The South African Radar Interest Group (SARIG) will be hosting a radar conference at the CSIR later this week with the theme of “Affordable Radars for Border Control”.
The free-to-attend conference takes place at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research’s (CSIR’s) International Convention Centre in Pretoria on 9 November and will be followed by a workshop on Non-Cooperative Target Recognition (NCTR) on 10 November under the tutelage of the CSIR’s Willie Nel.
The conference will feature presentations from various South African academic and industry leaders on cutting edge radar technology and how it can be applied to the realm of border control.
Some of the topics that will be covered include synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensor research at the CSIR; microsatellites for maritime awareness; coastal surveillance; the work done on safe border control by the South African Air Force; the Wide Area Surveillance System (WASS) for counter-poaching; affordable ground-based surveillance radars for South Africa; and the application of radar in underground mining, amongst others.
Speakers include representatives from the CSIR, South African Air Force, Denel Dynamics, Institute for Maritime Technology, University of Cape Town and Reutech.
In explaining the need for such a conference, SARIG said that new and current threats require improved radar technology to allow border protection, prevention of human trafficking, wildlife preservation, facility protection, and more. Today, radar systems must deliver new and specialised levels of information – it is therefore important to continue sharing the most recent research and state of the art development.
SARIG is a not-for-profit organisation established to further the cause of radar in South Africa. Since its inception in 2008, SARIG organized the 75th anniversary of Radar in South Africa conference in 2014 whereby 150 people attended, and in 2015 SARIG organized an international Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Radar conference which saw more than 220 people attending from all over the world. Every year SARIG continues to host three mini Radar conferences at no cost to the attendees.
