"Automatic image analysis for topographic mapping - vision and reality"

Prof. Dr. Christian Heipke

Secretary General of ISPRS

Christian Heipke studied Geodetic Sciences and Surveying at the universities of Hannover, Sydney, and Munich. He graduated from the Technical University Munich in 1986 and subsequently joined the Industrieanlagen-Betriebsgesellschaft (IABG), Ottobrunn as a Research Scientist. In 1990 he became Research Fellow at the Chair for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Technical University Munich. In the same year he received a Ph.D. degree (Dr.-Ing.) and in 1994 the venia legendi (Dr.-Ing. habil.), both from TU Munich. 

He has been a visiting professor of photogrammetry at The Ohio State University and Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. Dr. Heipke was appointed Head of the Institute of Photogrammetry and GeoInformation, and also Dean of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geodetic Science.Leibniz Universität Hannover. He has chaired ISPRS working groups for 16 years. He was also vice-president of EuroSDR (European Spatial Data Research, formerly known as OEEPE) from 2004-2009, in which he was responsible for research. He currently serves as chair of the German Geodetic Commission (DGK) and as ISPRS Secretary General. Furthermore, he is a member of the German Society for Geodesy, Geoinformation and Land Management (DVW), the German Society for Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Geoinformation (DGPF), the German Society for Pattern Recognition (DAGM), the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

 "Spaceborne SAR geodesy: opportunity and challenges"

Prof. Dr. Ramon Hanssen

Head of Department of Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands

Ramon Hanssen is Antoni van Leeuwenhoek professor in Earth Observation. He studied aerospace engineering and geodetic engineering at Delft University of Technology (M.Sc. 1993). In 1994, he worked as a research scientist on potential field data inversion at the International Institute for Aerospace Surveys and Earth Sciences (ITC). He then started his PhD research at the Delft Institute for Earth-Oriented Space research (DEOS) of Delft University of Technology on the geodetic analysis of repeat-pass spaceborne radar interferometry, with emphasis on error propagation. During this research, he worked as a visiting scholar at Stuttgart University (1996), at the German Aerospace Center (DLR, 1997) and at Stanford University (1997-1998) on a Fulbright research fellowship. In 2001 he received the PhD degree (cum laude) of TU Delft.

At present, he is working in the field of geodesy, radar remote sensing and geostatistics at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences at TU Delft. His current research interests are the geodetic analysis of imaging remote sensing data, error propagation and quality control, geophysical and geotechnical applications, and the mathematical modeling and physical interpretation of deformation processes. He serves as an expert in various ESA panels for new satellite developments.

In 2001, he published a text book on Satellite Radar Interferometry, which is well recognized in the scientific community. He received a Fulbright Fellowship in 1997, the Innovational Research Award (Vernieuwingsimpuls) from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and the Bomford Prize of the International Association of Geodesy in 2003. In 2007 he was a visiting scholar at the Nordic Volcanological Institute of the University of Iceland. In 2008 he was awarded the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek chair of Delft University of Technology. In 2007 and 2008 he received the SBIR award from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs for founding a TU Delft spin-off company for radar remote sensing and monitoring of water defense works and civil infrastructure, Hansje Brinker. Since 2012 he is visiting professor at Wuhan University, China.

Hanssen is currently chairing the Department of Geocience and Remote Sensing and leading a research group on radar interferometry.  

"Real Time Airborne Monitoring System for Rapid Mapping and Traffic Applications"

Prof. Dr. Peter Reinartz

Head of Department of Photogrammetry and Image Analysis, Applied Remote Sensing at German Aerospace Center (DLR)

He is department head of the department “Photogrammetry and Image Analysis”, at the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), Remote Sensing Technology Institute (IMF) and holds a professorship for geoinformatics at the University of Osnabrück. He has more then 25 years of experience in image processing and remote sensing and over 200 publications in these fields. His main interests are in direct georeferencing, stereo-photogrammetry and data fusion of space borne and airborne data, generation of digital elevation models and interpretation of VHR data from sensors like WorldView, GeoEye, Pleidaes a.o. He is also engaged in using remote sensing data for disaster management and using high frequency time series of airborne image data for real time image processing and their operational use in case of disasters as well as for traffic monitoring.

