2024 IEEE World Congress on Computational IntelligenceSpecial Session on Computational Intelligence in Space and Aerospace

30 June - 5 July 2024 in Yokohama, Japan

The special session is organised by the IEEE CIS Task Force in Emerging Technologies in Space and Aerospace:

  • (Chair) Prof Massimiliano Vasile, University of Strathclyde, UK
  • (Vice Chair) Dr Victor Rodriguez, UPM Spain
  • Prof David Camacho, UPM Spain
  • Dr Domenico Qualgliarella, CIRA, Italy
  • Dr Annalisa Riccardi, University of Strathclyde, UK
  • Prof Claudia Soares, Nova University, Portugal
  • Dr Christie Maddock, University of Strathclyde, UK
  • Prof Roberto Furfaro, University of Arizona, USA
  • Prof Richard Linares, MIT, USA
  • Dr Nasser Lashgarian Azad, University of Waterloo, Canada
  • Prof Maocai Wang, China University of Geosciences, China

Session Organisers & Chairs

Prof Massimiliano Vasile

Massimiliano Vasile is currently Professor of Space Systems Engineering and Director of the Aerospace Centre of Excellence at the University of Strathclyde. 

He received his M.S. in 1996 and Ph.D. in 2001 from Politecnico di Milano.  He sits on the AIAA Astrodynamics and IAF Space Power committees, and chairs the IEEE task force on Emerging Technologies in Space and Aerospace. He is scientific adviser to the UK delegation to UNOOSA and sits on the UN Space Mission Planning Advisory Group.  His research interests include Computational Astrodynamics, Space Sustainability, Computational Intelligence and Optimisation Under Uncertainty exploring the limits of computer science at solving highly complex problems in science and engineering.  Asteroid 2002 PX33 “Maxvasile” was named in his honour in recognition of Prof Vasile’s contributions to the development of innovative techniques for the design and optimisation of space trajectories and his work on asteroid manipulation.

Prof. Vasile has developed novel numerical methods for single and multi-objective optimisation under uncertainty, has pioneered the use of computational intelligence in astrodynamics, and the use of imprecise probability theories in the optimisation of space systems.  His research has been funded by the European Space Agency, the UK and French Space Agencies, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, the Planetary Society and the European Commission.

He is an AIAA Associate Fellow and an IEEE Senior Member.

Prof David Camacho

David Camacho is a full professor at Computer Systems Engineering Department of Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), and the head of the Applied Intelligence and Data Analysis research group (AIDA) at UPM.

He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in 2001 with honours (best thesis award in Computer  Science). His research interests include: Machine Learning (Clustering/Deep Learning),  Computational Intelligence (Evolutionary Computation, Swarm Intelligence), Social Network Analysis, Fake News and Disinformation Analysis. He has participated/led more than 50 research projects (National and European: H2020, DG Justice, ISFP, and Erasmus+), related to the design and application of artificial intelligence methods for data mining and optimization for problems emerging in industrial scenarios (coal mining, steel), aeronautics, aerospace  engineering, cybercrime/cyber intelligence, social networks applications, or video games among others.

He is an Associate Editor of several journals, including Information Fusion, Ambient  Intelligence & Humanized Computing, Expert Systems, and Cognitive Computation.

Dr Victor Rodriguez-Fernandez

Victor Rodriguez-Fernandez is an assistant professor in the school of computer systems engineering of Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). He holds a PhD in computer science at the Autonomous University of Madrid. Currently he is part of the Applied Intelligence and Data Analysis (AIDA) research group at UPM, where he is involved with several projects funded by the European Commission. His research interests revolve around practical applications of deep learning, with a special emphasis on the domains of industry and space.

 

Dr Nasser Lashgarian Azad

Nasser Lashgarian Azad is an Associate Professor in the Department of Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo in Canada, and is also a member of the University of Waterloo Centre for Automotive Research (WatCAR), as well as the Waterloo Artificial Intelligence Institute.

Before joining the Systems Design Engineering Department, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. His primary research interests lie in: (i) intelligent controls and automation with applications to automotive systems as well as autonomous systems like automated vehicles and drones, and (ii) innovative applications of AI methods to solve complex modeling, optimization, control, and automation problems.

He has over 70 publications in high-caliber, peer-reviewed journals such as IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, Artificial Intelligence Review, Applied Soft Computing, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Neurocomputing, Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, IEEE Access, Soft Computing, Mechatronics, Vehicle System Dynamics, Engineering Optimization, Journal of Experimental & Theoretical Artificial Intelligence, and ASME Journal of Dynamic Systems, Measurement, and Control. He received an Early Researcher Award in 2015 from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation.

Dr Annalisa Riccardi

Annalisa Riccardi received her PhD from the Centre of Industrial Mathematics of the University of Bremen, Germany, in 2012 with a thesis on multi objective multidisciplinary design optimisation techniques for rocket design. After the PhD she joined for 2 years the Advanced Concepts Team of the European Space Agency as research fellow in applied mathematics and computer science, where she continued pursuing her research on optimization, in particular on constraints handling techniques for evolutionary computation, as well as extending her field of expertise to other field of computational intelligence, in particular machine learning algorithms for ordinal regression and extreme learning machine algorithms. Her second appointment as post doc, from 2014 to 2016, has been at the Advanced Space Concepts Laboratory of Strathclyde University where, while continuing working on shape optimisation, optimal control, combinatorial optimisation and surrogate modeling techniques, with applications to the automotive and oil and gas sectors, she started to work also on uncertainty propagation techniques and optimisation under uncertainties.

Her main experience is in machine learning, optimisation techniques and applications to the engineering sector. Her current research interests are in the field of:

  • Natural Language Processing and Understanding in support to space engineering design and operations
  • Blockchain applications in aerospace
  • Socio-economic applications of EO data
  • Explainable AI for industrial decision support
  • Robust data driven planning, routing and scheduling

This expertise is applied in her role as Associate director of the Intelligent Computational Engineering Laboratory (ICE Lab) at the University of Strathclyde

IEEE Computational Intelligence Society