Alfonso Farina
Consultant, Italy
Lecture title: “40 years of cooperation between industry and academia on radar tracking systems”.
Abstract: The tutorial will describe the intertwined R&D activities, along several decades, between academia and industry in conceiving and implementing – on radar systems – tracking algorithms for targets in civilian as well as defense and security applications. We trace back from the alpha-beta adaptive filter to modern random set filters passing thru Kalman algorithm (in its many embodiments), Multiple Model filters, Multiple Hypothesis Tracking, Joint Probabilistic Data Association, Particle filter for nonlinear non Gaussian models. Fusion from heterogeneous collocated as well as non-collocated sensor data are also mentioned. Applications to land, naval and airborne sensors are considered. Active as well as passive radar experiences are overviewed. The description will be a balanced look to both mathematical aspects as well as practical implementation issues including mitigation of real life system limitations.
The tutorial is motivated by the wish to show the long experience of fruitful cross-disciplinary cooperation between industry and universities especially in the field of signal and data processing in radar, where the advantage is that learning goes both ways in these relationships! It is shown that refined mathematical algorithms conceived by this cooperation can indeed either influence or even live in systems.
Short Biography
Alfonso Farina received the Doctoral degree in electronic engineering from the University of Rome, Rome, Italy, in 1973. In 1974, he joined Selenia, then Selex ES, where he became the Director of the Analysis of Integrated Systems Unit and, subsequently, the Director of Engineering of the Large Business Systems Division. In 2012, he was the Senior VP and the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the company, reporting directly to the President. From 2013 to 2014, he was a Senior Advisor to the CTO. He retired in October 2014. >From 1979 to 1985, he was also a Professor of radar techniques with the University of Naples, Italy. He is currently a Visiting Professor with the Centre of Electronic Warfare, Information and Cyber at Cranfield University, the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University College London, a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society and a Distinguished Industry Lecturer for the IEEE Signal Processing Society (Jan 2018-Dec 2019). He is a Consultant to Leonardo S.p.A. Land & Naval Defence Electronics Division (Rome). He has authored or coauthored more than 700 peer-reviewed technical papers and books and monographs (published worldwide), some of them also translated in to Russian and Chinese. Dr. Farina has been an IEEE Signal Processing Magazine Senior Editorial Board Member (3-year term) since 2017. He was the Conference General Chairman of the IEEE RadarCon 2008, Rome, Italy, May 2008, and the Executive Conference Chair at the International Conference on Information Fusion, Florence, Italy, July 2006. He was the recipient of many awards, including 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 (2004); an International Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, U.K. (2005), the fellowship was presented to him by HRH Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh; 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 (2010), IEEE Honor Ceremony, Montreal, Canada; Oscar Masi Award for the AULOS green radar by the Italian Industrial Research Association (AIRI) (2012); IET Achievement Medal for Outstanding contributions to radar system design, signal, data and image processing, and data fusion (2014); IEEE SPS Industrial Leader Award for contributions to radar array processing and industrial leadership (2017). In addition, he was the recipient of Best Paper Awards, such as B. Carlton of IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems (2001, 2003, 2013), IET Proceeding on Radar Sonar and Navigation (2009 – 2010), and International Conference on Information Fusion (2005). In the past few decades, he has been collaborating with several professional journals and conferences (mainly on radar and data fusion) as an Associate Editor, a Reviewer, an organizer of special issues, a Session Chairman, a Plenary Speaker, etc. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and IET, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and a Fellow of EURASIP. 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: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYarcsoiyC8
Additional material: 40 years of tracking for radar systems: a cross-disciplinary academic and industrial viewpoint
