Francesca Filippini

Francesca Filippini was born in Rome in 1991. She received her M.Sc. degree (cum Laude) in Communication Engineering and the PhD degree (cum Laude) in Radar and Remote Sensing, from Sapienza University of Rome, in May 2016 and February 2020, respectively. From January to May 2016, she has been working on her Master Thesis at Fraunhofer Institute FHR, as an intern of the Passive Radar and Anti-Jamming Techniques Department. She is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher with the DIET Dept. of Sapienza University of Rome.

Research Activity

The central topic of her research is the development of advanced signal processing techniques and methodologies for multichannel radar systems.

She has been working on:

• WiFi based indoor sensing and human monitoring

• The exploitation of polarization and frequency diversity for passive coherent location systems using FM radio and DVB-T signals as sources of opportunity

• The use of long coherent processing interval and motion compensation strategies

• The direction of arrival (DoA) estimation exploiting spatial and frequency diversity

Publications

International Journals and Magazines

1. F. Colone, F. Filippini and D. Pastina, "Passive Radar: past, present and future challenges," in IEEE Aerospace and Electronic Systems Magazine, vol. 38, no. 1, pp. 54-69, 1 Jan. 2023.

2. F. Colone, F. Filippini, M. Di Seglio, K. Chetty, "On the Use of Reciprocal Filter against WiFi packets for passive radar," in IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, vol. 58, no. 4, pp. 2746-2761, Aug. 2022.

3. F. Filippini and F. Colone, "Multi-carrier and Multi-polarimetric Model-based Adaptive Target Detector for Passive Radar Systems", IET Radar Sonar & Navigation, Apr. 2021.

4. F. Filippini and F. Colone, "Polarimetric Passive Radar: A Practical Approach to Parametric Adaptive Detection," in IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, vol. 56, no. 6, pp. 4930-4946, Dec. 2020 .

5. F. Colone and F. Filippini, "Autoregressive Model Based Polarimetric Adaptive Detection Scheme Part II: Performance Assessment Under Spectral Model Mismatch," in IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, vol. 56, no. 5, pp. 3779-3795, Oct. 2020 .

6. F. Colone and F. Filippini, "Autoregressive Model Based Polarimetric Adaptive Detection Scheme Part I: Theoretical Derivation and Performance Analysis," in IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, vol. 56, no. 5, pp. 3762-3778, Oct. 2020 .

7. F. Filippini, F. Colone and A. De Maio, "Threshold Region Performance of Multicarrier Maximum Likelihood Direction of Arrival Estimator," in IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, vol. 55, no. 6, pp. 3517-3530, Dec. 2019.

8. F. Filippini, F. Colone, D. Cristallini and G. Bournaka, "Experimental Results of Polarimetric Detection Schemes for DVB-T Based Passive Radar", in IET Radar, Sonar & Navigation, vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 883-891, 2017.

Conference Proceedings

1. M. Di Seglio, F. Filippini, C. Bongioanni and F. Colone, "Reference-free WiFi PHY Preamble based Passive Radar for Human Sensing", 2022 IET International Radar Conference, Edinburgh, UK.

2. M. Di Seglio, F. Filippini, C. Bongioanni and F. Colone, "Human and Drone Surveillance via RpF-based WiFi Passive Radar: Experimental Validation," 2022 23rd International Radar Symposium (IRS), 2022, pp. 402-407. .

3. M. Di Seglio, F. Filippini, K. Chetty and F. Colone, "Reducing the computational complexity of WiFi-based passive radar processing," 2022 IEEE Radar Conference (RadarConf22), 2022, pp. 01-06.

4. A. Quirini, F. Filippini, C. Bongioanni, F. Colone and P. Lombardo, "Outlier Rejection Approach for Direction of Arrival Estimation in Low SNR Conditions," 2021 18th European Radar Conference (EuRAD), 2022, pp. 141-144.

5. F. Filippini, O. Cabrera, C. Bongioanni, F. Colone and P. Lombardo, "DVB-S based Passive Radar for Short Range Security Application," 2021 IEEE Radar Conference (RadarConf21), 2021, pp. 1-6.

6. F. Filippini and F. Colone, "Multi-carrier Adaptive Detection in Polarimetric Passive Radars," 2020 IEEE Radar Conference (RadarConf20), Florence, Italy, 2020, pp. 1-6.

7. O. Cabrera, C. Bongioanni, F. Filippini, O. Sarabakha, F. Colone and P. Lombardo, "Detecting drones and human beings with DVB-S based COTS passive radar for short-range surveillance," 2020 IEEE International Radar Conference (RADAR), Washington, DC, USA, 2020, pp. 37-42.

8. T. Martelli, F. Filippini and F. Colone, "Tackling the different target dynamics issues in counter drone operations using passive radar," 2020 IEEE International Radar Conference (RADAR), Washington, DC, USA, 2020, pp. 512-517.

9. F. Filippini and F. Colone, "Polarimetric Detection Scheme for Passive Radar based on a 2D Auto-Regressive Disturbance Model," 2019 International Radar Conference (RADAR), TOULON, France, 2019, pp. 1-6.

