Image Processing and Pattern Recognition for Remote Sensing Lab

Prof. Sebastiano B. Serpico, Fellow IEEE

Full Professor of Telecommunications
University of Genoa
Department of Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications Engineering, and Naval Architecture (DITEN)
Via Opera Pia 11a, I-16145, Genoa, Italy
Phone: + 39 010 335 2752
Fax: +39 010 335 2134
sebastiano.serpico@unige.it
Google Scholar profile and latest publications

Sebastiano B. Serpico received the laurea degree in Electronic Engineering (1982) and the Ph.D. (1989) from the University of Genoa, Italy. Full Professor since 2004, he has been teaching signal theory, pattern recognition, electrical communications, and remote sensing at the University of Genoa. His research interests include pattern recognition (feature selection, classification, change detection, data fusion) for remote sensing images.

From 1995 to 1998, he was the Head of the Signal Processing and Telecommunications Group (SP&T) of the Department of Biophysical and Electronic Engineering (DIBE) of the University of Genoa. From 1998 to 2011, he was the Head of the SP&T Lab. He is currently the head of the Methods and Systems for Signal Processing and Recognition operational unit at DITEN and of the IPRS lab within this unit.
He was a member of the Ph.D. Committees of the Ph.D. programs in Information and Electronic Engineering of the University of Genoa from 1995 to 1999, in Remote Sensing of the University of Rome "La Sapienza" from 1999 to 2008, and in Information Science and Technologies for Environmental System Monitoring and Risk Management of the University of Genoa from 2006 to 2012. Since 2013, he has been a member of the Ph.D. Committee of the Ph.D. program in Science and Technology for Electronic and Telecommunication Engineering of the University of Genoa.
He is the President of the IANUA - The School for higher education of the University of Genoa. He was the Chairman of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Information and Communication Technologies (ISICT) from 2003 to 2019. He was a member of the Academic Senate of the University of Genoa.

He has been the project manager of several projects for which DIBE/DITEN has been the coordinator of a consortium of several partners, such as: TASTY (Innovation Program), TARGET (Telematics Applications Program), and SUSTAIN (Thematic Network of the Brite Euram Program), funded by the European Commission (EC); ECOSAR, CSK-2181, PRISMA_Learn (PRISMA-SCIENZA), funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI). He has been the scientific coordinator of three PRIN projects focused on multisource and very high resolution remote sensing and funded by the Italian Ministry of Education, University, and Research (MIUR).
He has been the project manager for the DIBE/DITEN research unit of numerous other EC (e.g.: FIRE, Environment Program; CREW, Value Program; COSMOS and HOLOMAR, Marine Science and Technology Program; PASSWORDS, ESPRIT AVS-TTN Program), ASI, MIUR/MURST, European Space Agency, Liguria Region, and industrial projects. He was an evaluator of project proposals for several EC programmes (Climate & Environment, ESPRIT B.R.A., MAST III, IST).

He is author or co-author of more than 200 scientific publications, including journal papers and conference proceedings. His main novel contributions consist in several original solutions in the development of algorithms for image processing and recognition (filtering, segmentation, and parameter estimation); in the proposal of methodologies for feature selection and classification designed in such a way as to be effective in the application to multisensor and multitemporal remote sensing images; and in the proposal of a hybrid approach that allows the integration and the management of knowledge-based modules with image processing, recognition, and coding modules.

He is an IEEE Fellow and an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing (TGARS) and a reviewer of many journals including Signal Processing, Pattern Recognition Letters, and International Journal of Remote Sensing. He was the recipient of the Recognition of TGARS Best Reviewers by the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (IEEE TGARS, vol. 36, no. 6, November 1998, pp. 1842-1843). He was a Guest Editor of two special issues of TGARS regarding the analysis of hyperspectral image data (July 2001 issue) and recent advances in techniques for analysis of remotely sensed data (March 2005), and of a special issue of the Proceedings of the IEEE on remote sensing of natural disasters.

He was General Co-Chairman of the 2015 IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS, Milan, Italy, July 2015). From 1998 to 2002 he was the Chairman of the SPIE/EUROPTO series of conferences on Image and Signal Processing for Remote Sensing (IV to VIII editions) and he was the editor of the corresponding proceedings (Proceedings of SPIE, vols. 3500, 3871, 4170, 4541, 4885). In 2003 he was one of the chairmen of the IEEE Workshop on Advances in Techniques for Analysis of Remotely Sensed Data (NASA Goddard Visitor Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA, October 2003) and among the editors of the corresponding proceedings (IEEE Cat. No.03EX808).

He received the Education Award from the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society in 2019, the Best Paper Award at the 2010 IEEE Workshop on Hyperspectral Image and Signal Processing, the Interactive Symposium Paper Award at IEEE IGARSS 2016.

He was a Member of the technical program committees of numerous international conferences and workshops, including: IEEE IGARSS in 2000, 2001, 2003, and 2004; the International Workshops on Pattern Recognition in Remote Sensing in 2000, 2002, and 2004; the IEEE-ISPRS International Workshop on Remote Sensing and Data Fusion over Urban Areas in 2001 and 2003; the International Symposium on Remote Sensing and Data Fusion over Urban Area in 2005; the International Workshop on Geospatial Knowledge Processing for Natural Resource Management in 2001; the IEEE International Workshop on the Analysis of Multitemporal Remote Sensing Images in 2001, 2003, and 2005. He was the Scientific Coordinator of the 8th International Conference on Image Analysis and Processing (ICIAP, San Remo, Italy, September 1995) sponsored by IAPR and the North Italy Section of IEEE.

He was invited to give talks on pattern recognition and remote sensing topics in many universities and research centers, including the Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA, France), the University of Grenoble (France), the University of Iceland, the University of Surrey (UK), the German Space Agency (DLR, Germany); the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth (MS, USA), the Purdue University (IN, USA), and several others. He was invited to give a talk at the International Workshop on Modelling and Data Analysis in Environmetrics, Geostatistics and Related Areas (Fukuoka, Japan, November 2005) and to give a presentation for the Plenary Panel Discussion on FUSION, Vision and Challenges of the ISIF FUSION 2000 Congress (Paris, France, July 2000). He received the Best Paper Award at the 2010 IEEE Workshop on Hyperspectral Image and Signal Processing.