Kyle O'Keefe
Positions
Professor
Schulich School of Engineering, Department of Geomatics Engineering
Contact information
Phone number
Office: +1 (403) 220-7378
Background
Credentials
P.Eng, Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta, 2005
Certificate of Completion, Canadian Board of Examiners for Professional Surveyors, 2020
Educational Background
Ph.D. Geomatics Engineering, University of Calgary, 2004
B.Sc. Geomatics Engineering, University of Calgary, 2000
B.Sc. Honours Physics, University of British Columbia, 1997
Biography
Kyle O'Keefe is a professor in the Department of Geomatics Engineering at the University of Calgary. He has worked in positioning and navigation research since 1996 and has been a member of the Position, Location And Navigation research group since 1998. His research focuses on Global Navigation Satellite Systems, Wireless Location using ground-based ranging, and the integration of these two technologies for accurate, available, and reliable positioning and navigation. He leads a medium-sized research team that is focused on the development of highly qualified personnel through research in these areas. He regularly teaches courses related to Global Navigation Satellite Systems, Wireless Location, Field Surveying, and Introductory Computing.
Research
Areas of Research
Participation in university strategic initiatives
Courses
| Course number | Course title | Semester |
|---|---|---|
| ENGO 419 | Geomatics Networks | Fall 2024 |
| ENGO 625 | Advanced GNSS Theory | Fall 2024 |
| ENGO 585/685 | Wireless Location | Winter 2025 |
Projects
UWB research in my group began in 2007 with an investigation into UWB augmentation of GNSS positioning for pedestrians, followed by UWB augmented RTK surveying in 2009. We then tested UWB for vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure between 2010 and 2014, and more recently multi-UWB V2V ranging for relative position and attitude estimation and UWB for indoor radio mapping and in-vehicle smartphone location.
Beginning 2017 our group has been investigating wearable and cellphone GNSS, INS, and UWB for navigation and biomechanics of walking, kayaking, and rowing. Projects have included improved pedestrian navigation using multi-wearable inertial sensors and using periodic filtering to estimate the motion of rowers and kayakers. Some of this work has been supported by the NSERC CREATE We-TRAC Wearable Technology Program.
One of my students is currently investigating the application of particle filtering to the geometry-based GNSS differential positioning and carrier-phase ambiguity resolution problem. While more computationally expensive this approach provides multiple solutions with corresponding probabilities derived from samples rather than a single solution with a covariance matrix.
RSSI fingerprinting is now the most common method of indoor wireless location. Earlier attempts to directly range on RSSI suffered from poor path-loss models. My group has investigated new methods to measure range to calibrate path-loss models as well as to train machine learning-based models to convert RSSI into range.
Starting in 2001 I have worked on numerous projects to evaluate the impact of multi-constellation and multi-frequency GNSS on availability, accuracy, reliability, and ambiguity resolution.
GNSS-Camera Integration for Vehicle Navigation
From 2017 to 2021 two graduate students investigated the use of upward and forward facing monocular cameras to aid in vehicle navigation in urban canyon and winter driving environments.
Space Applications of GNSS
On 28 April 2008, the University of Toronto Institute of Aerospace Studies Space Flight Laboratory launched CanX-2, a 3.5 kg cubesat that carried a NovAtel OEM4 GNSS receiver on a mission to demonstrate low cost radio occultation. Three students developed the methods to operate the receiver in space, schedule observations over Canada, and processed GNSS observations to obtain atmospheric profiles. See the UTIAS SFL CanX-2 mission page for details and this NovAtel Velocity 2018 article for a summary of the our part of the project.
Igliniit
From 2006 to 2009 three undergraduate capstone project teams worked with Inuit hunters from Clyde River, Nunavut, to develop and test a rugged mobile mapping and weather monitoring system to allow hunters to record observations about the impact of climate change on their travel, hunting, and environment. Details of the project can be found at sikuatlas.ca.
