Qammer of University of Glasgow

Future wireless networks are expected be more than allowing people, mobile devices, and objects to communicate with each other. The sixth generation (6G) of mobile networks are envisioned to include high data rate applications and ultra-massive, connected things. This also includes bio and nano-internet of things (IoT) tele-operated driving, unmanned mobility, haptic communications, unmanned aerial vehicles, and many more. Given the size of nano-sensors, Terahertz (THz) frequency is proposed to do various sensing activities at this scale. However, it will be ideal to use the same radio frequency for communications as well. Furthermore, THz is also proposed as an enabler of extremely high data rate applications in 6G communications. The talk will be focused on  enablers for 6G which includes i) Terahertz antenna  design, ii)   new technology, which is referred to as Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs), its design and application and iii) joint communication and sensing in 6G and state of the art in this area while focusing on healthcare application and iv) lastly role of quantum technologies in future 6G communication with experimental results of wireless communication inside the dilution fridge at 4K.

Biography:

Qammer H. Abbasi, received his BSc and MSc degree in electronics and telecommunication engineering from University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore, Pakistan (with distinction). He received his Ph.D. degree in Electronic and Electrical engineering from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), U.K., in Jan., 2012. From 2012 to June 2012, he was Post-Doctoral Research Assistant in Antenna and Electromagnetics group, QMUL, UK. From 2012 to 2013, he was international young scientist under National Science Foundation China (NSFC), and Assistant Professor in University of Engineering and Technology (UET), KSK, Lahore. From August, 2013 to April 2017 he was with the Center for Remote healthcare Technology and Wireless Research Group, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A &M University (TAMUQ) initially as an Assistant Research Scientist and later was promoted to an Associate Research Scientist and Visiting lecture where he was leading multiple Qatar national research foundation grants.  Currently, he is Professor of Applied Electromagnetics & Sensing and theme lead for connecting people with the James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, U.K., deputy head for Communication Sensing and Imaging group, past Program Director for Dual PhD Degree, deputy theme lead for Quantum in the University’s Advance Research Centre, Co-Manager for RF and terahertz laboratory, lead for healthcare and Internet of things use cases with  5G Center Urban testbed and Project Manager for EON XR Centre. He has  grant portfolio of £9M and contributed to more than 450+ leading international technical journal (including nature portfolio) and peer reviewed conference papers and 11 books and received several recognitions for his research including URSI Young Scientist Awards, UK exceptional talent endorsement by Royal Academy of Engineering, National talent pool award by Pakistan, International Young Scientist Award by NSFC China, National interest waiver by USA, University Research Excellence Award from TAMUQ in two consecutive years, Reward for Excellence from University of Glasgow, Research Culture award University of Glasgow,  university wide Teaching excellence award, 11 best paper awards,  Pakistan Award, Sensor Young Scientist award most downloaded paper in IEEE Terahertz Transaction, cover of MDPI journal twice, and best representative image of an outcome by QNRF. In addition, his work received media coverage by Analog IC tips, Microwaves & RF newsletters, Vertical news, Pakistan Dawn news, BBC news, Scotland TV, Chinese news and many other media houses. Prof. Abbasi is an IEEE senior member and is chair of IEEE AP/MTT  UK, Ireland and Scotland joint chapter and was chair of IEEE young professional affinity group. He is an Associate editor for IEEE Journal of Electromagnetics, RF, and Microwaves in Medicine and Biology, IEEE Sensors, IEEE Internet of Things, IEEE open access Antenna and Propagation, senior editor for Frontiers IoT and Sensors Networks section,  and acted as a guest editor for numerous special issues in top notch journals. He is a committee member for IEEE APS Young professional, IEEE 1906.1.1 standard on nano communication, IEEE APS/SC WG P145, IET Antenna & Propagation and healthcare network. Dr. Abbasi has been a member of the technical program committees of several IEEE flagship conferences and technical reviewer for several IEEE and top notch journals and acted as TPC chair and executive chair for 4th, 5th and 6th  international UCET conference 2019, 2020, 2021 in addition to EAI Bodynets 2021 General Co-Chair. He serves regularly as reviewer for EPSRC, MRC and international funding bodies, organiser of conferences, special sessions, workshops and TPC member for several IEEE flagship conferences, in addition to reviewer for Wiley & Sons books, Springer, IET books, IEEE conferences and more than 30 leading journals including Nature.

Cristiano of University of Perugia

The Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology, also known as 3D-printing technology, offers several interesting and attractive features, including fast prototyping, geometry flexibility, easily customizable products, and low cost (in some cases). However, using such technologies for microwave devices is not straightforward as AM has not been specifically developed for microwave components, and in most cases, some adaptation and post-processing is necessary. Furthermore, there are many AM technologies available, and it is important to understand their characteristics before selecting one.

