Organizing Committee
General Chairs
Paulo Costa – George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA.
InfoPaulo Costa is Associate Professor of Systems Engineering and Operations Research at George Mason University, and Research Director for International C2 Activities at the Center for Excellence in C4I, also at GMU. He is also a retired Brazilian Air Force Lt. Col., Engineer, and former Fighter Pilot. His current research involves applying semantic technologies and probabilistic reasoning to proactive decision support, modeling and simulation to the design of cyber resilient systems, and knowledge engineering to the integration of hard and soft data. He currently teaches courses on advanced security protocols, decision support systems, and heterogeneous data fusion. He received his Ph.D. in Information Technology and M.Sc. in Systems Engineering from George Mason University, and his B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering From the Brazilian Air Force Academy. He is a co-founder and active participant in the ISIF Working Group on Evaluation of Techniques for Uncertainty Reasoning (ETURWG), and an IEEE senior member.
Kathryn Laskey – George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA.
InfoKathryn B. Laskey is Professor of Systems Engineering and Operations Research at George Mason University and Associate Director of the Center for Command, Control, Communications, Computing and Intelligence. Her primary research interest is probabilistic and decision theoretic reasoning with application to a variety of problems in information fusion and decision support under uncertainty. A major thrust of her work is integration of semantic technology with probability to support higher-level information fusion. She teaches courses in systems engineering, Bayesian inference and decision support. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Association for Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence and the Washington Metropolitan Area Chapter of INCOSE. She is a co-founder and active participant in the ISIF Working Group on Evaluation of Techniques for Uncertainty Reasoning (ETURWG). Dr. Laskey received a Ph.D. in Statistics and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University, an M.S. in Mathematics from the University of Michigan, and a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Pittsburgh.
Technical Chairs
Roy Streit – Metron, Inc.
InfoFellow of the IEEE. Research interests include multi-target tracking, multi-sensor data fusion, medical imaging, signal processing, pharmacovigilance, business analytics. Professor (Adjunct) of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts–Dartmouth. Before 2005, Senior Scientist in Senior Executive Service at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, RI. Navy Superior Civilian Achievement Award. American Society of Naval Engineers Solberg Award. Author of Poisson Point Processes, Springer, 2010. Co-author of Bayesian Multiple Target Tracking, Artech, 2014. Numerous technical papers in refereed journals, and invited papers at international conferences and workshops. Nine U.S. patents. Ph.D. in mathematics from University of Rhode Island.
Stefano Coraluppi – Systems and Technology Research, LLC.
InfoStefano Coraluppi received the BS (1990) in Electrical Engineering and Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University, and the MS (1992) and PhD (1997) in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland. He has led numerous surveillance research efforts at ALPHATECH (1997-2002), NATO Undersea Research Centre (2002-2010), Compunetix (2010-2014), and Systems & Technology Research (since 2014). He is Technical Editor for Target Tracking and Multisensor Systems for the IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, Area Editor for Tracking for the ISIF Journal of Advances in Information Fusion, Senior Member of the IEEE, and Secretary and Member of the Board of Directors of ISIF. He served as ISIF President in 2010.
Allen Waxman – MultiSensor Scientific, LLC.
InfoAllen Waxman‘s fields of research & development include Multisensor ISR Data Exploitation and Fusion Systems, Image Fusion for Advanced Night Vision, Multi/Hyper-Spectral Image Exploitation for target fingerprinting & tracking and materials detection, and Neural Learning Systems for Multi-Target Detection and Multi-Entity Motion Analytics. Allen served as co-organizer of special sessions on Image & Information Fusion at Fusion conferences for 10 years, and as an Action Editor for 10 years of the journal Neural Networks. Prior positions include faculty positions at MIT, University of Maryland and Boston University, 12 years as Senior Staff at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, 7 years at Alphatech / BAE Systems, 2 years as Consulting Scientist & SETA at DARPA/IPTO, and provides consulting services to US government agencies and private industry. Currently, Allen is serving as Chief Scientist for Multispectral Systems at Sensors Unlimited Inc. (United Technologies Corp.). Allen received a BS in Physics in 1973 at the City College of New York, MS in Astronomy in 1975 at the University of Michigan, and PhD in Astrophysics in 1978 at the University of Chicago. He holds 3 US patents and has over 100 technical publications.
Program Chairs
Erik Blasch – Air Force Research Lab.
InfoErik Blasch is with the Air Force Research Lab.
Shiloh Dockstader – Exelis, Inc.
