Levent Sevgi of ITU - Istanbul Technical University

The significance of Electromagnetic (EM) fields in modern society has been growing exponentially, influencing various aspects of our daily lives. From communication and remote sensing to intelligent transportation systems, defense, healthcare, education, and environmental monitoring, EM fields play a crucial role in shaping technological advancements. Over the past few decades, we have witnessed a paradigm shift from Engineering Electromagnetics to Electromagnetic Engineering, driven by the pervasive presence of EM waves in our surroundings.

EM engineering encompasses a diverse range of challenges and applications. These include antenna design, electromagnetic scattering, indoor and outdoor radiowave propagation, wireless communication, radar systems, integrated surveillance, subsurface imaging, novel materials, electromagnetic compatibility, nano-systems, electroacoustic devices, and electro-optical systems. The frequency spectrum of the devices we use daily now spans from direct current (DC) to terahertz (THz), enabling advancements in both large-scale (kilometers-wide) and small-scale (nanometer-level) EM systems.

A major concern in modern EM engineering is the increasing complexity of broadband, digital systems operating in close proximity, leading to severe electromagnetic interference (EMI) issues. Engineers must address these challenges from the earliest stages of design, ensuring robust system performance while minimizing interference. This demands a multidisciplinary approach, balancing theoretical foundations, engineering expertise, and computational modeling to develop innovative and efficient EM solutions.

As technology continues to evolve, the role of EM engineering in shaping the future of wireless communication, remote sensing, integrated systems, and beyond will only expand. Engineers and researchers must continuously adapt, leveraging advanced simulations, analytical models, and experimental techniques to push the boundaries of EM-based technologies.

Biography:

Prof. Dr. Levent Sevgi is a Fellow of the IEEE (since 2009) and the recipient of the prestigious IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (AP-S) Chen-To Tai Distinguished Educator Award (2021). With a distinguished career spanning over four decades, he has made significant contributions to electromagnetic theory, modeling, and engineering education.

Throughout his career, he has held academic and research positions at several leading institutions, including Istanbul Technical University (1991–1998), TUBITAK-MRC Information Technologies Research Institute (1999–2000), and the Weber Research Institute at NY Polytechnic University (1988–1990). He has also been associated with Raytheon Systems Canada (1998–1999), the Center for Defense Studies at ITUV-SAM (1993–1998, 2000–2002), and the University of Massachusetts, Lowell (UML) as a full-time faculty member (2012–2013). Additionally, he has served at Dogus University (2001–2014), Istanbul OKAN University (2014–2021), and ATLAS University (2022–2024).

Prof. Sevgi has played an active leadership role within IEEE AP-S, serving as a Distinguished Lecturer (2020–2023) and, as of January 2024, the Chair of the IEEE AP-S Distinguished Lecturer Committee. He was an elected member of the IEEE AP-S Administrative Committee (AdCom, 2013–2015) and served on the IEEE AP-S Field Award Committee (2018–2019). Additionally, he has been a long-time contributor to IEEE publications, including his role as the writer and editor of the "Testing Ourselves" column in the IEEE AP Magazine (2007–2021) and a member of the IEEE AP-S Education Committee (2006–2021). He has also served on editorial boards for journals such as the IEEE AP Magazine (2007–2021), Wiley’s International Journal of RFMiCAE (2002–2018), and IEEE Access (2017–2019, 2020–2022).

As the founding chair of EMC TURKIYE International Conferences (www.emcturkiye.org), Prof. Sevgi has led advancements in electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) research. His expertise covers electromagnetic radiation, propagation, scattering, and diffraction; radar cross-section (RCS) prediction and reduction; EMC/EMI modeling, simulation, and measurements; multi-sensor integrated wide-area surveillance systems; surface wave HF radars; and analytical and numerical electromagnetic methods. His research involves computational techniques such as FDTD, TLM, FEM, SSPE, and MoM, with applications across multiple domains, including bio-electromagnetics.

Beyond research, Prof. Sevgi is passionate about engineering education and pedagogical innovation, particularly in teaching electromagnetics through virtual tools. He also delivers popular science lectures on Science, Technology, and Society, inspiring the next generation of engineers and scientists.

