UDRC archived news articles
UDRC on Film
The Edinburgh consortium alongside Vivid Science Productions and the LSSCN consortium have produced video demos on their research. These demos feature highights of the Phase 2 project, which will allow greater opportunites for industrial and defence companies to expolit the research which has been developed. See the latest video uploads.
The UDRC has also produced a marketing video from the lastest Sensor Signal for Defence Conference alongside films of all the invited and keynote speakers for those that missed them. These can be viewed on the SSPD 2017 conference website.
Posted 27th Feb 2018
SSPD 2017 Programme now Published
The Sensor Signal Processing for Defence conference programme is now available to view on the SSPD website. You can also check out this year's keynote and invited speakers, by having a look at their biographies and abstracts which are also available online. Don't forget to register for your place before the 22nd November.
You could also take the opportunity to attend the IET’s Intelligent Signal Processing 2017 (ISP2017) conference taking place on the 4th and 5th December and is also being held at IET Savoy Place. Join leading academics, industrial engineers and researchers in London this December and gain insight into state-of-the-art technology in this field as well as emerging application domains, while you make valuable connection with the wider signal processing community. For more information and to register – http://events.theiet.org/isp/
Posted 25th October 2017
2017 Summer School Brings Signal Processing Community Together!
This year the UDRC held its summer school at the University of Surrey, funded by EPSRC and Dstl. The feedback from the event showed that overall it was well recieved by students who attended. This Summer school had 95 people registered over 4 days and had 19 different countries represented. With experts from: Universities of Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University, University of Surrey, Strathclyde University, Newcastle University, Czech Technical University Prague and Hellenic Airforce, it was a great place to network.
Thank you to all the staff and and students who contributed to making it a successful week.
A few of the highlights from the week
Posted 26th July 2017
FG2018 Special Session: Is deep learning always the best solution for face recognition?
This special session will feature as part of the 13th IEEE International Conference on AUTOMATIC FACE AND GESTURE RECOGNITION (FG 2018). The aim is to investigate the scenarios where conventional methods can outperform DL methods by EXPLICIT comparison and deep analysis. Submissions are welcome on topics related to the invesigation of (i) the advantages of traditional methods against DL methods and (ii) insights into the reasons of these advantages. Submissions will be peer-reviewed and should follow the standard FG2018 IEEE format.
Date: 15th - 19th May 2018
Location: Xi'an, China
Posted 25th July 2017
UDRC Phase 2 to Hold Showcase Event
The UDRC will be holding an end-of-phase event to inform stakeholders, academics and those in industry with an interest in signal processing for defence, the importance and benefits of the UDRC phase 2 research. The focus of the event will be on exploitation of cutting-edge university research for the defence user. It will showcase the successes by way of practical exhibitions, a series of talks and posters brought to you by UDRC universities in conjunction with Dstl and industry partners.
Date: 21st February 2018
Location: Tidworth Garrison Theatre
Posted 11th July 2017
SSPD Extended Deadline and New Best Paper Award
The new extended deadline for the Sensor Signal Processing for Defence 2017 conference is now the 14th July 2017. Authors are invited to submit a relevant paper. This year there will be a Best Paper Award which will be presented to authors whose work represents innovative research in their respective areas. We are also pleased to announce that Prof. Moeness Amin from Villanova University will deliver our academic keynote speech and Prof. Hugh Griffiths from University College London will give an invited talk on his research in radar signal processing.
Posted 20th June 2017
UDRC scientists form L_WP4 make it to BBC breakfast!
Dr Carmine Clemente and his team, who won the overall European Satellite Navigation Competition, are getting a lot of attention from the medias. Here they are on BBC Breakfast.
Posted 8th December 2016
A novel unsupervised anomaly-based Intrusion Detection System (IDS)
Dr Francisco Aparicio-Navarro, at Newcastle University, in collaboration with Dr Kostas Kyriakopoulos, at Loughborough University, have developed a novel unsupervised anomaly-based Intrusion Detection System (IDS) able to detect different types of cyber-attacks in real-time.