InfoShiloh L. Dockstader is currently employed with Exelis Inc. as the Chief Scientist for the Geospatial Intelligence Solutions Division, where he directs research and development activities in the areas of motion image processing, automated analysis and exploitation, and multi-source information fusion. Shiloh provides engineering oversight for and serves as the primary technical liaison to external organizations for Exelis Geospatial Systems’ programs operated in the D.C. metro area. He currently serves as a scientific advisor to the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency’s InnoVision and Analysis Directorates, providing technical support to a number of NGA programs, divisions, and NSG research and development portfolio managers. He provides subject matter expertise in the areas of full-motion video (FMV), persistent surveillance, LIDAR, and activity-based intelligence (ABI). He has experience architecting and operationally deploying ground processing and exploitation systems for aerial- and space-based applications.
Shiloh’s current research interests are in the areas of anticipatory intelligence, advanced analytics, motion imagery exploitation, and activity-based intelligence. He has authored numerous articles in the fields of video surveillance and information fusion, including an invited book chapter on feature extraction for multi-camera surveillance systems, an invited paper to the Proceedings of the IEEE on multi-camera tracking and occlusion modeling, and an award-winning paper on kinematic motion modeling and analysis. He has chaired sessions at and served on the technical program and organizing committees of several SPIE, ISIF, and IEEE conferences. Recently, Shiloh has served as the Program Chair for the 2013 and 2014 SPIE Defense and Security Symposium’s Geospatial Information Fusion Conference and as the Industrial Chair for both the 2012 and 2014 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Video and Signal-Based Surveillance (AVSS).
Shiloh holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering and authored his Ph.D. thesis in Electrical and Computer Engineering on the Video-Based Analysis of Human Motion with the University of Rochester. He is a member of IEEE, SPIE, Tau Beta Pi, and Phi Beta Kappa.
Shiloh’s current research interests are in the areas of anticipatory intelligence, advanced analytics, motion imagery exploitation, and activity-based intelligence. He has authored numerous articles in the fields of video surveillance and information fusion, including an invited book chapter on feature extraction for multi-camera surveillance systems, an invited paper to the Proceedings of the IEEE on multi-camera tracking and occlusion modeling, and an award-winning paper on kinematic motion modeling and analysis. He has chaired sessions at and served on the technical program and organizing committees of several SPIE, ISIF, and IEEE conferences. Recently, Shiloh has served as the Program Chair for the 2013 and 2014 SPIE Defense and Security Symposium’s Geospatial Information Fusion Conference and as the Industrial Chair for both the 2012 and 2014 IEEE International Conference on Advanced Video and Signal-Based Surveillance (AVSS).
Shiloh holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Electrical Engineering and authored his Ph.D. thesis in Electrical and Computer Engineering on the Video-Based Analysis of Human Motion with the University of Rochester. He is a member of IEEE, SPIE, Tau Beta Pi, and Phi Beta Kappa.
Industry Chair
Angela Pawlowski – Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories
InfoAngela Pawlowski is the Director of Strategy & Business Development at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories (ATL) in Cherry Hill, NJ. She has been a member of the Information Fusion community for the last twenty-one years, first in the development of multi-sensor, multi-target data fusion for Army rotorcraft, and then progressing to the development of shared situation awareness for teams of manned/unmanned air vehicles and development of horizontal fusion services for the Army. Recent accomplishments include the innovation of user-composable fusion services for Air Force IPOE analysts. She is currently collaborating with ATL scientists on the topic of decision-driven intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance. Angela holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science from St. Joseph’s University.
Local Arrangements Chairs
Lance Kaplan – US Army Research Lab
InfoLance M. Kaplan received the B.S. degree with distinction from Duke University, Durham, NC, in 1989 and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, in 1991 and 1994, respectively, all in Electrical Engineering. From 1987-1990, Dr. Kaplan worked as a Technical Assistant at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. He held a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship and a USC Dean’s Merit Fellowship from 1990-1993, and worked as a Research Assistant in the Signal and Image Processing Institute at the University of Southern California from 1993-1994. Then, he worked on staff in the Reconnaissance Systems Department of the Hughes Aircraft Company from 1994-1996. From 1996-2004, he was a member of the faculty in the Department of Engineering and a senior investigator in the Center of Theoretical Studies of Physical Systems (CTSPS) at Clark Atlanta University (CAU), Atlanta, GA. Currently, he is in the Networked Sensing and Fusion branch of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL). Dr. Kaplan serves as Editor-In-Chief for the IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems (AES). In addition, he also serves on the Board of Governors of the IEEE AES Society, 2009-present, and on the International Society of Information Fusion (ISIF) Board, 2012-present. He served as Technical Co-Chair (with Neil Gordon) for the 2011 ISIF/IEEE International Conference on Information Fusion in Chicago, IL. He is a three time recipient of the Clark Atlanta University Electrical Engineering Instructional Excellence Award from 1999-2001. Dr. Kaplan has published over 160 technical articles. His current research interests include signal and image processing, information/data fusion, resource management, and network science.
