Title: Multispectral Imagers and Integrated Photonics for Remote Sensing and Space Exploration.

Bio: Dr. Jayshri Sabarinathan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Associate Director in the Institute for Earth and Space Exploration at The University of Western Ontario. She obtained her PhD degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Her primary expertise is in novel nano-photonic sensors, integrated photonics and miniature remote sensing instrumentation. She has extensive experience on several collaborative projects with industry and academic partners through large funded grants to develop novel sensors and imagers for practical applications. Her research work has also led to two US patents for micro photonic-sensors and multi-spectral camera innovations. She is involved in several Canadian Space Agency (CSA) funded projects related to remote optical instrumentation development. Her research group has demonstrated custom multispectral imager instrumentation for unmanned aerial vehicle-based and mobile robot-based remote sensing which have applications in agronomy, and geological classification. She is also an OSA (Optica) senior member.

Abstract: Over the past few years, there has been a huge growth in number of small-scale satellites launched for earth observation and remote sensing applications. There is also huge growth in UAV based remote sensing for various applications from precision agriculture and climate change monitoring. With the growth of the commercial space sector, there are also several upcoming missions to lunar and Martian surfaces using rovers. This has prompted the need for miniaturization and improving the functionality of imaging instrumentation particularly hyperspectral and multispectral imagers. Over the past few years, my group has developed customized multispectral imagers for various applications on both unmanned aerial vehicle and rover platforms. I will present the work we have done on these projects. Additionally my group is collaborating with industry partner and several university partners to develop photonic integrated devices for optical satellite communication applications. I will present a brief overview of the research activities we are doing at Western on this project. Finally, I will also talk about some of the interesting collaborative space related research and training activities at the Western’s Institute for Earth and Space Exploration.