ESA International Summer School on GNSS 2009

Th e ESA International Summer School on GNSS 2009 was held from July 20th to 30th in Berchtesgaden, Bavaria – Germany. Aft er the great successes in 2007 and 2008 the European Space Agency adopted the International Summer School on GNSS which itents to educate Satellite Navigation in an intersdisciplinary way and give a comprehensive overview on the design and development of satellite navigation systems and its applications. Bernd Eissfeller, leading organizer and director of the Institute of Geodesy and Navigation of the University FAF, Munich was plesed about this change. “Not only ESA is now part of this international activity concerning GNSS education”, he pointed out, “but also many high ranking universities which supported the Summer School for the fi rst time.” Th e 2009 organizing committ ee consisted of Eissfeller`s institute, the Stanford University (USA), the Institute Supérieur de l`Aéronautique et de l`Èspace (France), Aalborg University (Denmark) and Graz University of Technology (Austria). 47 participants from all over the world joined Summer School 2009, i.e. Russia, China, Australia, etc.

Gaylord Green & GPS

The inauguration lecture 2009 was given by Gaylord Green, one of the famous original GPS innovators. His lecture was titled “Some Untold Stories on the Development of GPS” where he revealed some interesting details on the making of GPS. Nobody would have thought that GPS was developed only in a few months without having really enough time for validation. Other given lectures titled “Galileo, EGNOS and Evolution”, “Frequencies, Signals and Signal Processing”, “Reconfi gurable GNSS Receivers”, “GNSS in Business Terms”, “Entrepreneurs in GNSS and Beyond”.

Student Project Work

The students also had to perform a student project work. The objective of this competition was to create a GNSS application with a technical development schedule and a business plan. The presentations were a remarkable mixture out of creativity and technical fundamental knowledge. The best ideas were awarded with GPS receivers and high quality textbooks.

Summit as next…

The International Summer School on GNSS and the Munich Satellite Navigation Summit are both famous Satnav events organized in charge of the Institute of Geodesy and Navigation. Maybe already in some years some of the Summer School students will be among the high ranking speakers of the next Munich Satellite Navigation Summit. Save the date of the next Munich Satellite Navigation Summit 2010: March 9 -11, Residenz München – Munich, Germany.