Imagine one day you could access the Internet from anywhere on Earth! Can we do that?  Satellites are envisioned to provide the ultimate flexibility in complementing the next generation terrestrial networks. Whether it is the need for higher bandwidth, lower latency, or global connectivity, dense satellite networks are gradually becoming a viable engineering and business solution to addressing these demands. This seminar will skim through some of the key advances in this field and explore the challenges and research opportunities for connecting Internet-of-Things devices using satellite networks. It will also provide an overview of the recently completed largest open IoT network built in Victoria where RMIT provided the key expertise for creating this network along with 5 Victorian councils. Looking forward to talking to you in this seminar!  Biography Dr Akram Al-Hourani, Is a Senior Lecturer and Telecommunication Program Manager at the School of Engineering, RMIT University. Prior to joining academia, Dr Al-Hourani had extensively worked in the ICT industry, the total value of industry projects directed by Dr Al-Hourani exceeded $190M. Dr Al-Hourani has extensive industry/government engagement as a chief investigator in multiple research projects related to IoT, Smart Cities, Satellite / Wireless Communications. As a Lead Chief Investigator, he provided key expertise in delivering the largest open IoT network in Victoria in collaboration with 5 local governments “Northern Melbourne Smart Cities Network”, this project attracted two prestigious industry awards from the Municipal Association of Victoria (MAV) "Technology Awards for Excellence 2020", and the IoT Alliance Australia (IoTAA) "Smart Cities Award for 2020". His current research domains include the applications of UAV communication systems, stochastic geometry, radars, and the Internet-of-Things over satellite.   For more information, please see the link: https://www.akramalhourani.net/  Email: [email protected] Registration: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/277731

At high mmWave frequencies, all antenna features are smaller than ever before. This means that the RF base material for antenna printed circuit boards (PCBs) have to have tighter tolerances at the lowest loss. Different PCB solutions require different RF laminates: hybrid multilayers (RF laminate + FR4), all-RF multilayers, and double-sided PCBs. From electrical and mechanical reliability points of view, ceramic filled PTFE based materials provide a leading edge over thermoset resin system base materials. The high consistency of dielectric constant and loss factor of the thermoplastic material PTFE over the required operating temperature range at the resonance frequency of the antennas has been recognized by the RF and microwave industry for a long time. This technical presentation discusses the main reasons why such types of base materials are being used. All-RF multilayers are the main PCB type for phased array radar PCBs. There, the thin RF laminate must also show a very high dimensional stability in order to get combined with a suitable lowest loss prepreg, which is provided by an engineered selection of suitable glass fabrics. Hybrid multilayer PCBs are widely used for 77/79 GHz automotive radar PCBs. Tested electrical and reliability data confirm that very thin ceramic-filled non-reinforced PTFE laminates are most suitable in order to meet the requirements of next-generation ADAS sensors. Double-sided PCBs for mmWave systems usually consist of relatively thin (10 mil / 0.25 mm) thick laminates. There, the combination of PTFE resin, woven glass fabric, ceramic filler systems and ultra-low profile copper foil provides the lowest loss at the highest dimensional stability. The market introduction of an ultra-low profile ED copper foil provides an even improved insertion loss over rolled annealed copper foil, in addition to its lower cost. The higher the frequency, the better the value. Only PTFE laminates result in high enough copper peel strength even at repeated rework cycles. Almost all PCB manufacturers capable of making mmWave PCBs have processing experience of PTFE laminates; and several of these also use PTFE laminates together with the lowest loss RF prepregs. Speaker Manfred Huschka Dipl.-Ing. Manfred Huschka spent his entire professional career in the printed circuit board industry: After graduation, he was manufacturing printed circuit boards (Braun Ireland Ltd). Thereafter manufacturing FR4 base materials (AlliedSignal Laminate Systems), with his final position being Director Technology Europe. From mid-1997 until mid-2019 Manfred was with Taconic Advanced Dielectric Division. In those more than 20 years he was in charge of the Irish PTFE base material manufacturing plant for 10 years and was Vice President Global Sales for more than 10 years. Following the acquisition of Taconic ADD by AGC Manfred is now Vice President Global Marketing Coordination. Manfred is the author of several printed circuit board technology books including A comprehensive guide to the design and manufacture of printed board assemblies, Multilayer bonding guide, and Pocket dictionary PCB technology. He is also an author and presenter at many international conferences. Email: [email protected] Address: AGC Multi-Materials General Division, Ireland Registration https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/278272  The Zoom link will be sent one day beforehand.   The event is co-organised by Australian IEEE AP-MTT Chapters.  For further details, please contact Fatemeh Babaeian ([email protected]).  

The talk will be presented by Andreas Olk from the University of New South Wales, Canberra, ACT, Australia.  The event is co-organised by Australian IEEE AP-MTT Chapters. Please register at https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/279361 and a Zoom link will be sent one day before the event. For further details, please contact Fatemeh Babaeian ([email protected]).

