CURRICULUM VITAE

Jason Rife, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor office: 617-627-4732
Department of Mechanical Engineering fax: 617-627-3058
Tufts University email: [email protected]
Medford, MA 02155 web: http://sites.google.com/a/tufts.edu/asar/

EDUCATION
2004 Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering
Thesis: Automated Robotic Tracking of Gelatinous Animals in the Deep Ocean
1999 Stanford University, Stanford, CA
M.S. in Mechanical Engineering
1996 Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
2007- Tufts University, Medford, MA
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
Developing solutions to enhance the safety of GPS-aided navigation for precision aircraft landing,
airport surface traffic management, and automotive highway applications
Pursuing methods for design of robotic control systems for soft-bodied biomimetic robots
2003-07 Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratories, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Research Engineer, Stanford Global Positioning System (GPS) Lab
Mentored team of graduate student researchers investigating the integrity of the Joint Precision
Approach and Landing System (JPALS), a technology for safely landing U.S. military aircraft
Researched conservative error bounding approaches, with application to the Federal Aviation
Administration’s (FAA) Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS), and served as a member of the
LAAS integrity panel, a team of FAA, academic and industry representatives who evaluate the
safety of the LAAS architecture
Developed, with FAA team, an alternative Local Airport Monitoring architecture based on WAAS
1999-03 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Research Assistant, Stanford Aerospace Robotics Lab and Monterey Bay Aquarium Research
Institute (MBARI)
Researched and implemented visual sensing and control algorithms to enable robot-based animal
tracking in the deep-ocean
Coordinated technology transfer of research software for field use by MBARI
1997-99 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Research Assistant, Center for Turbulence Research
Studied reacting flows and numerical methods for fluid dynamics computation
Researched numerical methods (1) to minimize dump combustor NOx emissions and (2) to capture
acoustic-chemistry interactions for low mach number combustor flows
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1995-96 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell, Ithaca, NY

Undergraduate Researcher, Experimental Fluid Mechanics
Led project team to design and implement a portable water channel for classroom instruction
Performed wind tunnel experiments studying scalar field transport in the presence of intense
turbulence created by an active grid
1995 Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Research Assistant, Mechanical Engineering Department
Designed and performed wind tunnel experiments to measure the lateral “drift” force on bluff
bodies placed in weak shear flows

TEACHING EXPERIENCE
2007- Tufts University, Medford, MA
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering
ME-1: Mechanical Design and Fabrication
ME-37: Dynamics and Vibrations
ME-80: System Dynamics and Control
ME-180: Digital Control of Dynamic Systems
ME-184: Robotics
ME-280: Advanced Controls
2005 School of Engineering, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA
Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering
Developed and taught a master’s level course entitled Vision Systems for Robotic
Applications (Course Web Site: http://www.engr.scu.edu/~jrife/ )
Assisted as a guest lecturer in Dynamics and Controls for Ocean Engineering
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University, Stanford,
CA 2003-07 Research Associate, Stanford GPS Lab
Supervised the research of six Ph.D. students in the GPS lab
2000-02 Student Director of Young Astronauts Program, Sponsored by AIAA
Coordinated and taught hands-on science classes for local 3rd and 4th grade students
1995-96 Cornell Outdoor Education Program, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Instructor, Cornell Outdoor Education
Taught undergraduate course, Basic Cross-Country Skiing

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
1997 Pratt & Whitney, East Hartford, CT
Development Engineer, Turbine Aerodynamics Group
Analyzed test stand data for PW4098 engine development program
Coordinated design and implementation of a software tool to automate information transfer
between two existing simulation codes (turbine cooling air and turbine aerodynamics)
1994-95 Solomon Software, Findlay, OH
Programmer
Wrote commercial code to support foreign currency management for Solomon's next
generation accounting package
1993-94 GENEVA Group, Belmont, MA
Intern
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Graduate Research Fellow, National Science Foundation

Second in class, Cornell School of Engineering
Van Dyke Book Prize, Cornell University
Awarded to the top student in M&AE 323, Introduction to Fluid Mechanics
John McMullen Dean’s Scholar, Cornell University
National Merit Scholar

