Keynote Speakers

Speaker 1:

Dr. Michael Silevitch
Robert D. Black Professor, Director
Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems, Northeastern University, A National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center
Email: msilevit@ece.neu.edu

Title: Advancements in Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Research
Abstract

Michael B. Silevitch is the Robert D. Black Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University in Boston. His training has encompassed both physics and electrical engineering disciplines. An author/co-author of over 65 journal papers, his research interests include laboratory and space plasma dynamics, nonlinear statistical mechanics, and K-12 science and mathematics curriculum implementation. Of particular interest is the study of the Aurora Borealis, one of nature most artistic phenomena. Avocations include long distance hiking and the study of 17th Century clocks and watches.
Prof. Silevitch is also the Director of the Bernard M. Gordon Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (CenSSIS), a National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center (ERC). Established in September of 2000, the mission of CenSSIS is to unify the methodology for finding hidden structures in diverse media such as the underground environment or within the human body. The CenSSIS multidisciplinary enterprise helped lay the foundation for the research and education programs in the new Homeland Security Center of Excellence for Awareness and Localization of Explosives Related Threats (ALERT), which was funded in 2008 and is Co-Directed by Prof. Silevitch.

Speaker 2:

Dr. Yi-Qing Ni
Associate Professor
Department of Civil and Structural Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Email: ceyqni@polyu.edu.hk

Title: Health Checks through Landmark Bridges to Sky-high Structures >
Abstract

Prof. Yi Qing Ni is an associate professor of Department of Civil and Structural Engineering at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Dr. Ni has heavily involved in the research assisting the Hong Kong Government Highways Department to implement and operate long-term SHM systems on five cable-supported bridges in Hong Kong. He has also acted as a lead consultant in developing SHM systems for several landmark structures in the Chinese mainland, including the design of SHM systems for the cable-stayed Sutong Bridge with a main span of 1,088 m and the Guangzhou New TV Tower with a height of 610 m. He has co-authored 3 books, 76 international journal papers, and 158 conference papers. Recently, his Mega-Structure Diagnostic and Prognostic System received the Gold Medal and the Grand Prize of the 37th International Exhibition of Inventions, Geneva (2009). He is now responsible for the development of a SHM benchmark problem for high-rise structures under the auspices of ANCRiSST.

Speaker 3:

Dr. Ahmed Busnaina
William Lincoln Smith Chair Professor, Director
NSF Center for High-rate Nanomanufacturing, Northeastern University, A National Science Foundation Nano Science and Engineering Center
Email: a.busnaina@neu.edu, URL: www.nano.neu.edu

Title: Advances in High-rate Nanomanufacturing>
Abstract

Ahmed A. Busnaina, Ph.D. is the William Lincoln Smith Chair Professor and Director of National Science Foundation Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC) for High-rate Nanomanufacturing and the NSF Center for Nano and Microcontamination Control at Northeastern University, Boston, MA. He is internationally recognized for his work on nano and micro scale defects (particulate and chemical) mitigation and removal in semiconductor fabrication. He also involved in the fabrication of nanoscale wires, structures and interconnects. He specializes in directed assembly of nanoelements and in the fabrication of micro and nanoscale structures. He served as a consultant on micro contamination and particle adhesion issues to the semiconductor industry. He authored more than 350 papers in journals, proceedings and conferences. He is on the editorial advisory board of Semiconductor International, the Journal of Particulate Science and Technology. He is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and the Adhesion Society, a Fulbright Senior Scholar and listed in Who's Who in the World, in America, in science and engineering.

Speaker 4:

Dr. Mark Nelson
Professor, Director
Electrosensory Signal Processing Lab, Beckman Institute, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Email: m-nelson@illinois.edu

Title: Smart Sensing Strategies: Insights from a Biological Active Sensing System>
Abstract

Dr. Mark Nelson is a Professor in the Department of Molecular & Integrative Physiology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. he is also a member of the UIUC Neuroscience program, the Biophysics & Computational Biology program and the Bioengineering program. Dr. Nelson is a full-time faculty member in the Beckman Institute, where he heads the Electrosensory Signal Processing Laboratory and serves as Group Leader for the Beckman NeuroTech group. Professor Nelson received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1983 and completed postdoctoral training in Physics and Computational Neurobiology at Caltech. His fields of professional interest are computational neuroscience, neural coding, and biological signal processing. His research focuses on the electrosensory system of weakly electric fish as a model system for understanding the neural mechanisms and computational principles that animals use to actively acquire sensory information in complex, dynamic environments.