Keynote Speakers

Prof. Antonio De Maio, IEEE Fellow, University of Naples Federico II, Italy

Antonio De Maio (S'01-A'02-M'03-SM'07-F'13) was born in Sorrento, Italy, on June 20, 1974. He received the Dr.Eng. degree (with honors) and the Ph.D. degree in information engineering, both from the University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy, in 1998 and 2002, respectively. Currently, he is a Professor with the University of Naples Federico II. His research interest lies in the field of statistical signal processing, with emphasis on radar detection and optimization theory applied to radar signal processing. Dr. De Maio is a Fellow member of IEEE and the recipient of the 2010 IEEE Fred Nathanson Memorial Award as the young (less than 40 years of age) AESS Radar Engineer 2010 whose performance is particularly noteworthy as evidenced by contributions to the radar art over a period of several years, with the following citation for "robust CFAR detection, knowledge-based radar signal processing, and waveform design and diversity".

Prof. George Z.H. Zhu, FASME, SMIEEE, York University, Canada

Zheng Hong (George) Zhu is the Director of the Space Engineering Design Laboratory at the Lassonde School of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering. His research interests encompass various topics, including the dynamics and control of tethered spacecraft systems, electrodynamic tether propulsion and space debris removal, as well as space robotics and advanced spacecraft materials.

Dr. Zhu is the Fellow of Canadian Academy of Canada, Engineering Institute of Canada, Canadian Society for Mechanical Engineering (CSME), and American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He is also the Associate Fellow of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), College Member of Royal Society of Canada, and Academician of International Academy of Astronautics.

Prof. Chinthaka Premachandra, IEEE Senior Member, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan

Chinthaka Premachandra (Senior Member, IEEE) was born in Sri Lanka. He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from Mie University, Tsu, Japan, in 2006 and 2008, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan, in 2011. From 2012 to 2015, he was an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tokyo University of Science, Tokyo, Japan. From 2016 to 2017, he was an Assistant Professor with the Department of Electronic Engineering, School of Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology, Tokyo, where he was an Associate Professor, from 2018 to 2022. In 2022, he was promoted to a Professor with the Department of Electronic Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Shibaura Institute of Technology, where he is currently the Manager of the Image Processing and Robotic Laboratory. His research interests include AI, UAV, image processing, audio processing, intelligent transport systems (ITS), and mobile robotics. 

He is a member of IEEE, IEICE, Japan; SICE, Japan; RSJ, Japan; and SOFT, Japan. He received the IEEE SENSORS LETTERS Best Paper Award from the IEEE Sensors Council in 2022 and the IEEE Japan Medal from the IEEE Tokyo Section in 2022. He also received the FIT Best Paper Award and the FIT Young Researchers Award from IEICE and IPSJ, Japan, in 2009 and 2010, respectively. He has served as a steering committee member and an editor for many international conferences and journals. He is the Founding Chair of the International Conference on Image Processing and Robotics (ICIPRoB), which is technically co-sponsored by IEEE. He is currently serving as an Associate Editor for IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (R-AL) and IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems.