Dr. Ahmad Awarded ARO/ARL Contract for Low-Signature Target Detection

Moeness Amin, PhD, director of the Center for Advanced Communications, with Fauzia Ahmad, PhD, research professor and director of the Radar Imaging Lab

The Army Research Office (ARO) and the Army Research Lab (ARL) have awarded a one-year contract to Villanova University’s Center for Advanced Communications (CAC) to assist the United States Army in detection and localization of challenging low-signature near surface targets using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR). This project will contribute significantly towards the accomplishment of Army’s mission to increase availability of real-time situational awareness. The project’s principal investigator is Dr. Fauzia Ahmad, CAC research professor and director of the Radar Imaging Lab. The CAC will receive $100,000 from the ARO/ARL to perform this work, which commences on October 1, 2014.

Through this research project, titled “Compressive Sensing Based Approaches for Low-Signature Target Detection and Imaging,” Dr. Ahmad and co-principal investigator Dr. Moeness Amin, CAC Director, will leverage their expertise in algorithmic and radar systems development to provide an enhanced and reliable imaging capability and streamlining of data acquisition via innovative compressive sensing techniques for GPR-based sensing of low-signature targets. 

Dr. Ahmad is internationally recognized for her expertise in radar imaging, radar signal processing, array signal processing, and compressive sensing. She has authored more than 150 journal articles, book chapters, and peer-reviewed conference papers in these areas. She is a senior member of both the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the International Society of Optics and Photonics (SPIE). Dr. Ahmad serves on the editorial board of IET Radar, Sonar, and Navigation, and is an associate editor for both IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing and the SPIE/IS&T Journal of Electronic Imaging.