Bill Ely

Former PhD student, awarded PhD 16.6.2006

Operational Test & Evaluation Specialist
GNSS Program Office, Airservices Australia
Canberra
Email: william.ely@airservices.gov.au

M.Sc. (Design of Information Systems)

B.Sc. (Physics)

Grad. Dip. (Digital Computer Engineering)

Grad. Dip. (Military Aviation)

Bill graduated from the RAAF Academy, Point Cook in 1977. He retired from the RAAF in 1994 after 20 years service, during which time he was employed as a flight navigator, navigation instructor and navigation aid calibration specialist. After completing a Master of Science (Design of Information Systems) at the Royal Military College of Science (Shrivenham, UK) in 1987, he was employed in a variety of IT related staff positions in the RAAF before retiring and joining the Civil Aviation Authority (now Airservices Australia) as a Senior Project Officer in the Operations Research section. Whilst employed in operations research, Bill conducted a number of projects relating to airspace design and risk assessment. In 1996, Bill transferred to the Global Navigation Satellite Systems Program Office (GNSSPO) where is currently employed as the Operational Test & Evaluation Specialist. Bill holds a Commercial Pilot's License and is a qualified flying instructor.

Scuba Diving, Snow Skiing, Amateur Radio

Current Projects:

Current project work involves the specification, construction, flight testing and analysis of a prototype Ground-based Regional Augmentation System (GRAS) for aviation. The GRAS is an Australian initiative, designed to provide high levels of accuracy, integrity, availability and continuity of service of satellite navigation commensurate with International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) requirements. The GRAS concept evolved from a need to develop a cost-effective satellite augmentation system for aviation, which could be installed and controlled by individual countries, thereby allowing them visibility and control of satellite navigation services provided by foreign owned and controlled navigation satellite systems, but used in their countries.

Bill is using this project as the basis for a PhD in satellite navigation, which he is conducting under the auspices of The University of New South Wales.

List of Publications

CROSBY G.K., W.S. ELY, K.W. McPHERSON & J.M. STEWART, 2000. A Ground-based Regional Augmentation System - The Australian proposal. 13th Int. Tech. Meeting of the Satellite Division of the U.S. Inst. of Navigation, Salt Lake City, Utah, 20-22 September.

ELY W.S., 2001. A portable GNSS data tramsitter: Development and testing. 5th Int. Symp. on Satellite Navigation Technology & Applications, Canberra, Australia, 24-27 July, paper 12, CD-ROM proc.

ELY W.S., G.K. CROSBY, K.W. McPHERSON & J.M. STEWART, 1999. SCAT-1 flight testing - The Australian experience. 12th Int. Tech. Meeting of the Satellite Division of the U.S. Inst. of Navigation, Nashville, Tennessee, 14-17 September, 651-662.

ELY W.S., K.W. McPHERSON, G.K. CROSBY & J.M. STEWART, 2002. Flight testing of the D8PSK/TDMA datalink technology for the Ground-based Regional Augmentation System. 15th Int. Tech. Meeting of the Satellite Division of the U.S. Inst. of Navigation, Portland, Oregan, 24-27 September. (Download PDF)

McPHERSON K.W., W.S. ELY, G.K. CROSBY, J.M. STEWART, D.K. KRAUS, K.W. BEAN & B.D. ELROD, 2001. New test results with a Ground-based Regional Augmentation System (GRAS) in Australia. 14th Int. Tech. Meeting of the Satellite Division of the U.S. Inst. of Navigation, Salt Lake City, Utah, 11-14 September.