In the presentation, an overview of the different AM technologies available will be provided. Additionally, an analysis of some of the most common AM technologies used for the manufacturing of microwave components will be conducted in more detail, with the help of several examples. Several microwave components manufactured with some of the most popular AM technologies will be shown, along with a detailed description of the manufacturing process, post-processing, and all actions necessary to make the component perform well. Furthermore, it will be shown how the flexibility of this technology allows the development of new classes of components with non-conventional geometries that can be exploited to obtain high-performing components in terms of compactness, weight, losses, etc.

Biography:

Cristiano Tomassoni received his Ph.D. in Electronics Engineering from the University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy, in 1999. In the same year, he joined the Lehrstuhl für Hochfrequenztechnik, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany as a Visiting Scientist, where he worked on the modeling of waveguide structures and devices using the generalized scattering matrix technique. In 2001, he was a Guest Professor at the Fakultät für Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany. In the early stages of his career, he contributed to the enhancement of several analytical and numerical methods for electromagnetic component simulation, including the finite-element method, mode-matching technique, generalized multipole technique, method of moments, transmission-line matrix, and mode matching applied to spherical waves. In 2001, he joined the University of Perugia, where he is currently an Associate Professor and teaches the ‘Electromagnetic Fields’ course and the ‘Advanced Design of Microwave and RF Systems’ course. His main research interests include modeling and designing of waveguide components and antennas, miniaturized filters, reconfigurable filters, dielectric filters, and substrate integrated waveguide filters. He is currently studying the use of Additive Manufacturing (AM) technology for the fabrication of microwave components, considering various technologies such as Stereolithography (SLA), Lithography-based Ceramic Manufacturing (LCM), Selective Laser Melting (SLM), Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), and PolyJet technology.

Prof. Tomassoni is the Vice-Chair of the MTT-5 Filters Technical Committee of the IEEE-MTT society. He is currently a Distinguished Microwave Lecturer of IEEE-MTT society. He served as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques from 2018 to 2022. Prof. Tomassoni is the recipient of the 2012 Microwave Prize presented by the IEEE Microwave Theory and Technique Society.

Benoit of Rohde & Schwarz, Munich

Antenna or OTA measurements are blind. Knowing the detailed implementation of the device under test is not needed to realize them. They even include all production tolerances that might impact performance. However, measurements are limited to canonical test environments, e.g. in anechoic chambers. Simulations, on the contrary, can give access to electromagnetic fields in practically any scenario. Yet, simulations are only as good as the knowledge of the very details of the radiation source. What if one could unite the two and benefit from the combined strengths of experimental and numerical techniques? This talk shows how to enable this with the augmented OTA approach, involving the creation of an antenna digital twin, based on actual measured data. Practical applications are demonstrated, including field characterization inside the car and EMF assessments with virtual human models.

Biography:

Dr. Derat received the engineering degree from SUPELEC in 2002 and a Ph.D. degree in physics from University of Paris XI with honors in 2006. From 2002 to 2008, he worked at SAGEM Mobiles as an antenna design and electromagnetics research engineer. In 2009, he founded ART-Fi, which created the first vector-array Specific Absorption Rate measurement system. Dr. Derat operated as the CEO and President of ART-Fi, before joining Rohde & Schwarz in Munich in 2017. He is now working as Senior Director for Systems Developments and Project Implementations, covering Electromagnetic Compatibility, Over-The-Air, and antenna test applications. Dr. Derat is a Senior Member of the Antenna Measurement Techniques Association (AMTA) and the author of more than eighty scientific conference and journal papers, as well as an inventor on more than forty patents, with the main focus in antenna systems near- and far-field characterization techniques.

Mihai of German Aerospace Centre DLR

The volume and variety of valuable Earth Observation (EO) images as well as non-EO related data is rapidly growing.  The open free data access becomes widespread and has an enormous scientific and socio-economic relevance.  EO images are acquired by sensors on satellite, suborbital or airborne platforms. They extend the observation beyond the visual information, gathering physical parameters of the observed scenes in a broad electromagnetic spectrum. The sensed information depends largely on the imaging geometry, orbit, illumination and other specific parameters of the space instruments. Typical EO systems can be classified into optical or radar instruments. During the last years, both types of sensors deliver widely different images, and both have made considerable progress in spatial and radiometric resolution, image acquisition strategies, and data rates.

Generally imaging sensors generate an isomorphic representation of the observed scene. This is not the case for EO, the observations are a doppelgänger of the scattered field, an indirect signature of the imaged object. This positions the load of EO image understanding, and the utmost challenge of Big EO Data Science, as new and particular challenge of Machine and Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The presentation reviews and analyses the new approaches of EO imaging leveraging the recent advances in physical process based AI methods and signal processing, and leading to explainable paradigms where intelligence is the analytical component of the end-to-end sensor and Data Science chain design. A particular focus is on the semantic aspects as a key component in the explainable learning paradigms.

