Dr. Kirsten Strandjord of University of Minnesota

This lecture will present an overview of Dr. Strandjord’s area of research in Global Positioning System (GPS) and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technology and applications for positioning, navigation and timing (PNT). One of the primary lecture topics will highlight the challenges for GPS positioning in urban environments and the algorithms and techniques studied to improve the use of these signals in this environment. Similarly, another topic of interest related to urban navigation is research that investigates the use of long-term evolution (LTE) signals, typically used for communication purposes, as signals of opportunity for navigation. There are surprising similarities between the urban canyon signal environment and other challenging environments. Research investigating urban navigation and the lessons learned in this GNSS-challenged environment have informed studies into navigating regions of space beyond the altitudes of GNSS constellation orbits and into cis-lunar space. 

Biography:

Dr. Kirsten Strandjord is currently an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota in the Aerospace Engineering department. Prior to her faculty position, she was a postdoc in the SENSE lab at the University of Colorado Boulder where she also received her Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering Sciences. Her M.S. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering is from Purdue University (2015), and her B.A. in Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science is from Luther College (2011). She is the recipient of the Lockheed Martin Corporation Endowed Graduate Fellowship (2019-20) and Draper Fellowship (2018-20). Prior to the University of Colorado Boulder, she was an electrophysicist at Boeing Phantom Works.