Langezijds

prof.dr.ing. F.C. Nex (Francesco)

Adjunct Professor
ITC-SCI-TECH
Langezijds 1225
f.nex@utwente.nl
+31534896639
Business card

Prof. Francesco Nex is currently Adjunct Professor (UHD1) in the TECH Department at the University of Twente, holding the chair of real-time analytics for ubiquitous geo-sensors.

Francesco Nex received his master's 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 in the CIEM Project from 2011 to 2014 and then as a Researcher. In 2015, Francesco moved to the University of Twente, first as an Assistant Professor and later as an Associate Professor at the faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC), department of Earth Observation Science (EOS).

His research focuses on the development of innovative solutions fusing elements from photogrammetry, deep learning and adjacent domains such as robotics to innovation in the GeoSpatial domain. He aims to integrate geometric and semantic information with other data sources, creating transferable solutions for real-world applications in disaster management, infrastructure monitoring, and precision farming. He was involved in several European and national research projects dealing with the use of UAV data for remote sensing applications. He coordinated the UAV centre of the University of Twente. 

He is the Chairman of the ICWG II/Ia (Autonomous sensing systems and their applications) of the ISPRS (International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing), and he was PI of several different ISPRS scientific and education initiatives. He chaired more than 15 conferences and workshops, and he is Associate Editor of the ISPRS Journal, Remote Sensing and Drones.

Expertise

  • Earth and Planetary Sciences

    • Image
    • Pilotless Aircraft
    • Datum
    • Damage
    • Accuracy
    • Building

  • Computer Science

    • Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
    • Detection

Organisations

Publications

Jump to: 2026 | 2025 | 2024 | 2023

2026

Mono-Hydra++: Real-time monocular scene graph construction with multi-task learning for 3D indoor mapping (2026)[Working paper › Preprint]. Udugama, U. V. B. L., Vosselman, G. & Nex, F.ZeD-MAP: Bundle adjustment guided zero-shot depth maps for real-time aerial imaging (2026)[Contribution to conference › Paper] XXV ISPRS Congress 2026 (Submitted). Iz, S. A., Nex, F. C., Kerle, N., Meissner, H. & Berger, R.https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2604.04667M2h-mx: Multi-task dense visual perception for real-time monocular spatial understanding (2026)[Working paper › Preprint]. Udugama, U. V. B. L., Vosselman, G. & Nex, F.4DSTR: Advancing Generative 4D Gaussians with Spatial-Temporal Rectification for High-Quality and Consistent 4D Generation (2026)Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 40(9), 7224-7232. Liu, M., Liu, J., Zhang, Y., Li, J., Yang, M. Y., Nex, F. & Cheng, H.https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v40i9.37659Lightweight semantic segmentation for Co-seismic landslide identification using adaptive transfer learning (2026)Engineering applications of artificial intelligence, 166. Article 113683. Meng, S., Shi, Z., Nex, F., Pirasteh, S., Ghorbanzadeh, O. & Glade, T.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engappai.2025.113683

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/GHTC66843.2025.11266192TopoLiDM: Topology-aware LiDAR diffusion models for interpretable and realistic LiDAR point cloud generation (2025)[Contribution to conference › Paper] 2025 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IROS 2025. Liu, J., Huang, Z., Liu, M., Deng, T., Nex, F., Cheng, H. & Wang, H.https://doi.org/10.1109/IROS60139.2025.11247363Autonomous 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-W2-2025-181-2025Multi-sensor Fusion SLAM from the Nadir View for UAV Localization and Mapping (2025)In ISPRS ICWG II/Ia, ICWG I/IV UAV-g 2025 : Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles in Geomatics (pp. 109-116) (ISPRS Annals of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences). International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS). Li, Y., Vosselman, G. & Nex, F.https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-annals-X-2-W2-2025-109-2025Real-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-wReliability of real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning for low-cost drones’ navigation across Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) critical environments (2024)Sensors (Switzerland), 24(18). Article 6096. Tavasci, L., Nex, F. & Gandolfi, S.https://doi.org/10.3390/s24186096Depth 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-W1-2023-1027-2023

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University of Twente

Langezijds (building no. 19), room 1225
Hallenweg 8
7522 NH Enschede
Netherlands

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