2007 Burka Award

Recipients: Dr. Chun Yang, Dr. Mikel Miller and Dr. Thao Nguyen

Citation: For their paper “Symmetric Phase-Only Matched Filter (SPOMF) for Frequency-Domain Software GPS Receivers” published in the Spring 2007 issue of NAVIGATION, The Journal of The Institute of Navigation, Vol. 54, No. 1, p.31.


Dr. Chun Yang has been with Sigtem Technology, Inc., since 1994 where he works on adaptive array and baseband signal processing for GNSS receivers and radar systems as well as on nonlinear state estimation with applications in target tracking, integrated inertial navigation, and information fusion. Dr. Yang is also an adjunct professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Miami University. He is the co-inventor of seven issued and pending U.S. patents. Dr. Yang received his Docteur en Science from Université de Paris XI, Orsay, France, in Sciences Physiques (LSS/CNRS-ESE) in 1989 and his Bachelor of Engineering from Northeastern University, Shenyang, China, in 1984.



Dr. Mikel Miller has over nineteen years of technical leadership in the navigation field, where he has demonstrated a record of sustained contributions in navigation technology, management, and teaching. He received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) in 1998. He has published over 30 conference papers and journal articles, has served as program chair and general chair for ION conferences, is a past chair of the ION’s Dayton Section, and served as the ION’s Eastern Region Vice President, and is currently Executive Vice President.



Dr. Thao Nguyen works as an electronics engineer at the Reference Systems Branch, Sensors Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, WPAFB, OH. Dr. Nguyen has been involved in navigation-related research, development, and test since 2002 and his current areas of interest include high anti-jamming technologies for GPS receivers, GPS/INS integration, multi-sensor fusion, and personal navigation using signals of opportunity (SoOP). He received his Ph.D. in the electrical engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, in 2007.