This IDS is based on the combined use of multiple metrics from multiple layers of the TCP/IP stack to produce a collective decision on the presence of cyber-attacks. It uses the Dempster-Shafer Theory of Evidence as a data fusion technique, and is provided with a novel methodology able to automatically adapt its detection capabilities to the current characteristics of the network traffic, without intervention from an IDS administrator. Although it was initially tailored to detect injection attacks in IEEE 802.11 wireless networks, this IDS has proven effective detecting multiple cyber-attacks, such as virtual Jamming or Denial-of-Service packet flooding, and works in both wired and wireless networks.
Posted 15th November 2016
Scientists from Work Package 4 win ESNC 2016
Dr Carmine Clemente and his team won the overall European Satellite Navigation Competition for the develpment of satellite-based, early detection system capable of early drone detection and tracking. The project will receive an extensive package to support further development and market entry.
Posted 27th October 2016
SSPD 2016 Proceedings Now Available
This year's Sensor Signal Processing for Defence Conference in Edinburgh proved a success with encouraging feedback and many celebrated scientists in attendance. The organising committee was pleased to welcome keynote Speakers: Geert Leus, Professor at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science of the Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands, and Philip Perconti, Acting Director of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL).
Proceedings for SSPD2016 are available to view on the conference website www.sspdconference.org.
Posted 26th September 2016
Communicating Radar Technology using Fractional Fourier Transform Division Multiplexing
This video features Dr Carmine Clemente from Work Package 4
Posted 29th August 2016
Pioneering Chemical Analysis Software Developed by UDRC Researchers in the news
Researchers from E_Work Package 1 have developed a novel technique using new Raman spectral decomposition allowing for the identification of complex chemicals in real time. The "powerful" software produces "immediate benefit for defence and homeland security"and its potential for direct applications has captured the attention of specialised and main stream media.
See articles:
- Professional Security Magazine
- Daily Record
- Process Engineering Magazine
- Technology Networks
- The Scotsman
- Laboratory Talk
- Eureka
- Edinburgh News
- Chemical Technology
- Gradcracker
- Holyrood
- Futurescot
Posted 16th August 2016
Data Centre becomes Data and Software Area
The updated page contains The UDRC Phase 1 and 2 Data as well as MATLAB Toolbox For Polynomial Matrix Decompositions and MATLAB Sparsity Toolbox.
Posted 6th May 2016
Dr Yan Pailhas Awarded the A B Wood Medal
Research Associate Dr. Yan Pailhas from the Edinburgh Consortium has been awarded the A B Wood medal from the Institute of Acoustics for the year 2016. The A B Wood medal and attendant prize is awarded in alternate years to acousticians based in the UK/Europe (even years) and in the USA/Canada (odd years). It is aimed at younger researchers whose work is associated with the sea. Following his graduation from Manchester University in 1912, Albert Beaumont Wood became one of the first two research scientists at the Admiralty to work on antisubmarine defence. He designed the first directional hydrophone and was well known for the many contributions he made to the science of underwater acoustics and for the help he gave to younger colleagues. The A B Wood Medal was instituted after Albert's death by his many friends on both sides of the Atlantic and was administered by the Institute of Physics until the formation of the Institute of Acoustics.
Dr Pailhas will be presenting the medal lecture at the Acoustic and Environmental Variability, Fluctuations and Coherence conference in December this year at the Moller Centre at Cambridge.
Posted 17th March 2016
Dr Rolf Baxter Wins WAMI Challenge
Dr Rolf Baxter, a Research Associate in the Institute of Sensors, Signals and Systems at Heriot-Watt University, has won the coveted Dstl prize on their recent challenge competition on anomaly detection from wide area motion imagery (WAMI). Launched at the Anomaly Detection themed meeting, the challenge was to identify anomalies from 17 minutes of video captured by an airborne platform. Rolf, who is researching pattern-of-life learning and anomaly detection under the University Defence Research Collaboration, won the competition by identifying a verified anomaly while also producing few false-detections.
