Carole Teolis, co-founder and chief technology officer of TRX Systems, an industry leader in infrastructure-free, GPS-denied navigation and mapping solutions, was elected into the A. James Clark School of Engineering’s Innovation Hall of Fame (IHOF) in a ceremony on Thursday, February 20.
TRX Systems is an Mtech Ventures incubator graduate, as well as the winner of multiple Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) project awards.
Teolis ’86, M.S. ’89, Ph.D. ’94 earned dual B.S. degrees in electrical engineering and mathematics, and master’s and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Maryland (UMD). She has dedicated her professional career to the pursuit of engineering research and development that is both impactful and marketable.
Teolis built TRX Systems into a successful commercial company in partnership with UMD electrical and computer engineering alumnae Carol Politi (president and CEO), M.B.A., ‘97, B.S., electrical engineering, ’86 and Ben Funk (VP engineering), B.S., electrical engineering, ’05.
TRX’s core technology comprises innovative algorithms and hardware that integrate satellite-based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) data with inputs from inertial sensors, maps, and other sources to reliably track user positions in environments where GPS signals are unavailable or compromised. The company’s comprehensive suite of technologies features innovations in sensor fusion, navigation integrity estimation, localization, and mapping, supported by more than 49 U.S. and 23 international patents.
The impact of TRX’s assured PNT technology is global. It has been deployed to thousands of
users worldwide, enabling reliable navigation for military personnel, first responders, and
commercial operators in the most challenging conditions. As a direct result of Teolis’ efforts, TRX technology has been delivered to numerous national stakeholder organizations, including the U.S. Army, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, U.S. Special Operations Command, U.S. Air Force, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, the National Science Foundation, and the Department of Homeland Security.
One of Teolis’s milestone achievements came in 2023, when TRX was selected to receive the U.S. Army Program of Record contract to deliver the Dismount Assured PNT System. Designed to replace legacy systems such as the Defense Advanced GPS Receiver, the TRX solution was selected as the best device to provide soldiers with a navigation and positioning solution that is reliable even in contested environments.
TRX Systems was awarded multiple MIPS grants to improve its assured positioning technology, including ruggedizing its electronic packaging for operation in extreme environments and developing open and accessible Application Programming Interfaces. Teolis’ doctoral research, which focused on adaptive signal processing and control systems, laid a solid foundational framework well-suited to address the complex challenges inherent in the development of navigation and localization technologies where GPS is not available or compromised.
Launched in 1985, IHOF recognizes metamorphic innovations achieved by UMD alums, faculty, and members of the UMD community. Past recipients have included Glenn L. Martin ’51 (posthumously inducted in 1987), George J. Laurer ’51, Robert Briskman M.S. ’61, Angel P. Bezos ’69, Emilio A. Fernandez ’69, Jeong H. Kim Ph.D. ’91, Naomi Ehrich Leonard Ph.D. ’94, and Robert E. Fischell ’54, Sc.D. (honorary) ’96.
