. Mota, J. M. F. Xavier, P. M. Q. Aguiar, M. Püschel.
  51st IEEE Conference on Decision and Control (CDC), pp.5116-5121, Maui, 2012.
  link, preprint

• D-ADMM: A Distributed Algorithm For Compressed Sensing and Other Separable Optimization Problems .
  J. F. C. Mota, J. M. F. Xavier, P. M. Q. Aguiar, M. Püschel.
  IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, Signal Processing (ICASSP), pp. 2869-2872, Kyoto, 2012.
  link, preprint

• Basis Pursuit in Sensor Networks .
  J. F. C. Mota, J. M. F. Xavier, P. M. Q. Aguiar, M. Püschel.
  IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), pp. 2916-2919, Prague, 2011.
  link, preprint

• Efficient Methods For Point Matching With Known Camera Orientation .
  J. F. C. Mota and P. M. Q. Aguiar.
  International Conference on Image Analysis and Recognition (ICIAR), pp. 210-219, Póvoa de Varzim, 2010.
  link, preprint

• Distributed Algorithms For Basis Pursuit .
  J. F. C. Mota, J. M. F. Xavier, P. M. Q. Aguiar, M. Püschel.
  International Workshop on Signal Processing with Adaptive Sparse Structured Representations (SPARS'09), Saint-Malo, 2009.
  link, preprint

Theses

• Communication-Efficient Algorithms For Distributed Optimization .
  Phd Thesis.
  Carnegie Mellon University, USA.
  Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon, Portugal.
  2013.
  link, arXiv, CMU link

An explanation of my PhD research: http://users.isr.ist.utl.pt/~jmota/DADMM/

• Distributed Algorithms For Sparse Approximation .
  MSc Thesis.
  Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal.
  2008.
  link

Other Documents

• High-Dimensional Statistics and Sparsity.
  J. F. C. Mota .
  UDRC-EURASIP Summer School, Virtual, June 2021 .
  slides, slides without animations, code

• Convex Optimization: Fundamentals and Applications in Statistical Signal Processing.
  J. F. C. Mota .
  UDRC-EURASIP Summer School, Heriot-Watt University, June 2019 .
  slides, slides without animations, link

• A Proof of Convergence For the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers Applied to Polyhedral-Constrainted Functions.
  J. F. C. Mota, J. M. F. Xavier, P. M. Q. Aguiar, M. Püschel.
  document, arXiv

Contact

João Mota .
EM 3.22 .
Heriot-Watt University .
Edinburgh EH14 4AS .
United Kingdom

Email: j.mota (at) hw.ac.uk