David Crouse – Naval Research Laboratory
InfoDavid Frederic Crouse} received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering in 2005, 2008, and 2011 from the University of Connecticut (UCONN). He also received a B.A. degree in German from UCONN for which he spent a year at the Ruprecht-Karls Universität in Heidelberg, Germany.
He is currently employed at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. and serves as an associate editor at the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine. His interests lie in the areas of stochastic signal processing and tracking.
He is currently employed at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. and serves as an associate editor at the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine. His interests lie in the areas of stochastic signal processing and tracking.
Finance Chair
James Ferry – Metron, Inc.
InfoJames Ferry received an S.B. in Mathematics from M.I.T. and a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Brown University. His work at Metron focuses on connecting mathematical theory with the problems of the Defense and Intelligence communities. Dr. Ferry’s current interests include the Bayesian foundations of tracking and data association for kinematic and non-kinematic data, and the synthesis of classical detection and tracking theory with the modern theory of networks. Prior to Metron he worked in fluid dynamics, specializing in multiphase flow and thermal convection.
Publications Chairs
Kenneth Hintz – George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA.
InfoSince 1987 Ken Hintz has been an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at George Mason University. He designed and established the Bachelor and Masters in Computer Engineering Degree Programs at GMU and teaches courses in sensor engineering, image processing, and computer engineering.
Dr. Hintz’ current research interest is in pre-shot detection of barreled weapons based on his discovery of cavity induced modulation (CIM) and syntactic pattern recognition applied to ground penetrating radar images for landmine detection and classification. His other research interests are in information-based real-time sensor management, X-ray, thermal, and visual, image processing, as well as algorithms for real time signal processing.
Before joining GMU, Dr. Hintz was with the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren, VA, working in electronic warfare and radar signal processing where he designed and built the original AN/ULQ-16 pulse analyzer. Prior to working at NSWC, Dr. Hintz was with the U. S. Navy as a designated Naval Aviator stationed for 3 years in Rota, Spain flying Electronic Warfare Reconnaissance with Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron Two (VQ-2). During that time be became designated Electronic Warfare Aircraft Commander (EWAC) in both the EC-121 and EP-3E aircraft.
Dr. Hintz holds 18 issued patents, 8 patents pending, is a Fellow of SPIE, a Senior Life Member of IEEE, and lead author on a book on Microcontrollers. He received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana in 1967 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia in 1979 and 1981 respectively.
Dr. Hintz’ current research interest is in pre-shot detection of barreled weapons based on his discovery of cavity induced modulation (CIM) and syntactic pattern recognition applied to ground penetrating radar images for landmine detection and classification. His other research interests are in information-based real-time sensor management, X-ray, thermal, and visual, image processing, as well as algorithms for real time signal processing.
Before joining GMU, Dr. Hintz was with the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Dahlgren, VA, working in electronic warfare and radar signal processing where he designed and built the original AN/ULQ-16 pulse analyzer. Prior to working at NSWC, Dr. Hintz was with the U. S. Navy as a designated Naval Aviator stationed for 3 years in Rota, Spain flying Electronic Warfare Reconnaissance with Fleet Air Reconnaissance Squadron Two (VQ-2). During that time be became designated Electronic Warfare Aircraft Commander (EWAC) in both the EC-121 and EP-3E aircraft.
Dr. Hintz holds 18 issued patents, 8 patents pending, is a Fellow of SPIE, a Senior Life Member of IEEE, and lead author on a book on Microcontrollers. He received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana in 1967 and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Virginia in 1979 and 1981 respectively.
Ivan Kadar – Interlink Systems Sciences, Inc.
Ivan’s Info….
