1423 Powhatan St., Suite 1
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
Phone (703) 836-6727
Fax (703) 836-7491
Email: asnehq@navalengineers.org

 

ASNE is the leading professional engineering society for engineers, scientists and allied professionals who conceive, design, develop, test, construct, outfit, operate and maintain complex naval and maritime ships, submarines and aircraft and their associated systems and subsystems.  ASNE also serves the educators who train the professionals, researchers who develop related technology, and students who are preparing for the profession.  Society activities provide support for the U.S. Navy; U.S. Coast Guard; U.S. Marine Corps; U.S. Merchant Marine and U.S. Army.

ASNE is the seventh oldest technical society in the United States.  It was founded in 1888 by a group of naval engineering pioneers, most of them officers of the U.S. Navy's Engineering Corps, who sought a unified approach to their profession in order to make the most of new advances in technology. The purposes of ASNE are:           

  • to advance the knowledge and practice of naval engineering in public and private applications and operations,
  • to enhance the professionalism and well-being of members, and
  • to promote naval engineering as a career field.

For 125 years, the Society’s objectives have been strengthened and preserved to meet the changing needs of a time-honored profession. Today ASNE conducts a variety of technical meetings and symposia, publishes the highly regarded Naval Engineers Journal and a number of other technical proceedings and publications, and fosters professional development and technical information exchange through technical committees, local section activities and cooperative efforts with government organizations and other professional societies.

The Society's annual meeting, ASNE Day, is typically held in February of each year in the Washington, DC, area. The meeting features major addresses by high level industry and government leaders and panel discussions by leading members of the profession.  It also includes presentation and discussion of technical papers on a variety of timely naval engineering topics, presentation of the Society's prestigious annual awards and a large exposition with government and industry exhibits covering the full spectrum of naval engineering technology. ASNE Day is highlighted by the Society’s annual Honors Gala, attended by hundreds of executives and senior managers from both government and industry.

Our website is designed to not only serve our members, but also to support scholars, students and others interested in the varied field of naval engineering.  We welcome your suggestions on ways we can improve your experience. 

Dr. Geoffrey B. Irani

Award: Solberg Award
Year: 1990
Recipient:
Dr. Geoffrey B. Irani
Reason:
For his significant contribution to naval engineering as set forth in the following CITATION:

Dr. Geoffrey B. Irani has made significant contributions in applying signal-processing technology to cruise missile navigation. To achieve pinpoint accuracy, the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile depends on position updates provided by the Digital Scene Matching Area Correlator (DSMAC). Dr. Irani has made substantial technical contributions to this important system.

Dr. Irani has led the technical community in developing an understanding of the existing DSMAC system. This understanding has been encapsulated in image- and signal-processing models of the scene-matching process. These models enable the Tomahawk mission planners to select and prepare reference maps for strike missions and to predict the probability of successful DSMAC updating during missile flight. His thorough characterization of DSMAC hardware and software and the physical phenomena involved in optical sensing have been key to Fleet acceptance and reliance on DSMAC capabilities, as demonstrated during Operation Desert Storm.

Dr. Irani's most significant contribution, however, is an innovative design approach for a new DSMAC scene matching system. Dr. Irani and his team at The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory developed advanced image processing techniques that overcome limitations of the original design. Scenes with lower contrast will be allowed, greatly increasing the number of land areas that will support the needed position fixes. Dr. Irani was a key leader in translating the concept of flight hardware and software. The new DSMAC system will significantly increase the utility of the weapon system and is a principal element in the Tomahawk Block III upgrade which is currently undergoing development testing.

His technical contributions and leadership in developing the current DSMAC capability and the specific invention of a new digital scene matching system that significantly expands the utility of the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile make Dr. Geoffrey B. Irani eminently qualified to receive the Solberg Award for 1990.