Elizabeth Cannon aims for new heights in satellite navigation

This article was originally written and submitted as part of a Canada 150 Project, the Innovation Storybook, to crowdsource stories of Canadian innovation with partners across Canada. The content has since been migrated to Ingenium’s Channel, a digital hub featuring curated content related to science, technology and innovation.

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Apr 26, 2017

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By: Curious Canada

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Source: University of Calgary.

Dr. Elizabeth Cannon has a passion for accuracy, and it’s this fervour that led her creativity and penchant for mathematics to make Canada a leader in satellite navigation. From agriculture to aerospace, Cannon has contributed much to the science of navigation and continues to do so.

Today, Cannon is the president and vice-chancellor of the University of Calgary, as well as the chair of Universities Canada. She started her career at Acadia University, graduating with a B.Sc in mathematics and computer science. Soon after she started working at Nortech Surveys, a seismic surveying and geomatics company in Calgary. Geomatics is the study of the production and management of spatial information. Rapt with this science and the company’s project of developing a new global positioning system (GPS) software, Cannon decided to go back to school.

She studied geomatics to earn yet another B.Sc at the University of Calgary. Soon after, she received an M.Sc. and then a Ph.D. in geomatics engineering. Her research was on precise positioning techniques in airplanes using centimetre-level differential GPS techniques. After completing her studies she joined the University of Calgary as a faculty member, where she went on to become a dean, and now the president of the school.

Cannon’s research covers a diverse range of geomatics related projects. She studied aircraft positioning and attitude determination by the use of GPS antennae mounted on an airplane. This gives accurate positions by the centimeter and attitude accuracies by the few arc-minute level. Precision farming is another area of her research, which involves attaching a GPS device to a yield monitor. The resulting data show where it’s best to apply fertilizer.

She also writes complex algorithms to make positioning as precise as possible. Scientists aim for 10cm2 within 300km2. So the software that positions this needs to take into account errors created by ionospheric and tropospheric interference as well as satellite orbits. She’s coauthored nine GPS software packages that are used by 200 agencies across the globe.

Cannon also has some creative use of technologies. In the past, she’s repurposed cheaper devices for accuracy in navigation. For example, she’s reused odometers, gyros and steering angle sensors as hardware for vehicular stability and to help cars avoid collisions.

Cannon’s international recognition doesn’t end there. In 2001 she became the first woman to earn the Johannes Kepler Award, the most prestigious honour from the U.S Institute of Navigation. We’ve come a long way since 2001. Still, the number of women in engineering throughout Canada is low in contrast to men. Cannon is a mentor to many women throughout the nation and aims to remove the gender gap of women in engineering.

By: Jassi Bedi

“Worth Defending” – A brief look at the 1954 advertising campaign of a major Canadian aircraft manufacturing firm, Canadair Limited of Montréal, Québec, part 4

The advertisement “La liberté d’expression,” in English “Freedom of Speech,” published by Canadair Limited of Montréal, Québec, as part of its 1954 Worth Defending advertising campaign. Anon, “Canadair Limited.” La Presse, 13 April 1954, 25.

“Worth Defending” – A brief look at the 1954 advertising campaign of a major Canadian aircraft manufacturing firm, Canadair Limited of Montréal, Québec, part 3

“Freedom of Worship,” one of the advertisements issued by Canadair Limited of Montréal, Québec, as part of its 1954 Worth Defending advertising campaign. Anon., “Canadair Limited.” The Vancouver Province, 5 January 1954, 5.

“Worth Defending” – A brief look at the 1954 advertising campaign of a major Canadian aircraft manufacturing firm, Canadair Limited of Montréal, Québec, part 2

One of the advertisements issued by Canadair Limited of Montréal, Québec, as part of its 1954 Worth Defending advertising campaign. Anon., “Canadair Limited.” Toronto Daily Star, 6 October 1954, 4.

“Worth Defending” – A brief look at the 1954 advertising campaign of a major Canadian aircraft manufacturing firm, Canadair Limited of Montréal, Québec, part 1

A block of photographs showing some of the people involved in the bombing of beluga whales in the estuary and gulf of the St. Lawrence River. Anon., “La chasse aux marsouins [sic]. » Le Devoir, 15 August 1929, 6.

“The bomb that will kill the porpoise” – A shocking use of air power in interwar Québec: The bombing of the beluga whales of the St. Lawrence River, part 4

A typical pod of beluga whales, Hudson Bay, near Churchill, Manitoba, July 1999. Ansgar Walk, via Wikipedia.

“The bomb that will kill the porpoise” – A shocking use of air power in interwar Québec: The bombing of the beluga whales of the St. Lawrence River, part 3

The Franco Canadian physician / pilot Louis Cuisinier and one of the 45 or so kilogram (100 or so pounds) handmade aerial bombs with which he hoped to kill beluga whales. Anon., “La bombe qui tuera le marsouin.” La Presse, 5 August 1929, 11.

“The bomb that will kill the porpoise” – A shocking use of air power in interwar Québec: The bombing of the beluga whales of the St. Lawrence River, part 1

Several exhibition display cases, panels, and screens in a large, brightly-lit air hangar-style room with a high ceiling and tall, exposed metal walls.

Diane Pitre and Steven P. Deschamps’ LGBT Purge Stories Told at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum

An Institute for Aerospace Research staff member conducting an inspection on a Shuttle Remote Manipulator System, or Canadarm, around 2000. National Research Council Canada.

“It is only with the DAIS that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye” – A respectful look at a great Canadian aerospace invention, the Diffracto DAIS non destructive testing equipment, and a bit more, part 2

$A technician conducting the first corrosion detection trial, on a Boeing Model 727 test airframe, using a Diffracto DAIS-500 non destructive testing equipment, 1992. National Research Council Canada.$

“It is only with the DAIS that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye” – A respectful look at a great Canadian aerospace invention, the Diffracto DAIS non destructive testing equipment, and a bit more, part 1

Louis Damblanc, French pioneer of rocketry, and the device he designed to launch short-range postal rockets, circa 1937. Alexandre Ananoff, “L’histoire des fusées.” La Nature, 15 May 1939, 312.

“I preferred to be a cutting edge engineer” The most important rocketry pioneer you have never heard of, the French engineer and inventor Louis Damblanc, part 1

The Myasishchev M-50 supersonic strategic bomber at the July 1961 air show, near Túshinskiy, USSR. Seymour Topping, “Thousands See New Planes – Russ Flex Air Might in Aviation Day Show.” Minneapolis Morning Tribune, 10 July 1961, 8.

“Fakes that pay off:” A brief glance at the totally fictitious nuclear-powered Soviet super bomber ‘revealed’ in December 1958 by the American magazine Aviation Week, Part 3

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Elizabeth Cannon aims for new heights in satellite navigation

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