As per the https://www.drones.gov.au, the drone industry is expected to create thousands of jobs and contribute significantly to the Australian economy. The Australia commercial drone market size was estimated at USD 772 million in 2023 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 15.3% from 2024 to 2030. Performance of drones are significantly affected due to weather elements of the environment, such as wind and rain. This can limit their capacity to fly, landing and make it challenging to get precise data. Moreover, drones currently have a limited operating range and data collection capacity due to their short battery lives. The advancement of sensing technologies, embedded systems, wireless communication technologies, nano-materials, miniaturization, vision sensing and processing speed makes it possible to enhance the performance of drones. This seminar will present recent research and developmental activities on interfacing different sensors and sensing system along with machine visions embedded in drones at Macquarie University. A few current project activities of MQ Drone Lab will be presented. Time permits, a visit of the MQDrone Lab (50 WR) will be arranged.

Prof. Hisham Mohamed Hamoud Nagi, received his B.Sc. in Marine Science from Sana’a University, Yemen at the year 1994, and M.Sc. in Environmental Science from Bangalore University, India in the year 2002, and then awarded the Ph.D. degree in Marine Science from Goa University, India in the year 2008. He is a professional university lecturer and researcher with more than 25 years of experience. At present, he is working as a Professor in Sana’a University, specialized in Environmental Studies and Coastal Environment. He is the Head of Environmental Sciences Department, Faculty of Petroleum and Natural Resources. He has more than 27 research publications in several environmental-related fields including: marine ecology, coastal environment, remote sensing and GIS, climate change, coastal zone management, coastal pollution, and biodiversity. He also participated in more than 15 national and international conferences and workshops. He worked as a consultant to several national and international organizations on Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, Environmental Management, Fisheries, Coastal Zone Management, Social Impacts of Environmental and Socio-Economic Development Policies. Those organizations include: the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), Yemen; Yemeni Remote Sensing and GIS Center (YRSC); Public Works Project (PWP); OMV (Yemen); the Regional Organization for the Conservation of the Environment in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden (PERSGA); The World Bank (WB); United Nation Development Program (UNDP); Global Environmental Facility (GEF); International Organization for Migration (IOM); and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).  Prof. Hisham Mohamed Hamoud Nagi, received his B.Sc. in Marine Science from Sana’a University, Yemen at the year 1994, and M.Sc. in Environmental Science from Bangalore University, India in the year 2002, and then awarded the Ph.D. degree in Marine Science from Goa University, India in the year 2008. He is a professional university lecturer and researcher with more than 25 years of experience. At present, he is working as a Professor in Sana’a University, specialized in Environmental Studies and Coastal Environment. He is the Head of Environmental Sciences Department, Faculty of Petroleum and Natural Resources. He has more than 27 research publications in several environmental-related fields including: marine ecology, coastal environment, remote sensing and GIS, climate change, coastal zone management, coastal pollution, and biodiversity. He also participated in more than 15 national and international conferences and workshops. He worked as a consultant to several national and international organizations on Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, Environmental Management, Fisheries, Coastal Zone Management, Social Impacts of Environmental and Socio-Economic Development Policies. Those organizations include: the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), Yemen; Yemeni Remote Sensing and GIS Center (YRSC); Public Works Project (PWP); OMV (Yemen); the Regional Organization for the Conservation of the Environment in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden (PERSGA); The World Bank (WB); United Nation Development Program (UNDP); Global Environmental Facility (GEF); International Organization for Migration (IOM); and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Syahrun is a full Professor at Syiah Kuala University, Banda Aceh. He was born in Banda Aceh-Indonesia, on December 24th, 1967. His higher education started at the Physics Department of The Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology (ITS), Surabaya, in 1987. He continued studying at the Graduate Study Program of Opto-Electrotechniques and Laser Applications, The University of Indonesia (UI), Jakarta in 1997, under the supervision of Dr. Koo Hendrik Kurniawan. In 2000, He received Monbusho Scholarship from Japan Government and studied as a student researcher at Fukui University for one year. In 2001, at the same university, he began his doctoral study in Laser plasma Spectroscopy and its application for spectrochemical analysis under the supervision of Prof. Kiichiro Kagawa and Prof. Iwao Kitazima. His dissertation title was Study on The Characteristics of Laser-Induced Plasma and Applications. After obtaining his doctorate in 2004, he returned to Indonesia to work at his university and continue his research with Dr. Koo Hendrik Kurniawan at Maju Makmur Mandiri Research Centre. His research interest is in fundamental studies on laser-induced breakdown plasma spectroscopy (LIBS) and its applications in the fields of food and its safety, coffee and herbal medicine, environment, agriculture, and geology. He has published many scientific articles in International Journals. He also showed interest in physics education by developing science tools using inexpensive and used tools together with Prof. Kagawa. Contributing to Indonesia’s higher education, since 2015 he has been selected as a National Reviewer for national research grants, as well as monitoring and evaluating the research achievements of researchers from other universities in Indonesia. In addition to this, he acted as quality manager for enhancing the quality of his university.