Posted 9th March 2016
Dr Carmine Clemente awarded Chancellor's Fellowship
Dr Carmine Clemente of the LSSCN consortium has been awarded the Chancellor's Fellowship in Sensors Systems and Asset Management by the University of Strathclyde. This is a prestigious and very competitive scheme and will ensure the development of Dr Clemente's Academic career. Dr Clemente obtained his PhD during UDRC phase 1 (2009 - 2013) and has worked as a Research Associate during UDRC phase 2, leading the research of WP4 on behalf of the LSSC consortium. The UDRC framework was extremely important in the development of Dr Clemente's talent and his appointment as an Academic represents a significant output of the UDRC. Dr Clemente will be employed as a Lecturer by the University of Strathclyde from April 2016 and will continue his engagement with UDRC activities.
Posted 9th March 2016
UDRC Phase 1 software data now available in UDRC Data Centre
Software that was generated as part of a UDRC phase 1 project is now available in the data centre section of the website, this can be found under the heading Maximum Chirplet Transform and multiple chirp detection.
Posted 24th February 2016
Dstl Motion Imagery Challenge Data Released
Dstl have publicly released unclassified airborne imagery to enable the motion imagery research community to tailor their research to address challenges relevant to both real-time and secondary military imagery exploitation. Dstl hope that this imagery will be useful in support of existing research and will also help Dstl identify promising and novel ideas, which may in future be suitable for military applications. Additional information can be gained from the accompanying presentation John Dawson of Dstl gave at the SSPD Conference in September 2015.
Posted 3rd February 2016
UDRC Related News
Call for Papers IOA Synthetic Aperture Sonar and Radar Conference 2018
The 4th International Conference on Synthetic Aperture Sonar and Synthetic Aperture Radar is calling for papers, prospective authors are invited to submit a title and single page summary to linda.canty@ioa.org.uk by 26 March 2018. The conference held in Italy on 5th - 7th September, draws together people from both Synthetic Aperture communities to discuss the developments in both fields and to establish where there are common areas of interest and where cross-fertilisation may prove beneficial.
Posted 12th September 2017
5th IMA Conference on Mathematics in Defence in the making
If you would like to be involved in the organisation of this conference and future events in the series or would be interested in sponsoring the event, please contact conferences@ima.org.uk.
Further information can also be found at www.ima.org.uk
Posted 2nd February 2017
Industry partners wanted: Technology License Opportunity
Identification of complex chemical mixtures using portable hand-held devices
Edinburgh researchers have developed a Raman spectral decomposition technique based on a new fast sparse approximation method. Inputting a set of reference spectra and an unknown mixture yields the identity of mixture elements and their contribution percentages. It also has the capability of detecting cases where the mixture has a spectrum outside the reference library. The method is highly computationally and memory efficient, which means that it can run on a low power real-time platform. Implemented as a hardware independent C package, which can handle a given library and input spectrum, the technology enables use with hand-held devices. This provides a portable, non-invasive approach for identification of real-life mixtures of chemical substances.
Posted 29th June 2016
Early Career Award from the IMA was given to Iain Rodger
Iain Rodger, Dr. Neil Robertson (ISSS, Visionlab) and Dr. Barry Connor (Thales) published an award-winning paper in the proceedings of the Institute of Mathematics & its Applications (IMA) Conference on Mathematics in Defence held in Oxford. As a result of the quality of the work and the oral presentation, the Early Career Award from the IMA was given to Iain Rodger.
Posted 15th December 2015
UDRC Summer School 2017 Registration Now Closed
Registration for this year's Summer School hosted by the University of Surrey is now closed. We would like to thank all the people who showed interest in attending, however there was a very high volume of applications and all the places have now been filled with the successful applicants notified.
If you require more information on the programme, venue and social events it can be found here.
Posted 19th April 2017
Job Opportunities:
Research Associate in Compressed Sensing and Sparsity for Radar and Electronic Surveillance
A research associate position for 15 months is available on the EPSRC and UK Ministry of Defence jointly funded University Defence Research Collaboration (UDRC) project.
