Allison Kealy

Allison Kealy

Professor

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Profile photo of Professor Allison Kealy. Alison is sitting at a computer chair, at an angle, smiling at camera. Background is out of focus.

Contact details

STEM | School of Science


Sir Lawrence Wackett Centre


Space Innovation Hub


SPACE Research Centre


Emailallison.kealy@rmit.edu.au


Phone: +61 41301 2177


Campus: Melbourne City


Programs

More information

Profile photo of Professor Allison Kealy. Alison is sitting at a computer chair, at an angle, smiling at camera. Background is out of focus.

Contact details

STEM | School of Science


Sir Lawrence Wackett Centre


Space Innovation Hub


SPACE Research Centre


Emailallison.kealy@rmit.edu.au


Phone: +61 41301 2177


Campus: Melbourne City


Programs

More information

Allison Kealy is committed to delivering an exceptional tertiary education experience for students. Their focus is securing the best outcomes for society, by ensuring graduates have the professional skills to address society’s major challenges.

This is achieved through the fostering of an outstanding student experience which translates into a committed and active alumni, combined with resilient partnerships amongst universities, industry, government and the community.

Overview

Professor Allison Kealy has been Professor of Geodesy at RMIT since 2017. Her main research activity is as the Research Capability Coordinator in the SmartSat CRC. She has also occupied a number of senior leadership roles at the SmartSat CRC, as Research Director, Program 2 Intelligent Sensors/AI (June 2020–present); as Acting Chief Research Officer (Dec 2020–July 2021)

Since joining RMIT, she has performed a number of senior leadership roles including as Associate Dean International (Nov 2018–Sep 2020) and Deputy Director, Sir Lawrence Wackett Centre (Nov 2019–present).

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Industry experience

In addition to her leadership in Australia, she has a significant senior leadership profile in the international Surveying and Spatial community, including:

  • President of IAG Commission 4 on Positioning and Applications
    International Association of Geodesy (IAG)
    2019 – present
  • Technical Representative to the Satellite Division of ION
    Institute of Navigation (ION)
    2016 – present
  • Chair FIG Working Group 5.5 on Multi-Sensor Systems
    International Federation of Surveyors (FIG)
    2014 – present
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Research

Allison Kealy is an internationally recognised leading researcher in the field of Geodesy. Her research contributions are particularly focused in the high-impact application areas of transport, emergency management, defence, and critical infrastructure. She has developed an extensive network of industry and government collaborators who have funded their research programs, including: the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), Plan Jericho Department of Defence, Air Services Australia, Bushfire CRC, Frontier SI and CRC for Spatial Information, Defence Science and Technology (DST), Emergency Services Telecommunications Agency (ESTA), IBM Research Australia, Emergency Management Victoria (EMV), Victorian Department of Infrastructure (now Transport), Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP).

Their research track record demonstrates their ability to connect to key stakeholders and deliver transformative and collaborative multi-disciplinary solutions. Digital innovation and high standards of governance in the public sector underpin all of their research grant success. It is notable that these programs of work extend well beyond their fundamental domain of satellite positioning and geodesy. This work pushes into broader, more diverse applications and technology domains, which require high-level communications and collaborative skills.

Training and mentoring the next generation of Surveying and Spatial scientists research is also the hallmark of my research. To date, they have been a primary supervisor of 14 graduated PhD research students: Dr Yan Li (PhD, Completed 02/20); Dr Lisa Cheong (PhD, Completed 06/19): Dr Andrej Peisker (PhD, 06/19); Dr Melissa Shahrom (PhD, 07/18); Dr Azmir Hasnur Rabiain (PhD, 07/18); Dr Salil Goel (PhD, 12/17); Dr Alan Both (PhD, 05/16); Dr Grant Hausler (PhD, 04/14); Dr Zaffar Mohamed Ghouse (PhD, 04/09); Dr Steven Scott-Young (PhD, 06/04); Dr Jessica Davies (PhD, 07/05); Dr Neil Brown (PhD, 04/07); Dr Paul Grgich (PhD, 07/08); Dr Susannah Hope (PhD, 08/08).

 

Research keywords

Global Navigation Satellite Systems, Estimation Theory, Sensor Fusion, Surveying, Geodesy

 

Research output summary

~200

Publications

$10mil+

Funding

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Supervisor interest areas

  • Satellite positioning and Navigation
  • Filtering and Estimation for location
  • Geodesy
  • Sensor Fusion
  • high precision positioning
  • autonomous vehicles
  • indoor positioning

Feature publications

A benchmarking measurement campaign in GNSS-denied/challenged in-door/outdoor and transitional environments

Journal of Applied Geodesy 14.2 (2020), pp. 215–229

G. Retscher, A. Kealy, J. Gabela, Y. Li, S. Goel, C. Toth, A. Masiero, W. Błaszczak-Bąk, V. Gikas, H. Perakis et al. (2020).