Translated technical and financial documents from French clients of GENEVA, a small
business specializing in accounting systems
Wrote scheduling routine for manufacturing client
Lead telemarketing campaign, locating clients for second phase sales negotiations

HONORS AND AWARDS

2012 Best of Track Award, ION/IEEE Position, Location, and Navigation Symposium
(PLANS 2012), Myrtle Beach, SC.
2012 ASME Award of Excellence for Teaching, Tufts Chapter
2010 Named Research Associate for Mineta Transportation Institute (DoT)
2008 Best of Session Award, Session B1: Integrity of Multi- Constellation RAIM, at ION
Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS 2008), Savannah, GA.
1997-99 Stanford Graduate Fellow, Stanford School of Engineering
1997-99
1997
1994
1993
1993
JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS
1. F. Saunders and J. Rife (submitted, 2012). Modal Eigenstate Determination for Reoccurring
Dynamics. International Journal of Control.
2. F. Saunders, J. Rife, V.S. Vaddi, and V. Cheng (submitted 2012). Information Flow Diagram
Analysis of a Model Cyber-Physical System: Conflict Detection and Resolution for Airport Surface
Traffic. Submitted to IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics - Part C.
3. J. Rife (accepted, 2012). Collaborative positioning for formation flight. AIAA Journal of Guidance,
Control, and Dynamics.
4. J. Rife and P. Misra (accepted, 2012). Impact of time-correlation of monitor statistic on continuity
of safety-critical operations. NAVIGATION, the Journal of the Institute of Navigation. First
published under the same title in Proc. ION GNSS 2011, Portland, OR.
5. C. Mario and J. Rife (2012). Integrity and continuity for automated surface conflict-detection
monitoring. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 13(3), pp. 1179-1187. First
published in as “Integrity and continuity for automated surface conflict-detection monitoring,”
Proc. Integ. Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (ICNS), Herndon, VA.
6. O. Osechas, P. Misra, and J. Rife (in press, 2012). Carrier-Phase Acceleration RAIM for GNSS
Satellite Clock Fault Detection. NAVIGATION, the Journal of the Institute of Navigation.
7. D. De Lorenzo, S. Lo, P. Enge, and J. Rife (2012). Calibrating adaptive antenna arrays for high-
integrity GPS. GPS Solutions, 16(2), pp. 221-230.
8. J. Rife (2012). Collaborative vision-integrated pseudorange error removal: team-estimated
differential GNSS corrections with no stationary reference receiver. IEEE Transactions on
Intelligent Transportation Systems, 13(1), pp. 15-24.
9. J. Rife and B. Pervan (2012). Overbounding revisited: discrete-error distribution modeling for
safety-critical GPS navigation. IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, 48(2), pp.
1537-1551. First published as “Overbounding revisited: toward a more practical approach for

