Farid Kendoul

Farid Kendoul has extensive experience in the field of autonomous systems and unmanned aircraft. Farid is currently working as the CTO and Co-Founder of Emesent, a venture-backed technology company specializing in the collection and analysis of critical data for industrial asset inspection and mapping. Farid plays a key role in the development of Emesent's flagship product, the award-winning Hovermap, which enables drones to autonomously and safely navigate complex industrial environments, including underground mines and tunnels.

Prior to their current position, Farid worked as a Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO, where they focused on the research and development of dependable autonomy technologies for unmanned aircraft systems. Farid has over 15 years of experience in this field, with expertise in areas such as autonomous low-altitude flight, real-time perception and obstacle avoidance using radar, LiDAR, and computer vision, and 3D and 4D guidance, navigation, and control systems.

Farid has also held positions at JPL (NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory) as a Visiting Research Scientist, where they developed guidance and control algorithms for unmanned aircraft, and at ARCAA - Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation as a Research Scientist-Engineer. At ARCAA, they contributed to the development of world-first autonomous unmanned aircraft systems capable of flying autonomously, performing low-altitude obstacle avoidance and infrastructure inspection beyond line-of-sight, and without a safety pilot.

Before joining ARCAA, Farid served as a JSPS Postdoctoral Researcher at Chiba University, where they built and integrated guidance and control systems for autonomous micro aerial vehicles, and designed visual localization systems.

Overall, Farid Kendoul has a strong background in the research, development, and integration of autonomous systems and unmanned aircraft, with a focus on innovative technologies for safe and efficient flight operations.

Farid Kendoul's education history includes the following:

- From 2004 to 2007, Farid Kendoul attended the Université de Technologie de Compiègne (UTC) and obtained a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Flight Control Systems for UAVs.

- In the year 2003, Farid Kendoul completed a master's degree at the Université de Technologie de Compiègne (UTC) with a specialization in Nonlinear Control of Dynamical Systems.

- From 2001 to 2004, Farid Kendoul pursued an engineer's degree in Mechatronics, Robotics, and Automation Engineering at the Université de Technologie de Compiègne (UTC).

- In the year 2000, Farid Kendoul acquired a DEUG diploma in Mathematics and Computer Technology from the Université de Picardie Jules Verne (Amiens).

- In 1999, Farid Kendoul studied Mathematics at the Université Abderrahmane Mira de Béjaïa.

Additionally, Farid Kendoul has obtained several certifications, including:

- Aircraft Radio Operators Certificate of Proficiency (AROCP) from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, obtained in January 2016.

- CASA Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) Controller Certificate from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority, obtained in January 2016.

- RPAS Remote Crew Resource Management (CRM) Training from the Australian Unmanned Systems Academy, obtained in January 2016.