The researcher will work on the work package, Sparse Representations and Compressed Sensing and will develop novel techniques for sensor constrained sensing and imaging. The focus will mainly be on sub-Nyquist spectral sensing and volumetric Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). The aim is to incorporate the low-dimensional structures of the signals to develop computationally efficient reconstruction algorithms and improve the overall sensing process.
More information here
This vacancy is no longer available
Research Associate in Computational sensing and signal processing
A research associate position for 24 months in the first instance is available on the ERC Advanced grant project, C-SENSE led by Professor Mike Davies. This project aims to make new theoretical advances in the use of low dimensional data models for compressive signal processing and learning, including detection, classification and estimation. It will explore the efficient use of low dimensional structure to reduce the computational, storage and acquisition costs for solving such signal processing problems.
The post holder will work on a theoretical framework to exploit novel compact representations of signals and data and the design and analysis of associated representations and algorithms, exploring the theoretical interplay between signal structure, computational cost and statistical accuracy.
More information here
This vacancy is no longer available
Posted 20th December 2016
AIMday Sensors, Signal Processing & Imaging registration for organisations now opened!
AIMday Sensor Signal Processing & Imaging, to be held on 21st September 2016, invites companies and organisations to submit questions around the theme of Sensor Signal Processing & Imaging. Questions posed will then be discussed on the day itself in individual company workshops by some of the UK’s leading expertise, who will look to identify pathways to possible solutions.
Event website:www.aimday.se/sensors-edinburgh-2016
You can now register on the event website as an organisation here.
Important dates
Registration for organisations: 16th May - 22nd August
Registration for academics: 23rd August - 2nd Sept
Posted 11th May 2016
Edinburgh Research Innovation: AIMday Sensor Signal Processing and Imaging in the news.
See the press release relating to this event on the ERI website.
Registration for companies open until 22nd August, not long to go! Register now.
Posted 17th August 2016
11th IMA International Conference on Mathematics in Signal Processing deadline for abstracts extended
The deadline for abstracts has been extended to 3rd June 2016 for the IMA International Conference on Mathematics in Signal Processing.
To be considered at this stage, only a 300-500 word abstract is required.
More information can be found at http://www.ima.org.uk/conferences/conferences_calendar/11th_maths_in_signal_processing.html
This event will take place in Birmingham from 12th to the 14th December 2016.
Posted 25th May 2016
Vacancy: Research Associate in Adaptive Waveform Design for Active Sensing
A postdoctoral research associate position for two years is available as part of a wider project within the Edinburgh Consortium of The University Defence Research Collaboration The project is to investigate a novel approach to adaptive waveform design (AWD) for active sensing systems such as radar, sonar, and other modalities. Rather than fixing the transmit waveform for many cycles, as traditional in active sensing modalities, the waveform is adapted based on information extracted from previously received signals, and optimised to maximise detection of particular targets. In particular, multiple-input multiple-output modalities will be investigated to enable the system to transmit multiple directed signals so as to probe spatially diverse targets simultaneously, as well as giving more flexibility in the design of the transmit waveform.
Application deadline: 6th July.
Posted 6th June 2016
Vacancy: Research Associate in Radio Propagation Analysis for Wireless Sensor Networks
A one year post-doctoral research associate position is available on the UK Ministry of Defence University Defence Research Collaboration (UDRC) and UK EPSRC jointly funded joint project.
The researcher will conduct detailed modelling using advanced software tools of radio propagation within different environments including urban, suburban and rural areas. They will also assist in signal processing algorithm development to allow the model results to be analysed in detail. In particular the performance of signal detection and analysis algorithms using a mobile ad hoc network of sensors will be studied. The researcher will also be expected to contribute to wider simulator development and to assist with a campaign of radio measurements that will be used to cross-check the radio propagation results. The researcher will be supervised by Prof John Thompson in the Institute for Digital Communications along with Dr Mathini Sellathurai at Heriot-Watt University. They will work closely with other UDRC researchers and interact regularly with our project partners in the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL).
Application deadline: 30th June.
