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Inspection and Monitoring with Aero-Visual Sensor Networks

The Huntsville Section and JCAM Society Present IEEE Distinguished Lecturer Dr. Arun Somani, with a presentation entitled “Autonomous Aero-Visual and Sensor Based Inspection Network for Asset Monitoring”

Abstract

This talk introduces a theoretical and experimental program to develop the inspection and fault detection technology needed to integrate MAVs for persistent intelligence, reconnaissance, maintenance and surveillance for obscured or logistically challenging assets in non-urban environments. The design is explained using a context of heterogeneous deployment of wireless sensors for real-time asset monitoring by anticipating exceptional conditions and building the system to cope with them. The system converges towards an error-free state with self-stabilization, the ability to fall back to a safe mode in a financially feasible manner. This sophisticated mechanism requires a real-time capacity estimation capability to sustain the quality-of-service, which can be achieved by a distributed sensor network. We discuss issues in design and information propagation in such sensor clustered topology, optimization for power-aware networking, and link and node capacity assignment to achieve the desired goals.

Speaker Biography

Dr. Arun K. Somani is currently Anson Marston Distinguished Professor and Jerry R. Junkins Endowed Chair Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He earned his MSEE and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from the McGill University, Montreal, Canada, in 1983 and 1985, respectively. He has worked as Scientific Officer for Govt. of India, New Delhi from 1974 to 1982 and as a faculty member at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA from 1985 to 1997.

Professor Somani’s current research focuses on scalable architectures and algorithms to manage optical fiber networks, reconfigurable architecture, and developing solution for critical infrastructure protection. He has published more than 250 technical papers, several book chapters, one book, and has supervised more than 60 MS and more than 25 PhD students. His

He has served on several program committees of various conferences in various capacities. He has served as IEEE distinguished visitor and IEEE distinguished tutorial speaker. He has delivered several key note speeches, tutorials and distinguished and invited talks all over the world. In 1999, he was elected a Fellow of IEEE for his contributions to “theory and applications of computer networks.” He has been awarded a Distinguished Scientist member grade of ACM in 2006.

Event Details and Reservations

Lunch will be provided free of charge to IEEE members.  Non-members may pay $10 upon arrival.

Date:  Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Time: 11 A.M. – 1 P.M.  (Lunch starts at 11:15 am).

Location: Adtran, Inc., East Tower, 901 Explorer Blvd., Huntsville, AL

Please RSVP to Eric Grigorian no later than Monday, May 10th.  Click here for Eric’s contact information.
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Eric Grigorian
April 6th, 2010

Presentation on National Missile Defense

National Missile Defense

A lecture by Larry Chasteen, PhD, IEEE Distinguished Lecturers Program

The Bush Administration made major changes to the National Missile Defense (NMD) system that had been developed earlier by the Clinton Administration and established a limited system in Alaska to counter threats from North Korea. But even with the new emphasis on anti-terrorism and closer relations with Russia, NMD was still a very controversial topic as seen with the U.S. proposal to install parts of the Missile Defense System in Europe for protection against Iran. The European proposal had negative impacts on the US/Russia relations during the later years of the Bush Administration. The Obama administration is trying to mend relations with Russia by taking a new look at the system proposed for Europe.

The NMD program will continue to be a key technical, political, and legislative issue facing the U.S. and the rest of the world.  The Bush Administration focused more on testing and developing new equipment for the NMD system and also investigated a wider variety of sensors (such as space-based and sea-based systems) to detect and track incoming missiles. The upgrade to the existing Early Warning Radars was one of the few features that did not change from the Clinton plan. The Obama Administration is still finalizing its approach to NMD.

Speaker Biography:  This talk will provide background information on the political issues facing NMD. It will also provide technical information on some of the major systems including upgrades to the Early Warning Radars. The talk will also provide system engineering details on the proposed elements of the system that could be installed in Europe.

Dr. Larry Chasteen was the 1998 Dallas IEEE Section Chair and received the IEEE 3rd Millennium Medal for his service to the IEEE. He was also a 2000 IEEE Congressional Fellow and worked on the National Missile Defense Program for Congress.  He had previously worked 25 years in the defense industry for Texas Instruments and Raytheon specializing in radar and smart weapons. He also served in the Viet Nam War as a USAF B-52 pilot and retired from the USAF Reserves in 2000 with the rank of Colonel.  He now teaches Strategy and Entrepreneurship at Stephen F. Austin State University and at ESC Lille in France. His research concerns evolving technical communities and their clustering. He was also a Fulbright Professor to Germany in 2006 and a science advisor at the State Department in 2007.

