Nader Alagha received his Ph.D. Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Since 2006 he has been with the Electrical Department of the Technical Directorate at European Space Agency Research and Technology Centre (ESA-ESTEC) in The Netherlands. At ESTEC, he has been the technical lead of several telecommunication systems, payload and ground segment R&D activities for broadband, broadcasting and IoT applications from early design stages towards in-orbit demonstration, verification and trials. He has been involved in the technical working groups for air interface standards such as DVB-RCS2 and DVB-S2X, serving as the editor of the DVB-RCS2 Guidelines Document and chairing Channel Model Technical Group for the Beam Hopping development. He has been involved in early studies of space-based maritime communications in VHF bands, particularly Automated Identification System (AIS) and VHF Data Exchange Systems (VDES) leading to technology development and In-orbit demonstrations of SAT-AIS and VDE-SAT. Since 2015, he has been the ESA Technical Lead of Satellite Network of Experts (SatNEx).
Dr. Alagha has served as an executive committee member of the IEEE Benelux Chapter on Communications and Vehicular Technology. He served as the general co-chair of International communications Satellite Systems Conference (ICSSC) 2018 and 2019 and a member of steering committee in 2021 and 2022. He has been a guest editor of Wiley International Journal of Satellite Communications and Networking.
Lars Loge has a M.Sc. and a PhD in Electronics and Telecommunications from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) where he specialized in satellite communications. He worked 5 years as an adviser at the Norwegian Space Centre, studying solutions for satellite communications to the Arctic and liaison with related initiatives in Norway as well as internationally and through ESA.
Since 2014, he has been with Space Norway AS in 2014 as Lead System Engineer in its subsidiary Statsat, where he is in charge of operations, continuation and enhancement of the Norwegian AIS satellite constellation. In parallel he has supported the ESA funded VDE-SAT activities in Space Norway and since early 2015 he has been following the work in IALA and ITU on VDES and contributed to Recommendation ITU-R M.2092 as well as Report ITU-R M.2435. In preparation for and during WRC-19 he had the role as CEPT Coordinator for WRC-19 Agenda Item 1.9.2 (VDE-SAT). Since December 2019 he has been VDES Program Manager at Space Norway.