Special Session 18

SPECIAL SESSION #18

Silvia Ullo

University of Sannio, Italy

• ullo@unisannio.it

Alfonso Farina

Selenia, then Selex ES (now retired)

• alfonso.farina@ieee.org

Papers are being collected from university researchers, from industries specialized in conceiving, designing, installing, operating and testing radar systems for civilian and defense applications, from users and governmental/international agencies. Authors are also invited from industries that provide instruments to test radar performances. The scope of the special session is to have a wide view of the methods, instruments and practical experience to test subsystems and radar systems (for land-based, shipborne, on drones, aircraft and satellites).

Topics of relevance for the session are:

• Instrument test equipment for verification and validation in the industry, at the customer site, on the operational fields;
• Automation and remote test equipment will be of special interest;
• Virtual reality technologies are also most welcome as topics of the session;
• LiDAR remote sensing and applications.

Silvia Liberata Ullo IEEE Senior Member, Industry Liaison for IEEE Joint ComSoc/VTS Italy Chapter. National Referent for FIDAPA BPW Italy Science and Technology Task Force. Researcher since 2004 at the University of Sannio, Benevento (Italy), she has authored 80+ research papers, co-authored many book chapters and served as editor of many special issues and two books. She is Associate Editor for IET Image Processing, IET Wireless Sensor Networks, Section Editor (Section: Machine learning/radar area) of the Recent Advances in Computer Science and Communications (RACSC) journal, and Topic Editor (Geo-Informatics and Remote Sensing) for the Arabian Journal of Geosciences journal. Member of Academic Senate and Ph.D. Professors’ Board. Teaching the courses: Principles of Mathematics, Signal theory and elaboration, Telecommunication networks and Optical and radar remote sensing. She graduated cum laude in Electronic Engineering in 1989 at Federico II University, Naples. Awarded with an Italtel scholarship, accomplished a Microeconomics Program at Harvard University, in August 1990, and the Master of Science in Management at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in 1992 (Cambridge, Massachusetts-USA). She worked with Italtel s.p.a. for 8 years as Research Engineer and Production Manager, and for 4 years with the Benevento Municipality, as Officer at the Data Elaboration Center (CED). Member of the Board of Directors for the Municipal Transport Society (AMTU) of Benevento for 3 years (1994-1997). Since 2004 Silvia Ullo is a researcher with the University of Sannio, Benevento (Italy), with interests in Data analysis through satellite remote sensing for Earth observation, communication networks with particular reference to the sensors networks and smart grids, radar detection in non-Gaussian environment, non-Gaussian models for the backscatter signal from natural surfaces.
Author of several scientific papers. Full list at: www.unisannio.it/it/user/622/biblio She has been the promoter of the Agreement with the MAPSAT (Space agency in Benevento), with the CSEO (Cyprus Space Exploration Organisation), and with the Italian Atlantic Committee e ATA (Atlantic Treaty Association) and many other institutions and companies to work on research projects of joint interest that can involve Unisannio students for their bachelor and master program thesis. She has been as well the promoter of the Agreement, signed in November 2017, between Unisannio and the MIT MISTI-Italy to involve MIT students in research projects at Unisannio and the Coordinator of the Program.
Silvia Ullo has been co-organizer of many national and international conferences as the MetroAeroSpace Workshop, since 2014, and the first Workshop on Networks and Cyber Security, in Benevento, 2017. She has organized also several conference special sessions as, recently, “Wireless Sensor Networks and Remote Sensing for Environmental Applications” within the first IEEE International Environmental Engineering Conference held in Milan, March 2018.
Silvia Ullo has been a Committee Member for the organization of the MIT Sloan Global Women’s Conference, held in New York, in 2017 and in 2019. She is a scientific expert evaluator for MIUR, MISE, Italian Regions and European Commission of technical and strategic proposals, projects and programs of research and innovation, since 2013.

Alfonso Farina, LFIEEE, FIET, FREng, Fellow of EURASIP, received the degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Rome (IT) in 1973. In 1974, he joined Selenia, then Selex ES, where he became Director of the Analysis of Integrated Systems Unit and subsequently Director of Engineering of the Large Business Systems Division. In 2012, he was Senior VP and Chief Technology Officer of the company, reporting directly to the President. From 2013 to 2014, he was senior advisor to the CTO. He retired in October 2014. From 1979 to 1985, he was also professor of "Radar Techniques" at the University of Naples (IT). He is the author of more than 800 peer-reviewed technical publications and of books and monographs (published worldwide), some of them also translated in to Russian and Chinese. Some of the most significant awards he’s received include: (2004) Leader of the team that won the First Prize of the first edition of the Finmeccanica Award for Innovation Technology, out of more than 330 submitted projects by the Companies of Finmeccanica Group; (2005) International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, U.K., and the fellowship was presented to him by HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh; (2010) IEEE Dennis J. Picard Medal for Radar Technologies and Applications for "Continuous, Innovative, Theoretical, and Practical Contributions to Radar Systems and Adaptive Signal Processing Techniques"; (2012) Oscar Masi award for the AULOS® "green" radar by the Italian Industrial Research Association (AIRI); (2014) IET Achievement Medal for "Outstanding contributions to radar system design, signal, data and image processing, and data fusion". He is a Visiting Professor at University College London (UCL), Dept. Electronic and Electrical Engineering, CTIF (Center for TeleInFrastructures) Industry Advisory Chair, and a Distinguished Lecturer (DL) of IEEE AESS. (2017) IEEE SPS Industrial Leader Award for contributions to radar array processing and industrial leadership. (since 2017) Chair of Italy Section Chapter, IEEE AESS-10.
(Jan 2018-Dec 2019) IEEE Signal Processing Society 2018, Distinguished Industry Lecturer.
(Jan 2019-Dec 2021) Member of the IEEE AESS BoG.
Main received best paper awards: B. Carlton of IEEE – Trans. on AES (2001, 2003, and 2013), IET – Proc. on Radar Sonar and Nav. (2009-2010) and Int. Conf. on Fusion (2004, 2009).
(2018): Associate Editor, IEEE Signal Processing Magazine.
(2018-2019): Visiting professor at Cranfield University, UK.
He is consultant to Leonardo S.p.A. "Land & Naval Defence Electronics Division", Rome (I).
The 26 October 2018 he was interviewed, among few top managers of the Company, at RAI Storia for the "70° anniversario di Leonardo Company" ("70th anniversary of Leonardo Company"). A 3 minute trailer is available at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYarcsoiyC8
Please, see also: "A CONVERSATION WITH FRIEND: ALFONSO FARINA", interviewer: Fulvio GINI, IEEE AES SYSTEMS MAGAZINE, June 2016, pp. 41-49. IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society.