Awards
- Best Paper Award (with N. Agarwal), Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation Conference (IPIN). 2023
- Best Paper Award (with S. Naghdi), Indoor Positioning and Indoor Navigation Conference (IPIN). 2019
- Michael Richey Medal for Best Paper in RIN Journal of Navigation in 2010, Royal Institute of Navigation. 2011
- Best Paper Award for ION GNSS 2010 Session F2, Institute of Navigation. 2010
- CASI Alouette Award, (awarded to the CanX2 nanosatellite mission team) Canadian Aeronautics & Space Institute. 2010
- Best Paper Award for ION GNSS 2008 Session F6, Institute of Navigation. 2008
- Honourary Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship, 2002
- GPS 2001 Best Student Paper Award, Institute of Navigation. 2001
In the News
- Smartphones may be our greatest tool for outdoor and indoor navigation. Spark - The Butterfly Effect, Part 6 - The Compass - CBC Radio. (2023)
- Experts say Alberta provides proper testing ground for driverless vehicles. Global News Calgary. (2019)
- Driving research behind the unmanned wheel. Schulich Engineer. (2018)
- A Look Back the First Use of COTS GNSS Receivers in Space. Velocity Magazine - Hexagon. (2018)
- On Thin Ice - Frozen Planet: Episode 7. BBC - One. (2011)
More Information
Links
- Christian Phillips, MSc (2024) Machine Learning for Robust Detection and Mitigation of GNSS Multipath
- Chavisa Sornsakul, MSc (2024) Improving Pedestrian Walkways Maintenance through Smartphone Citizen Reporting of Pothole Damage
- Baoyu Liu, PDF (2021-2024)
- Satinath Debnath, MSc (2023) Ultra-Wideband Trained Artificial Neural Networks for Bluetooth Proximity Detection in Small Crowded Areas
- Rene Manzano, PhD (2023) Sequential Importance Resampling Particle Filter for Ambiguity Resolution
- Roberto Capua, PhD (2022) Peer PPP-RTK: Toward an Affordable Real-time High Accuracy Service
- Kelly Harke, MSc (2022) Kayak-specific Motion Constraints for an Improved Android Smartphone GPS/INS Navigation Solution
- Luis Rodrigues Mendoza, MSc (2022) Wearable Multi-Sensor Positioning Device for Rowing Technique Analysis
- Paul Gratton, MSc (2021) Evaluation of Kinematic GNSS PPP for Tropospheric Zenith Wet Delay Estimation in Mountainous Regions
- Ehab Ghanem, PhD, UBC (2021) 2D Relative Position and Attitude Determination for Land Vehicles using Multiple UWB Ranges
- Dongyu Zhang, MSc (2021) Ultra-Wideband Ranging for In-Vehicle Smartphone Positioning
- Maliha Monsur MSc, UBC (2021) GPS/Wi-Fi integration for challenging environments using raw GNSS data
- Cheng Huang MSc (2021) Wheel Odometry Aided Visual-Inertial Odometry in Winter Urban Environments
- Sharareh Naghdi, PhD (2020) Improving Bluetooth-based Indoor Positioning Using Vision and Artificial Networks
- Chandra Tjhai, PhD (2019) Integration of Multiple Low-Cost Wearable Inertial/Magnetic Sensors and Kinematics of Lower Limbs for Improving Pedestrian Navigation Systems
- Ali Pirsiavash, PhD (2019) Receiver-level Signal and Measurement Quality Monitoring for Reliable GNSS-based Navigation
- Paul Verlaine Gakne, PDF (2018), PhD (2018) Improving the Accuracy of GNSS Receivers in Urban Canyons using an Upward-Facing Camera
- Erin Kahr, PhD (2017) Multi-Constellation GNSS for Absolute and Relative Navigation in Highly Elliptical Orbits
- Vimalkumar Bhandari, PhD (2017) Investigating RTK using Geostationary Satellites and IRNSS
- Sashidharan Manickam, MSc (2016) GPS Signal Authentication Using INS - A Comparative Study and Analysis
- Michael Swab, MSc (2015) Sounding of the Ionosphere Using the CanX-2 Nano-Satellite and Single-Frequency Radio Occultation Techniques