Email:

Kumar Vijay Mishra of United States DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory

In this talk, we focus on the recent developments toward integrated sensing and communications (ISAC). We consider a broad definition of coexistence, which covers ISAC, collaborative communications, and sensing with interference. Toward fully realizing the coexistence of the two systems, optimization of resources for both new/futuristic sensing and wireless communications modalities is crucial. These synergistic approaches that exploit the interplay between state sensing and communications are both driving factors and opportunities for many current signal processing and information-theoretic techniques. In addition, a large body of prior works considers colocated ISAC systems while distributed systems remain relatively unexamined. Building on the existing approaches, the tutorial focuses on highlighting emerging scenarios in collaborative and distributed ISAC, particularly at mm-Wave and THz frequencies, highly dynamic vehicular/automotive environments that would benefit from information exchange between the two systems. It presents the architectures and possible methodologies for mutually beneficial distributed co-existence and co-design, including sensor fusion and heterogeneously distributed radar and communications. The tutorial also considers recent developments such as the deployment of intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRS) in ISAC, 5G systems, passive internet-of-things, and ISAC secrecy rate optimization. This tutorial aims to draw the attention of the radar, communications, and signal processing communities toward an emerging area, which can benefit from the cross-fertilization of ideas in distributed systems.

Biography:

Dr. Kumar Vijay Mishra (S’08-M’15-SM’18) is a Senior Fellow at the U.S. DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory and Research Scientist at ISR, University of Maryland, College Park under ARL-ArtIAMAS. He advises Hertzwell (Singapore) and Aura Intelligent Systems (Boston) and is an Honorary Research Fellow at SnT, University of Luxembourg. He has held research positions at DRDO LRDE (Bengaluru), IIHR (Iowa City), Mitsubishi Electric (Cambridge), Qualcomm (San Jose), and Technion (Israel).

He earned a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering and M.S. in Mathematics from The University of Iowa (2015), an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Colorado State University (2012), and a B.Tech. (Gold Medal, Honors) from NIT Hamirpur (2003).

Dr. Mishra is an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer for IEEE ComSoc (2023-2024), AESS (2023-2024), VTS (2023-2024), GRSS (2024-2025), and IEEE Future Networks Initiative (2022). His awards include the IEEE SPS Pierre-Simon Laplace Early Career Technical Achievement Award (2024), IEEE AESS M. Barry Carlton Special Mention (2023), IET Premium Paper Prize (2021), IEEE T-AES Outstanding Editor (2021, 2023), U.S. National Academies Harry Diamond Fellowship (2018-2021), AGU Editors' Citation (2019), and Royal Meteorological Society Editor's Prize (2017). He won Best Paper Awards at IEEE MLSP 2019 and IEEE ACES 2019.

He is Chair (2023–2026) of URSI Commission C, Chair (2025–) of IEEE AESS ISAC-TWG, Vice-Chair (2021–) of IEEE Synthetic Aperture Standards Committee, and Chair (2023–2025) of IEEE SPS Synthetic Apertures TWG. He has served on IEEE SPS Technical Committees (SPCOM, SAM, ASPS) and IEEE AESS Radar Systems Panel.

Dr. Mishra is Senior Area Editor of IEEE TSP (2024–) and Associate Editor of IEEE T-AES (2020–) and IEEE T-AP (2023–). He has guest-edited IEEE SPM, JSTSP, JSAC, and JSTARS.

He co-edited books, including Signal Processing for Joint Radar-Communications (Wiley-IEEE, 2024), Next-Generation Cognitive Radar (IET, 2024), Advances in Weather Radar (IET, 2024), and Handbook of Statistics 55 (Elsevier). His research focuses on radar systems, signal processing, remote sensing, and electromagnetics.

Email:

William J. Blackwell of MIT Lincoln Laboratory

New Earth atmospheric remote sensing systems are needed that offer lower noise, finer resolution, broader coverage, and better revisit rates relative to current state-of-the-art to improve numerical weather prediction capabilities and inform detailed scientific studies of weather and climate.  These new systems increasingly must be lower-cost, accommodatable on a wide range of launch vehicles and hosted payload platforms, and provide flexibility in how they are deployed and used.  Here we discuss three new microwave sounding technologies that are leading to significant improvements in both the performance benefits and the development and operating costs of new observing systems.  First, small satellite constellations, such as the NASA TROPICS mission, have demonstrated new capabilities for high-revisit sampling of tropical cyclones with observing quality that approaches (and exceeds in some cases) the current state-of-the-art sensors, and commercial follow-ons to TROPICS are now being launched that offer improved performance and reliability and utilize high-speed digital spectrometers necessary for hyperspectral microwave operation and RFI detection and mitigation. Second, large-format planar arrays, such as the Configurable Reflectarray Wideband Scanning Radiometer (CREWSR), can provide high-resolution (up to 10X better than current state-of-the-art), light weight, low power, and multiband (23, 31, and 50-58 GHz) hyperspectral operation with electronically steerable beams that can operate independently in each band. CREWSR is designed to be fielded on an ESPA-class small satellite platform, and once in orbit, the platform will deploy a large Reconfigurable Reflective Surface (RRS), as well as a multi-feed antenna connected to a multiband radiometer. Third, we consider the observing system as comprising not only the sensor but also the concept of operations, processing, and potential for collaborative and synergistic observations. Highly configurable sensors such as CREWSR enable the utilization of new “cognitive sensing” concepts, where the sensor is aware of the characteristics of the scene to be viewed and can reconfigure itself in real time to adjust where it is looking, the dwell time, the spatial resolution, and depending on the platform, the geometrical vantage point. Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs) have shown forecasting benefits of cognitive sensors in regional simulations, and new laboratory testbeds are now being developed to characterize end-to-end performance in a realistic, test-as-you-fly environment.

