Keynote Speakers

Enrico Saggese
President of the Italian Space Agency ASI, Italy

Biography

Enrico Saggese was Born in Potenza, April 15 1949. He is married and has two sons. In 1971 he graduated in Electronic Engineering cum laude in Rome, where he lives. In 1974 he got a Post Graduate diploma in Telephony and Data Transimission (100/100) from Politecnico di Torino University.

Enrico Saggese became Commissioner of the Italian Space Agency ASI on July 30th, 2008, then he has been nominated President of the Italian Space Agency on July 3, 2009, and he has been awarded a further mandate on August 13th 2011. Previous to this he was the Senior Vice President in Finmeccanica, in charge of Coordination of Space Activities from 2005 to 2008 and the Chief Executive Officer of Telespazio SpA from 2002 to 2005, giving a strong push to the overall company positioning and looking after the economic restructuring. He was one of the founders and General Manager of Space Engineering SpA, a company operating in the field of satellite components and systems design.

Other responsibilities:
• Director in the Board of Avio
• Deputy Chairman of the Board of Telespazio SpA
• Chairman of the Board of ELSACOMM NV
• Member of the National Communication Authority Council
• Member of Technical Council of the Italian Ministry for the University and Scientific Research
• Member of Inter-ministerial Commission for Coordination and Orientation of the National Aerospace Plan
• Member of the Board of Ugo Bordoni Foundation
• He has also served as chairman of ESOA (European Satellite Operators Association)

He carried out teaching activity in India, on behalf of ITU (International Telecommunication Union-Ginevra). He is a member of the "Space System and Communications" Committee of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF). He acted as Chairman of several international conferences. He is the co-author of "Satellite Communication Systems Design", Plenum Publishing Corporation, New York. He is the author of about 60 technical articles in conference proceedings or specialized journals. He is the member of the Editorial Board of "International Journal of Satellite Communication".

Dr. Surendra Pal
FIEEE, FNAE, Dist.FIETE, FNASc, FVEDA, FIET(UK), MIAA(Paris)
Prof. Satish Dhawan Professor & Senior Adviser, Satellite Navigation,
Indian Space Research Organisation, India.

TITLE: SATELLITE COMMUNICATION – PARADIGM (Present, Future Technological trends & Issues)

Satellite Communication Paradigm has seen a phenomenal shift from: Broad beam coverage to shaped & multi-beam coverages, low capacity satellites to high capacity satellites & the large ground station terminal to small satellite terminals, directly used by individuals, with unbelievably low cost, affording greater amount of flexibility & mobility.

Miniaturization of electronics & antennas, more emphasis to digital as compared to analog ,tremendous increase in the processing power of miniaturized processors, ease with which the services can be deployed, have made the satellite services more popular than the ones provided by terrestrial systems.

It is internationally felt that satellite systems are necessary to provide the required global coverage of future mobile & personal communications. The upcoming new generation Communication satellite services may include personalized services with a capability to respond to new services, facilities & applications (eg. Multimedia & personal communications), mobile terminals to offer services en-par with fixed terminals, freedom to roam, assurance of quality, privacy, cost & integrity, flexibility to re-configure (need based), providing new services & complementing the terrestrial systems. The talk deals with the present satellite communication services, emergence of new services complementing the terrestrial one, future trends and associated issues, along with the areas which need to be looked in from the futuristic technological development points of view.

Biography

Dr. S Pal, an alumnus of Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani and Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, India, formerly: Distinguished Scientist, Associate Director and also Program Director, Satellite Navigation Program at ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore is presently Prof. Satish Dhawan Professor & Senior Advisor Satellite Navigation Programme, has been in Space Technology R & D for last 41 years

He joined Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) in 1971, after a brief tenure at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Dr. Pal pioneered the Microwave, Antenna & RF communication activities at the ISRO Satellite Centre at the inception. He has been responsible for the development & fabrication of all spacecraft related telecommunication systems for India’s all satellites beginning with Aryabhata to the present day IRS, INSAT series of spacecraft & Chandrayan. Dr. Pal is also responsible for pioneering satellite based navigation activities in India, the Indian Satellite Based Wide Area Augmentation System – GAGAN (GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation System) and Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) activities for aviation for civilian & restricted users.

His expertise in his field has been utilized as consultant by many national and international organizations like ITU, ICO, INMARSAT and NTU Singapore. He is also on the United Nations panel of experts on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). He had received more than one and a half dozen national and international awards. Besides the awards he holds Indian, European & International patents for his various inventions. He has received a number of awards including the prestigious IEEE-2010 Judith. A. Resnik Award. He was a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Indian National Academy of Engineering & presently he is on the Distinguished Lecturer Programme of IEEE/AESS- USA. Recently he has visited under this programme and delivered lectures and tutorial at NTU Singapore and several institutions in Republic of South Africa.

There more than 220 papers to his credit and has guided several Ph.D students. His fields of interest are Satellite Communications, Space Technology, Microwaves, Radars, Electromagnetic, Antennas and Satellite Navigation.