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2016 PNT Symposium

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Our 10th annual PNT Symposium was held on Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday, November 1 - 3 , 2016.  SCPNT and the Marconi Society joined forces to produce a combined SCPNT-Marconi PNT symposium. This year's symposium banquet was sponsored by the Marconi Society, and held on Wednesday evening at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.

View photos from the 2016 PNT Symposium—Day 1 in the SCPNT Photos Gallery >>

View photos from the 2016 PNT Symposium—Day 2 in the SCPNT Photos Gallery >>

View photos from the 2016 PNT Symposium Banquet and Marconi Prize Award Ceremony in the SCPNT Photos Gallery >>

Skip down to the Invited Speakers and Students/Marconi Young Scholars Presentation files and videos >>

2016 PNT Symposium Overview

Theme and Focus

The symposium theme this year was PNT Advances in Information and Communication Sciences.

2016 Symposium Information Packet

The PDF Info Packet below includes the 2016 PNT Symposium flyer, the invited speakers agenda and bios, the student/Marconi Young Scholars speakers agenda and bios and the list of 2016 PNT Symposium attendees and institutions.

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View/download PDF copy of 2016 PNT Symposium Information Packet

Students / Marconi Young Scholars Session

2016 PNT Symposium - Student Presentations Photo Collage

As in recent years, the 2016 symposium began with an all-day session on Nov. 1 st dedicated to young scholars. Current Stanford students and ex-Stanford students who are now faculty at other academic institutions selected one or two students to present their research.  Also. two Marconi Young Scholars discussed their research.

For a list of student/Marconi Young Scholar presentations and bios, see the PDF Symposium Info Packet.

Invited Speakers Sessions

The 2016 PNT Symposium agenda was similar to past years with talks on GPS and GNSS Systems, new and interesting applications, technology, innovations and navigation history.  As is our tradition, a variety of prominent US and international academic, business and government leaders were invited to speak on their PNT related research and development efforts.

Invitees include US government representatives, industry representatives, academic representatives and a few invitees with a unique PNT perspective. There were also special talks from some past Marconi Prize recipients.

For agenda details, see the PDF Symposium Info Packet.

Marconi Fellows Panel Discussion

2016 PNT Symposium - Marconi Fellows photo collage

The main session on Wednesday morning, Nov. 2nd ended with a panel of five past Marconi award recipients each giving short remarks on the topic, Radio Navigation and Radio Communication. Members of the panel then discussed this topic and answeed question from the audience.

Panelists included Irwin Jacobs, Vint Cerf, John Cioffi, Martin Cooper and David Payne. The panel discussion was moderated by Stanford Professor Emeritus, Brad Parkinson.

For more information, see the Invited Speakers Agenda and Speaker Bios in the PDF Symposium Info Packet.

2016 Marconi Prize

2016 PNT Symposium - Marconi Prize photo collage

The Marconi Prize is awarded each year to recognize major advances in the communications field that benefit humanity.

At the symposium banquet, Professor Emeritus,  Brad Parkinson—the Father of GPS—received the 2016 Marconi Prize for his "contributions to the development of GPS, which helped create a vast global utility that provides positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) information to the world and is a vital part of today’s global information infrastructure

For more information about Brad Parkinson and the Marconi Prize, see:

2016 PNT Symposium Attendees

2016 PNT Symposium Attendees photo collage

The 2016 symposium attendees were a cross-mixture of Marconi Society members, Stanford faculty, researchers and grad students, US Government representatives, SCPNT Industrial Member representatives (Thorlabs, Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Northrop Grumman, Qualcomm, Trimble Navigation, Polaris Wireless, Harris etc.) and other invited guests. You can view a list of attendees and their affiliated institutions in the PDF Symposium Info Packet

Information About Previous PNT Symposia

Click any link on the Annual Symposium sub-menu to the left to view information about that year's PNT Symposium, including a list of the invited speaker and student presentations presented that year.

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2016 PNT Symposium Invited Speaker Presentations and Student/Marconi Young Scholar Presentations

2016 PNT Symposium presentations photo collage

The two tables below display all of the SCPNT/Marconi Society 2016 PNT Symposium invited speaker and graduate student/Marconi Young Scholar presentations.

The presentations are listed alphabetically by the last names of the presenters. The Marconi Society Fellows Panel Discussion that took place after the morning break on Wednesday, November 2nd, is listed in the last row of the Invited Speaker Presentations table.

Click on the Play Video button preceding any presentation title to view a video recording of that presentation.

Click on any presentation title in blue text to view/download a PDF copy of the presentation file.