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error modeling in safety -critical applications” in Proc. ION Global Navigation Satellite Systems
(GNSS 2009), Savannah, GA.
10. S. Sen and J. Rife (2012). Reduction of ionosphere divergence error in GPS code measurement
smoothing by use of a non-linear process. IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic
Systems, 48(2), pp. 981-990. First published under the same title in Proc. ION/IEEE Position,
Location, and Navigation Symposium (PLANS), 2008, Monterey, CA.
11. F. Saunders, E. Golden, R. White, and J. Rife (2011). Experimental verification of soft-robot gaits
evolved using a lumped dynamic model. Robotica, 29(6), pp. 823-830. doi:
10.1017/S0263574711000014.
12. F. Saunders, B. Trimmer, and J. Rife (2011). Modeling locomotion of a soft bodied arthropod
using inverse dynamics. Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, 6(1), March 2011, 9 pp., doi:
10.1088/1748-3182/6/1/016001.
13. J. Rife (2009). Influence of GNSS integrity monitoring on risk probabilities for single and multiple
fault events. NAVIGATION, the Journal of the Institute of Navigation, 56(4), Winter 2009, pp. 275-
288. First published under the title “Influence of GNSS integrity monitoring on single and multiple
fault event probabilities” in the Proc. ION Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS 2008),
Savannah, GA, where it won the BEST of Session Award, Session B1: Integrity of Multi-
Constellation RAIM.
14. J. Rife and S. Sen (2009). Design of a single-frequency filter that minimizes ionosphere divergence
error. NAVIGATION, the Journal of the Institute of Navigation, 56(2), Summer 2009,
pp. 123-134. First published under the same title in the Proc. ION Global Navigation Satellite
Systems (GNSS 2007), Fort Worth, TX.
15. J. Rife, S. Khanafseh, S. Pullen, D. De Lorenzo, U. Kim, M. Koenig, T. Chiou, B. Kempny, and B.
Pervan (2008). Navigation, interference suppression, and fault monitoring in the sea-based joint
precision approach and landing system. Proceedings of the IEEE, 96(12), December 2008,
pp. 1958-1975.
16. J. Rife and R.E. Phelts (2008). Formulation of a time-varying maximum allowable error for
ground-based GPS augmentation systems. IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic
Systems, 44(2), April 2008, pp. 548-560. First published under the same title in the Proc. ION
National Technical Meeting, 2006, Monterey, CA.
17. J. Rife and D. Gebre-Egziabher (2007). Symmetric overbounding of correlated errors.
NAVIGATION, the Journal of the Institute of Navigation, 54(2), Summer 2007, pp. 109-124. First
published under the same title in the Proc. ION Global Navigation Satellite Systems, 2006, Fort
Worth, TX.
18. J. Rife, S. Pullen, B. Pervan, and P. Enge (2006). Paired overbounding for nonideal LAAS and
WAAS error distributions. IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems, 42(4),
October 2006, pp. 1386-1395. First published under the same title in the Proc. IEEE Position,
Location and Navigation Symposium, 2004, Monterey, CA.
19. Y. Yun, C. Kee, J. Rife, M. Luo, S. Pullen and P. Enge (2006). Detecting RFI through integrity
monitoring at a DGPS reference station. Journal of Navigation, 59(3), September 2006, pp. 403-
422. First published under the same title in the Proc. ION Annual Meeting, 2005, Boston, MA.
20. J. Rife and S.M. Rock (2006). Design and validation of a robotic control law for observation of
deep-ocean jellyfish. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 22(2), April 2006, pp. 282-291.
21. J. Rife and S. Pullen (2006). The impact of measurement biases on availability for CAT III LAAS.
NAVIGATION, the Journal of the Institute of Navigation, 52(4), Winter 2006, pp. 215-228. First
published under the same title in the Proc. ION Annual Meeting, 2005, Boston, MA.
22. T. Walter, J. Blanch, and J. Rife (2004). Treatment of Biased Error Distributions in SBAS. Journal
of Global Positioning Systems, 3(1-2), pp. 265-272. First published under the same title in the Proc.
Internat. Symp. On GNSS/GPS, 2004, Sydney, Australia.
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23. J. Rife and S.M. Rock (2003). Segmentation methods for visual tracking of deep ocean jellyfish
using a conventional camera. IEEE Journal of Ocean Engineering, 28(4), pp. 595-608.
24. J. Rife, J. He, Y. Song, and G.B. Wallis (1997). Measurements of the drift force. Nuclear
Engineering and Design, 175(1-2), pp. 71-76.

REFEREED CONFERENCE PUBLICATIONS

1. F. Saunders and J. Rife (2011). Defining shapeability in eigenstate specification for linear systems.
Proc. ASME Dynamic Systems and Control Conference 2011, Arlington, VA.
2. J. Rife (2011). Collaboration-Enhanced Receiver Integrity Monitoring (CERIM). Proc. Intelligent
Transportation Systems Conference (ITSC) 2011, Washington, DC.
3. S. McHugh, F. Saunders, and J. Rife (2009). Dynamics-based design of a soft robot. Proc. ASME
2009 International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition (IMECE 2009), Lake Buena
Vista, FL.
4. F. Saunders, J. Rieffel, J. Rife (2009). A method of accelerating convergence for genetic
algorithms evolving morphological and control parameters for a biomimetic robot. Proc.
International Conference on Autonomous Robots and Agents 2009, Wellington, New Zealand.

