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  • Plenary Talk

    • Plenary Talk 1 - The impact of Sensor and Data Fusion thought on Engineering Practice and Engineering Education, 1975-2015

    July 07, 2015 8:30 AM - July 07, 2015 9:30 AM

    Independence A

    Motivated by challenges in detection and estimation in military systems and radar, data and sensor fusion studies burst into the scene in the mid 1970s. Many relevant architectures and data integration architectures can be traced to earlier times, but the renewed interest in the 1970s was the definitive birth (or perhaps re-birth) of the discipline. In this presentation we will follow the development and expansion of the field since its early introduction, focusing on two areas of impact: (1) utilization in engineering applications; and (2) integration of data fusion and sensor fusion in engineering curricula. Both subjects are related to questions about assumptions, realism of modeling, computational complexity, interplay of complexity and performance, and mathematical sophistication (required for entry, use, understanding and interpretation). We will follow the main themes and emphases in the data and sensor fusion literature as they evolved over the last four decades, identify the principal trends, and assess the degree of proliferation of ideas from the developing literature into disciplinary graduate and undergraduate education programs in engineering. We will further discuss what an academic course-of-study that includes sensor and data fusion would look like, who can benefit from such curriculum, and how might it be of interest to groups interested in developing new engineering education programs.