Bio
Dr. Hector Erives-Contreras is a Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of Physics and Meteorology at the U.S. Air Force Academy (USAFA) from 2024 to 2025. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Industrial Engineering from the Chihuahua Institute of Technology, a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Texas at El Paso, and a Ph.D. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the New Mexico State University. In 2022 he was a U.S. Air Force Academy Summer Faculty Fellow and worked on the characterization of a GEO satellite with DIRSIGTM and measurements for the USAFA-16 and CMU-Falcon telescopes. From 2018 to 2024 he was an Associate Professor of Practice at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), where he developed and taught courses on continuous time signal processing, electric circuit analysis, and embedded systems. From 2005 to 2017 he was an Associate Professor at the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology where he taught courses on classical and modern control theory, image and signal processing. From 1996 to 2004 he worked in the industry as a Staff Scientist and instrumentation/calibration engineer where he led the RSB MODIS Calibration Support Team (RSB-MCST). He is a co-PI on the $5M grant that supports research on the characterization of unresolved resident space objects (URSOs) that threaten space-based assets. Dr. Erives-Contreras is a Professional Engineer in the states of New Mexico and Texas, and Senior Member of IEEE and SPIE.
Education
Ph.D. Electrical and Computer Engineering, New Mexico State University (1996)
Master of Science, Industrial Engineering, The University of Texas at El Paso (1990)
Bachelor of Science, Electronics and Industrial Engineering, The Chihuahua Institute of Technology, Chihuahua, Mexico (1988)
Professional Experience
Distinguished Visting Professor of the Physics and Meteorology Department, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, CO (2024-Present)
Summer Faculty Fellow, the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, CO (Summer 2022)
Associate Professor of Practice of the Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX (2018-2024)
Computer Vision Engineer, Applied Technology Associates, Albuquerque, NM (Summer 2017)
Senior Software Engineer, the Altamira Technologies Corporation, Las Cruces, NM (2016)
Associate Professor of the Electrical Engineering Department, The New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, NM (2005-2017)
Instrument Engineer/Lead Calibration Engineer at Science Systems and Applications, Inc., Lanham, MD (2002-2004)
Staff Scientist at Opto-Knowledge Systems, Inc., Manhattan Beach, CA (1997-2002)
Research and Scholarly Interests
Characterization of geosynchronous (GEO) satellites through inverse modeling of with the Digital Imaging and Remote Sensing Image Generation (DIRSIGTM), acoustic mapping of lightning events, chaotic systems, and STEM education. Currently working on pose estimation of rocket bodies in the LEO regime.
Publications
Flores, B., Erives, H., “Implementation of Non-Linear Oscillators Using Analog Computers for the Study of Chaotic Oscillators,” ASEE-GSW, West Texas A&M University, March 2024.
Erives, H., Velez-Reyes, M., Chun, F. K., Strong, D. M., Najera, A., “Simulation of a Geosynchronous Satellite with DIRSIGTM and Observations from Two Falcon Telescopes,” The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences. November 2023.
Velez-Reyes M., Erives H., Najera A., Chun F., Plis E., Badura G., Reyes J., Gartley M., Hope D., Albrecht E. M., Wilson K. A., Strong D. M., “Understanding Non-Resolved Space Object Signatures for Space Domain Awareness,” Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS), Maui, Hawaii, September 2022.
Chavez, A., Erives, H., Skromme B., O’Donnell M., Velez-Reyes, M., “Impact of a Step Based Tutoring System on Student Learning at the University of Texas at El Paso,” 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN, August 2022.
Arechiga R., Erives H., Sonnenfeld R., Stanley M., Rison W., Thomas R., Harald Edens H., Lapierre J., Jensen D., Morris K., “Acoustic vs Interferometric Measurements of Lightning,” American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA, December 14-18, 2015.
Erives, H., Arechiga, O. R., Stock, M., Lapierre, J., Edens, H. E., Stringer A., Rison, W., Thomas, R. J., “Acoustic Location of Lightning Using Interferometric Techniques,” American Geophysical Union, San Francisco, CA 9-13 December 2013.
Erives H., Teare S. W., Fitzgerald J. G., “Automated Non-rigid Registration for a Tunable Hyperspectral Imaging System,” Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (FTS)/Hyperspectral Imaging and Sounding of the Environment, OSA, Santa Fe, NM, February 11-15, 2007.
Gambhir B., Erives H., “Scene Statistics Based Calibration of Remote Sensing Instruments”, IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Letters, Volume 3, No. 1, 2006.
Erives H., Xion S., Sun J., Esposito J., Xiong X., Barned B., “Terra MODIS RSB On-Orbit Calibration and Performance: Four Years of Data”, SPIE Sensors, Systems, and Next-Generation Satellites X, Maspalomas, Gran Canaria Island, Spain, September 2004.
Gat N, Erives H., and J. Barhen, “Fast Global Optimization Techniques for Atmospheric Profile Retrieval & Remote Detection of Plumes using Infrared Multi-or Hyper-Spectral Imagery”, Seventh JPL Airborne Earth Science Workshop, NASA JPL, Pasadena, Ca., January 1998.
Erives H., Thompson W., “A Comparative Analysis of Two Evolved Neural Networks for Identification and Control of a Nonlinear System”, SPIE's on Signal Processing, Sensor Fusion, and Target Recognition, Orlando FL, vol. 3068, pp 366-373, April 1997.
Parra R., Erives H., Thompson W., “Robust Fast Model-Based Recognition of Partially Occluded Objects Using Normalized Interval Vertex Descriptors”, SPIE's Signal Processing, Sensor Fusion, and Target Recognition, Orlando FL, vol. 1955, pp 232-240, 1993.