Posted 3rd June 2016
UDRC Postdoctoral Opportunity
A postdoctoral research associate position for up to two years is available on the EPSRC and UK Ministry of Defence funded, University Defence Research Collaboration (UDRC) project.The successful researcher will develop sophisticated signal processing techniques for high bandwidth, integrated multi sensor systems operating in battlefield environments.
Informal enquires contact john.thompson@ed.ac.uk
This post is full time and fixed term for 24 months.
Closing Date: Friday 12th February 2016 at 5pm (GMT)
For more information on the job specification and to apply visit the Edinburgh University Vacancy page
Posted 15th January 2016
SSPD 2015 Proceedings Now Available
This year's Sensor Signal Processing for Defence Conference in Edinburgh proved a success with encouraging feedback and many celebrated scientists in attendance. The organising committee was pleased to welcome keynote Speakers: Branko Ristic,Principle Scientist at DSTO and Penelope Endersby, Head of Information Management Department at Dstl.
Proceedings for SSPD2015 are available to view on the conference website www.sspdconference.org.
Posted 10th October 2015
Posted 4th November 2014
University of Edinburgh hosting Signal Processing Aimday
Posted 18th June 2015
Sensor Signal Processing for Defence (SSPD) 2015: Call for Papers
(Registration Now Closed)
Posted 16th Dec 2014
PhD Vacancy in Cardiff University School of Engineering
(Vacancy Now Closed)
Posted 21st May 2015
Heriot-Watt in the News!
A Heriot-Watt Censis project with links to UDRC Package 3 researchers has caught the attention of the BBC news channel! The project which involves research imitating dolphin sonar, have developed a technique which can detect underwater objects and their contents similar to the methods used by the aquatic mammal. To see the report you can visit the BBC news website.
Posted 21st January 2016
Prof. Yvan Pettiliot gives Inaugural Lecture: UNDERWATER ROBOTICS - A dive into the unknown
In Professor Petillot's Inaugural Lecture he will look at how humans have tried to discover more about this hidden planet and how autonomous underwater robots are about to change our ability to map, understand and exploit our oceans.
To book your place visit the event page
Posted 19th January 2016
UDRC 2015 Summer School Surrey Featured in CDT-EI Newsletter
CDT-EI student Pawel Ladosz reported on his attendance at this years UDRC Summer school for the CDT-EI newletter. It can be viewed here.
Posted 3rd November 2015
Prestigious Conference Prize Win for 2 LSSC PhD Students
Domenico Gaglione and Christos Ilioudis, two PhD students from Strathclyde and working with UDRC as part of the LSSC Consortium, were awarded the FIRST and THIRD place respectively at the Best Student Paper Competition at the IEEE International Radar Conference 2015 in Washington. It is the most important conference in the field and their prize is the most prestigious that they could get at this stage of their career as researchers.
Domenico presented a paper entitled 'Model-Based Sparse Recovery Method for Automatic Classification of Helicopters' while Christos presented the paper 'Performance Analysis of Fractional Waveform Libraries in MIMO Radar Scenario'.
These papers are in print, however abstract links are available on the LSSC publications page.
Posted 20th May 2015
UDRC Feature: Spearheading Defence Signal Processing
Project Manager Janet Forbes talks about UDRC research and its applications to Julie Shennan, feature writer for the MOD Defence Contracts Bulletin magazine.
Posted 12th March 2015
PhD Position in Sensor Management for Distributed Signal Processing in Sensor Networks
(Vacancy Now Closed)
Posted 9th February 2015
Registration for the UDRC Summer School 2015 is now open!
(Registration Now Closed)
Posted 16th Dec 2014
Research Associate Position Available in Signal Processing
(Vacancy Now Closed)
Posted 23rd Jan 2015
Fully Funded PhD Studentship on Multi-Sensor Processing in Wide Area Surveillance Networks
(Vacancy Now Closed)
Posted 17th October 2014
(Vacancy Now Closed)
Posted 31st September 2014
Posted 13th October
PhD Student Di Wu Wins Dstl Prize
Posted 9th June 2014
Posted 25th April 2014
UDRC leads workshop at Military Radar Event
Posted 12th September 2013
UDRC Launch of Phase 2 Research