Presented for the IEEE Huntsville Section, JCAM Chapter, and AESS Chapter at the Adtran East Tower’s Mark C. Smith Conference Center on 901 Explorer Blvd, Huntsville, AL, on March 11, 2010 at 6-9pm (Dinner starts at 6:30pm).

Dinner is free for IEEE members and $10 at the door for non-members.

Please RSVP to Rick Tuggle, no later than Tuesday, March 9th.

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Eric Grigorian
March 3rd, 2010

JCAMS Presents Dr. Hans Schantz on RF-Based Location

Joint Communications, Antennas & Propagations, and Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (JCAMS)

“Origins of RF-Based Location”

Thursday February 11, 2010 at 11:15 am

Speaker: Dr. Hans Schantz

Meeting Location: ADTRAN Inc. Executive Cafeteria

The Huntsville chapter of the IEEE Joint Communications, Antennas & Propagations, and Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (JCAMS) invite you to attend a technical meeting on February 11, 2010. The program will begin at 11:15 am Dr.Schantz’s presentation beginning at approximately 11:45 am and end about 1:00 pm.

Synopsis:
Communications may have been the first commercial application of wireless technology, but RF-based location was close behind. This talk will provide a brief survey of the origins of RF-based location technology. Misunderstandings of electromagnetics led to several erroneous direction finding concepts. Nevertheless, fundamental techniques like Direction Finding (DF) and amplitude ranging date back over a hundred years to the early days of radio. DF in particular played a critical role in both World Wars, influencing the course of history. The Second World War led to the development of time difference of arrival RF navigation as well as ultra-wideband (UWB) radio systems. The launch of Sputnik in 1957 inspired the inventors behind the first satellite navigation system that ultimately led to the ubiquitous Global Positioning System (GPS). More recent RF-based location technologies include RF fingerprinting and near-field electromagnetic ranging.

The presentations are open to anyone interested in the topic: IEEE membership is not required to attend.

Seating is limited, so please RSVP by email to Eric Grigorian at  as soon as you can, but no later than close of businessFebruary 9, 2010 if you want to attend.

I hope to see you there!

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Eric Grigorian
February 3rd, 2010

JCAMS Presents Dr. Robert McMillan on Radar

Joint Communications, Antennas & Propagations, and Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (JCAMS)

“A Probabilistic Model of the Radar Signal-to-Clutter and Noise Ratio”

Thursday December 10, 2009 at 11:15 am

Speaker: Dr. Robert McMillan

Meeting Location: ADTRAN Inc. Executive Cafeteria

The Huntsville chapter of the IEEE Joint Communications, Antennas & Propagations, and Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (JCAMS) invite you to attend a technical meeting on December 10, 2009. The program will begin at 11:15 am Dr. McMillan’s presentation beginning at approximately 11:45 am and end about 1:00 pm.

Synopsis:
Four effects relevant to the determination of the ratio of radar signal to clutter and noise are considered.  These effects are atmospheric turbulence, target fluctuations based on the Swirling models, zero-mean Gaussian background and receiver noise, and lognormal-distributed clutter.  Radar return signal levels are affected by target fluctuations and atmospheric turbulence, characterized by a variant of the Rayleigh distribution and a lognormal distribution, respectively.  Since these distributions are not independent and identically distributed (IID), they cannot be simply added, and must be treated by combining them in a manner similar to convolution.  Also, clutter and noise are not IID, and must be combined in a similar way.  The ratio of these two combinations comprises a probabilistic model of the ratio of radar signal to clutter and noise.  This ratio is the probability that a given signal level will be achieved in the presence of atmospheric and target scintillations divided by the probability that a given clutter and noise level will be observed.  To determine the ratio of the actual signal to clutter and noise, we must multiply these probabilities by the mean powers in these phenomena, as will be shown later. Several cases of interest were treated by varying the average radar cross section, the log intensity standard deviation of turbulence, the radar threshold-to-noise and signal-to-noise ratios, and the distributions of lognormal clutter.

The presentations are open to anyone interested in the topic: IEEE membership is not required to attend.

Seating is limited, so please RSVP by email to Eric Grigorian at  as soon as you can, but no later than close of business December 8, 2009 if you want to attend.

I hope to see you there!

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Eric Grigorian
November 16th, 2009

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