Prof. Francesco Nex is currently Associate (UHD1) Professor in the Earth Observation Science (EOS) Department at the University of Twente.
Francesco Nex received his master degree in Environmental Engineering (2006) and his PhD degree (2010) from the TU Turin (Italy). From 2011 to 2015 he was with the 3DOM unit of FBK (Italy) working as Marie-Curie Post-Doc from 2011 to 2014 and then as Researcher. In 2015, Francesco moved to the University of Twente, where he worked as Assistant and then Associate Professor at the faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC). His research focuses on fusing elements from photogrammetry , deep learning and robotics to develop innovative solutions for Geomatics applications. Francesco is author of over 150 publications in international journals and conferences. He is/was involved in several European and national research projects dealing with UAV data processing. He is leading the UAV centre of the ITC Faculty. He is the Chairman of the ICWG I/II (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles: sensors and applications) of the ISPRS (International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing) and he was the PI of three ISPRS scientific initiatives. He has been serving in different roles on the Editorial boards of three indexed journals. In 2020, he was awarded with the ISPRS President’s Honorary Citation and the E.H. Thomson Award.
Expertise
Earth and Planetary Sciences
- Image
- Pilotless Aircraft
- Datum
- Damage
- Accuracy
- Building
Computer Science
- Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
- Detection
Organisations
Publications
2025
Humanitarian Demining: Comparing Diurnal Landmine Thermal Detection Simulations with Real Field Tests (2025)In 2025 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC). IEEE. Martinetti, A., Oregan, B., Shah, A., Jaunarajs, R., Askes, S. & Nex, F. C.https://doi.org/10.1109/GHTC66843.2025.11266192Autonomous UAV 3D Reconstruction using Prediction-Based Next Best View (2025)In ISPRS ICWG II/Ia, ICWG I/IV UAV-g 2025 : Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles in Geomatics (pp. 207-214) (ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences). Copernicus. Wang, Z., Alsadik, B. & Nex, F. C.https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-X-2-W2-2025-207-2025Low-cost extrinsic calibration between LIDAR and thermal camera for indoor mapping (2025)In ISPRS ICWG II/Ia, ICWG I/IV UAV-g 2025 : Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles in Geomatics (pp. 181-188) (ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences). Copernicus. van Manen, B. R., Lehtola, V. V., Mersha, A. & Nex, F. C.https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-X-2-W2-2025-181-2025Real-time bundle adjustment for ultra-high-resolution UAV imagery using adaptive patch-based feature tracking (2025)In ISPRS ICWG II/Ia, ICWG I/IV UAV-g 2025 : Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles in Geomatics (pp. 73-80) (ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences). Copernicus. Iz, S. A., Nex, F. C., Kerle, N., Meissner, H. & Berger, R.https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-X-2-W2-2025-73-2025M2H: Multi-task learning with efficient window-based cross-task attention for monocular spatial perception (2025)[Working paper › Preprint]. ArXiv.org. Udugama, U. V. B. L., Vosselman, G. & Nex, F. C.https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2510.17363EDU-UAV photogrammetry current online educational landscape (2025)In Proceedings of ISPRS Geospatial Week 2025: “Photogrammetry & Remote Sensing for a Better Tomorrow…” (pp. 101-108) (International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences). Copernicus. Al Asmar, Y., Alsadik, B., Nex, F. & Dadrass Javan, F.https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-xlviii-g-2025-101-2025From mystery to mastery:understanding autonomous exploration with UAVs (2025)GIM International, 39(2), 22-26. Alsadik, B. & Nex, F. C.https://issuu.com/geomarespublishing/docs/gim_-_issue_2-2025
2024
UnDER: Unsupervised Dense Point Cloud Extraction Routine for UAV Imagery Using Deep Learning (2024)Remote sensing, 17(1). Article 24. Bergado, J. R. & Nex, F.https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17010024Deep Learning Low-cost Photogrammetry for 4D Short-term Glacier Dynamics Monitoring (2024)PFG - Journal of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Geoinformation Science, 92(6), 657-678. Ioli, F., Dematteis, N., Giordan, D., Nex, F. & Pinto, L.https://doi.org/10.1007/s41064-023-00272-wDepth estimation and 3D reconstruction from UAV-borne imagery: Evaluation on the UseGeo dataset (2024)ISPRS Open Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 13. Article 100065. Hermann, M., Weinmann, M., Nex, F., Stathopoulou, E. K., Remondino, F., Jutzi, B. & Ruf, B.