About the speaker: Usama Mehmood is a computer scientist investigating the verification of cyber-physical systems. He strives to develop practical formal methods that are both scalable and useful, which demands developing new theories, programming efficient tools, and building experimental systems. Some of the application areas he has worked on include multi-agent robotic systems and smart grids. 

Usama Mehmood received a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from LUMS in 2014, and a Master's degree in Computer Science from Stony Brook University in 2019. Currently, he is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Computer Science at Stony Brook University under the supervision of prof. Scott A. Smolka. He is the recipient of the Stony Brook CS Department Chair Fellowship award. He has worked at MathWorks during the summer of 2018 and Facebook during the summer of 2019.

This seminar by Dr. Usama Mehmood took place via Zoom on Monday, December 21 at 11:00 am.

About the speaker: Dr Tauseef ur Rehman is a graduate of College of Aeronautical Engineering Risalpur in Avionics Engineering. He did his PhD and Masters in Electrical and Computer Engineering with specialization in High Performance Computer Vision and Controls Systems, respectively, both from Georgia Institute of Technology, USA in 2010. Dr Tauseef carries over 30 years of R&D experience which includes faculty assignments at NUST and Air University as well as key appointments in several R&D setups within Defense Sector of Pakistan. Presently, he is serving as Chief Technology Officer of National Aerospace Science and Technology.

This seminar took place online via Zoom on December 18th 2020, at 5pm PST

About the speaker: Dr. Saqib Ali completed PhD in Communication Systems from Lancaster University, UK in 2010. Since the start of his career he is closely attached with the field of communication systems and has a rich design experience of 18 years in this field. Being an algorithm designer along with development over SDRs, he is well familiar with communication system intrinsic and its issues. His core area is physical layer design.

December 17, 2020, 5:00 PM Pakistan Standard Time    

About the speaker: Imran Mehdi (BSEE 1985. MSEE 1986 and PhD 1990, University of Michigan) is a Senior Research Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. He joined JPL in 1990 and is currently a Technical Group Supervisor leading a team of around 20 scientists/technologists in the research and development of submillimeter wave technology for space applications. His responsibilities include developing THz components, technologies and subsystems for current and future NASA missions. These devices and components were implemented on the ozone-monitoring Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) instrument which is still operational as well as the (Microwave Instrument on Rosetta Orbiter) MIRO instrument which represents the first submillimeter wave receiver operational in deep-space. From 1999 he led the effort of developing broadband solid state sources from 200 to 2500 GHz for the Heterodyne Instrument for Far Infrared (HIFI) on the Herschel Space Observatory, a cornerstone European Space Agency mission. He is an IEEE Fellow and serves as the Editor in Chief for the IEEE Transactions on THz Science and Technology. He is recipient of a number of NASA awards including the NASA Exceptional Technology Achievement Medal for "outstanding innovation and expertise in development and implementation of the submillimeter-wave membrane-based Schottky diodes for the HIFI Spectrometer on Herschel." His current interests include millimeter and submillimeter wave devices and technology, nanotechnology, high-frequency instrumentation, 3D Submm-wave systems, and development of compact, low-power heterodyne receivers for deep-space missions.

About the speaker: Francesco Fioranelli received his Laurea (BEng, cum laude) and Laurea Specialistica (MEng, cum laude) degrees in telecommunication engineering from the University Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy, in 2007 and 2010, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from Durham University, UK, in 2014 with a thesis on through-wall radar imaging. He is currently Assistant Professor at TU Delft in the Netherlands in the Microwave Sensing Signals and Systems (MS3) group, and was an Assistant Professor at the University of Glasgow (2016-2019) and Research Associate at University College London with Prof Hugh Griffiths (2014-2016). Francesco's research interests include the development of radar systems and automatic classification for human signatures analysis in healthcare and security, drones and UAVs detection and classification, automotive radar, wind farm and sea clutter. He has authored over 85 publications between book chapters, journal, and conference papers; edited the book on "Micro-Doppler Radar and Its Applications" published by IET-SciTech in 2020; and received three best paper awards. Francesco is a Senior Member of the IEEE and a Chartered Engineer through the IET.

The online seminar took place via Zoom on October 27th 2020, at 05:00 PM PST

About the speaker: Dr Kashif Siddiq is the Founder & Managing Director of Oxford RF Solutions Ltd in the UK, where he is focusing on cutting edge commercial Radar technology solutions. He is the miner of the 2015 British Engineering Excellence Award for co-designing a Radar-based automatic incident detection (AID) system currently installed on the M25 in London. Dr Siddiq was featured in the March 2020 edition of the B4 Business Magazine, and was also nominated for the Business Leader of the Future Award by Innovate UK. Dr Siddiq has 20 publications to his name and holds a PhD in Electronics Engineering, with a focus on Commercial Radar Technology, from the University at Bath, UK, followed by business training at the University of Oxford and Ashom Hill Management College, UK. He is also the recipient of two gold medals during his earlier education in Pakistan.