The Effect of Linear Approximation and Gaussian Noise Assumption in Multi-Sensor Positioning Through Experimental Evaluation

IEEE Sensors Journal 19.22 (2019), pp. 10719–10727

J. Gabela, A. Kealy, S. Li, M. Hedley, W. Moran, W. Ni and S. Williams. (2019).

Experimental Evaluation of a UWB-Based Cooperative Positioning System for Pedestrians in GNSS-Denied Environment

Sensors 19.23 (2019), p. 5274

J. Gabela, G. Retscher, S. Goel, H. Perakis, A. Masiero, C. Toth, V. Gikas, A. Kealy, Z. Koppányi, W. Błaszczak-Bąk et al. (2019).

Key publications

  • G. Retscher, A. Kealy, J. Gabela, Y. Li, S. Goel, C. Toth, A. Masiero, W. Błaszczak-Bąk, V. Gikas, H. Perakis et al. ‘A benchmarking measurement campaign in GNSS-denied/challenged in-door/outdoor and transitional environments’. Journal of Applied Geodesy 14.2 (2020), pp. 215–229.
  • Ahmed El-Mowafy, Nobuaki Kubo and Allison Kealy. ‘Reliable Positioning and Journey Planning for Intelligent Transport Systems’. In: Intelligent and Effi- cient Transport Systems-Design, Modelling, Control and Simulation. IntechOpen, 2020.
  • Guenther Retscher, Allison Kealy, Jelena Gabela, Yan Li, Salil Goel, Charles K Toth, Andrea Masiero, Wioleta Błaszczak-Bąk, Vassilis Gikas, Harris Perakis et al. ‘A benchmarking measurement campaign in GNSS-denied/challenged in- door/outdoor and transitional environments’. In: Journal of Applied Geodesy 14.2 (2020), pp. 215–229.
  • Yuntian Brian Bai, Allison Kealy, Guenther Retscher and Lucas Holden. ‘A Comparative Evaluation of Wi-Fi RTT and GPS Based Positioning’. In: Pro- ceedings of the International Global Navigation Satellite Systems (IGNSS) Con- ference. Sydney, Australia, 2020.