Tutorials Chair
Mitch Kokar – Northeastern University
InfoMieczyslaw “Mitch” M. Kokar is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University in Boston. He received his M.S. in computer engineering and Ph.D. in computer systems engineering from Wroclaw University of Technology, Poland. He is an active researcher in Information Fusion, Cognitive Radios, Ontologies, Self-Controlling Software and Modeling Languages. Dr. Kokar’s interest in Information Fusion is in the application of formal methods to situation awareness. He has authored and co-authored over 180 journal and conference papers. He is on Editorial Board of Journal of Information Fusion and Program Committee member of numerous conferences. He is a senior member of IEEE and member of ACM.
http://www.ece.neu.edu/faculty/kokar/
http://www.ece.neu.edu/faculty/kokar/
Awards Chairs
Ramona Georgescu – United Technologies Research Center
InfoRamona Georgescu received B.A. degrees in Computer Science and Physics from Connecticut College, New London, CT in 2004 and an M.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Boston University, Boston, MA, in 2007. She obtained her Ph.D degree in 2012 from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT with a dissertation on “Multisensor multitarget tracking with the CPHD filter”. Dr. Georgescu is an Associate Editor for Fusion Applications for the Journal of Advances in Information Fusion (JAIF) and was recognized as an Excellent reviewer by the IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering (2010) and as a finalist in Connecticut Technology Council’s Women of Innovation awards (2012).
Currently, she is Senior Research Engineer at the United Technologies Research Center in East Hartford, CT within the Decision Support and Machine Intelligence group where her interests lie in statistical signal processing and big data analytics.
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~rag07012/
Currently, she is Senior Research Engineer at the United Technologies Research Center in East Hartford, CT within the Decision Support and Machine Intelligence group where her interests lie in statistical signal processing and big data analytics.
http://www.engr.uconn.edu/~rag07012/
Tien Pham – US Army Research Lab
InfoDr. Tien Pham is a team leader within the Networked Sensing & Fusion Branch at the US Army Research Laboratory, Sensors & Electron Devices Directorate (ARL-SEDD) ,Adelphi, MD. Dr. Pham received his BS, MS and PhD degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland at College Park in 1988, 1991 and 2006 respectively. He is responsible for the basic and applied research in network science, distributed signal processing, sensor networks, acoustics and multi-modal sensing. Dr. Pham leads the International Technology Alliance (ITA) in Distributed Coalition Information for Decision Making and a co-chair of the NATO SET Task Group on Battlefield Acoustic Sensing, Multi-modal Sensing & Networked Sensing for ISR Applications.
Special Sessions Chairs
Michael Vaccaro – Office of Naval Research
InfoMichael Vaccaro has been a program officer at the US Navy’s Office of Naval Research since 2002, where he manages projects related to underwater target detection. His interests for information fusion include multi-target and multi-sensor tracking algorithms, as well as the intersection of classification and tracking problems.
Prior to that, Mr. Vaccaro was employed by the U.S. Navy’s Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, RI. He has also worked as a radar and sonar software developer for U.S. Navy and Air Force contractors.
He received the B.S. Degree for Physics from Boston College in 1988 and the M.S. Degree for Simulation Systems from the University of Central Florida in 1995.
Prior to that, Mr. Vaccaro was employed by the U.S. Navy’s Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, RI. He has also worked as a radar and sonar software developer for U.S. Navy and Air Force contractors.
He received the B.S. Degree for Physics from Boston College in 1988 and the M.S. Degree for Simulation Systems from the University of Central Florida in 1995.
Simon Maskell – University of Liverpool
Info
Simon is Professor of Autonomous Systems at the University of Liverpool and honorary research fellow at Imperial College, London. After thirteen years at the defence and security company, QinetiQ, Simon moved to academia in January 2013 where he now leads an interdisciplinary research team working towards solutions to problems that span a variety of applications. All the research is underpinned by Simon’s desire to use advanced statistical algorithms to improve the extraction of information from ambiguous data so as to inform difficult decision making. The applications include those associated with insurance, pharmaceuticals, cyber security, robotics and surveillance with customers that include the UK MoD, the UK police, the European Union, small companies and large organisations. The research includes the development of novel particle filters (and other Monte-Carlo based tools), but also algorithms for single sensor processing (eg in radar, imagery and social media), multiple-target tracking, anomaly detection, machine learning (eg for Big Data) and decision support. Simon has an PhD, MEng and MA from Cambridge University, is a chartered Engineer and associate editor for IEEE-T-AES and IEEE-SPL.
