If you want to sign up for this seminar, you need to register with the following information in the registration form

• surname, first name,
• e-mail address,
• matriculation number,

Please note that the registration period starts 01.03.2026 at 10:00 h and ends 12.04.2026 at 23:59 h. All applications before and after this registration period will not be taken into account.

Registration will be possible within the before mentioned time by sending an e-mail with the desired seminar topic, name and matriculation number to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Only one student per topic is permitted (first come - first serve).

The registration is binding. A deregistration is only possible by sending an e-mail with your name and matriculation number to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. until Sunday, 12.04.2026 at 23:59 h. All later cancellations of registration will be considered as having failed the seminar.

Students write a scientific report on a topic closely related to the current research of the DSS group. Potential topics, therefore, deal with digital signal processing related to underwater applications.

Students will also present their findings in front of the other participants and the DSS group.

SONAR (sound navigation and ranging) systems are used to detect underwater targets. Those systems use hydrophone arrays to obtain information about the environment. Conventually line arrays or rectangular array geometries with evenly distributed hydrophone elements are used. The topic of this seminar is to take a look on non-uniform arrays, their advantages and limitations. How does the non-uniform geometry influence the beampattern and how do the individual elements have to be weighted to achive the best results?

Ship radiated noise is an underwater recorded sound signal that is combined of multiple ship components that create a characteristic ship hydroacoustic signature. Machinery, propeller and hydrodynamic noises are main contributors to the induvidual ship sound. The topic of this seminar is to take a look at different ways of analysing low frequency range and high frequency range of ship radiated noise. How does the use of LOFAR and DEMON extract and describe frequencies of ship components such as propeller and engine?

In underwater signal processing, multipath propagation, strong attenuation, and time-varying channels pose significant challenges. MIMO SONAR systems offer the potential to improve spatial resolution, detection performance, and robustness, with beamforming playing a central role. While delay-and-sum is considered a classical and widely used approach, the seminar will focus in particular on identifying, theoretically classifying, and systematically comparing more advanced and adaptive beamforming methods. Special emphasis will be placed on evaluating their performance, robustness, and computational complexity in realistic acoustic underwater environments.

Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) uses optical fibers to continuously detect vibrations and acoustic signals along the fiber. The topic of this seminar emphasizes the signal processing methods applied to DAS, with a particular focus on array techniques such as beamforming to extract spatial and directional information. Topics include DAS fundamentals, fiber array modeling, and advanced signal processing algorithms for source localization and direction estimation.

This seminar focuses on a comparative analysis of target tracking algorithms used in passive and active sonar systems. Your task is to examine the fundamental principles and operational differences between these two sonar modalities with respect to target tracking performance, data association, and uncertainty management. A key part of the seminar will address common algorithmic approaches for multi-hypothesis tracking (MHT) in both active and passive contexts, including probabilistic data association, joint probabilistic data association filters, and particle-based multi-target estimation methods. The discussion will explore which algorithms are most commonly applied, how they differ in terms of implementation complexity, computational efficiency, and tracking accuracy, and what trade-offs arise between robustness and real-time applicability.

Multistatic sonar networks (MSNs) consist of spatially distributed transmitters and receivers, where the detection region is determined by bistatic geometries rather than simple circular coverage zones. In such systems, the coverage area is shaped by Cassini ovals defined by transmitter–receiver pairs. When active sources are mounted on mobile platforms such as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), efficient route planning becomes essential to maximize surveillance performance. The topic of this seminar is to investigate optimization strategies for determining the route of a mobile active source in a multistatic sonar network with fixed receivers. How does the bistatic detection geometry influence coverage planning? How can coverage be formulated as a mathematical optimization problem? Special emphasis will be placed on comparing exact optimization approaches such as Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) with metaheuristic methods, including an evaluation of solution quality and computational complexity.