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IEEE GRSS Data Fusion Contest winners announced

Thursday, August 9th, 2012

Roughly 1,150 people from 78 countries participated in the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society’s (GRSS) Data Fusion Contest. The contest, which is helping connect students and researchers around the world, is a forum for the scientific community to evaluate and compare existing or novel methods to solve remote sensing problems with data from various airborne and spaceborne sensors. Participants were asked to examine three different data sets (optical, SAR, and LiDAR) over San Francisco, California, USA. Images from the sensors cover buildings, skyscrapers, commercial and industrial structures, parks and private housing, and highways and bridges. Participants used the data to quickly assess important information about the city, such as its urban density.

The Society awarded the winning teams with IEEE GRSS Certificates of Appreciation and monetary prizes at this year’s IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium.

Winners
1) C. Berger, M. Voltersen, R. Eckardt, J. Eberle, T. Heyer, N. Salepci, S. Hese, and C. Schmullius, from the University of Jena, Germany, with a paper entitled Fusion of High-Resolution Optical Imagery and Object Height Information for an Integrated Assessment of Urban Density (UD).

2) J. Tao from and R. Bamler from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and S. Auer from Technische Universität München, Germany, with a paper entitled Combination of Lidar and Sar Data With Simulation Techniques for Image Interpretation and Change Detection.

3) K. Ewald and A. Buswell from Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., M. Gartley from the Rochester Institute of Technology, and J. Jacobson from the National Air and Space Intelligence Center, United States, with a paper entitled Radiosity Technique for Reflectance Retrieval Applied to Worldview-2 Data.

At the end of the contest, K. Ewald, M. Gartley, J. Jacobson, and A. Buswell said they would donate their monetary prize to United Way, a non-profit, charitable organization that supports education, income, and health (www.unitedway.org).

A manuscript summarizing the contest outcomes will be submitted for peer review to IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing (JSTARS).

The IEEE GRSS Data Fusion Technical Committee would like to express its great appreciation to DigitalGlobe, Astrium Services, and USGS/CLICK for donating data sets to the scientific community and for their continuing support in providing resources for this initiative.

: M. Voltersen, R. Eckardt, and C. Berger

: R. Bamler, S. Auer, and J. Tao

: J. Kerekes (on behalf of K. Ewald, M. Gartley, J. Jacobson, and A. Buswell)

: Data set from sensors covering San Francisco, CA, USA

Tags: ieee data fusion contest 2012, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society, IEEE GRSS, ieee grss data fusion, ieee society membership, ieee student competitions
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Istanbul Technical University wins IEEE PELS Solar Splash Competition

Monday, July 9th, 2012

Istanbul Technical University took first place at the 2012 IEEE Power Electronics Society Solar Splash Competition, the World Championship of intercollegiate Solar/Electric boating, 13-17 June in Cedar Falls/Waterloo, Iowa. It is the first time a team from outside the United States has won the competition. Teams from 15 universities designed and constructed their own solar boats for the sprint and endurance races. Second and third place winners were Cedarville University and the University of Northern Iowa.

The competition consisted of five on-the-water events. Points were earned in seven categories. On-site competitions included visual displays and workmanship. On-the-water events began with a sprint and a maneuverability qualifier, followed by an event called the Solar Slalom, a combination of speed and maneuverability. The final days were spent in the sprint and endurance events. After passing inspection, the teams were entered into the Slalom and sprint heats. The qualification races ran from Thursday to Friday. All teams present qualified to be in the finals.

Timothy Dwight, former University of Iowa NFL Professional Football player, attended the event to speak to the teams about solar power. Mr. Dwight, who is an advocate for green energy and solar power, is currently the Director of iPower (Integrated Power Corporation). He encouraged the students to pursue careers in green energy- related fields. Other speakers included Reg Pecen, UNI 2012 IEEE PELS Solar Splash Administrator, Jeffrey Morehouse – University of South Carolina and IEEE PELS Solar Splash Headquarters, Donna Florek, Senior Administrator of the Power Electronics Society, and Andries van Weperen, University of Delft The Netherlands, International Ambassador for Dong Energy Solar Challenge – World Cup for Solar Powered Boats.