- Elmira Amirloo Abolfathi, MSc (2015) Integrating Vision Derived Bearing Measurements with Differential GPS for Vehicle-to-Vehicle Relative Navigation
- Da Wang, PhD (2015) Cooperative V2X Relative Navigation using Tight-Integration of DGPS and V2X UWB Range and Simulated Bearing
- Jingjing Dou, MSc (2015) Performance of GPS and Partially Deployed BeiDou for Real-Time Kinematic Positioning in Western Canada
- Mohammad Mozaffari, MSc (2014) Weak GPS Signal Acquisition Using Antenna Diversity
- Rui Sun, visiting PhD student (2012), PhD (2014) Technical University of Delft, Relative Navigation for Satellite Formation Flying based on Radio Frequency Metrology
- Rasika Winit, MSc (2013) Four-constellation GNSS Reliability and the Estimation of Inter-system Time-offsets for Improved Performance in Challenging Signal Environments
- Mahsa Shafiee, PhD (2013) WiFi-based Fine Timing Assistance for GPS Acquisition
- Ernesto Navarro Alvarez, visiting PhD student (2010-2012), PhD (2013) Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados del I.P.N. Unidad Guadalajara, Método de estimación de pérdida de potencia por trayectoria asistido por GPS
- Yuhang Jiang, MSc (2012) Integration of UWB Ranging and GPS for Improved Relative Vehicle Positioning and Ambiguity Resolution
- Charlene Radons-Beckie, MEng (2012) Determining the polar cosmic ray effect on cloud microphysics and the Earth's ozone layer
- Erin Kahr, MSc (2011) In-orbit performance of the CanX-2 nanosatellite's GPS receiver
- Chase. Miller, MSc (2010) Practical consideration of temporal correlation in RTK GPS surveying using a modified Kalman filter
- Da Wang, MSc (2010) Performance evaluation of GPS L1/L2 positioning with partial availability of the L2C signals
- Glenn MacGougan, PhD (2009) Real time kinematic surveying using tightly coupled GPS and ultra wideband ranging
- Cyrille Gernot, PhD (2009) Development of combined GPS L1/L2C acquisition and tracking methods for weak signals environments
- Wei Cao, MSc (2009) Multi-frequency GPS and Galileo kinematic positioning with partial ambiguity fixing
- Leandro Baroni, visiting PhD student (2007-2008), PhD (2009) Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, INPE, Algoritmos de navegação para um sistema GPS diferencial de precisão em tempo real
- David Chiu, MSc (2008) Ultra wideband augmented GPS
- Lance de Groot, MSc (2008) Use of the global environmental multiscale model for atmospheric retrieval from radio occulation for Canadian events
- Minmin Lin, MSc (2006) RTCM 3.0 implementation in network RTK and performance analysis
- Min Wang, MEng (2005)
If you are interested in working with me, please send me an email introducing yourself and explaining your background, your interests, and why you would want to work with me. A background in Geomatics Engineering, Physics, or Electrical Engineering as well as an excellent grasp of written and spoken English and at least one programming language is required. Finding good graduate students is difficult, so is finding grants and contracts to support good students. Finding a good supervisor is even harder, so if you are considering grad school, make sure you do your research and find a supervisor and lab that you will actually want to work with and a project that keep you interested for several years. Take your time and research your potential supervisor and lab carefully. I will not necessarily respond to all inquires, especially those that appear to be form letters. I presently supervise 7 graduate students and one post-doc, and do not currently have sufficient research funding to take on any additional graduate students who are not funded by an external grant or scholarship.
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