November 5, 2025
The precise navigation technology that could guide self-driving cars and self-flying planes — and has already become common in space technologies ranging from satellite constellations to the docking system for powerful booster rockets — started as a modest research project that aimed to better understand GPS signals.
Todd Humphreys was a Ph.D. student at Cornell University when he began writing the code for GRID, the first fully software-defined GPS receiver to operate in space. It has since been licensed by six prominent aerospace companies for use on their rockets and satellites.
“At the beginning, it was just to serve an immediate need of, hey, I want a better research tool to carefully study these signals. And let’s make it small so that we can put it on different vehicles,” Humphreys said.
When he began using the receiver on satellite experiments, Humphreys realized GRID would lead to innovations in space. The results proved that the receiver could also be used to prevent jamming and spoofing — types of GPS interference that can confuse navigation systems. That’s when companies came knocking.
Humphreys is a professor in The University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics (ASE/EM) and director of the Radionavigation Lab. He conducts research funded by federal agencies including the National Science Foundation (NSF), Army Futures Command and the Department of Transportation. To date, his work has led to two spinoff companies and more than a dozen commercial licenses, with products ranging from precise vehicle positioning to cybersecurity technology that serves national security interests.
Humphreys is not the only faculty member in the department who has a track record of commercializing innovative technology that originated from a research lab. According to UT’s Discovery to Impact Office, over the past decade our researchers have been responsible for at least six startups, 36 licenses with options, 64 filed patents and 13 issued patents. This commercialized technology is now being used in space tech applications, robotics, aviation, GPS security, biomedicine, retail and more.
These companies and licensing deals may never have come to fruition without federal research funding that gives researchers the opportunity to explore complex challenges and develop technology to solve them.
Spin Off or License?
The first fork on the path of entrepreneurship that innovators face involves deciding whether to form a company around their invention or license the intellectual property to someone else. Humphreys has explored both paths.
He and four students formed the company Radiosense in 2016 to commercialize GRID. The team (except Humphreys) was later acquired by Apple, but UT retained ownership of GRID and acquired ownership of PpEngine, a precise positioning module initially developed by Radiosense, both of which the University now licenses.
Humphreys also encourages highly motivated students to take the entrepreneurial leap. Aerospace engineering alumna Hailey Nichols took his advice and founded Locus Lock in 2021. The company offers an advanced Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver that delivers centimeter-accurate real-time positioning, ensuring more reliable and safe navigation for everyday smartphone users to emergency crews who must make every second count.
Nichols was one of the first students to participate in UT’s entrepreneurial aerospace graduate program, Launch Texas — a partnership between the Cockrell School of Engineering’s ASE/EM department and the Texas Innovation Center that is producing a new class of space-tech entrepreneurs. She said she felt confident in her ability to lead a startup because of the guidance she received from Humphreys as well as the resources provided by the Texas Innovation Center.
“Having access to both deep technical support and a community that actively supports entrepreneurship was key,” Nichols said.
Locus Lock now has several contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense and has attracted significant VC funding. She advises students or faculty considering a similar path to talk to as many potential customers as possible.
“Spend significant time understanding the problem you’re trying to solve,” Nichols said. “As your company grows and times evolve, continuously reassess your assumptions and stay agile enough to respond to changing market needs.”
Apptronik, a company co-founded by ASE/EM professor Luis Sentis and spun out of the Human Centered Robotics Lab in 2016, further demonstrates the ability to turn research into impactful companies. Since its inception, the robotics company has developed 15 robotic systems, including the co-development of the NASA Valkyrie humanoid robot and their flagship product, the new Apollo humanoid robot — an AI-powered humanoid designed for industrial work.
To scale the production of its humanoid robots to meet customer demand, Apptronik recently raised a more than $400 million Series A funding round, led by Google Deep Mind. The company now employs over 200 people. Research behind the spinoff was supported by the Office of Naval Research, NASA, NSF, Defense Advanced Research and Projects Agency and the U.S. Special Operations Command.
