Fausto Ferreira

Dr. Fausto Ferreira is an Assistant Professor at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing and an Associate Director for Business at CoE MARBLE - Centre of Excellence in Maritime Robotics and Technologies for Sustainable Blue Economy. His research activities are conducted within the Laboratory for Underwater Systems and Technologies (LABUST).

He has been involved in 15 EU Projects (FP6, FP7, H2020, Horizon Europe, INTERREG, Erasmus+) and 2 Office of Naval Research Global (ONRG) projects (including a Visiting Scientist Program grant). He is the Coordinator of the Erasmus+ project Marine Robots for better Sea Knowledge awareness (MASK). He has been the Deputy Technical Director of 6 Robotics competitions (SAUC-E 2014, euRathlon 2014, euRathlon Grand Challenge 2015, ERL Emergency 2017-2019) and Technical Director of 1 robotics competition (SAUC-E 2016). He has also been PI and co-PI of two U.S. Office of Naval Research Global funded projects and is currently PI of two EU funded projects.

Dr. Ferreira is a senior member of IEEE and was Vice-President for Workshops and Symposia of the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society (OES) from 2021 to 2023. He serves as an Associate Editor of the IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering. He is the General Chair of EMRA' 2023 Workshop. He has been a member of many conference organizing committees (including Technical Co-chair of OCEANS 2021 San Diego - Porto). He has been awarded the 2023 IEEE OES Distinguished Service Award and was an Outstanding reviewer for IFAC Annual Reviews in Control in 2018. He holds over 80 peer-reviewed papers including two patents and two book chapters, has reviewed for over 30 international journals, over 70 international conferences and 8 funding agencies. His research interests include underwater computer vision, sonar processing, maritime law for unmanned marine vehicles, robotics competitions, and educational robotics.

He holds a PhD in Robotics, an Integrated Master's in Electrical and Computer Engineering and a Bachelor's in Political Science with a thesis on regulatory aspects of autonomous surface vessels.