SPIE Remote Sensing And Security And Defence Events Co-Locate For Collaboration

A single location for Europe's premier sensing and defence events, SPIE Remote Sensing and SPIE Security and Defence, will foster collaborative efforts in sensor technology, electro-optical systems, and related topics. The events will run 24-27 September at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.

Highlights include a 45-company exhibition and a new conference on high-power lasers as well as high-level plenary speakers and other featured talks. Technical registration enables access to conferences in both events.

SPIE Remote Sensing features 11 technical conferences on topics such as image and signal processing, remote sensing of natural disasters, next-generation satellites, applications to agriculture and ecosystems, and lidar technologies for remote sensing.

Opening plenary talks will be given by Thomas Usländer, head of the Information Management and Production Control Department at Fraunhofer IOSB, and Mitchell Roffer, president and founder of Roffer's Ocean Fishing Forecasting Service.

Usländer will overview the uses and architectural solutions that aim at an open and flexible Earth-Observing (EO) mission, incorporating international initiatives such as GEOSS and HMA and their approaches.

Roffer's talk will cover applications and satellite visualization products for fisheries, operational forecasting for fishing and ship routing, and mapping the oil-dispersant water mixtures released into the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

Co-chairs are Karin Stein (Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation) and Charles Bostater (Marine Environmental Optics Lab and Remote Sensing Center, Florida Institute of Technology).

SPIE Security and Defence includes 11 technical conferences in security and defence topics including military applications in hyperspectral imaging, quantum-physics-based information security, emerging technologies, millimeter wave and terahertz sensors and technology, and electro-optical remote sensing.

The symposium will open with plenary talks by Mark Neice, director of the High Energy Laser Joint Technology Office, and Bill Bardo, visiting professor in systems engineering at University College London.

Neice will discuss the JTO's collaborative efforts with other companies to accelerate development of high-energy lasers and how they can add to the success of next-generation weapon.

Bardo will give an overview of the seven years of work that has gone into the Systems Engineering for Autonomous Systems Defence Technology Centre, including decision making, data interpretation, communication, and management.

Suppliers of detection, imaging, laser, and other equipment for applications such as chemical and biological sensing, cameras and CCD components, displays, and infrared systems will present their latest applications in the free-admission exhibition 25-26 September. A waiting list is available for companies still wanting to show in the exhibition.

SPIE Security and Defence co-chairs are David Titterton (Defence Science and Technology Lab) and Reinhardt Ebert (Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation). 

The co-located conferences are sponsored by Selex Galileo and Thales UK, and supported by Scottish Enterprise.  As part of Scottish Enterprise's support, Meet The Buyer events presenting Scottish companies will be being offered during the week.

Conference proceedings will be published individually in the SPIE Digital Library as soon as approved after the meeting, and also in collected print and digital volumes and collections.

About SPIE
SPIE is the international society for optics and photonics, a not-for-profit organization founded in 1955 to advance light-based technologies. The Society serves nearly 225,000 constituents from approximately 150 countries, offering conferences, continuing education, books, journals, and a digital library in support of interdisciplinary information exchange, professional growth, and patent precedent. SPIE provided over $2.7M in support of education and outreach programs in 2011.