Fifteen Short Courses announced for the 2021 AMOS Conference

The program for the 2021 AMOS (Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies) Conference has been published and includes fifteen technical short courses to be taught by highly regarded industry experts on a variety of subjects. With the hybrid format this year, courses have been scheduled to be presented either in-person on Maui; or online on September 14, 2021.  

Short Courses are a popular addition to the AMOS Conference program

Renowned as the premier technical conference in the nation devoted to space situational awareness/space domain awareness, topics for the AMOS short courses include — Conjunction Assessment; Deep Learning Methods; SSA Optical Systems; Statistical Orbit Determination; Space Weather impacts; and more. The short courses provide an opportunity to upgrade technical job skills and remain abreast of recent development in fields of interest.     

“This year we have been able to extend the number of courses offered to adapt to a combined in-person and virtual audience. The virtual courses help us reach the broader, international audience who may not be able to attend in person this year,” said Sandy Ryan, Conference Director. “Along with a number of returning courses and familiar faces, we are very pleased to welcome and introduce new topics and presenters to the AMOS community.”

Ten short courses that will be presented on-site at the AMOS Conference venue (Wailea Beach Resort) will only be available in-person, with no live streaming available. The courses, and the presenters are:

  1. Conjunction Assessment (CA) Risk Assessment – Presented by Francois Laporte, CAESAR Team Leader, CNES; Lauri Newman, Senior Engineer, Goddard Space Flight Center – NASA; and Matthew Hejduk, Chief Engineer, NASA Robotic CARA, Astrorum Consulting LLC
  2. Deep Learning Methods for Space Domain Awareness – Presented by Roberto Furfaro, Professor, University of Arizona; Weston Faber, Senior Research Scientist, L3Harris; and Richard Linares, Charles Stark Draper Assistant Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  3. SSA Optical Systems Modeling and Simulation – Presented by Patrick North, Chief Remote Sensing Engineer, Image and Computer Scientist; and Jeff Baxter, Aerospace Engineer; both of Ansys
  4. Statistical Orbit Determination for Space Surveillance and Tracking – Presented by Moriba Jah, Associate Professor, University of Texas at Austin
  5. Supervised Learning: Review and Applications with Real Space Domain Awareness (SDA) Data – Presented by David Brough, Senior Research Scientist; Navraj Singh, Program Manager; Cam Key, Research Scientist; all of Numerica Corporation
  6. Demystifying Machine and Deep Learning – Presented by Joseph Coughlin, The Aerospace Corporation; Rohit Mital, Chief Technologist, KBR, Inc.; and Weston Faber, Senior Research Scientist, L3Harris
  7. How to Kill Your Own Satellite – Presented by Liberty Shockley, Engineer, U.S. Space Force
  8. Next Generation Data Management for Space Data – Presented by Mark Brady, Chief Data Officer, U.S. Space Force
  9. Space Weather Impacts on Near-Earth Space Operations – Presented by Thomas Berger, Executive Director, University of Colorado / Space Weather Technology, Research, and Education Center (SWx TREC)
  10. The Dynamic Co-Evolution of Space Policy and Technology: Historical Overview and Lessons for Assessing Future Trends – Presented by Nancy Hayden, Distinguished Member Techncial Staff; Mark Ackermann, Systems Analyst; David Cox, Chief Architect for SDA; all of Sandia National Laboratories

Learn more details

Five technical short courses will be presented virtually. The presentations are “live” and participants will have the ability to interact with the instructor and attendees in real-time.

  1. Imaging of Space-Based Objects through Atmospheric Turbulence – Presented by Szymon Gladysz, Adaptive Optics Group Leader, Fraunhofer Institute of Optronics, System Technologies and Image Exploitation IOSB
  2. Introduction to ESA’s Space Debris Software tools (DRAMA, MASTER, DISCOS, PROOF) – Presented by Tim Flohrer, Head of Office, ESA Space Debris Office; Francesca Letizia, Space Debris Engineer, European Space Agency
  3. Observing and Characterizing Space Debris – Presented by Thomas Schildknecht, Vice Director, Head Optical Astronomie, Director Zimmerwald Observatory, Astronomisches Institut Universität Bern
  4. Polarimetry – Presented by Russell Chipman, Professor of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona
  5. Telescopes and Optics for Ground-Based Optical SSA – Presented by Peter Zimmer, Astronomer; and Mark Ackermann, Optical Lead; both of J.T. McGraw and Associates, LLC

Full descriptions of all the short courses are available at https://amostech.com/short-courses.  Separate registration fee is required for each course and courses can be added to existing registrations. Places will be limited.

In addition to the short courses, the main program that runs September 15 to 17 includes technical sessions, keynote speakers, SSA policy forums and networking receptions. The AMOS Conference brings together policymakers and experts from the private sector, academia, the military, and government agencies, attracting papers and presentations from the world’s foremost scientists working in the near-space arena.

Learn more about the conference and program at https://amostech.com/