Sentis said he and his student Nick Paine decided to commercialize humanoid robots themselves after years of working on Honda’s Asimo and NASA’s Valkyrie humanoids. He offers a few simple pieces of advice for researchers who are thinking about starting their own company.
“Work with discovery to impact to license your inventions. Focus on your passionate product. Develop an early commercial strategy and sell prototypes or early products quickly, even in low volume,” Sentis said.
Other faculty have made strides in entrepreneurship through industry connections outside of their work at the University. L.L Raja founded Esgee Technologies Inc. in 2003 after an industry connection approached him with a specific problem within the realm of semiconductors — the need for better simulation software for plasma reactors. These reactors are essential for the precision and intricacy that semiconductor manufacturing processes require.
Raja’s company delivered a solution by developing Viz-Glow®, a plasma process modeling tool that is now used by nearly all major semiconductor equipment and chipmaking companies worldwide. Raja said having a customer at the ready made the company’s focus clear and is what ultimately led to a successful business venture. Lam Research Corp., a fortune 500 NASDAQ listed company, acquired Esgee in 2022.
While Esgee Tech didn’t receive any federal funding directly, Raja, whose research has been funded by the NSF and AFOSR, said it is important to understand the symbiotic relationship between academia and industry.
“Almost all deep-tech companies benefit from and leverage federal funding indirectly. That is why it is important that federal money supports basic research at universities on a large scale, and that the research is published in open literature,” Raja said. “Commercial enterprise then leverages this open knowledge to create viable and successful products that grow the economy. A strong economy fills the federal coffers, which can then be used to fund basic science. That is the virtuous cycle.”
Commercialization on the Rise
Faculty and students continue to work hard across the department, performing groundbreaking research and turning those ideas into tangible products, with more on the horizon.
John-Paul Clarke and his student created continuous descent arrival flight procedures now used worldwide, reducing noise, emissions, fuel burn and flight time for millions of flights. He developed the technology and patent for the hydrogen fuel cell-electric powertrain for Universal Hydrogen, which Beyond Aero will use to develop its hydrogen aircraft. Clarke co-founded a startup now owned by Flyr, which uses his algorithms to modernize the retail experiences for airlines and hospitality businesses around the globe.
Federal funding for this research was provided by NASA and the FAA.
Thomas J.R. Hughes is world-renowned for inventing Isogeometric Analysis (IGA), a critical computational method that makes computer aided design (CAD) simulations much more accurate. His students are making waves too. A group of them founded Coreform, which provides precise simulations for complex engineering designs in applications ranging from aerospace and automotive to medicine and more. Ben Urick co-founded nVariate, which provides watertight modeling technology in a native CAD environment.
Federal funding for this research was provided by the Office of Naval Research.
Moriba Jah, a self-proclaimed space environmentalist, teamed up with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Ripcord founder Alex Fielding to start Privateer, which aims to be the world’s leading geospatial intelligence machine learning operations platform. He is also a co-founder of GaiaVerse Ltd., which develops regenerative, restorative and socially just solutions for planetary scale problems from improving the lives of people in Gaza, to determining how and where to deploy e-mobility vehicles across Africa and achieving a circular space economy.
Federal funding for this research was provided by the U.S. Space Force. Funding for GaiaVerse came from the MacArthur Foundation.
Jeffrey Bennighof was recognized by UT Austin with its Commercialization Success of the Year Award in 2019 for his work that began in 1986. His curiosity about how to predict vibration in complex structures eventually led to the development of commercial software to analyze vehicle vibrations. Since the software first became commercially available in 2001, it has become the standard in the automobile industry for ensuring quality beginning at engineering design stages.
Federal funding for this research was provided by ONR.
Entrepreneurial Resources
Discovery to Impact: discoverytoimpact.utexas.edu
Texas Innovation Center: texasinnovationcenter.utexas.edu
Launch Texas: cockrell.utexas.edu/launch-texas