In the new millennium of digital communications, everything is wireless everywhere. Electromagnetic waves and propagation drive the wireless physical world. Therefore, it is imperative to teach advanced electromagnetics (AEM) as the core unit in university. AEM is the most abstract discipline in electrical and electronics engineering. The 21st century learners are less math equipped, but more exposed to social media and multi-media contents. For educators innovation in pedagogy is the key to teach the very abstract principle of engineering discipline. The seminar presents a new method of pedagogy drawn from experiential and anecdotal inferences in advanced electromagnetics. Inferences and analogies, which are drawn from nature, fauna, flora, and human interaction in society, help digest complex physical principles and laws of AEM. Such pedagogical practices make students more keen to learn AEM, and retention of complex and abstract concepts is maximised. Speaker A/Prof. Nemai Karmakar of Monash University A/P Nemai Karmakar graduated with BSc (EEE) and MSc (EEE) degrees from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, MSc in EE from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada, PhD in ITEE from the University of Queensland, PGDipTHE from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and MHEd from Griffith University. He worked as a microwave design engineer at Mitec Ltd., Brisbane from 1992-1995 and contributed significantly to the development of Optus Mobilesat smart antennas. He taught senior-level courses in electronics, radar, microwave active and passive design and antennas at QUT, NTU, and Monash University. He has been working on collaborative research projects on smart antennas for soil moisture measuring radiometer in L/Ku/K-band downscaling, fully printable chipless RFID sensors for ubiquitous tagging and sensing, wireless power transmission, microwave biomedical imaging and devices, smart antennas for mobile satellite communications, and diagnostics of faulty power equipment. He has many patent applications in chipless RFID and sensors, eight books and about three hundred refereed journal, conference and workshop publications. A/P Karmakar is a graduate member of IEAust and a senior member of IEEE. Registration https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/278754 The Zoom link will be sent one day before the event. The event is co-organised by Australian IEEE AP-MTT Chapters. For further details, please contact Fatemeh Babaeian ([email protected]).  

Multi degree of freedom robotic manipulators often have complicated kinematics and dynamics, each manipulator requires models of kinematics and dynamics before they could be of real robotic use. Such models are essential for the analysis, simulation, optimisation and control of the robot. In this talk, Dr Hamid Abdi will introduce the concepts of modelling robotic manipulators and demonstrate several applications of kinematics and dynamics modelling of these robots that and his team have developed in the past. Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/modelling-robotic-manipulators-for-analysis-optimisation-and-control-tickets-166364164695 Zoom meeting link: https://deakin.zoom.us/j/84766776197?pwd=Z1ppUStNTTdzSUpsRFd6RWRTYXJ0Zz09&from=addon Meeting ID: 847 6677 6197 Password: 29774078 Biography of Presenter: Dr Hamid Abdi is a senior academic in the school of engineering at Deakin University, He is a senior member of IEEE, and PhD with 21 years of work/teaching experience in four universities in Australia, USA, China and Iran. He has vast experience of being a senior lecturer, a senior research fellow, an entrepreneur, and a winner of multiple scientific and entrepreneurship awards. He brings a successful history of chairing large academic units and programs, teaching and mentorship university students and industry personnel. Hamid’s areas of interest are innovative research and entrepreneurship projects, scientific and industry research partnerships, supervision of research projects at PhD and masters levels, and developing university-industry relationships. Hamid is a passionate and driven professional with an extensive track record in areas of control systems, robotics, IoT, system modelling, simulation, and optimisation.  

Join us for the highly anticipated release of a Global AI Standard 6 years in the making There has been a rapid movement worldwide to gain the benefits of AI and automated IT development, both for economic and humanitarian purposes. But the future of our world and our generational legacy will depend on the growth of our collective wisdom and the conscious, thoughtful and ethical way that we design, develop and govern these systems, in order to mitigate the risk of existential harm that such powerful technologies may introduce. Organizations and individuals that embrace this challenge can now utilize a new global standard by the IEEE, the world's largest technical professional organization for the advancement of technology for humanity. IEEE 7000TM promotes ‘Value-Based Engineering’, a form of ‘ethics by design. This provides a way to incorporate ethics and human values into the design of IT and AI systems which can be integrated into an organizations’ preferred system development, risk and project management methodologies. More information and registration https://dif.vic.gov.au/event/13808827-a/engineering-collective-wisdom-the-value-of-ethically-aligned-it-standards

Speaker: Professor Bikash Pal, Imperial College London, UK Zoom Link: https://deakin.zoom.us/j/84495826793?pwd=d0srUGxyRTNSdnV2L0o3OUpkbUM2UT09  Contact: IEEE PES Victorian chapter– [email protected] Electrical generation, transmission and distribution systems all over the world have entered a period of significant renewal and technological change. There have been phenomenal changes/deployments in the technology of generation driven by the worldwide emphasis on energy from wind and solar as a sustainable solution to our energy needs.  Increasingly energy demand from heating and transportation will be met by electricity.  So, to accommodate changes in either end the transmission grid is required to operate in a more responsive manner. This is the most credible challenge in smart transmission grid operation today.  Some of the recent wind farm operations have grabbed media headlines for not being connectable to the grid. While the debate is on whether it is the wind farm or the grid is the cause, the balance of the debate is shifting towards the integration and control aspect of these two technologies. This keynote will briefly mention the recent major problems in connecting big wind farms to the grid. It will then identify few possible specific technical reasons supported by the general technical insights gathered from a detailed technical study conducted at Bikash Pal’s research group at Imperial College London. Future research challenges and opportunities will be highlighted. Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/dynamic-modeling-for-analysis-of-wind-farm-and-grid-interaction-tickets-165641681729