Programme

Strasbourg is a city like no other, blending French elegance with German heritage in the heart of Europe. Stroll through its UNESCO-listed old town, marvel at the stunning Gothic cathedral, and enjoy a boat tour along picturesque canals. Known for its vibrant culture, world-class cuisine, and unique architecture, Strasbourg offers an unforgettable experience for visitors.

Join us for a site visit and immerse yourself in the beauty and spirit of this extraordinary city!

What´s included?

• Air-conditioned bus from Baden-Baden to Strasbourg (and back)
• Strasbourg city tour 

Starting in the elegant spa town of Baden-Baden, we’ll travel along the famous Schwarzwaldhochstraße, a panoramic route offering breathtaking views of the Black Forest. Enjoy a stop at the serene Mummelsee, a legendary mountain lake surrounded by natural beauty, before continuing to the historic Castle Schauenburg in Oberkirch.

Discover stunning landscapes, rich history, and authentic Black Forest charm on this unique excursion. Don’t miss the chance to experience Germany’s scenic treasures!

What´s included?

• Air-conditioned bus from Baden-Baden to Castle Schauenburg (and back)
• Stop at Mummelsee lake in the Black Forest
• Snack at Castle Schauenburg

Join us for a post conference excursion to TRUMPF Hüttinger on Friday, June 12, where you can learn more about their customized microwave frontends for SAR satellites. TRUMPF Hüttinger is a high tech company and a leading global manufacturer of DC, medium  and high frequency as well as solid state microwave generators. The Business Unit Microwave develops and manufactures microwave generators and amplifiers based on state-of-the-art solid state technology for industrial heating, plasma applications, particle accelerators and in the radar and space segment. Based on customer projects, they continuously improve their products to power levels up to 200 kW with unique reliability and overall efficiency. Their systems are running in various frequency levels starting with 80 MHz for particle accelerators and ending with 40 GHz for radar and space systems.  

A bus will depart from Baden Baden at 08:30.
The visit includes a guided tour of the production and development facilities as well as the capabilities in PCBA manufacturing, a short technical presentation, and light refreshments.
Return to Baden Baden is planned for 13:00.

Participation is free of charge.
We look forward to welcoming you!

09:00 SAR Interferometry: an Introduction (Alessandro Ferretti / TRE ALTAMIRA, Italy)

10:30 Coffee Break

11:00 SAR Tomography and Multi-Dimensional Imaging (Gianfranco Fornaro / IREA-CNR, Italy)

12:30 Lunch Break

14:00 Multi-channel synthetic aperture sonar (Roy E Hansen / 
FFI, Norway)

15:30 End of Tutorial

09:00 Bi- and Multistatic SAR (Paco López Dekker / TU Delft, Netherlands)

10:30 Coffee Break

11:00 Experimental Aspects of distributed SAR/ISAR Systems (Ingo Walterscheidt / Fraunhofer FHR, Germany) - Distributed SAR/ISAR (Debora Pastina / Uni. Sapienza, Roma, Italy)

12:30 Lunch Break

14:00 Circular SAR imagery and applications (Frederic Brigui / ONERA, France)

15:30 End of Tutorial

09:00 SAR Polarimetry (Laurent Ferro-Famil / Rennes, France)

10:30 Coffee Break

11:00 Pol-InSAR and Applications (Konstantinos Papathanassiou / DLR, Germany)

12:30 Lunch Break

14:00 SAR systems for small UAV platforms: concepts and applications (Miguel Caro Cuenca / TNO, Netherlands)

15:30 End of Tutorial

09:00 Part 1 (Simon Wagner / Fraunhofer FHR, Germany)

10:30 Coffee Break

11:00 Part 2 (Ronny Hänsch / DLR, Germany)

12:30 Lunch Break

14:00 Part 3 (Nicolas Trouve / ONERA, France)

15:30 End of Tutorial

09:00 Welcome, introduction, and overview (René Guenzkofer / NV5 Geospatial Solutions)

09:30 Operational SAR Applications (Giulia Tessari / sarmap)

10:00 StarSAR-X and the Evolution of High-Resolution Spaceborne SAR (Matteo De Santis / Metasensing)

10:30 Coffee/Tea Break

11:00 SAR-based Insights as a Service (ENVI Inform)  (David Burridge / NV5 Geospatial Solutions)

11:30 Operational Applications for Infrastructure  (tbc. / Airbus)

11:30 The Ease of Using SAR (SAR Essentials)  (Dr. Emlyn Hagen / NV5 Geospatial Solutions)

12:30 Lunch Break

14:00 GeoAgent for ENVI SARscape (Alessio Cantone / sarmap)

14:30 Environmental Monitoring with SAR  (Nicolai Holzer / NV5 Geospatial Solutions)

15:00 Big SAR Data and worldwide3 SAR Processing Shell (tbc.)

