Programa del congreso

This keynote speech explores the significance of Galileo, Europe’s Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) in shaping modern society. Using a constellation of 24 satellites in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), Galileo delivers unparalleled worldwide position, navigation and timing services using state-of-the-art technology. We will focus on how GNSS systems work, including the fundamental technological aspects and scientific principles underpinning these systems. Furthermore, we will present both existing and upcoming Galileo services and applications that hold tremendous benefits for European society.

In this context, the European Commission’s Joint Research Center (JRC) has an instrumental role in supporting the evolution of European satellite navigation programs. As the European Union’s GNSS Test and Demonstration Hub, JRC fosters the development of Galileo applications, provides technical support to European industry and policymakers, and shapes the evolution of Galileo’s Second Generation. We will showcase some of the unique research facilities at JRC, and their significance in advancing satellite navigation and driving innovation for a more efficient and prosperous society.

With the advent of commercial products, such as Google Glass, Samsung Galaxy Gear and the expected iWatch, body-centric communication has increasingly garnered the public attention and smoothly translated state-of-the-art research work into reality. With the development of nanotechnology, the idea of connecting nano-devices to conduct complicated tasks and communicate the information collected by these sesnors was a natural progression in order to complete the overall picture of a new generation of body-centric wireless networks. Connecting these nano-machines (or nano-devices) together in order for them to execute a useful function and deliver information between nano-nodes and ultimately interfacing to users or the outside world, the birth of nano-communication and networking was a necessity. Nano-scale communication is referred to the exchange of information at the nanoscale and it is the basis of any wired/wireless interconnection of nano-devices in a nano-network. The way the nano-devices communicate with each other has strong dependence on the way in which they are realised. In addition, the specific application of the nano-network determines the deployment of the nano-networks, thus constraining the choice on the particular type of nano-communication.

The talk will present development of reliable and comprehensive channel modelling, human tissue electric properties in the THz band and networking technologies to address the major challenges of the nano-scale electromagnetic channels needed for body-centric wireless nano-networks deployed in future healthcare applications. With the advancement of nano-scale machine fabrication and the deep understanding of molecular behaviour within the human body, future healthcare monitoring and feedback systems are expected to be comprehensive, efficient and ubiquitous hence coupling existing wireless wearable sensors and implantable units with nano-machines and networks.

Los métodos modales son técnicas matemáticas que permiten resolver problemas de campos electromagnéticos en estructuras complejas, aprovechando las propiedades de simetría y ortogonalidad de los modos propios de cada geometría. En esta conferencia se presentan algunos de los métodos modales más relevantes y sus aplicaciones en el diseño de dispositivos y sistemas de comunicaciones.

En la actualidad el análisis de los problemas electromagnéticos y el diseño de antenas se basa en el uso de los simuladores electromagnéticos, que permiten analizar estructuras de formas complejas y materiales arbitrarios.

Históricamente, antes de disponer de capacidades de cálculo, la forma de analizar problemas complejos requería la resolución de las ecuaciones de Maxwell y las ecuaciones de onda de los campos electromagnéticos sujetas a las condiciones de contorno de la estructura. En asignaturas de Campos y Ondas Electromagnéticas se siguen explicando los modos TEM de las líneas de transmisión y los modos TE y TM de las guías rectangulares y cada vez menos los modos en guías cilíndricas y fibras ópticas. Los problemas más avanzados de difracción, medidas en campo próximo y acoplamiento entre antenas requieren el uso de los modos cilíndricos y esféricos. El libro de Roger F. Harrington Time-Harmonic Electromagnetic Fields (1961) es una referencia imprescindible para el análisis modal. El mismo autor introdujo la resolución mediante ecuaciones integrales en el libro Field Computation by Moment Methods (1968) y el análisis modal en antenas en el artículo Theory of characteristic modes for conducting bodies (1971).

En la Universitat Politècnica de València se viene trabajando desde el año 1990 en métodos modales en antenas y circuitos de microondas, con varias tesis doctorales sobre el tema y más recientemente en los modos característicos, destacando el artículo The Theory of Characteristic Modes Revisited: A Contribution to the Design of Antennas for Modern Applications (2007). Este método se ha incorporado a muchos simuladores electromagnéticos y está siendo utilizado en diseños innovadores.

En resumen, se presenta la evolución histórica de los métodos modales y las nuevas aplicaciones para diseño de antenas de gran ancho de banda, con múltiples alimentaciones en los modernos sistemas de comunicaciones.