Biography:

Mihai Datcu, received the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electronics and Telecommunications from the University Politechnica Bucharest UPB, Romania, in 1978 and 1986. In 1999 he received the title Habilitation a diriger des recherches in Computer Science from University Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France. Since 1981 he has been Professor with the Department of Applied Electronics and Information Engineering, Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technology (ETTI), UPB, working in image processing and Electronic Speckle Interferometry. Since 1993, he has been a scientist with the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen. He is developing algorithms for model-based information retrieval from high complexity signals and methods for scene understanding from Very High Resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and Interferometric SAR data. He is engaged in research related to information theoretical aspects and semantic representations in advanced communication systems. Currently he is Senior Scientist and Data Intelligence and Knowledge Discovery research group leader with the Remote Sensing Technology Institute (IMF) of DLR, Oberpfaffenhofen. Since 2011 he is also leading the Immersive Visual Information Mining research lab at the Munich Aerospace Faculty and he is director of the Research Center for Spatial Information at UPB. His interests are in Artificial Intelligence, Computational Sensing, quantum algorithms, Bayesian inference, information and complexity theory, stochastic processes, machine and deep learning, data mining, for applications in information retrieval and understanding of high resolution SAR and optical observations. He has held Visiting Professor appointments with the University of Oviedo, Spain, the University Louis Pasteur and the International Space University, both in Strasbourg, France, University of Siegen, Germany, University of Innsbruck, Austria, University of Alcala, Spain, University Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy, Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, campus de Madrid, Spain, University of Camerino, Italy, the Swiss Center for Scientific Computing (CSCS), Manno, Switzerland, From 1992 to 2002 he had a longer Invited Professor assignment with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich. Since 2001 he has initiated and leaded the Competence Centre on Information Extraction and Image Understanding for Earth Observation, at ParisTech, Paris Institute of Technology, Telecom Paris, a collaboration of DLR with the French Space Agency (CNES). He has been Professor holder of the DLR-CNES Chair at ParisTech, Paris Institute of Technology, Telecom Paris. He initiated the European frame of projects for Image Information Mining (IIM) and is involved in research programs for information extraction, data mining and knowledge discovery and data understanding with the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA, and in a variety of national and European projects. He is a member of the European Big Data From Space Coordination Group (BiDS). He and his team have developed and are currently developing the operational IIM processor in the Payload Ground Segment systems for the German missions TerraSAR-X, TanDEM-X, and the ESA Sentinel 1 and 2. He has served as a co-organizer of International Conferences and workshops, and as guest editor of special issue of the IEEE and other journals. He received in 2006 the Best Paper Award, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society Prize, in 2008 the National Order of Merit with the rank of Knight, for outstanding international research results, awarded by the President of Romania, in 2018 the Ad Astra award for international scientific activities, and in 1987 the Romanian Academy Prize Traian Vuia for the development of SAADI image analysis system and activity in image processing. He is IEEE Fellow of Signal Processing, Computer and Geoscience and Remote Sensing societies. In 2017 he was awarded a Chair Blaise Pascal for international recognition in the field of Data Science in Earth Observation, with the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherche en Informatique (CEDRIC) at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM) in Paris.

Alfonso of Leonardo Radar & Sensors Academy

Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence demonstrated by machines, as opposed to the natural intelligence displayed by animals including humans. AI research has been defined as the field of study of intelligent agents, which refers to any system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of achieving its goals. AI is a key enabler of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set in 2015 by the international community as part of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development through which countries of the world collectively pledged to eradicate poverty, find sustainable and inclusive development solutions, ensure everyone’s human rights, and generally make sure that no one is left behind by 2030. This talk will delve deep into the definition of AI and learning from nature, the role of AI in sensing with an emphasis on Command & Control applications looking at dataset preparation and image processing and reflecting on AI points of criticism.

Biography:

Alfonso Farina received the Dr. Ing. degree in electronic engineering from the University of Rome La Sapienza, Rome, Italy, and a PhD HC in ICT from the University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy. From 1973 to 2014, he worked at Selex ES until he became Senior Vice President (SVP) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO). Currently, he is President of the Leonardo Radar & Sensors Academy and President of the Underwater and Sensors Systems of the Leonardo Electronics Division.

Alfonso is a Fellow of IEEE, IET, Royal Academy of Engineering, Académico Correspondiente de la Real Academia de Ingeniería de España, European Academy of Science, and National Academy of Engineering (USA). Dr. Farina was a recipient of the Fred Nathanson Memorial Radar Award (1987), Finmeccanica Award for Innovation Technology (2004), IEEE Dennis J. Picard Medal for Radar Technologies and Applications (2010), Oscar Masi Award (2012), IET Achievement Medal (2014), IEEE SPS Industrial Leader Award (2017), Christian Hülsmeyer Award (2019), and IEEE AESS Pioneer Award (2020). His main best paper awards include the M. Barry Carlton of IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems (2001, 2003, and 2013), the IET Proceedings on Radar Sonar and Navigation (2009–2010), and the International Conference on Fusion (2005).

A multifaceted engineer, scientist, and university professor, he is among the 2% top world scientists and one of the world’s leading experts on radar systems.