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ophoto.2024.100065UseGeo - A UAV-based multi-sensor dataset for geospatial research (2024)ISPRS Open Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 13. Article 100070. Nex, F., Stathopoulou, E. K., Remondino, F., Yang, M. Y., Madhuanand, L., Yogender, Y., Alsadik, B., Weinmann, M., Jutzi, B. & Qin, R.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ophoto.2024.100070Automatic Road Pavement Distress Recognition Using Deep Learning Networks from Unmanned Aerial Imagery (2024)Drones , 8(6). Article 244. Samadzadegan, F., Dadrass Javan, F., Ashtari Mahini, F., Gholamshahi, M. & Nex, F.https://doi.org/10.3390/drones8060244End-to-End Nano-Drone Obstacle Avoidance for Indoor Exploration (2024)Drones , 8(2). Article 33. Zhang, N., Nex, F. C., Vosselman, G. & Kerle, N.https://doi.org/10.3390/drones8020033Towards Fully Autonomous UAV: Damaged Building-Opening Detection for Outdoor-Indoor Transition in Urban Search and Rescue (2024)Electronics, 13(3), 1-17. Article 558. Surojaya, A., Zhang, N., Bergado, J. R. & Nex, F.https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13030558
2023
Preface: Workshop “IAMS - Intelligent Autonomous Mapping Systems” (2023)ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 10(1-W1-2023), 1159. Nex, F., Chiabrando, F. & Honkavaara, E.https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-X-1-W1-2023-1159-2023Vehicle Tracking and Speed Estimation From Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Using Segmentation-initialised Trackers (2023)In Geospatial Week 2023, Vol. 10-1 (pp. 431-437) (ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences). Tilon, S. M. & Nex, F.https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-X-1-W1-2023-431-2023Dense point cloud extraction from UAV imagery using parallax attention (2023)In Geospatial Week 2023, Vol. 10-1: ISPRS Geospatial Week 2023 (pp. 1027-1032) (ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences). Copernicus. Bergado, J. R. & Nex, F. C.https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-X-1-W1-2023-1027-2023Mono-hydra: Real-time 3D scene graph construction from monocular camera input with IMU (2023)In Geospatial Week 2023, Vol. 10-1 (pp. 439-445) (ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences). Copernicus. Udugama, U. V. B. L., Vosselman, G. & Nex, F.https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-X-1-W1-2023-439-2023Supporting first responders in emergencies using computer vision and drones (2023)[Thesis › PhD Thesis - Research UT, graduation UT]. University of Twente, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC). Zhang, N.https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036558440Benchmarking the Extraction of 3d Geometry From Uav Images with Deep Learning Methods (2023)International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, 48(1/W3-2023), 123-130. Nex, F., Zhang, N., Remondino, F., Farella, E. M., Qin, R. & Zhang, C.https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLVIII-1-W3-2023-123-2023A Routine and Post-disaster Road Corridor Monitoring Framework for the Increased Resilience of Road Infrastructures (2023)[Thesis › PhD Thesis - Research UT, graduation UT]. University of Twente, Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC). Tilon, S. M.https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036557115Hybrid adjustment of UAS-based LiDAR and image data (2023)In Geospatial Week 2023, Vol. 48-1: ISPRS Geospatial Week 2023 (pp. 633-640). Copernicus. Alsadik, B., Nex, F. & Yadav, Y.https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLVIII-1-W2-2023-633-2023Lite-Mono: A Lightweight CNN and Transformer Architecture for Self-Supervised Monocular Depth Estimation (2023)In 2023 Ieee/cvf Conference On Computer Vision And Pattern Recognition (cvpr) (pp. 18537-18546). Zhang, N., Nex, F. C., Vosselman, G. & Kerle, N.https://doi.org/10.1109/CVPR52729.2023.01778Mono-hydra: Real-time 3D scene graph construction from monocular camera input with IMU (2023)[Working paper › Preprint]. ArXiv.org. Udugama, U. V. B. L., Vosselman, G. & Nex, F.https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2308.05515Deep learning low-cost photogrammetry for 4D short-term glacier dynamics monitoring - Supplementary material (2023)[Dataset Types › Dataset]. Zenodo. Ioli, F., Niccolò, D., Daniele, G., Francesco, N. & Livio, P.https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8164639
Research profiles
Courses academic year 2025/2026
Courses in the current academic year are added at the moment they are finalised in the Osiris system. Therefore it is possible that the list is not yet complete for the whole academic year.
Courses academic year 2024/2025
Address
University of Twente
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7522 NH Enschede
Netherlands
University of Twente
Langezijds 1225
P.O. Box 217
7500 AE Enschede
Netherlands
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