Weekly Seminar: Synthetic Aperture Radar: Applications from Academia to Industry, Dr. Shaunak De

The GEOG weekly seminar series is back for the fall semester! This Thursday, 9/29 from 3:45-5pm, join us to hear Dr. Shaunak De present on "Synthetic Aperture Radar: Applications from Academia to Industry."

Bio: 

Dr. Shaunak De works in the domain of microwave remote sensing, particularly in the application of deep learning to synthetic aperture radar data. His research has developed a set of novel methodologies that incorporate physical radar scattering principles into a novel deep neural network architecture for the analysis of remote sensing images. Dr. De completed his Ph.D. in Geoinformatics and Natural Resources Engineering from the Centre of Studies in Resources Engineering (CSRE) at IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India, in 2018. His doctoral research was focused on polarimetric SAR, machine learning, and information theory. Currently, he is working as a Data Scientist at Capella Space, San Francisco, California.

Abstract: 

Every PhD journey is unique, and through mine I will share my experiences working with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data in both academic research and now in industry at Capella Space. Together we will take a tour of building SAR sensors, to applications of the technology developing methods for classification of challenging urban areas in radar images, urban change detection using minimal training/supervision, and the combination of multi-frequency radar data for agricultural crop classification. Along the way we will stop to admire the use of polarimetric radars in agriculture, snow water equivalent measurement, and urbanization. And finally we will end up with my move from academia into industry and the lessons I learned through that transition. Our journey will take us from the foothills of the Himalayas to windowless office basements - all with the goal that you pick up some inspiration for your own research journey and maybe even some "what-not-to-do's" along the way.

This seminar will take place in-person at 4600 River Road RM 325 and via Zoom. For the Zoom link, please email cmirand2@umd.edu.