This talk took place on December 16th 2020, at 5pm PST via Zoom.

Dr. Werner Wiesbeck is a Professor and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)

Werner Wiesbeck (SM 87, F 94) received the Dipl.-Ing. (M.S.E.E.) and the Dr.-Ing. (Ph.D.E.E.) degrees from the Technical University Munich in 1969 and 1972, respectively. From 1972 to 1983 he was with product responsibility for mm-wave radars, receivers, direction finders and electronic warfare systems in industry. From 1983 to 2007 he was the Director of the Institut fur Hochstfrequenztechnik und Elektronik (IHE), University of Karlsruhe (TH) and he is now Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). Research topics include antennas, wave propagation, Radar, remote sensing, wireless communication and Ultra Wideband. He is author and co-author of several books and of more than 900 publications, supervisor of more than 90 PhDs, and responsible supervisor of over 600 Diploma/Master theses and he holds over 60 patents. He was Chairman of the GRS-S Awards committee 1993-2017, Vice President IEEE GRS-S (1998-1999), President IEEE GRS-S (2000-2001). He has been General Chairman of several conferences. He received a number of awards, lately the IEEE Millennium Award, the IEEE GRS Distinguished Achievement Award, the Honorary Doctorate (Dr. h. c.) from the University Budapest Hungary, the Honorary Doctorate (Dr.-Ing. E.h.) from the University Duisburg/D, the Honorary Doctorate (Dr.-Ing. E.h.) from the Technische Universitat Ilmenau/D and the IEEE Electromagnetics Award 2008. He is a Life Fellow of IEEE, an Honorary Life Member of IEEE GRS-S, a Member of the Heidelberger Academy of Sciences and Humanities and a Member of the German Academy of Engineering and Technology (acatech).

Principal Research Engineer (retired), Georgia Tech, USA / Educator and Consultant in Radar Signal Processing

About the speaker: Dr. Mark Richards is an educator and consultant with over 35 years of experience in radar signal processing. A Fellow of the IEEE, cited 'for contributions to radar signal processing education", he is the author of the textbook Fundamentals of Radar Signal Processing, second edition (McGraw-Hill, 2014) and the editor-in-chief and author of multiple chapters in Principles of Modern Radar Basic Principles (SciTech, 2010), as well as chapters in several other textbooks and many technical papers and reports. The majority of his career was with the Georgia Institute of Technology, including 20 years with the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) culminating in the position of Chief of the Radar Systems Division, and 11 years with Georgia Tech's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering teaching undergraduate and graduate signal processing classes and performing sponsored research in radar signal processing and high performance computing.

The seminar took place online via Zoom on November 23rd, 2020, at 06:00 PM Pakistan Standard Time

About the speaker: Dr. Jorge L. Salazar-Cerreno received a B.S. In ECE from the University Adenor Orrego, Trujillo, Peru, M.S. degree in ECE from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez 91P111M). In 2011, he received his Ph.D. degree in ECE from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His Ph.D. research focused on development of low-cost dual-polarized active phased array antennas (APAA) for the Engineering Research Center for Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere KASA). After graduation, Dr. Salazar-Cerreno was awarded a prestigious National Center for Atmospheric Research HICAR) Advanced Study Program (ASP) postdoctoral fellowship. At NCAR, he worked at the Earth Observing Laboratory MOM division developing airborne technology for two-dimensional, electronically scanned, dual-pol phased array radars for atmospheric research. This is a critical tool for studying weather and related hazards, especially for retrieving dynamic and microphysical characteristics of clouds and precipitation over rugged terrain or the open ocean, where other radar systems can have major limitations. In July 2019, he joined the Advanced Radar Research Center (ARRC) at The University of Oklahoma as a research scientist, and became an assistant professor at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in August 2015. His research interests include high-performance, broadband antennas for dual-polarized phased array radar applications; array antenna architecture for reconfigurable radar systems; APAA;Tx/Thr modules; radome EM modeling; RF and hardware development for characterizing and calibrating APAA and millimeter-waver antennas for automobile and communication systems. His research team (PAARD) is collaborating with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA-1PL, The U.S. Navy Research Lab HIRL),The U.S. Army Research Lab (ARO, the U.S. Air force Research Lab (AFRO, and NCAR. In 2019, Dr. Salazar was awarded the prestigious William H. Barkow Presidential Professorship from The University of Oklahoma. Presidential Professors inspire and mentor their undergraduate and graduate students in research and creative scholarly activity within their discipline, and exemplify professional scholarship through their endeavors in teaching, research, and public outreach. Dr. Salazar is a senior member of the IEEE and currently serves as a reviewer for IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation (TAP), IET Microwaves, Antennas and Propagation (IET), The Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology (JTECH), IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (MARS), The Radio Science Journal, and John Wiley and Sons Ihttps://wwwou-arropaard.comrt.

