2024 Burka Award

Presented to: Dr. Clark N. Taylor and Dr. Jason N. Gross

Citation: For their paper "Factor Graphs for Navigation Applications: A Tutorial," published in the Fall 2024 issue of NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation.

Dr. Clark Taylor, 2024 Burka Award

Dr. Clark Taylor is the ANT Center director and an associate professor at the Air Force Institute of Technology in Dayton, Ohio. Previously, he was a professor at Brigham Young University for six years and a research engineer with the Air Force Research Laboratory for eight years. His research interests are in estimation theory, with an emphasis on factor graphs, outlier rejection, vision-aided navigation and multi-agent systems. Dr. Taylor received his BS and MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the Brigham Young University and his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of California, San Diego.

Dr. Jason Gross

Dr. Jason N. Gross is professor and chair of the Department of Mechanical, Materials and Aerospace Engineering at West Virginia University (WVU) where his research focuses on robotics systems and uncrewed aerial systems with an emphasis on perception and localization. He directs the WVU Navigation Lab, is a coordinator of WVU’s growing robotics program, and was team lead for WVU’s Space Robotics Challenge 2 team. He is past recipient of an NGA New Investigator Program grant; AFOSR Faculty Fellowship; WVU Big XII Faculty Fellowship; and WVU Statler College outstanding teaching, outstanding researcher, and new researcher of the year awards. He is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Dr. Gross received his PhD in Aerospace Engineering from WVU in 2011.