  • J. Gabela, A. Kealy, S. Li, M. Hedley, W. Moran, W. Ni and S. Williams. ‘The Effect of Linear Approximation and Gaussian Noise Assumption in Multi-Sensor Positioning Through Experimental Evaluation’. IEEE Sensors Journal 19.22 (2019), pp. 10719–10727.
  • J. Gabela, G. Retscher, S. Goel, H. Perakis, A. Masiero, C. Toth, V. Gikas, A. Kealy, Z. Koppányi, W. Błaszczak-Bąk et al. ‘Experimental Evaluation of a UWB-Based Cooperative Positioning System for Pedestrians in GNSS-Denied Environment’. Sensors 19.23 (2019), p. 5274.
  • Vassilis Gikas, Guenther Retscher and Allison Kealy. ‘Collaborative Position- ing for Urban Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and Personal Mobility (PM): Challenges and Perspectives’. In: Mobility Patterns, Big Data and Trans- port Analytics. Elsevier, 2019, pp. 381–414.
  • Ahmed El-Mowafy, Nobuaki Kubo and Allison Kealy. ‘Reliable Positioning and Journey Planning for Intelligent Transport Systems. Advanced Energy Manage- ment, Modelling and Control for Intelligent and Efficient Transport Systems’. In: Advanced Energy Management, Modelling and Control for Intelligent and Efficient Transport Systems. IntechOpen, 2019, pp. 1–20.
  • Jelena Gabela, Allison Kealy, Shenghong Li, Mark Hedley, William Moran, Wei Ni and Simon Williams. ‘The Effect of Linear Approximation and Gaussian Noise Assumption in Multi-Sensor Positioning Through Experimental Evalu- ation’. In: IEEE Sensors Journal 19.22 (2019), pp. 10719–10727.
  • Jelena Gabela, Guenther Retscher, Salil Goel, Harris Perakis, Andrea Masiero, Charles Toth, Vassilis Gikas, Allison Kealy, Zoltán Koppányi, Wioleta Błaszczak- Bąk et al. ‘Experimental Evaluation of a UWB-Based Cooperative Positioning System for Pedestrians in GNSS-Denied Environment’. In: Sensors 19.23 (2019), p. 5274.
  • Salil Goel, Allison Kealy and Bharat Lohani. ‘Posterior Cramér Rao Bounds for Cooperative Localization in Low-Cost UAV Swarms’. In: Journal of the Indian Society of Remote Sensing 47.4 (2019), pp. 671–684.
  • Yan Li, Simon Williams, Bill Moran and Allison Kealy. ‘A Probabilistic In- door Localization System for Heterogeneous Devices’. In: IEEE Sensors Journal (2019).
  • Guenther Retscher, Vassilis Gikas, Hannes Hofer, Harris Perakis and Allison Kealy. ‘Range validation of UWB and Wi-Fi for integrated indoor positioning’. In: Applied Geomatics 11.2 (2019), pp. 187–195.
  • Shuai Sun, Yan Li, Wayne ST Rowe, Xuezhi Wang, Allison Kealy and Bill Moran. ‘Practical Evaluation of a Crowdsourcing Indoor Localization System Using Hidden Markov Models’. In: IEEE Sensors Journal 19.20 (2019), pp. 9332– 9340.
  • H Tran, K Khoshelham and A Kealy. ‘Geometric comparison and quality eval- uation of 3D models of indoor environments’. In: ISPRS journal of photogram- metry and remote sensing 149 (2019), pp. 29–39.
  • Yubin Yuan, Lucas Holden, Allison Kealy, Suelynn Choy and Paweł Hordyniec. ‘Assessment of forecast Vienna Mapping Function 1 for real-time tropospheric delay modeling in GNSS’. In: Journal of Geodesy (2019), pp. 1–14.
  • Yuntian Bai and Allison Kealy. ‘Evaluation and Correction of Smartphone- Based Fine Time Range Measurements’. In: sixth International Conference on Ubiquitous Positioning, Indoor Navigation and Location-Based Services (UPIN- LBS). Beijing, China, 2019.
  • Andrew G Dempster, Gary Edmond, Allison Kealy and Terry Moore. ‘Questions for providers of expert opinion on logged GNSS evidence’. In: 2019 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation. Virginia, USA, 2019.
  • Allison Kealy, Guenther Retscher, Jelena Gabela, Yan Li, Salil Goel, Charles Toth, Andre Masiero, Wioleta Blaszczak-Bak, Vassilis Gikas, Harris Perakis, Zoltan Koppanyi and Dorota Grejner-Brzezinska. ‘A Benchmarking Measure- ment Campaign in GNSS-denied/Challenged Indoor/Outdoor and Transitional Environments’. In: International Federation of Surveyors WOrking Week 2019. Hanoi, Vietnam, 2019.

  • G. Retscher and A. Kealy. ‘Navigation Based on Sensors in Smartphones’. In: Positioning and Navigation in Complex Environments. IGI Global, 2018, pp. 368–396.
  • ‘A new approach for GNSS tomography from a few GNSS stations, author=Ding,
  • N. and Zhang, S. and Wu, S. and Wang, X. and Kealy, A. and Zhang, K.’ In:
  • Atmospheric Measurement Techniques 11.6 (2018), p. 3511.
  • Y. Li, S. Williams, B. Moran, A. Kealy and G. Retscher. ‘High-Dimensional Probabilistic Fingerprinting in Wireless Sensor Networks Based on a Multivari- ate Gaussian Mixture Model’. In: Sensors 18.8 (2018), p. 2602.
  • H Tran, K Khoshelham, A Kealy and L Diaz-Vilariño. ‘Shape Grammar Ap- proach to 3D Modeling of Indoor Environments Using Point Clouds’. In: Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering 33.1 (2018), p. 24.
  • W. Yang, Q. Chang, A. Kealy, Y. Xu and T. Lan. ‘A Novel Location-Awareness Method Using CubeSats for Locating the Spot Beam Emitters of Geostationary Communications Satellites’. In: Mathematical Problems in Engineering (2018), 9pp.
  • Andrew G Dempster and Allison Kealy. ‘GNSS Expert Witness Evidence in Australian Courts’. In: 2018 International GNSS+ of The Institute of Naviga- tion. Miami, USA, 2018.
  • J. Gabela, S. Goel, A. Kealy, M. Hedley, B. Moran and S. Williams. ‘Cramer Rao Bound Analysis for Cooperative Positioning in Intelligent Transportation Systems’. In: Proceedings of the International Global Navigation Satellite Sys- tems (IGNSS) Conference. Sydney, Australia, 2018.
  • S. Goel, J. Gabela, A. Kealy and G. Retscher. ‘An Indoor Outdoor Cooperative Localization Framework for UAVs’. In: Proceedings of the International Global Navigation Satellite Systems (IGNSS) Conference. Sydney, Australia, 2018.
  • R. Guenther, Y. Li, S. Williams, A. Kealy, B. Moran, S. Goel and J. Gabela. ‘Wi-Fi Positioning Using a Network Differential Approach for Real-time Calib- ration’. In: Proceedings of the International Global Navigation Satellite Systems (IGNSS) Conference. Sydney, Australia, 2018.
  • Y. Li, S. Williams, B. Moran and A. Kealy. ‘Quantized RSS based Wi-Fi Indoor Localization with Room Level Accuracy’. In: Proceedings of the International Global Navigation Satellite Systems (IGNSS) Conference. Sydney, Australia, 2018.

