Pre Conference Workshop
Fundamentals, Analysis, Design, Software, Hardware fabrication, Test & Qualification of
Advanced Antennas for Space, Vehicular and Ground Applications
We are excited to announce a pre-conference workshop as part of the World Antenna and Microwave Symposium (WAMS) 2024, focusing on the intricate world of advanced antennas. This workshop will be an invaluable opportunity for researchers, engineers, and enthusiasts to dive deep into the realm of antennas for various applications, including space, vehicular, and ground-based systems.
Date: 28th February, 2024
Time: 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM
Venue: Raghu Engineering College, Seminar Hall
Registration Fee: 500 Rs
Catering: Lunch and snacks will be provided during the workshop
Featuring Lectures by :
Dr. Sudhakar Rao
President & CEO, RaoS Consultants LLC, USA
Dr. Nacer Chahat
IEEE Fellow, System Engineer, NASA/JPL, USA
Dr. Clency Lee-Yow
CTO, Vitesse/ Custom Microwave Inc., USA
Dr. Gaurangi Gupta
IEEE APS YP Ambassador, Antenna Engineer, NASA/JPL, USA
Dr. Paolo Focardi
Expert in Space Vehicle Antennas and geo-physical image processing at NASA/JPL, USA
Prof V M Pandharipande
Also features demonstrations by :
Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) Testing Laboratories
President & CEO, RaoS Consultants LLC, USA
Dr. Sudhakar Rao is the founder & CEO of RaoS Consultants LLC providing technical consultancy to various companies in USA, Canada, Europe, and India. Dr. Rao retired from Northrop Grumman Space Systems in 2022 where he worked as the Senior Technical Fellow and provided technical leadership to all divisions of Northrop Grumman in the areas of antennas and payload development for various key programs. In the past, he also worked at Lockheed Martin, Boeing Satellite Systems, Spar Aerospace Ltd (now MDA), LRDE Bangalore & ECIL Hyderabad. Dr. Rao received B. Tech from REC Warangal, M. Tech from IIT Kharagpur, Ph. D from IIT Madras and post-doctoral fellowship from Univ. of Trondheim, Norway. He worked as a research associate at University of Manitoba, Canada during 1982-1983. Over the past 40 years, he developed innovative antenna systems for 90 satellites and 10 air/vehicular/ground systems. His work on development of radiation templates for complex satellite antenna patterns for interference analysis was adopted and recommended by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)/CCIR in 1992 as the world-wide standard for satellite manufacturers and operators. He authored over 230 technical papers and was awarded 58 patents (52 US & 6 European) and 5 trade secrets. His fundamental work on the design of multiple beam antennas in 1999 has been used by satellite industry world-wide. He authored and co-edited three text book volumes on “Handbook of Reflector Antennas and Feed Systems” that were published in June 2013 by the Artech House Publishers.
Dr. Rao is an IEEE Life Fellow, a Fellow of IETE, and a Life Fellow of WAMS Society. He received several awards including the IEEE Benjamin Franklin Key Award in 2006, Delaware Valley Engineer of the Year in 2008, Asian American Engineer of the year award in 2008, IEEE Judith Resnik Technical Field Award in 2009 for pioneering work in aerospace engineering, Boeing’s Special Invention awards in 2001 & 2002, Lockheed Martin’s President Award in 2005, 2007 & 2008, 2009, IEEE Region 6 Outstanding Engineer Award for 2017 and the 2017 Northrop Grumman’s President Award for innovations and contributions to key programs. He received Distinguished Alumni Professional Achievement Award from his alma mater NIT Warangal in 2016 and IETE’s Prof. S.N. Mitra Memorial Award in 2016. Recently, he received the 2020 IETE’s Biman Behari Sen Memorial Award.
Dr. Rao served as the Distinguished Lecturer for the IEEE APS and as an AdCom member for IEEE APS. He was the founder and Chair for the IEEE APS “Industry Initiatives Committee” during 2011-2015, IEEE APS Fellow Evaluation Committee member during 2015-2017, founder and Editor of the IEEE Antennas & Propagation Magazine’s “Antenna Applications Corner”, Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Antennas & Propagation, and Associate Editor of IEEE AWPL. He is the founding executive committee member of the WAMS series of conferences in India. Dr. Rao delivered invited and keynote talks for more than 50 conferences world-wide. He served as the IEEE Fellow Committee member for 2020 & 2021 and now serving for 2023 & 2024. He instituted IETE – Dr. Sudhakar Rao Award in 2020 to recognize and honor outstanding antenna engineers and established awards for best outgoing male & female students at Raghu Institute of Technology, Visakhapatnam. Dr. Rao is the Distinguished Visiting Professor at IIIT DM Kancheepuram, Chennai, India and is also serving as the member of School Research Board of Vignan University, Guntur, India.