15:30 Summary and Close of the Session (René Guenzkofer / NV5 Geospatial Solutions)

Dietmar Pilz is Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality (D/TEC), European Space Agency (ESA); Head of Establishment, ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands. He is a Senior European Space Manager with over 20 years of experience in general management, engineering, site leadership, and space systems development. Known for strategic leadership, transformation initiatives, and cross-national team integration.

At ESA, Dr. Pilz leads a team of over 950 staff and 200 contractors, overseeing engineering and quality resources for all missions, R&D programs (GSTP, TDE, Discovery), and ESA’s educational initiatives. He chairs the European Cooperation for Space Standardization and drives ESA’s technology strategy, including AI and serialization centers. As Head of ESTEC, he manages Europe’s largest space technology center, representing ESA in the Netherlands and overseeing site operations, safety, and public engagement. 

At Airbus Defence & Space, he held leadership roles including Head of Space Chief Engineering, Head of Site Friedrichshafen, and Head of Payloads and Life Support Systems. He led multinational teams, managed large-scale R&D and product lines (Astrobus, Eurostar Neo, OneSat), and spearheaded digital transformation in engineering and data management.

Earlier, he worked in border security systems in Saudi Arabia, naval radar development, and space electronics for TerraSAR-X.

Dr. Eric Villard is an astronomer at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), where he specializes in millimeter and submillimeter interferometry with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Over the past sixteen years, he has contributed to ALMA’s scientific operations, technical development, and strategic planning, with a focus on improving the observatory’s data quality and scientific reach.

At ALMA, Dr. Villard has held several leadership positions, including Commissioning Scientist, Lead of Science Verification, Lead of Data Processing, and Lead of the Development of New Scientific Capabilities. He currently leads the Advanced Data Product Initiative at ESO/ALMA, which aims to enhance the accessibility and scientific value of ALMA data for the research community. He also represents Europe in the ALMA Integrated Development Team, coordinating long-term development activities across the international partnership.

Before joining ESO, Dr. Villard worked on the Venus Express mission, where he used the SPICAV ultraviolet/near-infrared spectrometer to study the Venusian atmosphere and its composition. Building on this experience, his current interests extend toward the next generation of observatories. He leads the Space Array Initiative and the SHARP proposal, which explore the extension of submillimeter interferometry into space to achieve higher angular resolution and more complete coverage.

Dr. Villard’s work focuses on advanced data products, interferometric imaging, and the technological and operational developments that will define the future of radio astronomy, both on the ground and in orbit.

Michael Schmitt is Professor for Earth Observation at the Department of Aerospace Engineering of the University of the Bundeswehr Munich. Michael Schmitt received his Dipl.-Ing. (Univ.) degree in geodesy and geoinformation, his Dr.-Ing. degree in remote sensing, and his habilitation in data fusion from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany, in 2009, 2014, and 2018, respectively. Since 2021, he has been a Full Professor for Earth Observation at the Department of Aerospace Engineering of the University of the Bundeswehr Munich (UniBw M) in Neubiberg, Germany. He is a also a member of the Research Center SPACE and the Institute of Space Technology & Space Applications of UniBw M. 

From 2020 to 2022, he additionally held the position of a Consulting Senior Scientist at the Remote Sensing Technology Institute of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). He contributes to the scientific community as a co-chair of the Working Group “Active Microwave Sensing” of the ISPRS. Besides, he is a Senior Member of the IEEE and an Associate Editor of the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine. Michael Schmitt’s research lies at the intersection of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) remote sensing and computer vision/machine learning for the extraction of information from signals and images. He has published more than 200 scientific articles and filed several patents.