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Speaker details announced for Autonomous Safety-Critical Workshop

December 13, 2017  - By

A free Cognizant Autonomous Systems for Safety Critical Applications (CASSCA) Workshop will be held 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. on Jan. 29 at the Hyatt Regency Reston in Reston, Virginia. This is scheduled to take place the day before and at the same location as the Institute of Navigation’s International Technical Meeting and Precise Time & Time Interval Systems and Applications (ION ITM/PTTI) 2018 conference.

The workshop is complimentary but registration is required to attend.

The workshop consists of a full day of presentations and discussions on the opportunities and challenges associated with developing fully autonomous systems that are cognizant and trustworthy for safety-critical applications by leading experts in the field. Speakers include:

  • David Corman, Program Manager, Cyber-Physical Systems Program; National Science Foundation (NSF). Dr. Corman’s current research interests are in the field of Cyber Physical Systems (CPS), security for CPS, unmanned systems, manufacturing, and technologies supporting Smart and Connected Communities.
  • Paul DeBitetto, Vice President, Software Engineering; Top Flight Technologies. Dr.  DeBitetto leads all Top Flight’s Software and Embedded Systems Development. That includes product-related flight control, simulation, computing, sensing, data communications, security-related controls and software solutions.
  • Finch Fulton, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy; Department of Transportation (DOT)
  • Joao Hespanha, Professor and Chair of Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; University of California, Santa Barbara. His current research interests include hybrid and switched systems; multi-agent control systems; distributed control over communication networks (also known as networked control systems); the use of vision in feedback control; stochastic modeling in biology; and network security.
  • Robert Peterson, Professor and Director of Center for Insurance Law and Regulation; Santa Clara University.
    Mr. Peterson teaches torts, insurance law and regulation, evidence and products liability, and other courses. He is a past chair of the California State Bar Standing Committee on Insurance Law, and is director of the Law School’s Center for Insurance Law and Regulation.
  • Signe Redfield, Roboticist and Mission Manager; Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). Dr. Redfield’s primary interests include performance evaluation of autonomous systems, foundations of robotics, and cooperative behaviors for autonomous underwater vehicles.
  • Giorgio Rizzoni, Professor and Director of Center for Automotive Research (CAR); The Ohio State University. The CAR is an interdisciplinary university research center that conducts research on advanced automotive and transportation technologies and systems engineering, focusing on sustainable mobility, advanced propulsion systems, human safety and the environment.
  • Steven Rogers, Senior Scientist for Automatic Target Recognition and Sensor Fusion; Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). Dr. Rogers serves as the principal scientific authority and independent researcher in the field of multi-sensor automatic target recognition and sensor fusion.

The workshop is organized by Zaher (Zak) M. Kassas, an assistant professor at the University of California, Riverside and director of the Autonomous Systems Perception, Intelligence & Navigation (ASPIN) Laboratory.  His research focuses on cyber-physical systems, autonomous vehicles, intelligent transportation systems, navigation systems, and software-defined radio. He has co-authored two cover stories in GPS World magazine, “LTE cellular steers UAV: Signals of opportunity work in challenged environments” and “Opportunity for Accuracy: Terrestrial SOPs attractive supplement to GNSS.”

To register for the CASSCA Workshop, go to www.ion.org/cassca.

Registration is also now open for the ION International Technical Meeting (ITM) and Precise Time and Time Interval Systems Applications Meeting (PTTI), which begin the next day (January 30-February 1) at the same location. See www.ion.org/itm for more information.