Plenary Speakers

Abstract: Cognitive radio (CR) technology has emerged as a groundbreaking solution for addressing the growing demands for spectrum resources. As the utilization of wireless communication systems continues to expand in aircraft, spacecraft, and satellite applications, the efficient management of limited spectrum resources becomes critical. Cognitive radios, with their ability to adaptively utilize underutilized frequency bands, are an effective approach to optimize spectrum utilization and enhance communication reliability in aerospace systems. This talk focuses on the importance of cognitive radio in aerospace engineering and begins by providing an overview of CR systems operating in radio frequency bands and how software-defined radio devices can leverage its implementation. Then, an overview of the challenges posed by spectrum scarcity and interference management in aerospace applications is presented to highlight how CRs can effectively address the challenges. Finally, the talk will explore how CRs can be used for detecting signals of interest (SOIs) and signals of opportunity (SOOP), that are critical for the safe and efficient operation of aerospace systems.

Bio-Sketch

Rodolfo Oliveira received the Licenciatura degree in electrical engineering from the Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia (FCT), Universidade Nova de Lisboa (UNL), Lisbon, Portugal, in 2000, the M.Sc. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the Instituto Superior Técnico, Technical University of Lisbon, in 2003, and the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from UNL, in 2009. From 2007 to 2008, he was a Visiting Researcher at the University of Thessaly. From 2011 to 2012, he was a Visiting Scholar at Carnegie Mellon University. Rodolfo Oliveira is currently with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UNL, and is also affiliated as a Senior Researcher with the Instituto de Telecomunicações, where he researches in the areas of Wireless Communications, Computer Networks, and Computer Science. Rodolfo is a member of ACM and a Senior Member of IEEE, serving currently as Chair of the IEEE Portugal Section. He serves on the Editorial Board of Ad Hoc Networks (Elsevier), ITU Journal on Future and Evolving Technologies (ITU J-FET), IEEE Open Journal of the Communications Society, and IEEE Communications Letters.

Abstract: The application of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is rapidly expanding across a myriad of sectors, including defense, disaster management, and commerce, necessitating innovative navigation solutions that are not reliant on the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). In the literature, several solutions based on computer vision have been proposed to estimate the UAV's position, including relative and absolute visual localization methods. The main relative localization methods are visual odometry and simultaneous localization and mapping, while the absolute approaches are based on previously collected data, such as aerial or satellite images. The keynote will introduce vision-based localization systems for both methods and highlight the open research challenges in reducing measurement accuracy. Several real-time data fusion and machine learning algorithms for localization will be presented, and their applicability in dense urban or indoor environments will be discussed. Furthermore, the importance of localizing UAVs for digital twins in the field of structural health monitoring will be emphasized.

Bio-Sketch

Pasquale Daponte: PASQUALE DAPONTE was born in Minori (SA), Italy, on March 7, 1957. He obtained his bachelor's degree and master's degree "cum laude" in Electrical Engineering in 1981 from University of Naples, Italy. He is a Full Professor of Electronic Measurements at University of Sannio - Benevento. From 2016 he is Chair of the Italian Association on Electrical and Electronic Measurements. He is Past President of IMEKO. He is member of: I2MTC Board, Working Group of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technical Committee Subcommittee of the Waveform Measurements and Analysis Committee, IMEKO Technical Committee TC-4 measurements of Electrical Quantities. Editorial Board of Measurement Journal, Acta IMEKO and of Sensors. He is Associate Editor of IET Science Measurement & Technology Journal. He has organised some national or international meetings in the field of Electronic Measurements and European co-operation and he was General Chairman of the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technical Conference for 2006, Technical Programme Co-Chair for I2MTC 2015. He was a co-founder of the IEEE Symposium on Measurement for Medical Applications MeMeA, now, he is the Chair of the MeMeA Steering Committee, memea2018.ieee-ims.org. He is the co-founder of the;
- IEEE Workshop on Metrology for AeroSpace, www.metroaerospace.org
- IEEE Workshop on Metrology for Archaeology and Cultural Heritage, www.metroarcheo.com
- IMEKO Workshop on Metrology for Geotechnics, www.metrogeotechnics.org.
- IEEE Workshop on Metrology for the Sea, www.metrosea.org
- IEEE Workshop on Metrology for Industry 4.0 and IoT, www.metroind40iot.org
He is involved in some European projects. He has published more than 300 scientific papers in journals and at national and international conferences on the following subjects: Measurements and Drones, ADC and DAC Modelling and Testing, Digital Signal Processing, Distributed Measurement Systems. He received;
- in 2009 the IEEE Fellowship,
- in 1987 from the Italian Society of Oftalmology the award for the researches on the digital signal processing of the ultrasounds in echo-oftalmology,
- the Laurea Honoris Causa in Electrical Engineering from Technical University heorghe Asachi" of Iasi (Romania),
- the The Ludwik Finkelstein Medal 2014 from the Institute of Measurement and Control of United Kingdom,
- in May 2018 the areer Excellence Award from the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society or a lifelong career and outsanding leadership in research and education on instrumentation and measurement, and a passionate and continuous service, international in scope, to the profession.
- in September 2018 IMEKO Distinguished Service Award.