View Invited Speakers Presentations Table

View Graduate Student/Marconi Young Scholars Presentations Table

SCPNT & Marconi Society • 2016 PNT Symposium • Invited Speakers Presentations

SpeakerAffiliationPresentation Title (Blue = Link to Presentation PDF File )
Geoff BlewittUniv. Nevada, Reno, Geodetic Lab.
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Millimeter GPS Imaging of Earth's Flex and Flow

Vint CerfInternet Pioneer(Marconi Prize Recipient 1998)
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New Roles for Radio in the Internet (Marconi Fellows Panel Intro)

John CioffiDSL Pioneer—Stanford University (Marconi Prize Recipient 2006)
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New Roles for Radio in the Internet (Marconi Fellows Panel Intro)

Sigrid CloseStanford University, Aero Astro
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Meteoroids & Space Debris Threats to Orbiting Spacecraft

Martin CooperCellphone Pioneer (Marconi Prize Recipient 2013)
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The Myth of Spectrum Scarcity: How GPS can make us more efficient spectrum users (Marconi Fellows Panel Intro)

Per EngeStanford University, Aero Astro
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Cyber Safety for Navigation

Bob IannucciCarnegie Mellon University, Silicon Valley
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Time Issues in Programming IoT Systems for Smart Cities 

Irwin JacobsFounding Chairman and CEO Emeritus, Qualcomm (Marconi Prize Recipient 2011)
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Position Location at Qualcomm: pre-GPS to SoC

Tom Langenstein (followed by David Payne and Jim Spilker)Stanford University - Executive Director SCPNT
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Tom Langenstein: Symposium OverviewIntroducing Marconi Society chairman,  David Payne, who in turn, introduces SCPNT founder, Jim Spilker

Paul MontgomeryIntelligent Construction Tools (ICT)
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POME:  A mobile camera system for accurate indoor position

Brad ParkinsonStanford University (Marconi Prize Recipient 2016)
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Radio Waves: Marconi to GPS—A short history of the evolution to their use for Positioning Navigation and Time

David Payne (Introduced by Tom Langenstein and followed by Jim Spilker)Chairman of the Marconi Society
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Welcome by Marconi Society Chairman, David Payne, introduced by Tom Langenstein and followed by Jim Spilker

David PaynePhotonics Pioneer (Marconi Prize Recipient 2008)
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Light: The Cause of and Solution to Data Overload? (Marconi Fellows Panel Intro)

Georg SchrothNavVis Founder
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Vision based indoor positioning and mobile mapping systems

T. Russell ShieldsYgomi Chair & Member of PNT Advisory Board
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Smart Vehicles

Jim Spilker (preceeded by Tom Langenstein and David Payne)Professor Emeritus, Stanford University
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Welcome and Introductions by Tom Langenstein, David Payne and Jim Spilker

Jim SpilkerProfessor Emeritus, Stanford University
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Closing Remarks

Frank van DiggelenGoogle
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Much more than Lat/lon: A guided adventure through the P, V, N & T in Android

Col. Steven WhitneyUSAF GPS Directorate
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Update on GPS  Program

Panel Discussion   
Panelists: I. Jacobs, V. Cerf, J. Cioffi, M. Cooper & D. Payne   
Moderator: B. Parkinson
Marconi Society Fellows

Radio Navigation and Radio Communication—Synergy and Conflicts 

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Moderator Brad Parkinson: Panel Discussion Overview

Panel DiscussionMarconi Society Fellows

 Panel Discussion

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SCPNT & Marconi Society • 2016 PNT Symposium • Graduate Student/Marconi Young Scholars Presentations

Student/Post DocDepartment/SchoolPresentation Title (Blue = Link to Presentation File )
Stefania BartolettiUniversity of Ferrara (UNIFE), MIT and MarconiActive and Passive Localization via Wideband Signals
Connor BeierleStanfordMiniature optical stimulator for high-dynamics range vision-based navigation in space
Sriramya BhamidipatiUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignOffloading UAV navigation computation to the Cloud
Brian  BreitschColorado State UniversityCommon volume GNSS observations of ionosphere using ground-based network and LEO-satellite radio occultation measurements
Zouhair MahboubiStanfordAutomated air traffic control for non-towered airports
Esteban Garbin ManfrediniPolitecnico di Torino & Univ of ColoradoOptimized GNSS Spoofing Detection using COTS Receivers – Field Data and Experimental Trials
Anh NguyenNASA ARC & Univ. of FloridaCubeSat Demonstration of Sub-nanosecond Optical Time-transfer
Andrew NuttallStanfordDetecting the Undetected Satellite Killer: Meteoroids
Ken PesynaRadiosense / Marconi Young Scholar.Precise Positioning for Automated Vehicles
Dan PierceAuburn UniversityPedestrian Navigation
Tyler ReidStanfordSatellite Navigation from Low Earth Orbit
Joshua StarlingAuburn UniversityError Analysis of Carrier Phase Positioning For Controlled Radiation Pattern Array
Yang SuIllinois Institute of TechnologyObservations from the Jicamarca Radio Observatory

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