Keynote Speakers
Dr. Hugh Griffiths
Hugh Griffiths holds the THALES/Royal Academy of Engineering Chair of RF Sensors at University College London. From 2006-2008 he served as Principal of the Defence College of Management and Technology (DCMT) at the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Shrivenham. He received the MA degree in Physics from Oxford University, and the PhD and DSc(Eng) degrees from the University of London. His research interests cover radar, antennas, and signal processing, and he has published over 600 papers, technical articles and books on these subjects.
He served as President of IEEE AES in 2012/2013. He has won a number of awards, including the IEEE AES Nathanson Award (1986), the IET A F Harvey Prize (2013), and the IEEE Picard Medal (2017). Since 2017 he has served as Chair of the Defence Science Expert Committee (DSEC) in the UK Ministry of Defence. He was appointed OBE in 2019 for services to engineering, and he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2021.
Dr. Frank Robey
Dr. Frank Robey is a Program Manager in the Strategic Technology Office of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) where he is pursuing the advancement of sensor systems and capabilities using signal processing techniques based on firm theoretical foundations.
Dr. Robey is on assignment from MIT Lincoln Laboratory. At Lincoln Laboratory he led programs in novel antenna, radar, electronic support, and space-based sensors. These programs included mission applications of various RF sensors as well as scientific investigations of high-frequency radio propagation and environmental noise in the terrestrial and near-earth environments. Prior assignments include the Reagan Test Site, Kwajalein, Marshall Islands, and the Intelligence Advanced Research Activity (IARPA).
Dr. Robey received a doctorate degree in electrical engineering from Washington University, St. Louis. He is a fellow of the IEEE for leadership in the development of advanced radar systems and is perhaps best-known for the commonly-used Adaptive Matched Filter (AMF) detector.
Dr. Carl Seubert
Dr. Carl Seubert is Chief Researcher at SmartSat CRC, Australia’s premier space research organisation. At SmartSat he drives the research portfolio to build industry capability and address technology needs to enable Australia’s future space missions. This includes developing research programs and technology demonstrators and technical leadership of their upcoming CubeSat mission, Kanyini. He has personally architecting an agenda around spacecraft autonomy with the creation of the SmartSat Scarlet Lab. He coordinates space research endeavours with over 100 industry and academic partners of SmartSat as well national and international collaborators.
Carl graduated in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Sydney and went on to obtain graduate degrees in the USA with research in small satellite propulsion and spacecraft formation flight. He returned to Australia after nearly a decade at NASA JPL as a senior engineer in Guidance and Control, where he managed the Spacecraft Formation Control Testbed. He led research and technology development campaigns for future Earth observation missions using spacecraft formations and terrestrially demonstrated precision planetary landing for future NASA missions. His spacecraft pointing control algorithms are headed to Jupiter on the Europa Clipper mission.
Dr. Sylvie Perreau
Dr Sylvie Perreau grew up and studied in France until she graduated from Telecom ParisTech with a PhD in Telecommunications Signal Processing in 1998. She worked in Industry (Alcatel) during her PhD studies and Academia (University of Connecticut and UNISA) for 13 years. She established an international reputation in the areas of Wireless Sensor Networks with over 80 publications and 1700 citations. She joined DSTO (now DSTG) in 2011 where she worked predominantly in the Intelligence Domain before leading the Contested Communications Branch. In January 2023, She was appointed as Chief of Sensors and Effectors Division at DSTG after acting in this position for 6 months. Sylvie was awarded an Exceptional Achievement Award from the Australian Signal Directorate (ASD) in 2018 and the 2020 Minister’s Award for Achievement in Defence Science for her work in signal processing and wireless networks within highly classified environments across Australia and the globe.
Prof. Yonina Eldar
Yonina Eldar is a Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel where she heads the center for Biomedical Engineering and Signal Processing and holds the Dorothy and Patrick Gorman Professorial Chair. She is also a Visiting Professor at MIT, a Visiting Scientist at the Broad Institute, and an Adjunct Professor at Duke University and was a Visiting Professor at Stanford. She is a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, an IEEE Fellow and a EURASIP Fellow.
She received the B.Sc. degree in physics and the B.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from Tel-Aviv University, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, in 2002. She has received many awards for excellence in research and teaching, including the IEEE Signal Processing Society Technical Achievement Award (2013), the IEEE/AESS Fred Nathanson Memorial Radar Award (2014) and the IEEE Kiyo Tomiyasu Award (2016). She was a Horev Fellow of the Leaders in Science and Technology program at the Technion and an Alon Fellow. She received the Michael Bruno Memorial Award from the Rothschild Foundation, the Weizmann Prize for Exact Sciences, the Wolf Foundation Krill Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research, the Henry Taub Prize for Excellence in Research (twice), the Hershel Rich Innovation Award (three times), and the Award for Women with Distinguished Contributions. She received several best paper awards and best demo awards together with her research students and colleagues, was selected as one of the 50 most influential women in Israel, and was a member of the Israel Committee for Higher Education. She is the Editor in Chief of Foundations and Trends in Signal Processing, a member of several IEEE Technical Committees and Award Committees, and heads the Committee for Promoting Gender Fairness in Higher Education Institutions in Israel.
Mr. Willie Nel
Mr Willie Nel is a CSIR chief radar engineer, and the technology and innovation manager for the radar research group at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Pretoria, South Africa. He holds an MSc in Digital Image Processing from the University of Cape Town and a B Eng in Electronic Engineering from the University of Pretoria. He has been working passionately in the field of radar since 1999. His areas of expertise include radar system design, radar imaging, radar target recognition and radar signal processing. His current area of focus is the design and development of satellite and unmanned aerial vehicle synthetic aperture radar systems. He has published several papers in the area of radar target recognition and radar imaging and acts as a reviewer for premier radar journals and conferences in this capacity. He is a senior member of the IEEE and served as panel member of the IEEE AESS Radar Systems Panel from 2016 to 2022. He also served on and chaired the IEEE Dennis J Picard Medal committee. He has taken part in two NATO workgroups (250 and 317) on the topic of radar imaging. In 2015 he was the technical chair for the IEEE Radar Conference held in Johannesburg, South Africa. In his role as radar technology manager he was involved in the research, design and development of the Meerkat system and the conceptualisation of the CSIR ground Surveillance and Classification Radar for wildlife protection.