Invited Talks

Prof. Martin Adams

Electrical Engineering

Dept. of Electrical Engineering

University of Chile, Chile

Prof. Martin Adams is at Electrical Engineering at the Dept. of Electrical Engineering, University of Chile. He is also a principle investigator in the industrially sponsored Advanced Mining Technology Centre (AMTC). He obtained his first degree in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford, U.K, in 1988 and continued to study for a D.Phil. at the Robotics Research Group, University of Oxford, which he received in 1992. He continued his research in autonomous robot navigation as a project leader and part time lecturer at the Institute of Robotics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, Switzerland. He was employed as a Guest Professor and taught control theory in St. Gallen (Switzerland) from 1994 to 1995. From 1996 to 2000, he served as a senior research scientist in robotics and control, in the field of semiconductor assembly automation, at the European Semiconductor Equipment Centre (ESEC), Switzerland. From 2000 to 2010, he was Associate Professor at the School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. His research work focuses on autonomous robot navigation, sensing, sensor data interpretation and control, and he has published many technical papers in these fields. He has been the principle investigator and leader of many robotics and industrially sponsored projects, coordinating researchers from local industries and local and overseas universities, has served as associate editor on various journal and conference editorial boards and is currently Chair of the Robotics and Automation Chapter, Chile.

Dr. Paul Hancock

ICRAR/CIRA

Curtin University, Autralia

Paul Hancock is an Early Career Research Fellow currently at Curtin University. I obtained my PhD at the University of Sydney, where I worked on the Australia Telescope 20GHz (AT20G) survey. I then continued to work as a Super Science Fellow in radio transients at USYD where I helped to create the Variable And Slow Transients (VAST) prototype pipeline, including the source finding algorithm Aegean. My interests are in radio transients including: supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, and tidal disruption events.

Paul Hancock leads two projects that use the Murchison Wide-field Array (MWA). The first project uses the scintillation of extragalactic radio sources to trace the turbulent structure of gas within the Milky Way. The second project uses the MWA to search for radio emission from fireballs as they burn a path through our atmosphere.

Dr. Andrew C. Nicholas

Sensor Development and Application Section Head

Geospace Science and Technology Branch

Space Science Division

Naval Research Laboratory, USA

Andrew Nicholas has been working at the Naval Research Laboratory [NRL] in Washington, DC for 25 years. He is a Department of the Navy [DON] civil servant and the Sensor Development and Applications Section Head in the Geospace Science and Technology Branch in the NRL Space Science Division.  His research activities include development of ultraviolet [UV] remote sensing and in-situ space-flight hardware to study the upper atmosphere, development of nano-satellite class spacecraft specifically designed to monitor the thermosphere, and evolving ground calibration techniques for UV optical sensors and in-situ mass spectrometers.  He is currently serving as the Principal Investigator for the Coordinated Ionospheric Reconstruction Cubesat Experiment (CIRCE), the Triple Magnesium Ion Photometer (Tri-MIP), the Special Sensor Ultraviolet Limb Imager [SSULI], the miniature Small Wind And Temperature Spectrometer [SWATS] in situ space weather instrument, and the miniature attitude sensor Ram Angle & Magnetic-field Sensor [RAMS].  Andrew received a B.S. degree in Engineering Physics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach campus, in 1991, and an M.S degree in Space Physics from U. Alaska, Fairbanks in 1993.

Denis Cutajar [Young Researcher]

Institute of Space Sciences and Astronomy

University of Malta, Malta

Denis Cutajar read for a BSc in Physics and Computer Science from the University of Malta in 2012. This was followed by a Master in Physics which he obtained in 2014. At present, he is reading for a PhD in Space Sciences at the Institute of Space Sciences and Astronomy within the University of Malta. His research focuses on the application of machine learning techniques for the detection of orbital debris using radar instruments.

