We believe we have an extraordinary technical program, thanks to the Technical Program Committee chaired by Stefano Coraluppi, Roy Streit, Allen Waxman and their volunteer reviewers, and to Program Chairs Erik Blasch and Shiloh Dockstader for all time scheduling assignments. Some numbers: there were 259 members of the Technical Program Committee (TPC); 357 papers were submitted and 285 (80%) of these were accepted for publication in the conference proceedings. All papers submitted received at least two technical reviews—many had more than that.
We are especially grateful to our plenary speakers: Moshe Kam, Colleen Keller, and Edward Cope who made our technical program even stronger.
As with all FUSION conferences, we have been helped by the many who have organized special sessions. These papers were subject to the same strict review process that all the papers receive as Fusion conferences. We must thank Special Sessions Chairs Michael Vaccaro and Simon Maskell for their hard work in bringing these special sessions together.
We are indebted to the many people who have helped with this conference. Local Arrangements Chairs Lance Kaplan and David Crouse were in charge for arranging all fantastic local activities. Finance Chair James Ferry has dealt with the budgeting issues and all payments. Tutorials Chair Mitch Kokar has put together a strong program of tutorials. Stefano Coraluppi, Roy Streit, Allen Waxman have had the unenviable task of coordinating the reviews to all the 357 submitted papers. Our Publications Chairs Ken Hintz and Ivan Kadar have worked on putting together a well organized Proceedings and Program. Many people who attend conferences are not fully aware of how much time-consuming work is involved for that slot, and we have been pleased that they accepted that responsibility. Our Awards Chairs Ramona Georgescu and Tien Pham established criteria for various awards. Publicity Chair Mark Silbert and International Chairs Anne-Laure Jousselme and Joni Amorim helped to advertise the conference as well as by networking.
We have been fortunate to receive financial support from a number of sources, mostly thanks to the coordination of our Industry Chair Angela Pawlowski. We must begin, of course, with our prime co-sponsors ISIF, the AESS society from IEEE, the George Mason University’s C4I Center, and Random Sets LLC (at Platinum Level). In addition, we are extremely grateful to Metron (at Silver Level), Systems and Technology Research, and Lockheed Martin (at Bronze Level) for their generous support.
Most members of our organizing committee have participated in many of the past FUSION conferences. We have always found these conferences technically exciting. The FUSION conferences have developed a hard-earned reputation for its combination of technical excellence, networking opportunities, and a vibrant social program. We hope that we, in Washington, D. C., will be able to claim that we have given you all three.
Conference General Co-Chairs: Kathryn Laskey and Paulo Costa