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
1. Q. Liu, O. Osechas, and J. Rife (2012). Optical Flow Measurement of Human Walking. Proc.
IEEE/ION Position, Location, and Navigation Symposium (PLANS 2012), Myrtle Beach, SC.
2. J. Rife (2012). Collaboration-enhanced receiver integrity monitoring with common residual
estimation. Proc. IEEE/ION Position, Location, and Navigation Symposium (PLANS 2012), Myrtle
Beach, SC.
3. C. Mario and J. Rife (2010). Integrity monitoring of vision-based automotive lane detection
methods. Proc. ION Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS 2010), Portland, OR. BEST of
Session Award, Session C1a: Autonomous Vehicles.
4. J. Rife and X. Xiao (2010). Estimation of spatially correlated errors in vehicular collaborative
navigation with shared GNSS and road-boundary measurements. Proc. ION Global Navigation
Satellite Systems (GNSS 2010), Portland, OR.
5. K. O’Brien and J. Rife (2010). Rigorous bounding of position error estimates for aircraft surface
movement. Proc. Integration Communication, Navigation and Surveillance (ICNS), Herndon, VA,
where it was awarded BEST Student Paper of the Conference.
6. K. O’Brien and J. Rife (2009). Propagating integrity bounds in nonlinear state estimation. Proc.
ION Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS 2009), Savannah, GA.
7. J. Rieffel, F. Saunders, S. Nadimpalli, H. Zhou, S. Hassoun, J. Rife and B. Trimmer (2009).
Evolving soft robotic motion in PhysX. Proc. Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference
(GECCO), Montreal, Canada.
5. J. Rife, S. Pullen, and P. Enge (2007). Evaluating fault-mode protection levels at the aircraft in
Category III LAAS. Proc. ION Annual Meeting, Cambridge, MA.
6. D.S. De Lorenzo, J. Rife, P. Enge, and D. Akos (2006). Navigation accuracy and interference
rejection for an adaptive GPS antenna array. Proc. ION Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS
2006), Fort Worth, TX.
7. H. Konno, S. Pullen, J. Rife, and P. Enge (2006). Ionosphere monitoring methodology for hybrid
dual-frequency LAAS. Proc. ION Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS 2006), Fort Worth,
TX.

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8. G. Phanomchoeng, D. Gebre-Egziabher, and J. Rife (2006). A numerical procedure for

approximating overbounds on navigation systems error distributions. Proc. ION Global Navigation
Satellite Systems (GNSS 2006), Fort Worth, TX.
9. J. Rife, S. Pullen, T. Walter, E. Phelts, B. Pervan and P. Enge (2006). WAAS-based threat
monitoring for a local airport monitor (LAM) that supports category I precision approach. Proc.
ION/IEEE Position, Location, and Navigation Symposium (PLANS), San Diego, CA.
10. S. Pullen, J. Rife and P. Enge (2006). Prior probability model development to support system
safety verification in the presence of anomalies. Proc. ION/IEEE Position, Location, and
Navigation Symposium (PLANS), San Diego, CA.
11. J. Seo, J. Rife, S. Pullen, T. Walter, and P. Enge (2006). Field Data Analysis for a Range-Based
Local Airport Monitor for WAAS. Proc. ION National Technical Meeting, Monterey, CA.
12. H. Konno, S. Pullen, J. Rife, and P. Enge (2006). Evaluation of two types of dual-frequency
differential GPS techniques under anomalous ionosphere conditions. Proc. ION National Technical
Meeting, Monterey, CA.
13. D.S. De Lorenzo, J. Gautier, J. Rife, P. Enge, and D. Akos (2005). Adaptive array processing for
GPS interference rejection. Proc. ION Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS 2005), Long
Beach, CA.
14. M. Koenig, J. Rife, S. Pullen, and P. Enge (2005). Optimizing channel selection for the JPALS’
Land-Based Integrity Monitor. Proc. ION Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS 2005), Long
Beach, CA.
15. T. Walter, S. Pullen, J. Rife, P. Enge, and J. Seo (2005). The advantages of local monitoring and
VHF data broadcast for SBAS. Proc. European Navigation Conference GNSS 2005, Munich,
Germany.
16. J. Rife, S. Pullen, T. Walter, and P. Enge (2005). Vertical protection levels for a local airport
monitor for WAAS. Proc. ION Annual Meeting, Cambridge, MA.
17. M. Koenig, J. Rife, J. Gautier, S. Pullen, and P. Enge (2005). Development of the JPALS land-
based integrity monitoring system. Proc. ION National Technical Meeting, San Diego, CA.
18. J. Rife, T. Walter, and J. Blanch (2004). Overbounding SBAS and GBAS error distributions with
excess-mass functions. Proc. 2004 Internat. Symp. On GNSS/GPS, Sydney, Australia.
19. J. Rife, S. Pullen and B. Pervan (2004). Core overbounding and its implications for LAAS
integrity. Proc. ION Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS 2004), Long Beach, CA.
20. J. Rife and S.M. Rock (2002). Field experiments in the control of a jellyfish tracking ROV. Proc.
IEEE/MTS OCEANS 2002, Biloxi, MS, vol. 4.
21. J. Rife and S.M. Rock (2001). A pilot aid for ROV based tracking of gelatinous animals in the
midwater. Proc. IEEE/MTS OCEANS 2001, Honolulu, HI.
22. J. Rife and S.M. Rock (2001). A low-energy sensor for AUV-based jellyfish tracking. Proc. of the
12th International Symposium on Unmanned Untethered Submersible Technology, Hanover, NH.
23. J. Rife and S.M. Rock (2001). Visual tracking of jellyfish in situ. Proc. Intl. Conf. Image
Processing, IEEE, Thessaloniki, Greece.