  • A. Kealy and T. Moore. ‘Land and Maritime Applications’. In: Springer Hand- book of Global Navigation Satellite Systems. Ed. by Peter J.G. Teunissen and Oliver Montenbruck. Springer International Publishing, 2017, pp. 841–875.
  • S. Goel, A. Kealy, V. Gikas, G. Retscher, C. Toth, D. Grejner Brzezinska and B. Lohani. ‘Cooperative localization of unmanned aerial vehicles using GNSS, MEMS Inertial, and UWB Sensors’. In: Journal of Surveying Engineering 143.4 (2017).
  • H. Tran, K. Khoshelham, A. Kealy and L. Daz-Vilario. ‘Extracting topological relations between indoor spaces from point clouds’. In: ISPRS Annals of Photo- grammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences IV-2/W4 (2017), pp. 401–406.
  • V. Gikas, H. Perakis, A. Kealy, G. Retscher, C. Antoniou and T. Mpimis. ‘In- door Parking Facilities Management Based on RFID CoO Positioning in Com- bination with Wi-Fi and UWB’. In: Proceedings of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) Working Week. Helsinki, Finland, 2017.
  • G. Retscher, H. Hofer, A. Kealy, V. Gikas and F. Obex. ‘Cooperative Localiz- ation in Indoor Environments Using Constrained Differential Wi-Fi and UWB Measurements’. In: Proceedings of the International GNSS Conference (ION GNSS+). Portland, Oregon, 2017.

  • L. Cheong, S. Bleisch, A. Kealy, K. Tolhurst, T. Wilkening and M. Duckham. ‘Evaluating the impact of visualization of wildfire hazard upon decision-making under uncertainty’. In: International Journal of Geographical Information Sci- ence (2016), pp. 1–28.
  • V. Gikas, C. Antoniou, G. Retscher, A. Panagopoulos, A. Kealy, H. Perakis and T. Mpimis. ‘A low-cost wireless sensors positioning solution for indoor parking facilities management’. In: Journal of Location Based Services 10.4 (2016), pp. 241–261.
  • Salil Goel, Allison Kealy and Bharat Lohani. ‘Cooperative UAS localization using low cost sensors’. In: ISPRS Annals of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing & Spatial Information Sciences 3.1 (2016).
  • Dorota A. Grejner-Brzezinska, Charles K. Toth, Terry Moore, John F. Raquet, Mikel M. Miller and Allison Kealy. ‘Multisensor Navigation Systems: A Remedy for GNSS Vulnerabilities?’ In: Proceedings of the IEEE 104.6 (2016), pp. 1339– 1353.
  • F Gu, A Kealy, K Khoshelham and J Shang. ‘Efficient and accurate indoor localization using landmark graphs’. In: International Archives of the Photo- grammetry, Remote Sensing & Spatial Information Sciences 41 (2016).
  • F. Gu, A. Kealy, K. Khoshelham and J. Shang. ‘User-Independent Motion State Recognition Using Smartphone Sensors’. In: Sensors 15.12 (2016), pp. 30636– 30652.
  • J. Shang, F. Gu, X. Hu and A. Kealy. ‘APFiLoc: An Infrastructure-Free Indoor Localization Method Fusing Smartphone Inertial Sensors, Landmarks and Map Information’. In: Sensors 15.10 (2016), pp. 27251–27272.
  • X. Zhong, A. Kealy and M. Duckham. ‘Stream Kriging: Incremental and re- cursive ordinary Kriging over spatiotemporal data streams’. In: Computers & Geosciences 90 (2016), pp. 134–143.
  • S. Goel, A. Kealy, G. Retscher and B. Lohani. ‘Cooperative P2I localization using UWB and Wi-Fi’. In: Proceedings of the nternational Symposium on GPS/GNSS Symposium (IGNSS). Sydney, Australia, 2016.
  • A Tengku, A. Kealy and S. Fuller. ‘End User Awareness Towards GNSS Posi- tioning Performance and Testing ’. In: Proceedings of Locate 2016. Melbourne, Australia, 2016.
  • N. Tengku, A. Kealy and S. Fuller. ‘Characterising High Precision GNSS Re- ceiver Positioning Performance using Internal Receiver Uncertainties from Re- peatable Real World Signals’. In: Proceedings of ION GNSS+. Portland, Ore- gon, 2016.
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Feature projects