This seminar took place on Dec 10, 2020, at 06:00 PM Pakistan Standard Time

Dr. Julien Le Kernec, is a Senior Lecturer University of Glasgow. Dr Julien Le Kernec received his BEng and MEng degrees in Electronic Engineering from the Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland, in 2004 and 2006, respectively, and his PhD degree in electronic engineering from University Pierre and Marie Curie, France, in 2011. He held a post-doctoral position with the Kuang-Chi Institute of Advanced Technology, Shenzhen China, from 2011 to 2012. He was a Lecturer with the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at The University of Nottingham Ningbo China, from 2012 to 2016. He is currently a Senior Lecturer both in the School of Engineering in the Systems, Power and Energy Group within the communications, sensing, imaging lab, University of Glasgow and in the school of Information and Communication, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China. He is also an adjunct associate professor in University Cergy-Pontoise in France. His research interest includes radar system design.

This talk took place via Zoom on Oct 29, 2020, 05:00 PM PST.

Dr. Filippo Neri has about 50 years of experience in Tracking Radar, Fire Control Systems, Missile Systems and EW Systems design, development and testing. He is the author of many inventions covered by international patents in both Radar and EW fields. Dr. Filippo Neri is the Author of many technical articles published by many specialized international magazines. He is also the author of the book “Introduction to Electronic Defense Systems”; both first and second edition, used as "Text Book" in the Navy Post Graduate School of Monterrey, California and in other Military School. The book has been translated also in Chinese language. In 1997, Dr. Filippo Neri founded Virtualabs, a company fully dedicated to innovations in the Radar and EW Fields. Today the company is selling advanced Radars and EW Systems. In 1998-1999 he has been the Chairman of the WEAG (Western Europe Armament Group) Study Group for Direct Energy Weapons (DEW) Technology and for this work he received the “Euclid" Prize. In 2003, Dr. Filippo Neri was named "Distinguished Fellow of DSO, National Laboratories of Singapore, in May 2005 he received the "Maestro del Lavoro” award by the Italian President of the Republic on. Azeglio Ciampi. In June 2006 he was appointed “Commendatore” by the Italian President of the Republic Giorgio Napolitano. In 2013 Dr. Neri was enlisted in the AOC “Hall of Fame” for Radar/EW technologies.

“Micro-Doppler Signatures and Multi-Antenna Radars: Research Directions, Challenges and Opportunities” by Dr Ijaz Haider Naqvi and Dr Faran Awais Butt. The online seminar took place on December 07 2020 at 5:30 PM Pakistan Standard Time.

About the speakers:

Ijaz Haider Naqvi has been affiliated with LUMS since 2010. He received his B.Sc. Electrical Engg. from UET Lahore (2003), Masters in Radio Communications degree from SUPELEC Paris (2006) and Ph.D. degree in Electronics and Telecommunications from IETR-INSA Rennes, France (2009). He was a visiting Associate Professor at University of Maryland College Park in 2019 where he worked on reliability and degradation analysis of Lithium Ion Batteries. He has got several years of research experience in the wireless communications, applied signal processing, MIMO radar systems, and reliability and degradation analysis of Systems. His current research focuses on 5G and 6G communication systems, micro Doppler applications for radars and diagnostics and prognostics of electronic systems using stochastic modelling and data-driven techniques.

Faran Awais Butt received the B.Sc degree in Electrical Engineering from University of Engineering and Technology (UET) Lahore, Pakistan in 2009. He did his Master's degree in Computer Engineering from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in 2012. His research interests include Phased array, MIMO radars, FMCW and optimization. He was granted a US patent in the area of radar signal processing back in 2015. He has a number of publications and presented his work at numerous forums worldwide. He also won the Young Leaders Development Award from the Ministry of Planning, Division and Reforms in 2016 followed by Research Productivity award in the year 2017. He completed his PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) in 2019-20. During his PhD degree, he also worked as Visiting Researcher at the Radar Group of University College London (UCL), London, UK. Currently, he is working as Assistant Professor at University of Management and Technology (UMT), Lahore.