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Next Meeting:
Title:
Foliage Penetrating Radar
Speaker: Dr. Mark E. Davis, IEEE AESS Distinguished Lecturer
Date:
January 31, 2012 as well as Date:
January 31, 2012
Abstract:
Foliage Penetration (FOPEN) Radar is a technical approach to find and characterize man-made objections under dense foliage, as well as characterizing the foliage itself. It has applications in both military surveillance and civilian geospatial imaging. This Tutorial is divided into three parts.
Biography: Dr Mark E Davis has over 42 years experience in Radar technology and systems development. He has held senior management positions in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Air Force Research Laboratory, General Electric Aerospace, and General Dynamics Missile Systems. At DARPA, he was the program manager on both the foliage penetration (FOPEN) radar advanced development program and the GeoSAR foliage penetration mapping radar from 1995 to 1998, and Deputy Director DARPA Information Processing Techniques Office from 2006 to 2008. In 2008 he established a Sole Proprietor consulting business to serve Government and Industry in Radar Systems and Technology, Multi Sensor Fusion and distributed Command and Control Technology. His education includes a PhD in Physics from The Ohio State University, and Bachelor and Masters Degrees in Electrical Engineering from Syracuse University. He is a Fellow of both the IEEE and Military Sensing Symposia, and has over 100 technical papers published in conferences and journals. Mark has recently completed the first textbook on Foliage Penetration Radar, to be published by Scitech Publishing in early 2011. Mark Davis has served the IEEE on the Radar Systems Panel of the IEEE Aerospace Electronics Systems Society since 1994, and chaired both the Warren D White Award selection committee and the Radar Conference organizing committee since 1998. A 2007 selection to the AESS Board of Governors, he currently serves as the Vice President of Conferences. Upcoming Meetings: Title:
Radar Systems Performance Modeling Tutorial
Speaker: G. Richard Curry, IEEE AESS Distinguished Lecturer
Date:
April 5, 2012
Abstract:
This course addresses needs of radar system analysts, engineers, and simulation programmers for simple, yet descriptive techniques for evaluating radar system performance. The course provides and explains equations, computational methods and data for modeling radar performance at the system level, and provides insight on how to use the models in radar system analysis. The course is based on the instructor’s book: “Radar System Performance Modeling, Second Edition’, and addresses radar analysis parameters; radar waveforms; the radar equation and the detection process; radar search, measurement and tracking modes; and the impact of the environment and countermeasures on radar performance. No advanced mathematics or specialized radar engineering knowledge is required .
Biography: G. Richard Curry is a consultant in radar system applications with extensive experience in radar system analysis and simulation, radar design and testing, military R&D planning and technology assessment, and research management. He led analysis of radar system applications in military systems at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), and at General Research Corporation (GRC). Prior to that, he analyzed and designed surveillance and tracking radars for the Raytheon Company, performed radar engineering for ballistic missile range testing at Kwajalein, and developed radar signal processing techniques at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. He served in the U. S. Navy as an Electronics Officer. Mr. Curry received B. S. degrees in electrical engineering and mathematics from the University of Michigan, and an M. S. degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a member of the Radar System Panel of the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society, and author of the books: “Radar Systems Performance Modeling”, “Pocket Radar Guide”, and “Radar Essentials”. Previous Meetings:: Title:
Environmentally Responsible Aviation, the Next Generation
Speaker: Bruce McKay
Date:
November 28, 2011
Biography: Bruce McKay has 31 years of aircraft design and integration experience across three major aerospace companies. He is currently the Advanced Mobility Technology & Integration lead and the Chief Engineer On the NASA ERA project at the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works. He holds an MBA from the U of Cincinnati, a BSAE from Northrop U and a Diploma of Aerospace Technology from Ryerson U. In his 31 years he has held numerous design lead positions supporting several aircraft and engine programs such as the VH-71, C-5M, P-3, C-130J, GE-90, MD-90, C-17, and DC-10. Title:
Structural Health Monitoring with Ultrasonic Guided Waves: Goals, Challenges and Recent Progress
Speaker: Dr. Jennifer E. Michaels
Date:
August 4, 2011 as well as Date:
August 4, 2011
Abstract:
Ultrasonic guided waves have the potential to interrogate large areas of structures for damage, and many researchers are actively considering them for in situ monitoring of critical aerospace structures. Unlike nondestructive evaluation (NDE), where sensors interrogating a very small region are manually or automatically moved to obtain complete spatial coverage, in situ sensors for structural health monitoring (SHM) are fixed in space. However, the constraints of spatially fixed transducers can severely limit the performance of such a guided wave SHM system, particularly in complex structures subjected to variable operational and environmental conditions. This presentation motivates and describes an approach for guided wave SHM starting with the transducers and ending with methods for detecting, locating and characterizing damage. The goals of such a system are discussed along with the primary challenges affecting its design and performance, and several strategies being considered to address these challenges are described. Recent results are presented from current and past projects of the QUEST (Quantitative Ultrasonic Evaluation, Sensing and Testing) Laboratory at Georgia Tech.