Simon is Professor of Autonomous Systems at the University of Liverpool and honorary research fellow at Imperial College, London. After thirteen years at the defence and security company, QinetiQ, Simon moved to academia in January 2013 where he now leads an interdisciplinary research team working towards solutions to problems that span a variety of applications. All the research is underpinned by Simon’s desire to use advanced statistical algorithms to improve the extraction of information from ambiguous data so as to inform difficult decision making. The applications include those associated with insurance, pharmaceuticals, cyber security, robotics and surveillance with customers that include the UK MoD, the UK police, the European Union, small companies and large organisations. The research includes the development of novel particle filters (and other Monte-Carlo based tools), but also algorithms for single sensor processing (eg in radar, imagery and social media), multiple-target tracking, anomaly detection, machine learning (eg for Big Data) and decision support. Simon has an PhD, MEng and MA from Cambridge University, is a chartered Engineer and associate editor for IEEE-T-AES and IEEE-SPL.
Publicity Chair
Mark Silbert – NAVAIR
InfoDr. Mark Silbert is a data fusion engineer at NAVAIR in Patuxent River, Maryland. He has worked at NAVAIR for over 35 years, with over 20 years of experience in data fusion technology. He is a Fellow and a subject matter expert (SME) for data fusion technologies. Over the years, Dr. Silbert has been involved in numerous research and development efforts focused on information fusion, decision-aiding, and artificial intelligence. He has authored and co-authored several technical publications related to this work. Dr. Silbert has also supported several acquisition programs and is currently supporting the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) program where he serves as the data fusion SME for the Triton aircraft. In addition, Dr. Silbert is currently developing a new type of non-linear track filter based on using grids. Dr. Silbert is the technical lead in a data fusion initiative to make NAVAIR a center of excellence for data fusion, called the Data Fusion Initiative for Naval Enterprise (DAFINE). As part of this effort, Dr. Silbert is working on standardizing the requirements, development, test and evaluation of data fusion systems. In the past, Dr. Silbert has served on national data fusion working groups and has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in artificial intelligence, computer science, mathematics, and statistics. He is also a member of the International Society for Information Fusion (ISIF). Dr. Silbert has a Ph.D. in systems engineering from George Washington University. He has a M.S. degree in computer science from Rutgers University and a B.S. degree in computer science from Drexel University.
International Chairs
Anne-Laure Jousselme – NATO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation
InfoAnne‐Laure Jousselme is with the Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) in La Spezia (Italy) since June 2014. She was previously with the Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) in Valcartier in the Command, Control and Intelligence (C2I) section. She received her PhD in 1997 jointly from the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble (France) and the Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering Department of Laval University in Quebec City (Canada).
She is a member of the boards of directors of the International Society of Information Fusion (ISIF) and of the Belief Functions and Applications Society (BFAS) since 2012. She is a member of the steering committee of the BELIEF conference and an active member of the ISIF working group on Evaluation Techniques of Uncertainty Representation (ETUR). She is member of the program committees for the Information Fusion conference (FUSION), the Canadian Tracking and Fusion Group workshop (chair of the 2014 edition), the International Conference on Belief Functions (BELIEF), the IEEE Conference on Cognitive Methods in Situation Awareness and Decision Support (CogSIMA) and the International Conference on Semantic Technologies for Intelligence, Defense, and Security (STIDS). She was a member of the organizing committee for the Fusion conference held in Quebec City in 2007, for which she served as tutorial chair and co‐organized a special session on Information Fusion and Pattern Recognition.
She has been adjunct professor at Laval University (Quebec, Canada) during 10 years where she supervised master and PhD theses in the field of information fusion. Her current research interests include high‐level information fusion, reasoning under uncertainty, target recognition and identification, maritime anomaly detection.
She is a member of the boards of directors of the International Society of Information Fusion (ISIF) and of the Belief Functions and Applications Society (BFAS) since 2012. She is a member of the steering committee of the BELIEF conference and an active member of the ISIF working group on Evaluation Techniques of Uncertainty Representation (ETUR). She is member of the program committees for the Information Fusion conference (FUSION), the Canadian Tracking and Fusion Group workshop (chair of the 2014 edition), the International Conference on Belief Functions (BELIEF), the IEEE Conference on Cognitive Methods in Situation Awareness and Decision Support (CogSIMA) and the International Conference on Semantic Technologies for Intelligence, Defense, and Security (STIDS). She was a member of the organizing committee for the Fusion conference held in Quebec City in 2007, for which she served as tutorial chair and co‐organized a special session on Information Fusion and Pattern Recognition.
She has been adjunct professor at Laval University (Quebec, Canada) during 10 years where she supervised master and PhD theses in the field of information fusion. Her current research interests include high‐level information fusion, reasoning under uncertainty, target recognition and identification, maritime anomaly detection.
Joni Amorim – UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil)
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