Introduction to Cognitive Radar and EW

This presentation will discuss the history and development of Cognitive radar (CR) and electronic warfare (EW). These systems did not happen overnight but were the result of a technological tipping point that has been years in the making. Until the early 2000s, advanced radar/EW were incremental advancements in adaptive signal processing such as adaptive beamforming and space-time adaptive processing, more powerful digital embedded real-time computing, and enabling RF electronics (digital front ends). However, these systems were based on sample statistic-based methods that have their roots in the 1950s. Beginning with the DARPA/AFRL KASSPER project, and related classified projects, a new knowledge-aided (KA) architecture was developed that could arguably be said to be the first integration of the modern “information age” into advanced adaptive radar/EW. The first book on cognitive radar was published in 2010, which incorporated the last piece of the cognitive system: its ability to proactively “probe” and learn on the fly to update and augment its radar channel knowledge base. In addition to providing an overview of CR’s historical development, this webinar will provide details of the current state-of-the-art and its relationship to other CR methods such as those that discuss mimicking certain biological systems such as the sonar bat described by S. Haykin in 2006.

Speaker and Presenter Information

Dr. Joseph Guerci has over 30 years of experience in advanced technology research and development in government, industrial, and academic settings. His government service included a 7-year term with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in which he held the positions of Program Manager, Deputy Office Director, and finally Director (SES-4) of the Special Projects Office (SPO) where he was responsible for a tech portfolio in excess of $500M USD annually. In these capacities, Dr. Guerci was responsible for the inception, research, development, execution, and ultimately transition of next generation multidisciplinary technologies. His advanced radar and electronic warfare (EW) solutions developed while at DARPA are, for example, deployed in the F-22, F-35 and other advanced radars. He also created the KASSPER project, the forerunner of cognitive radar and EW while at DARPA. He is currently President and CEO of Information Systems Laboratories, Inc. (https://www.islinc.com/).

Dr. Guerci is an internationally recognized leader in the R&D and transition of next generation sensor and cognitive systems. In addition to authoring over 150+ peer reviewed articles (https://bit.ly/2XHj4Lq ), he is the author of several popular books including Space-Time Adaptive Processing for Radar (Artech House, 2003, 2nd Ed. 2014), and Cognitive Radar: The Knowledge-Aided Fully Adaptive Approach, (Artech House, 2010, first book on this topic, 2nd edition 2020). Dr. Guerci is the recipient of the Warren D. White Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for “Excellence in Radar Adaptive Processing and Waveform Diversity” and is a Fellow of the IEEE for “Contributions to Advanced Radar Theory and its Embodiment in Real-World Systems”. He was the General Chair for the 2015 IEEE International Radar Conference (largest surplus at that time in the history of the conference series) and has been the Radar/EW Series Editor for Artech House publishers for over 10 years. Most recently, he is the recipient of the IEEE Dennis J. Picard Medal (2020) for “For contributions to advanced, fully adaptive radar systems and real-time knowledge-aided, and cognitive radar processing architectures”.

A graduate of NYU Polytechnic University (now Tanden School of Engineering) with a Ph.D.E.E, Dr. Guerci has held adjunct professorships in engineering and applied mathematics at The City University of New York, NYU Polytechnic University, The Cooper Union for Advancement of Art and Science, and Virginia Tech. Additionally, he has held senior engineer and scientist positions in industry and was Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for SAIC’s $2B+/year Research, Development, Test & Evaluation (RDT&E) Group. He is also currently a member of several industrial, academic, and government advisory boards.