Laser-induced-breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an atomic emission spectroscopic technique that provides efficient and rapid multi-elemental analysis and has numerous applications in various fields. These include material analysis, geological exploration, environmental monitoring, fossils characterization, cultural heritage study and conservation, biological studies, food and drug analysis, industrial diagnostics, surface mapping, isotopic analysis, and planet exploration. Despite its widespread use and many publications, LIBS still has limitations in detecting elements with very light mass, such as hydrogen (H) and deuterium (D). The detection of H and D in zircaloy is essential for light and heavy reactors as it enables the early identification of cracks in the tubes, a necessary component of nuclear engineering. The main reason why LIBS cannot detect hydrogen (H) and deuterium (D) is mainly due to the time-mismatching effect. Previous studies have shown that when light-mass atoms are ablated, they tend to travel at higher speeds, avoiding the formation of the shock-wave plasma generated by the heavier host elements. As a result, most of these prematurely accelerated atoms cannot interact with the thermal shock wave plasma, causing a significant decrease in emission intensity. At lower gas pressures, this effect is less pronounced. To address the time-mismatching effect problem, we used the metastable helium atom (He*) in the excited state as a source of excitation for the hydrogen atom (H) ablated through a collision process similar to Penning In this approach, we applied a double pulse (DP) orthogonal LIBS technique with helium gas in the surrounding environment. This approach involves a two-laser system, the first laser producing a helium gas plasma and the second laser ablating the target material. The time between the two laser systems has been carefully adjusted to ensure that target H atoms have entered the relatively cooler helium gas plasma. In this plasma, ions, and electrons have already been recombined, resulting in a very sharp H emission line with a very low background.

Norashidah is currently a professor and the Director at the Institute of Energy Infrastructure, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering degree from Memphis State University, USA, and her Master and PhD in Electrical Engineering degrees from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. She has 30 years of academic and industry experience. Her research interest is in sustainable energy infrastructure enabling technologies such as satellite geospatial technologies and communications networks.  She is a Senior Member of IEEE and a registered Professional Engineer in Malaysia.

Malaysia as well as many other countries are actively transitioning their energy mix towards cleaner renewable options like hydroelectric, solar, and wind power with emphasis on sustainability and economic growth. There is a need for selecting renewable generation and transmission infrastructure sites based on the nature of the renewable supply, environmental factors, land use, natural hazard threat, etc.  Forecasting of renewable generation based on changing weather conditions provides a new dimension in providing reliable electricity supply. Satellite technology is integral to these efforts, offering crucial data for energy infrastructure planning and management. Satellites can help map potential locations for renewables by identifying solar geometry, radiation and cloud obstruction, wind speeds or water flows. Optical, radar, and atmospheric data from satellites are available to monitor environmental conditions, land use, land and vegetation changes and weather.  This keynote will walk through the use of satellite data for renewable energy based on our current initiative at the Institute of Energy Infrastructure, Universiti Tenaga Nasional, a national centre of excellence in Sustainable Energy Infrastructure in Malaysia. We leveraged satellite technology with Geographic Information System (GIS) and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) techniques for transmission line monitoring, dam studies, renewable forecasting, and hazard management. Exploring insights from satellite data with AI/ML analytics inevitably will improve the renewable energy infrastructure performance, longevity, and sustainability, aligning with a country’s energy transition goals.