Apprentices sought for satnav summer school
Students still have time to join the ESA International Summer School on GNSS, taking place in the Czech Republic this July. The 10-day course will cover all aspects of satellite navigation, up to and including the creation of a satnav-based business.
Taking place on the campus of Technical University of Ostrava in the Czech Republic, the Summer School is open to graduate students, PhDs and postdoctoral researchers, as well as young engineers and academics working within industry or agencies, aged 35 or younger.
Register before the end of this month to benefit from an early registration discount. The number of participants is limited to 50, on a first-come, first-served basis. A limited number of scholarships are also available, covering registration and travel costs.
Internationally renowned scientists and specialists will be giving lectures during the 21–31 July course, as well as overseeing practical exercises and lab work.
Participants will receive a full-spectrum overview of satellite navigation, starting from the theoretical basis of the Global Navigation Satellite System, its signals, the processing performed by signal receivers and how the position–navigation–time solution is worked out.
Discussion will also be made of threats to satnav systems, such as spoofing or jamming, and the countermeasures available against them, along with back-up navigation solutions for a GNSS-denied environment.
Practical exercises will include receiving the various satnav constellations now in orbit – including Europe’s four-satellite Galileo, the foundation of the full system soon to come – to give course members direct, hands-on experience.
In addition, lectures will cover business aspects, including patents and intellectual property rights.
The main emphasis of the course will be the development of a group business project, building on an innovative idea to take in the planning of the product or service, its technical realisation and finally its marketing to customers.
The school is taking place in conjunction with the GNSS Summer School of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, and in cooperation with Stanford University in the United States, the Institut Supérieur de l’Aeronautique et de l’Espace in France, Graz University of Technology in Austria and University FAF Munich in Germany.
