KOCHI: The Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory (NPOL), Kochi is organising an International Conference on Sonar Systems and Sensors, ‘ICONS-2018’. The scientific meet will be held at ADLUX International Convention Exhibition Centre, Karukutty, Angamaly from February 22-24. K Sivan, secretary, Department of Space and chairman of ISRO, will inaugurate the conference on Thursday at 6 pm. S Christopher, secretary defence (R&D) and chairman DRDO will preside.
NPOL is a Systems Laboratory of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Ministry of Defence, Government of India engaged in the research and development of Sound Navigation and Ranging (SONAR) systems and allied technologies. Giving a broad outline of the sphere of activity of NPOL, S Kedarnath Shenoy, director NPOL and organising committee chairman, said that its thrust areas of Research and Development are signal processing and imaging, underwater acoustics, electronics, engineering systems, transducers, materials and oceanography.
The laboratory has developed hull mounted sonar for ships and submarines, towed array sonar and airborne sonar for Indian Navy. NPOL’s success has contributed to the nation’s self-reliance in these vital fields.The conference aims to pool the knowledge in the domain of sonar and underwater sensors, underwater surveillance and communications from across the world.
With sessions covering every aspect of sonar systems and underwater sensors, ICONS-2018 plans to establish a network of all leading practitioners in this domain. Arogyaswami J Paulraj from Stanford University, who is also a Padma Bhushan awardee and recipient of Marconi prize and Alexander Graham Bell award and John Summerscales, School of Engineering, Plymouth University, UK will deliver the keynote addresses on the first and second day respectively. The other key speakers are Flemming Jakobsen from DHI Denmark, Manell Elias Zakharia from the French Naval Academy, Angelino Farina from University of Parma, Italy, Bertrand Dubus from Institutd’ Electronique, France, Yves Doisy from Thales Underwater Systems, France and Da Silva Felisberto from University of Aguilere, Portugal.
The conference has scientific sessions on 11 broad themes which will run in four parallel tracks. Each session has invited speakers from within the country and abroad, apart from keynote lectures. Above 200 papers will be presented in the three days.As a prelude to the conference, a one day pre-conference workshop with tutorials on various aspects of sonar technology is planned on Feb 22 for the benefit of students and young researchers. A cultural evening featuring a bharatanatyam concert by Rajashree Warrier is also scheduled on February 23.