GBDTC successfully delivers ISAP2022 in Sydney

5 December 2022

Engaging presentations, world class research, and an exciting itinerary showcasing Sydney’s best sites made this conference a triumph.

Panorama of Sydney harbour and bridge in Sydney city at night

A premier forum for antennas and propagation

The 2022 International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation (ISAP) was held from 31 October to 3 November 2022 at the ICC, Sydney. ISAP2022 was organised by the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) in collaboration with the University of Adelaide (UoA) and other Australian universities, as well as CSIRO and the Australian industry. It was in cooperation with and sponsored by the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society (IEEE/AP-S), the European Association on Antennas and Propagation (EurAAP), the Japanese Communications Society of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communications Engineers (IEICE), the International Union of Radio Science (URSI), the Antenna Measurement Techniques Association (AMTA) as well as a number of international companies.

With a focus on the Asia-Pacific region, ISAP has become one of the most significant international flagship conferences in antennas and propagation, attracting academic and industrial participants at all career stages from all over the world. It is a premier forum for reporting new technical-scientific achievements, demonstrating state-of-the-art technologies, and establishing and strengthening professional co-operations and networks in antennas, propagation, microwave circuits, electromagnetics theory, and related fields such as wireless communications and sensing.

ISAP2022 was truly a special event as it marked the first ISAP held primarily in person since 2020, with a ‘backup option’ for online presentations for authors who could not travel due to COVID-19-related restrictions. The conference was opened by UTS Vice Chancellor, Prof Andrew Parfitt. It was chaired by three prominent researchers from the Global Big Data Technologies Centre (GBDTC), Prof Y. Jay Guo, Prof Richard W. Ziolkowski and Dr Peiyuan Qin. They delivered an exciting overall program including an inspiring technical program, a cruise banquet and award ceremony on the beautiful Sydney harbour, a technical visit to UTS TechLab, and the first European-Australian School of Antennas held at Manly. The ISAP 2022 Technical Program Committee (TPC) was chaired by Prof Christophe Fumeaux (UoA), Dr Can Ding (GBDTC) and Dr Nghia Nguyen-Trong (UoA). The TPC received 348 submissions from 32 countries, which is an appreciable number considering the uncertainties of this third year in the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of a rigorous review process, the technical program included 292 papers presented at the conference. The final technical program featured 3 keynote speeches by Prof Stefano Maci, Prof Gianluca Lazzi and Prof Eva Rajo-Iglesias, 20 semi-plenary invited talks, and 60 sessions including 17 convened sessions, 40 regular sessions and 3 awards sessions. In addition, a special workshop dedicated to antennas and propagation standards was held. A total of over 260 people attended this event in person and about 100 people gave presentations online.

On the last day of ISAP, a technical tour to visit UTS' TechLab was organised. The participants had opportunities to visit the UTS-Nokia next-generation robotics and 5G Lab, see some advanced antenna technologies and our iconic anechoic chamber for antenna testing.

Following the formal ISAP2022 proceedings, Prof Jay Guo and Dr Peiyaun Qin organised the inaugural European-Australian School of Antennas (EASoA) in Manly. This was the first time for the European School of Antennas (ESoA) to be held in our region. The theme of the EASoA was novel analogue beamforming techniques for antennas of B5G and 6G systems. Prof Y. Jay Guo, Prof Richard Ziolkowski, Prof Christophe Fumeaux, Prof Stefano Maci, Prof Oscar Quevedo-Teruel, Prof Jose Luis Gomez Tornero and Dr Peiyuan Qin delivered technical presentations/courses on this theme based on their latest research. TMYTEK also provided a hands-on course on mm-wave antenna beamformer development. EASoA attracted over 25 PhD students and 15 participants from industry, apparently a record number for ESoA to date!

Undoubtedly ISAP2022 has left invaluable and long-lasting memories for all participants.

Memorable moments

Prof Stefano Maci, Prof Gianluca Lazzi and Prof Eva Rajo-Iglesias gave keynote speeches.

Group of student volunteers with two Professors

Student volunteers with Prof Jay Guo (General Chair) and Prof Richard Ziolkowski (General co-Chair) at the Welcome Reception.

Two award winners being presented their certificates by two Professors

Best Student Paper Recipients (Ms Pilar Castillo-Tapia and Mr. Quoc Hung Dang). The awards were presented by Prof Gianluca Lazzi and Prof Y. Jay Guo.

Best paper and honorable mention award winners receiving their certificates from two Professors

Best Young Professional Paper Recipients: Sarah E Clendinning and Dr Shulin Chen and Honorable Mention Awards Recipients: Dr Hossein Sarbandi Farahani and Dr Hai-Han Sun (former GBDTC student). The awards were presented by Prof Zhongxiang Shen (far left) and Prof Christophe Fumeaux (far right).