Title of The Talk:
''Advanced Antenna Designs for Space, Air & Ground Communications: An Industry Perspective''
Abstract:
Antennas are “Eyes and Ears” of modern-day communication systems. They are key components of any communications link providing the coverage, gain to close the communication link, bandwidth, capacity/data rates and polarization. Antenna engineering is a highly specialized skill in the industry and the role of antenna engineer is to develop appropriate products and qualify them for any intended application. Antenna has to meet several requirements simultaneously and often times the design becomes a difficult task for engineers. Simple designs are elegant designs! Antenna designs could be simplified even with complex requirements if the fundamentals are well understood. This talk will cover antenna applications, various types of antennas, fundamentals, and design methodologies for reflector antennas, omni-antennas, UWB antennas and phased array antennas. Antenna hardware for satellites, aircrafts, vehicles and ground communication systems will be discussed. Industry perspective of developing antenna products for different applications is emphasized.
IEEE Senior Member, Senior RF Microwave Engineer, NASA/JPL, USA
Paolo Focardi is a Senior RF Microwave Engineer at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. He received a PhD in Computer Science and Telecommunication Engineering from the University of Florence, Italy, in 2002. Early in his career, he worked for the Italian Space Agency and collaborated with NASA and DLR for the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). In 2001 he visited NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to work at the development of an accurate electromagnetic model of THz detectors between 600 GHz and 2.5 THz. In 2002, after completing his PhD, he joined the staff of JPL as a Post-Doc and then became Staff Engineer in 2004. Between 2004 and 2009 he worked on a project to remotely detect human vital signs which led to the creation of two start-up companies. In 2008 he briefly supported the development of two antennas for JUNO and then joined the team developing the instrument antenna for SMAP. He was the first to model the entire SMAP observatory to get very accurate predictions of the radiation patterns which was never measured on the ground. He was also responsible for the design and delivery of the COWVR instrument antenna, a flight project in collaboration between JPL and the US Air Force to measure wind speed over the ocean, which is currently flying on the ISS. Starting in 2013 he was responsible for the delivery of the feed assembly for NISAR, a project in collaboration between NASA and ISRO, the Indian Space Research Organization, which is currently in its final phases of integration and testing before launch, expected early in 2024. He’s currently working on INCUS, an Earth science mission aimed at measuring how water vapor and droplets move inside tropical storms with three satellites flying in close formation in low Earth orbit equipped with Ka-Band radars and deployable mesh reflectors. His work is focused on analytical and numerical methods in electromagnetism for the analysis and design of RF circuits and antennas. He has authored and co-authored over 70 journal and conference publications including two book chapters about reflector antennas.
Title of the talk:
''Antenna Systems for Space Applications at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory''
Abstract:
Antenna developments for space applications has a long history at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Starting from the 70’s, Voyager, Galileo, Cassini, SRTM and more recently Aquarius, SMAP, SWOT, NISAR and INCUS are just a few major flight projects that required the design and development of very complex antenna systems for telecom, radar and radiometric applications. They were, and in most cases still are, the state of the art in antenna design for space applications. In the past we mostly relied on relatively simple RF models and formulations and did a considerable amount of prototype testing to validate antenna performance. In recent years RF modeling tools like HFSSTM, GRASPTM and a few more, have reached capabilities that were unimaginable just a few years back. At the same time, computer power and available memory have been increasing steadily. Thanks to this fertile ground it’s now possible to run extremely complex RF simulations of very large structures in a relatively short time with very good results. This presentation will guide the audience through a few examples of flight projects where very complex RF models have provided extremely accurate results and allowed the development of very complex instruments, some of which are still flying today.
Prof V M Pandharipande
Title of the talk:
''Phased array radar Antenna Analysis and Design ''
Don't miss this opportunity to enhance your expertise in antenna technology!
For inquiries or additional information, please contact
P. Satish Rama Chowdary (General Chair WAMS 2024)
Antenna Systems for Space Applications at NASA Jet Propulsion Laborator
We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Paolo Focardi, renowned expert in Space Vehicle Antennas and geo-physical image processing at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, will be gracing the 3rd Wireless, Antennas, and Microwave Symposium (WAMS-2024) as a distinguished speaker for our Pre-Conference workshop
Date: 28th February, 2024
Time: 9:30 AM to 5:00 PM
Venue: Raghu Engineering College, Seminar Hall
Registration Fee:
Catering: Lunch and snacks will be provided during the workshop