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WNCG professor Todd Humphreys and postdoctoral fellow Peter Iannucci of the Radionavigation Laboratory have developed a system using the constellation of SpaceX satellites to potentially deliver a low-cost, more accurate, and highly secure alternative to GPS. Their work was recently featured in the MIT Technology Review:

WNCG professor José del R. Millán has been elected as a Fellow to the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering (IAMBE) for his outstanding contributions to the profession of medical and biological engineering.  Election to the Academy is highly selective, initiated by nominations which are involved with at least 3 current Fellows and screened by the Membership Committee of the Academy. The election is conducted by a vote of all Fellows of the Academy. There are currently less than 200 Fellows world-wide.

The New Yorker feature "How Vulnerable is GPS?" discusses WNCG professor Todd Humphreys' journey uncovering and demonstrating security weaknesses in the Global Positioning System. Humphreys is a pioneer in the the study of Global Navigation Satellite Systems. His research group was the first to demonstrate cm-accurate RTK positioning through a smartphone antenna, and in 2012 they demonstrated the first successful spoofing of UAVs. Since then, Humphreys has examined real-world instances of spoofing and jamming that raise serious concerns about the ubiquitous technology.

WNCG student Lakshay Narula received the Walter R. Fried Memorial Award for Best Paper at the 2020 IEEE/ION PLANSx Conference. The award recognizes “substantial contribution to the technology of navigation and positioning equipment, systems, or practices” judged on criteria including technical content, innovation, importance of topic, and writing quality. Narula’s winning paper, “Automotive-Radar-Based 50-cm Urban Positioning,” demonstrated how self-driving cars can use commercially-available, low-cost automotive radars to improve navigation.

WNCG continues to grow; this spring, Assistant Professor Jonathan Tamir and Professor José del R. Millán were welcomed to the group. [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_preview","fid":"1761","attributes":{"alt":"","class":"media-image","height":"180","width":"180"}}]] Dr. Jonathan Tamir holds a joint appointment with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Dell Medical School’s Department of Diagnostic Medicine. He is also affiliated with the Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences.

Research done by WNCG alum Matthew Murrian was featured on the cover of the InsideGNSS January/February 2020 volume. Murrian, the lead author on the paper, conducted the work along with Lakshay Narula and Radionavigation Lab director Prof. Todd Humphreys. In 2017, the Radionavigation lab placed a custom software-defined receiver onboard the International Space Station as part of a larger effort to study GNSS signals in the low Earth orbit environment. Over a two-year period, the researchers analyzed data from the receiver and identified multiple sources of GNSS interference.

WNCG professor Todd Humphreys has received the Institute of Navigation’s (ION) “highest honor.” Humphreys was elected to the membership rank of Fellow at ION’s International Technical Meeting in January. He is one of only three recipients of the honor for 2020. Humphreys’ election cited his “significant and fundamental contributions to PNT security and precise GNSS positioning for the mass market, and for dedication to GNSS education and outreach.”

Developed by engineers at The University of Texas at Austin and led by Nanshu Lu in the Cockrell School of Engineering, this is the latest incarnation of Lu’s electronic tattoo technology, a graphene-based wearable device that can be placed on the skin to measure a variety of body responses, from electrical to biomechanical signals. The research team reported on their newest e-tattoo in a recent issue of Advanced Science. Continuing reading here. Watch a video by the National Science Foundation featuring Prof. Lu's research here.

Texas Wireless Summit 2019: Connectivity and Sensing at the Human-Machine Frontier will take place on November 12, 2019 at The University of Texas at Austin. Registration for the Summit is only days away from opening on August 12.

WNCG student Hyoyoung Jeong represented The University of Texas at Austin at the inaugural Engineering Ph.D. Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, or EPFL) hosted the summit, which was held November 7.