WNCG professor Todd Humphreys has been elected Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation “for improving understanding of GNSS vulnerabilities and pioneering the use of alternate techniques to achieve resilience.” Formed in 1947, the Royal Institute of Navigation aims to advance the art, science, and practice of navigation while promoting knowledge of the subject and its associated sciences such as positioning, timing, and tracking.
His research specializes in the application of optimal detection and estimation techniques to problems in satellite navigation, autonomous systems, and signal processing. His recent focus has been on secure perception for autonomous systems, including navigation, timing, and collision avoidance, and centimeter-accurate location for the mass market.
Humphreys is a trailblazer in the field of Global Navigation Satellite Systems research; his research group, the UT Radionavigation Laboratory, was the first to demonstrate both cm-accurate RTK positioning through a smartphone antenna as well as the successful spoofing of unmanned aerial vehicles. His 2008 paper “Assessing the Spoofing Threat” is one of the most-cited GNSS-related articles ever published. His groundbreaking research has garnered numerous awards, including the NSF Career Award, the Institute of Navigation Thurlow Award, and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).
Humphreys is an associate professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics and holds the William J. Murray, Jr. Fellowship in Engineering No. 1. He was director of the UT SAVES initiative, which was recently integrated into 6G@UT—WNCG's new research center for which Humphreys will lead the Pervasive Sensing research thrust.