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Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and of Mechanical Engineering, Emeritus

J David Powell

Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and of Mechanical Engineering, Emeritus
EDUCATION:
1960 - B.S. Mechanical Engineering, M.I.T.
1966 - M.S. Aeronautics & Astronautics, Stanford
1970 - Ph.D. Aeronautics & Astronautics, Stanford

EXPERIENCE:
1960-1961 - Engine Design and Testing Engineer at Outboard Marine Corp.
1961-1967 – Engineer at Lockheed in the field of Aerospace Guidance and Control
1967-1968 – Engineer at Analytical Mechanics Associates
1968-1970 – Engineer, Systems Control, Inc. Parameter ID of aircraft models from flight data, automatic generation of approach paths for Air Traffic Control. Attended Stanford University specializing in control systems.
1971 – 1998 – Member of the Stanford Faculty in the Aeronautics and Astronautics Department. His research has included spacecraft pointing, space tether dynamics and control, internal combustion engine control, the design of aerospace digital flight control systems, GPS-based attitude determination augmented with inertial sensors, and the use of GPS for air and land vehicle surveillance and navigation. He taught courses in aerospace control including radio and inertial navigation, optimization and digital implementations and is a coauthor of two of the leading control textbooks. He is also an author or coauthor on over 100 papers.
1998 – present – Emeritus faculty carrying out research in Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford Univ. Recent focus of research is the use of GPS-based attitude determination augmented with inertial sensors, applications of the FAA’s WAAS for enhanced pilot displays, flight inspection of aircraft landing systems, and the use of WAAS and new displays to enable closer spacing of parallel runways.

SOCIETY MEMBERSHIPS
AIAA (Fellow), ASME (Fellow), SAE, IEEE, ION

CONSULTANT TO: (over past several years)
Seagull Technology
Sequoia Instruments
Engine Control and Monitoring
Transparent Networks
Pratt and Whitney (Technical Advisory Committee)
Sensor Platforms

OTHER RECENT ACTIVITIES
Co-Founder, CEO, and Director of GyroSat Corp. 1999 – 2000
Director of Sequoia Instruments, 2001 – 2005
Aircraft owner and licensed instrument pilot
National Research Council Panel member for the review of NASA airspace activities, 2003
Board of Directors, Mechanics Bank, Richmond, CA., 2003 – 2015
Board of Directors, ExactBid, Inc. 2014-present.

Contact

(650) 723-3425
Mail Code
4035