Raquet accepts 2018 Services Leadership Award

John Raquet, director, Autonomy and Navigation Technology Center (ANT), U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology. (Photo: Melanie Beus)

John Raquet’s team has developed PNT sensors and systems utilizing GPS, GNSS, inertial, vision, lidar, magnetic field, pseudolites, radar, terrain mapping, signals of opportunity, star trackers, radio ranging, 3D audio, X-ray pulsars, clocks, and more. Raquet, director of the Autonomy and Navigation Technology (ANT) Center at the U.S. Air Force Institute of Technology, received the 2018 GPS World Services Leadership Award for his achievements. Check out his acceptance speech below.

I feel like I have the best job in the world, because I get to try to implement many new ideas and work with amazing people as I do so. We have developed and tested lots of new ideas, to the point that I sometimes call the ANT Center the “crazy idea factory” — we love to turn crazy ideas into really good ideas that will make a difference.

But there’s another part of my job that I feel especially proud of: the students we produce. Ours is not the kind of community where you build something once and then the job is done. Rather, this is a growing worldwide enterprise that takes new talent to come in and eventually fill the spots that many of the people in this room have occupied.

I’m privileged in my role as a professor to be able to fill some of those gaps, and it’s rewarding to see students that we’ve worked with go on and do some really amazing things, and to know that we had a small part in helping them to do that.

I’m grateful to GPS World, to the sponsors, and to my ANT Center colleagues. It’s a great honor to receive this award — thank you very much.