my parents, and parents-in-law Acknowledgments

I express my greatest gratitude to my supervisor Stephen Gould. Without his guide to this research, I could not see this honorable moment in my life. He has inspired me to keep continuing my research and provided valuable advices whenever I was lost in my direction. He is diligent and passionate as a mentor, and patient to listen to me and wait for my progress. I have learned from you so much about how to solve challenging problems in research. My thesis has benefitted greatly from you. I am also grateful to my supervisor, Hongdong Li. As a panel chair, he has continued to offer guidance and support me in my research. He helped deal with an academic schedule given to me, and allowed me to use my time and resource as much as I wanted, which made it possible for me to finish this research. I appreciate your putting trust in me. I would like to thank my supervisor Yi Li for providing valuable support and advice. He provided me the great research environment in NICTA and help me to continue my work. His concern and care about me in NICTA was helpful to drive my loneliness away. NICTA is a comfortable place to do research, where I could conduc