OTHER ARTICLES
1. J. Rife and S. Pullen (2009). Aviation applications. GNSS Applications and Methods, S. Gleason
and D. Gebre-Egziabher, Eds. Artech House.
2. S. Pullen and J. Rife (2009). Differential GNSS: accuracy and integrity. GNSS Applications and
Methods, S. Gleason and D. Gebre-Egziabher, Eds. Artech House.

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3. J. Rife, C. Tomlin, and P. Enge (2008). Scanning the issue: special issue on aviation information
systems. Proceedings of the IEEE, 96(12), December 2008, pp. 1898-1901.
4. J. Rife (2008). GNSS Solutions: Do GNSS augmentation systems certified for aviation use, such as
the GPS Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), have a function other than improving the
accuracy of user navigation? Inside GNSS, 3(4), May/June 2008, pp. 18-22.

STUDENT PAPERS
5. O. Osechas (2011). GPS satellite clock excessive acceleration detection for DCPS users of GBAS.
Proc. ION Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS 2011), Portland, OR. Student Paper
Award Selection.

FUNDING PROFILE

PI, Limit-Cycle Control for Soft, Caterpillar Inspired Robots, NSF. $272,990. From 2/1/2012-1/31/2015.
PI, Draper Lab Fellowship, Draper. $80,507. From 9/1/2011-5/31/2013.
Institutional PI, SBIR: Improved Station Keeping Equipment, DoD-AFRL. Phase I: $25,000. From
1/1/2011-9/30/2011. Phase II: $179,735. From 3/1/2012-12/23/2013.
PI, Risk Analyses to Enhance GBAS Performance for NextGen Applications, FAA. $319,946. From
6/1/2010-8/29/2013.

Institutional PI, SBIR: Safety Enhancement Technologies for Airport Ramp Area Operations, NASA.
$20,000. From 3/1/2012-8/30/2012.
Institutional PI, Surface Conflict Detection and Resolution with Emphasis on Trajectory-Based
Operations, NASA. $176,074. From 6/24/2010-6/23/2012.
Institutional PI, Laser-Based Aircraft Diversion, DoD-Joint Nonlethal Weapons Program. $128,154.
From 9/1/2010-4/26/2011.
PI, Vision-based Automation for Automotive Safety, BMW. $5,000. From 6/30/2009-12/31/2009.
Participant, Awards to Enhance Collaborative Research: Soft Tissue Measurement and Modeling for
Surgical Simulation and Visualization. Tufts School of Engineering. $5,000. 6/15/200-6/14/2009.
Participant, Chemical Robots: Morphing, soft-material robots for covert access. DARPA. $3,298,209.
From 2/15/2008 to 8/14/2010.

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
Tau Beta Pi, The National Engineering Honor Society
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE)
Institute of Navigation (ION)

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