Prof. Danilo Orlando

Università degli Studi Niccolò Cusano, Italy

Danilo Orlando received the Dr. Eng. Degree (with honors) in computer engineering and the Ph.D. degree (with maximum score) in information engineering, both from the University of Salento (formerly University of Lecce), Italy, in 2004 and 2008, respectively. From July 2007 to July 2010, he has worked with the University of Cassino (Italy), engaged in a research project on algorithms for track-before-detect of multiple targets in uncertain scenarios. From September to November 2009, he has been visiting scientist at the NATO Undersea Research Centre (NURC), La Spezia (Italy). From September 2011 to April 2015, he has worked at Elettronica SpA engaged as system analyst in the field of Electronic Warfare. In May 2015, he joined Università degli Studi « Niccolò Cusano », where he is currently associate professor.
His main research interests are in the field of statistical signal processing and image processing with more emphasis on adaptive detection and tracking of multiple targets in multisensor scenarios. He is Senior Member of IEEE; he has served IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing as Senior Area Editor and currently is Associate Editor for IEEE Open Journal on Signal Processing, EURASIP Journal on Advances in Signal Processing, and MDPI Remote Sensing. He is also author or co-author of about 120 scientific publications in international journals, conferences, and books

Dr. Jun Liu

University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.

Jun Liu received the B.S. degree in mathematics from Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, China, in 2006, the M.S. degree in mathematics from Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, in 2009, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Xidian University, Xi’an, China, in 2012. From July 2012 to December 2012, he was a Post-doctoral Research Associate with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA. From January 2013 to September 2014, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, USA. He is currently an Associate Professor with the Department of Electronic Engineering and Information Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China. His research interests include statistical signal processing, image processing, and machine learning. Dr. Liu is currently an Associate Editor for the IEEE Signal Processing Letters, and a member of the Editorial Board of Signal Processing (Elsevier).

Dr. Filippo Biondi (Member IEEE)

University of L’Aquila, Italy

Filippo Biondi received the B.S. degree in information Engineering from Salento University, Lecce, Italy, in 2009, the M.S. degree in telecommunication engineering from Salento University, Lecce, Italy, in 2011, and the Ph.D. degree in telecommunication engineering from the University of L’Aquila, Italy, in 2015.In particular, he is working on synthetic aperture radar (SAR), interferometry, multichromatic analysis, and tomography, also using a convex optimization approach. From April 2010 to April 2011, he was Guest Scientist with the Nation Research Council (ISSIA-CNR) of Bari, Italy and the Italian Space Agency, Geodesy Space Center of Matera, Italy. His research interest includes the development of signal processing and statistical signal processing techniques on radar equipment.Currently he Is Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing Journal.

Prof. Silvia Liberata Ullo (Senior Member IEEE)

University of Sannio di Benevento, Italy

She is graduated with laude in Electronic Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering, of Federico II University, Naples. She received the M.Sc. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan Business School of Boston, USA, in June 1992. Since 2004 she is a researcher with the University of Sannio di Benevento, where she teaches Signal theory and elaboration, and Telecommunication networks, courses for the degree in Electronic Engineering and the Optical and radar remote sensing as Ph.D. course. She has authored 72 research papers in reputed journals and conferences. She is part of the Telecommunications and Remote Sensing group and her research interests mainly deal with signal processing, remote sensing, image and satellite data analysis, machine learning applied to satellite data, ESA Copernicus mission, cognitive radars, sensor networks, telecommunications networks, and smart grids. She is the Industry Liaison for the IEEE Italy Joint ComSoc / VTS Chapter. She is a member of the Academic Senate at University of Sannio, and the National Referent for the FIDAPA BPW Italy Science and Technology Task Force.  Awarded in 1990 with the Marisa Bellisario prize from the homonymous foundation, and with the Marisa Bellisario scholarship from Italel SpA company. She has been with Italel, since September 1992. She served as a Chief of some production lines at the Santa Maria Capua Vetere factory (CE), until January 2000. She won a public competition and started working at the Center for Data Processing (CED) in the Municipality of Benevento, from January 2000 to January 2004. In February 2004, she won a researcher contest at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Sannio, Benevento.