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WNCG Prof. Todd Humphreys and his group of researchers in the Radionavigation Laboratory made headlines in recent months with their major breakthroughs in centimeter-accurate positioning. A few of the students have already created a startup spin-off to push these breakthroughs in precise positioning to the mass market.

The Cockrell School of Engineering has received $1 million from Qualcomm Incorporated, furthering the company’s support of Texas Engineering over the past two years. This latest gift will provide funding for the construction of the new home of UT Austin’s Wireless Networking and Communications Group (WNCG), which will be housed within the Engineering Education and Research Center (EERC), opening in 2017.

Imagine drawing a light painting using a phone’s antenna and GPS system. Imagine a world of virtual reality, where buildings are perfect replicas of their real-world counterparts, down to the exact height of a piece of gum stuck under a desk. Where a person cannot only see their location on the street but also the exact height and orientation of their mobile device in hand. This world of imagination and precise positioning is now becoming a reality, and through the efforts of WNCG students, even finding its way to market. 

Img: Two of the Cockrell School graduate students behind Radiosense, Ken Pesyna and Andrew Kerns. Cockrell School of Engineering, UT Austin Researchers in the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a centimeter-accurate GPS-based positioning system that could revolutionize geolocation on virtual reality headsets, cellphones and other technologies, making global positioning and orientation far more precise than what is currently available on a mobile device.

Yesterday, state legislators and University of Texas leadership joined Cockrell School Dean Sharon L. Wood and hundreds of alumni, friends, corporate supporters and members of the Texas Engineering community to celebrate the groundbreaking of the Engineering Education and Research Center (EERC).

On April 16, 2014, representatives from Qualcomm visited the Cockrell School's Wireless Networking and Communications Group, which will have a new home in the Engineering Education and Research Center when it is completed in 2017. The WNCG also received $2 million from Qualcomm to support continuing wireless communications research. Click the image below for a slideshow of the event:

The Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin has received a $2 million donation from Qualcomm Incorporated to create a new home for UT Austin’s Wireless Networking and Communications Group (WNCG). The new space will be located within the Cockrell School’s Engineering Education and Research Center (EERC), which is slated for completion in 2017.