Cold Atom Sensing

Funding - Department of Defense, $500,000

2018-2021

Resilient, Autonomous Mission Execution in GPS/RF Denied Environments

Funding - Department of Defense, $1,500,000

2018-2021

Performance Assessment and Demonstration Pathfinder for “Firefly”, a Self-organising, Low-cost, High-altitude Balloon Constellation for Persistent Surveillance and Communications

Funding - Department of Defense, $600k

2020- 2021

Key projects by year

  • Performance Assessment and Demonstration Pathfinder for “Firefly”, a Self-organising, Low-cost, High-altitude Balloon Constellation for Persistent Surveillance and Communications
    Funding: Department of Defense, $600,000
    2020-2021
  • Face recognition using Diffusion Maps
    Funding: Department of Defense, $50,000
    2020

  • Nexus: Unified and Explainable Spatial Reasoning and Sensor Fusion
    Funding – Department of Defense, $100,000
    Duckham, Kealy, Varsadani
    2019-2020
  • Nexus (Phase 2): Unified and Explainable Spatial Reasoning and Sensor Fusion
    Funding – Department of Defense, $1,000,000
    Duckham, Kealy, Varsadani
    2019-2020
  • POSSUM (Precise pOsitioning using SBAS in Smartphones for consUmer Markets)
    Funding – FrontierSI, $50,000
    2019-2020

  • Cold Atom Sensing
    Funding: Department of Defense, $500,000
    2018-2021
  • Resilient, Autonomous Mission Execution in GPS/RF Denied Environment
    Funding: Department of Defense, $1,500,000
    2018-2021
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Awards


SSSI Professional Eminence Award

Award date: 2020

Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute (SSSI), Asia Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards (APSEA), Asia Pacific

Captain PVH Weems Award

Award date: 2017

Institute of Navigation (ION), USA

Universitas 21 Fellowship

Award date: 2000

University of Melbourne, Australia

Key awards by year

  • 2019 NavXperience Best Peer Reviewed Paper, FIG Conference, Hanoi,
    Vietnam.
  • 2019 Innovation Award, Mobile Mapping Symposium, Shenzhen, China.
  • 2019 Best Paper Award, International Conference on Ubiquitous Positioning,
    Indoor Navigations and Location-Based Services, Beijing, China
  • 2019 Executive Dean Research Award, School of Science, RMIT University.
  • 2019 Best Paper Award, Journal of Computing and Civil Engineering.

  • 2017 Best Paper Award, International GNSS Conference, Sydney
  • 2017 Captain Weems Award for advancing the art and science of navigation.

  • 2016 Highly commendable award in the Technical Excellence category of Asia
    Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards.
  • 2016 Best Paper Award, Computers and Geosciences, Elsevier.

  • 2015 Victorian Spatial Excellence Award for Technical Excellence - Resilient
    Information Systems for Emergency Response (RISER) project.
  • 2015 Victorian Government Award for Spatial Excellence - - Resilient
    Information Systems for Emergency Response (RISER) project.

  • 2014 Fellow, International Association of Geodesy.

  • 2013 Victorian Spatial Excellence Award for Education.

  • 2001 BMW Scientific Award (2nd Prize)
  • 2001 Best Paper Award, Institute of Navigation ION-GNSS Conference, Salt
    Lake City

  • 2000 Universitas 21 Fellowship, University of Melbourne

  • 1989 British Council Postgraduate Research Award
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Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business - Artwork 'Luwaytini' by Mark Cleaver, Palawa.

aboriginal flag
torres strait flag

Acknowledgement of Country

RMIT University acknowledges the people of the Woi wurrung and Boon wurrung language groups of the eastern Kulin Nation on whose unceded lands we conduct the business of the University. RMIT University respectfully acknowledges their Ancestors and Elders, past and present. RMIT also acknowledges the Traditional Custodians and their Ancestors of the lands and waters across Australia where we conduct our business.