Abstract: The bipolar dc distribution is becoming an attractive power supply scheme in more electric aircraft (MEA). This distribution system not only makes it possible to obtain various voltage levels, but also has the advantages of high reliability and simple fault detection. However, there are several specificities that must be considered in association with this distribution system. In this way, one of the critical aspects is the design and implementation of the power electronic converters. One of the aspects that should be considered is the design of topololies that interlinks to both poles. Another aspect that is critical is the reliability of these converters. Thus, the design of the converters specific for this kind of distribution system, but with fault-tolerant capability, is another aspect that should be taken into consideration.
This talk will start with the advantages of the bipolar dc distribution, as well as, their specificities and associated challenges. It will then be presented the criteria to design the power electronic converters associated to this distribution system. The specificities of the electronic power converters taking into consideration the system that should be interlinked to this distribution system will be described. Reliability aspects associated to the power electronic converters will also be discussed.

Bio-Sketch

Vitor Fernão Pires received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Institute Superior of Engineering of Lisbon, Portugal, in 1988 and the M.S. and Ph.D. Degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal, in 1995 and 2000, respectively.

Since 1991, he has been a member of the teaching staff with the Electrical Engineering Department, Superior Technical School of Setúbal (ESTSetúbal), Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal (IPS). He is currently a Coordinator Professor teaching power electronics and control of power converters. He is also a senior Researcher at Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores—Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Lisboa (INESC-ID). It is also a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). He is an IEEE member since 1996 and member of the Industrial Electronics Society. Besides that, he is chair of the IEEE Portuguese Joint Chapter, Industry Applications, Industrial Electronics and Power Electronics.

Vitor Fernão Pires is the author and coauthor of over 300 journal and refereed conference publications. He has collaborated in several national and European projects. He was also invited to be a reviewer of research founded projects from Polish National Science Center, Chilean National Commission for Scientific and Technological Research (CONICYT) and Kazakhstan National Center of Science and Technology Evaluation (NCSTE). He was the general chair of the international conference icSmartGrids 2021 and general co-chair of the IEEE CPE-POWERENG 2020. He was also one of the founders of the IEEE POWERENG conference series. He has been Program Committee and/or Track Chair member of several international conferences.

Abstract: The Wing in Ground Effect (WIG) aircraft operates with larger lift to drag ratio compared to a conventional aircraft at low subsonic Mach numbers. To increase the traffic volume of the WIG aircraft, one possible way is to increase the flight speed, which can result in transonic flow. Currently the studies on transonic flight in ground effect are very few. The focus of this paper is to study the aerodynamics and flow physics of a typical transonic RAE2822 airfoil at angles of attack (AOA) from 0 to 12 deg. and Mach numbers from 0.5 to 0.8 in ground effect by varying the ground clearance above the ground. The compressible Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with Spalart-Allmaras (SA) turbulence model are solved using the commercial CFD solver ANSYS FLUENT. For flight near the flat ground surface, some interesting shock formations and flow phenomenon are obtained due to transonic flow. For the unsteady shock buffet phenomenon on the upper surface, the buffet boundary in the Angle of Attack (AOA) – Mach number (Ma) plane shrinks with the decreasing ground clearance. Compared to the unbounded flow field, there exists a steady shock on the lower surface of the airfoil in ground effect for low AOAs because the channel between the lower surface of the supercritical airfoil and the ground is a typical converging-diverging shape, resulting in decrease in lift and increase in drag. For extreme conditions of very small ground clearance, small AOA and high Mach numbers, a new coupling between the shock buffets on the lower and the upper surface of the airfoil is observed.

Bio-Sketch

Professor Ramesh K. Agarwal is the William Palm Professor of Engineering in the department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Washington University in St. Louis. From 1994 to 2001, he was the Sam Bloomfield Distinguished Professor and Executive Director of the National Institute for Aviation Research at Wichita State University in Kansas. From 1978 to 1994, he was the Program Director and McDonnell Douglas Fellow at McDonnell Douglas Research Laboratories in St. Louis. Dr. Agarwal received Ph.D in Aeronautical Sciences from Stanford University in 1975, M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 1969 and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India in 1968. Over a period of forty years, Professor Agarwal has worked in various areas of Computational Science and Engineering - Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Computational Materials Science and Manufacturing, Computational Electromagnetics (CEM), Neuro-Computing, Control Theory and Systems, and Multidisciplinary Design and Optimization. He is the author and coauthor of over 500 journal and refereed conference publications. He has given many plenary, keynote and invited lectures at various national and international conferences worldwide in over fifty countries. Professor Agarwal continues to serve on many academic, government, and industrial advisory committees. Dr. Agarwal is a Fellow eighteen societies including the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), American Physical Society (APS), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Royal Aeronautical Society, Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics (CSAA), Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). He has received many prestigious honors and national/international awards from various professional societies and organizations for his research contributions.