Dr. Gregory Durgin

Abstract:

Recent breakthroughs in launch vehicles, spacecraft design, solar collection, and microwave transmission have drawn humanity tantalizingly close to a long-held dream: space solar power (SSP), the collection of solar power in space and its transmission to the surface of the earth for clean electrical energy.  But the truly transformative technology that could unlock space solar power – and even solve much of the debris problem in space – is the PaddleSat.  PaddleSats integrate their spacecraft subsystems onto thin, wide-area paddles that allow them to perform basic orbital station keeping and navigation with solar pressure instead of propellent.  In this talk, we will review some of the basics of PaddleSat operation and their potential contribution to current satellite technology and space solar power.  By the end of the talk, we will have revealed the contours of a wholly unexplored design space of a new, viable spacecraft architecture. 

Biography:

Prof. Gregory D. Durgin joined the faculty of Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in Fall 2003 where he serves as a professor. He received the BSEE (96), MSEE (98), and PhD (00) degrees from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.  In 2001 he was awarded the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Post-doctoral Fellowship and spent one year as a visiting researcher with Morinaga Laboratory at Osaka University. He has received best paper awards for articles coauthored in the IEEE Transactions on Communications (1998 Stephen O. Rice prize), IEEE Microwave Magazine (2014), IEEE WiSEE Conference (2023), and IEEE RFID Conference (2016, 2018, 2019), and IEEE WiSEE Conference (2023) as well as the 3^rd place 2020 Nokia Bell Labs Prize for “Hyper-RFID: a Revolution for The Future of RFID.”  Prof. Durgin authored Space-Time Wireless Channels (2002), the first textbook in the field of space-time channel modeling which has influenced multiple generations of commercial cellular technologies.  Prof. Durgin founded the Propagation Group (http://www.propagation.gatech.edu) at Georgia Tech, a research group that studies radiolocation, radio measurement, RFID-related technology, and applied electromagnetics.  He is a winner of the NSF CAREER award as well as numerous teaching awards, including the Class of 1940 Howard Ector Outstanding Classroom Teacher Award at Georgia Tech (2007).  He is a Fellow of the IEEE that has served on the editorial staff for IEEE RFID Virtual Journal, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications, and IEEE Journal on RFID.  He also serves as President for the IEEE Council of RFID (CRFID).  His educational channel #profdurgin on YouTube instructs viewers on engineering electromagnetics, RFID, and satellite communications topics, having drawn over 13,000 subscribers and over 1 million views.  He is a frequent consultant to industry, advising numerous multinational corporations on wireless technology.