10. F. Filippini, T. Martelli, F. Colone and R. Cardinali, "Exploiting long coherent integration times in DVB-T based passive radar systems," 2019 IEEE Radar Conference (RadarConf), Boston, MA, USA, 2019, pp. 1-6.

11. F. Filippini, T. Martelli, F. Colone and R. Cardinali, "Target DoA estimation in passive radar using non-uniform linear arrays and multiple frequency channels," 2018 IEEE Radar Conference (RadarConf18), Oklahoma City, OK, USA, 2018, pp. 1290-1295.

12. T. Martelli, F. Filippini, F. Pignol, F. Colone and R. Cardinali, "Computationally effective range migration compensation in PCL systems for maritime surveillance," 2018 IEEE Radar Conference (RadarConf18), Oklahoma City, OK, USA, 2018, pp. 1406-1411.

13. F. Filippini and F. Colone, "A practical approach to polarimetric adaptive target detection in passive radar," International Conference on Radar Systems (Radar 2017), Belfast, UK, 2017, pp. 1-6.

14. F. Filippini, F. Colone, D. Cristallini and G. Bournaka, "Preliminary experimental results of polarimetric detection schemes for DVB-T based passive radar," 2017 IEEE Radar Conference (RadarConf17), Seattle, WA, USA, 2017, pp. 0383-0388.

Speechs at National and International Workshops

• T. Martelli, F. Filippini, F. Colone and R. Cardinali, "Surveillance of drones and aircrafts using passive radar," GTTI Radar and Remote Sensing Workshop, Rome (Italy), May 2019.

• T. Martelli, F. Filippini, F. Colone and R. Cardinali, "Dual-band AULOS(R) Passive Radar System:recent advances and current challenges," 7th PCL Focus Day, Wachtberg (Germany), May 2019.

• F. Filippini, T. Martelli, F. Colone and R. Cardinali, "DVB-T based passive coherent location systems: Recent advances and current challenges," GTTI Radar and Remote Sensing Workshop, Pavia (Italy), May 2018.

• F. Filippini and F. Colone, "Exploiting polarimetric diversity in passive radar: Recent advances and applications ," GTTI Radar and Remote Sensing Workshop, Naples (Italy), May 2017.

• F. Filippini, F. Colone, D. Cristallini and G. Bournaka, "Polarimetric Detection Schemes for Passive Radar Systems: Experimental Results using DVB-T," 6th PCL Focus Day, Wachtberg (Germany), May 2017.

Book Chapters

• P. Lombardo, F. Colone, C. Bongioanni, O. M. Cabrera Morrone , F. Filippini, T. Martelli and I. Milani ," Multiband passive radar for drones detection and localization" in Clemente, C.; Fioranelli, F.; Colone, F.; Gang L., (eds.): 'Radar Countermeasures for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles' (Radar, Sonar & Navigation, 2021).

• F. Colone and F. Filippini, "Exploiting polarimetric diversity in passive radar" to appear in Aubry, A.; De Maio, A.; Farina, A. (eds.): 'Polarimetric Radar Signal Processing' (Radar, Sonar & Navigation, 2022).

PhD Dissertation

F. Filippini, "Multichannel passive radar systems: signal processing techniques and design strategies",
Advisor: Prof. F. Colone.

Services and Awards

Memberships and Services for Professional Societies

• AESS Board of Governors Member-at-Large (2023-2025)

• AESS Board of Governors Secretary (2021,2022)

• AESS QEB, Co-Editor in Chief (2022, 2023)

• Chair of the IEEE AESS Professional Networking and Mentoring Program (2019-2021).

• Graduate Student Representative at the Board of Governors of the IEEE Aerospace and Electronic System Society (AESS) (2019-2020).

Honors and Awards

• 2020 IEEE AESS Robert T. Hill Best Dissertation Award for the most outstanding Ph.D. dissertation in the Field of Interest of the Aerospace and Electronic Systems Society .

• 2020 GTTI Best PhD Thesis Award defended at an Italian University in the areas of communications technology.

• Best Paper Award at the 2019 International Radar Conference (RADAR2019) for the paper “Polarimetric detection scheme for Passive Radar based on a 2D auto-regressive disturbance model”, by Francesca Filippini and Fabiola Colone.

• 2018 Premium Award for Best Paper in IET Radar, Sonar & Navigation for the paper “Experimental results of polarimetric detection schemes for DVB-T-based passive radar”, by Francesca Filippini, Fabiola Colone, Diego Cristallini and Georgia Bournaka.

• Best Student Paper Award at the 2018 IEEE Radar Conference for the paper “Target DoA estimation in passive radar using non-uniform linear arrays and multiple frequency channels” by Francesca Filippini, Tatiana Martelli, Fabiola Colone and Roberta Cardinali.

• Best Paper Award at the 2017 GTTI Workshop on Radar and Remote Sensing for the paper “Exploiting polarimetric diversity in passive radar: Recent advances and applications” by Francesca Filippini and Fabiola Colone.