"Space and Ground Based Radar Interferometry for Engineering Applications"

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Wolfgang Niemeier

Professor for Geodesy and Managing Director of Institut für Geodäsie und Photogrammetrie, TU Braunschweig

Wolfgang Niemeier studied geodetic engineering at the Technische Universitaet Braunschweig and Universitaet Bonn (Dipl.-Ing.). At the Universitaet Hannover he received his Dr.-Ing. with the topic “congruency tests for geodetic networks with multiple obvervation epochs” and his Dr.-Ing. habil. with a thesis on “reliability in geodetic systems”. During this time he was visiting scholar at Calgary University, Canada (1982) and University of New South Wales, Australia (1987). For 2 years (1989-90) he was teaching and research fellow at the Universidad Nacional in Costa Rica. Starting 1991 he was appointed as professor for geodesy at the Technische Universitaet Braunschweig, since 1995 as head of the Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry.
He has published more than 200 articles and a text book on “Adjustment Theory and Applied Statistics” (2nd issue 2008, in German). His main fields of research are mathematical statistics (network theory, deformation analysis), modern sensor technology (laserscanning, GNSS, InSAR) and geoscientific and engineering applications. Actually he is chair of the scientific committee of the 2nd Joint International Symposium on Deformation Monitoring, Nottingham, UK, 2013.
Since 2005 he is involved in the application of InSAR for monitoring critical slopes and subsidence zones in various areas around the world. In 2011 for the first time he applied PSI analyses for monitoring of an inner-city tunneling project during the construction progress. Since 2010 his
institute has its own ground-based radar system, which allows to monitor slow-motion displacements of geo- objects and high-velocity movements and oscillations of large engineering structures, as well.

 

"Towards Mobile Multi-sensor Platforms Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles"

 Prof. Dr. Farhad Samadzadegan

 Department of Surveying and Geomatics, University of Tehran

Farhad Samadzadegan received his Bsc. in 1990 from University of Tehran at Geomatics engineering. Then he received his Msc. from KNT University in 1993 at photogrammetry. He then started his PhD. Research at 1997 in automatic 3D building recognition and reconstruction based on artificial intelligence techniques and got his PhD. in 2001. 

He has been the head of Geomatics department at University of Tehran for four years from 2008 till 2012 and the head of “Sensors and Platforms in Geomatics Research Center” of Tehran University. Now He is working in Geomatics department at University of Tehran as a full professor in fields of UAV and Geosensors and platforms, computer vision, and soft computation in Geomatics Engineering.

He has more than 15 years of experience in the designing and developing digital photogrammetric and remote sensing software and systems.  He had published a text book on Swarm Intelligence in Geomatics engineering in 2011 and another one on data fusion in remote sensing in 2012. He also published over 30 journal papers in international journals and more than 60 papers in international conferences in recent years.

 

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“An Evaluation in Thermal Sensing: Can Heat Be an Indicator for Intelligence of the Universe?”

  Prof. Dr. Seyed Kazem Alavipanah

  Head of Remote Sensing and GIS Department, Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran

Seyed Kazem Alavipanah received his Master of Science in both remote sensing and GIS and soil salinity in 1995 form University of Gent, Belgium and University of Tarbiat Modarres, Iran. He received his PhD in soil science (Remote Sensing and GIS) in University of Gent, Belgium, in 1997.

Prof. Dr. Alavipanah is now the head of department of Remote Sensing and GIS in University of Tehran. He has received about 10 awards and honors and issued 10 books mainly on RS and GIS, on art and humanities, and also published about 250 articles and conducted more than 20 projects. He is member of International Desertnet. He has membership in EARSeL, the committee of planning for natural resources of Iran, in high council for natural disasters of Iran, in national institute of Iranian elites and editorial board in many journals.

Prof. Dr, Alavipanah now as his main expertise is interested in thermal remote sensing with first book published in this field. He has a good understanding and experience in interdisciplinary studies as well as a suitable knowledge about humanities and physical sciences. He has conducted many projects and efforts in environmental change studies and sustainable development planning.  

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 “NEW FRAMEWORK FOR 3D GENERALIZATION OF BUILDINGS”

   Prof. Dr. Alias Abdul-Rahman

  Head of 3D GIS Research Lab, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

Professor Alias Abdul-Rahman is currently the Head of 3D GIS Research Lab at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Malaysia. He was Dean for the Faculty of Geoinformation and Real Estate from 2011 to 2013. His main research interests are 3D GIS, 3D City Modelling, and 3D Generalization and involves with several international committees on 3D geospatial geoinformation. He has PhD from University of Glasgow (UK) and MSc from ITC, the Netherlands. 

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“Fuzzy topology-based image classification”