Biography: Dr. Jennifer E. Michaels is a Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech. She received the Bachelor’s of Electrical Engineering degree from Georgia Tech in 1976, and then began working in the field of ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation at the Hanford Engineering Development Laboratory in Richland, Washington. This work led to her graduate studies in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at Cornell University, where she earned her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in 1982 and 1984, and spent a year as an IBM Postdoctoral Fellow. From 1985 until joining Georgia Tech in 2002, she worked in industry, first as co-founder of a startup company, and later as Manager of Systems Development at Panametrics, Inc., a world leader in the development, fabrication and deployment of custom automated ultrasonic inspection systems. She is co-director of the QUEST Laboratory at Georgia Tech, where her current research interests are structural health monitoring, nondestructive evaluation, materials characterization and measurement systems. Current and past sponsors of her work include AFRL, AFOSR, DARPA, HSARPA, NSF and industry. Title:
Embedded Video Surveillance Analysis
Speaker: M. Ryan Bales, PhD
Date:
April 19, 2011 as well as Date:
April 20, 2011
Abstract:
The use of video cameras has become widespread for surveillance applications in municipal, traffic, commercial and personal environments. Altogether, these cameras generate a phenomenal amount of data that is difficult for human operators to sift through. Increases in embedded computing power make the concept of smart cameras attractive and feasible. Smart cameras perform initial analyses—such as object detection, recognition, and tracking—at the sensor in real time. This presentation will give an overview of embedded video surveillance, including background models and change detection algorithms used for surveillance analysis. Finally, problems in video analysis caused by illumination changes will be discussed, followed by recent research that addresses those problems (BigBackground and chromatically-sensitive illumination compensation).
Biography: M. Ryan Bales received his B.S. in Computer Engineering (2004) and M.S. in Electrical Engineering (2006) from the University of Missouri – Rolla (now Missouri University of Science & Technology). He completed his Ph.D. in ECE from Georgia Tech in 2011. Since 2008 he has worked as a research assistant with the Georgia Tech Research Institute’s Sensors and Electromagnetic Applications Lab. His interests are in computer vision, embedded systems, and FPGA design. He is a member of IEEE and HKN. Contact:
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Peter Tuuk.
Bill Wilson
Time: 12:00 PM (Snacks at 11:30 AM)
Place:
CCRF Building 1 Room 107
directions
Time: 3:00 PM
Place:
Georgia Tech Van Leer Building Room C341
directions
• The early history of FOPEN Radar: battlefield surveillance and the early experiments in foliage penetration radar are covered. There were some very interesting developments in radar technology that enabled our ability to detect fixed and moving objects under dense foliage. The most important part of that technology was the widespread awareness of the benefits of coherent radar and the advent of digital processing. Almost as important was the quantification of the radar propagation through foliage, and its scattering and loss effects.
• FOPEN synthetic aperture radar (SAR) with concentration on development results from several systems. These systems were developed for both military and commercial applications, and during a time of rapid awareness of the need and ability to operate in a dense signal environment. A brief description of each radar system will be provided along with illustrations of the SAR image and fixed object detection capability. The next section will quantify the benefits of polarization diversity in detecting and characterizing both man made and natural objects. There is a clear benefit for use of polarization in the target characterization and false alarm mitigation. Finally the techniques developed for ultra wideband and ultra wide angle image formation will be presented.
• New research in Multi-mode Ultra-Wideband Radar, with the design of both SAR and moving target indication (MTI) FOPEN systems. Particular note will be taken on the benefits and difficulties in designing these ultra-wideband (UWB) systems, and operation in real world electromagnetic environments. At common FOPEN frequencies, the systems have generally been either SAR or MTI due to the difficulties of obtaining either bandwidth or aperture characteristics for efficient operation. The last two sections of the tutorial will illustrate new technologies that are appearing in the literature that have promise for future multimode operation: the need to detect low minimum discernable velocity movement; and the operation of bistatic SAR in concert with a stationary GMTI illumination waveform.
Time: 11:00 AM - 2:00 PM
Place:
CCRF Building 1 Room 107
directions
So we can provide the correct refreshment quantity please notify Juan Santamaria of you planned attendance.
The course outline is as follows:
1. Introduction to Radar Modeling
2. Radar Analysis Parameters
3. Radar Waveforms
4. The Radar Equation
5. Radar Detection
6. Radar Search
7. Radar Measurement and Tracking
8. Radar Environment and Mitigation Techniques
9. Radar Countermeasures and Counter-Countermeasures
Time: 12 PM (Snacks at 11:30 AM)
Place:
CCRF Building 1 Room 107
directions
Time: 12:00 PM (Lunch at 11:30 AM)
Place:
Technology Square Research Building (Building 175) Room 118
directions
Time: 6:30 PM (Snacks at 6:00 PM)
Place:
CCRF Building 1 Room 107
directions
Time: 4:30 PM
Place:
CCRF Building 2 Room 128
directions
Time: 12:00 PM
Place:
Technology Square Research Building (TSRB) Auditorium
directions
Guest Speaker Resource Links
Call for Volunteers
The chapter officers are interested in hearing from anyone who would
like
to volunteer their time as an officer, help out arranging meetings,
suggest
technical speakers or make a technical presentation.
IEEE Links
Please direct any inquiries to:
bill.wilson@gtri.gatech.edu