Biography:

Dr. William J. Blackwell is a laboratory fellow in the Applied Space Systems Group at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, where he leads a number of projects involving atmospheric remote sensing, including the development and calibration of airborne and space-borne microwave sensors, the retrieval of geophysical products from remote radiance measurements, and the application of electromagnetic, signal processing, and estimation theory.

Blackwell has served as associate editor of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing and the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) Magazine, cochair of the IEEE GRSS Remote Sensing Instruments and Technologies for Small Satellites working group, the NASA Aqua science team, and the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Radio Frequencies. He is currently the principal investigator on the NASA TROPICS Earth Venture mission. He was previously the Integrated Program Office sensor scientist for the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder on the Suomi National Polar Partnership launched by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 2011 and the Atmospheric Algorithm Development team leader for the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Microwave Imager/Sounder.

Blackwell received the MIT Lincoln Laboratory Technical Excellence Award in 2019 for his "innovative contributions to the science and practice of environmental monitoring." He was selected as a 2012 recipient of the IEEE Region 1 Managerial Excellence in an Engineering Organization Award "for outstanding leadership of the multidisciplinary technical team developing innovative future microwave remote sensing systems." In 2009, he was presented with the  NOAA David Johnson Award for his work in neural network geophysical parameter retrievals and microwave calibration and is coauthor of "Neural Networks in Atmospheric Remote Sensing" (Artech House, 2009) and "Microwave Radar and Radiometric Remote Sensing" (Artech House, 2015). Blackwell has also been an author of more than 180 publications related to atmospheric remote sensing. He is a fellow of the IEEE and an associate fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Blackwell received a BEE degree in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and SM and ScD degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, where he was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow.

Email:

Mehmet Kurum of University of Georgia IMPRESS lab

New-era communication services and satellite systems require the use of more frequency bands to meet the growing demands of new communication applications. Spectrum for scientific remote sensing observations, which are critical for the environment, weather, and security, is allocated to specific restricted bands. While the current spectrum era assigns different bands for different applications, our vision for the new spectrum era is to eliminate spectrum waste and develop a waste-free spectrum approach. In this vision, we aim to utilize every bit of spectrum for sensing without needing specific spectrum allocations or coordination. We plan to simultaneously use both white spaces in the spectrum and existing transmissions as signals of opportunity for sensing purposes. This approach enhances scientific capabilities beyond the existing spectrum era and could allow the use of larger bandwidths for passive sensing while coexisting with communication applications. It also enables the opportunistic use of suitable white spaces and the repurposing of transmission signals for sensing. Toward this goal, this talk will summarize our efforts to develop new approaches for listening to the spectrum, harvesting empty white spaces in the time-frequency domain, recycling opportunistic signals for sensing, and stitching observations from these two different types of sensing mechanisms to generate unified sensing products that coexist with active systems.

Biography:

Mehmet Kurum (Senior Member, IEEE) received the B.S. degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Türkiye, in 2003, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA, in 2005 and 2009, respectively.,He held a postdoctoral and research associate positions with the Hydrological Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre, Greenbelt, MD, USA. From 2016 to 2022, he was an Assistant Professor with Mississippi State University (MSU). Subsequently, he held the position of an Associate Professor and the Paul B. Jacob Endowed Chair until 2023. Currently, he is an Associate Professor of electrical and computer engineering with the University of Georgia. His current research focuses on recycling the radio spectrum to address the challenges of decreasing radio spectrum space for science while exploring entirely new microwave regions for land remote sensing. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS) and a member of the U.S. National Committee for the International Union of Radio Science (USNC-URSI). He was a recipient of the Leopold B. Felsen Award for Excellence in Electromagnetic, in 2013; the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) Young Scientist Award, in 2014; and the NSF CAREER Award, in 2022. He served as an Early Career Representative for the International URSI Commission F (Wave Propagation and Remote Sensing), from 2014 to 2021. He has been serving as an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing and IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, since 2021.

Email: