Technical Advisors



Matthew Rabinowitz, Ph.D. —  Rosum Co-founder and CTO
Jim Omura, Ph.D. — Former UCLA professor, founder of Cylink, and expert in wireless systems
Brad Parkinson, Ph.D. — Head of Joint Program Office that constructed GPS
F. Craig Farrill — Former CTO of Vodafone
Perry LaForge — Founder and Director of CDMA Development Group
Per Enge — Director of Stanford University GPS Research Laboratory
Marco Thompson — Founder Doctor Design, CTO Wind River Services


Matthew Rabinowitz, Ph.D.
Rosum Co-founder and CTO
In 1996, Matthew completed a BA in Physics at Stanford, graduating as top student in the department, and receiving the Levin Award for outstanding academics and research. He also received the Terman Award, the highest academic honor offered by the School of Engineering at Stanford. In 1997, he completed an MSc in Electrical Engineering, and received a graduate fellowship to the School of Electrical Engineering at Stanford. In 2000, Matthew completed his PhD in Electrical Engineering at Stanford. His Ph.D. involved the design and construction of a navigation system that combined Low Earth Orbit Satellites with the Global Positioning System to achieve centimeter-level positioning. During his Ph.D., Matthew consulted with IntegriNautics Corporation, to investigate the commercial applications of the technology resulting from his PhD. In 1999, he took a leave of absence from Stanford, to work full time at Panopticon, a company he had co-founded to address the challenge of online, real-time, intelligent merchandizing. In 2000 the company was sold, as Panop.com, for roughly $100 million. In September of 2000, Matthew co-founded Rosum Corporation, and currently serves as its Chief Technology Officer. He has authored several papers and patents in the fields of optimization, signal processing and navigation. In 2003, Matthew joined the faculty of the Stanford School of Engineering as a Consulting Assistant Professor.

Dr. Jim Omura
Former UCLA professor, founder of Cylink, and expert in wireless systems
Jim Omura received his BS and MS degrees from MIT and a Ph.D from Stanford. A former UCLA Professor of Electrical Engineering and founder of two Silicon Valley Companies, Omura has extensive experience bringing technical products and services to market. He was the founder of Cylink and served as its Chairman, CTO, and acting CEO. Cylink marketed network security and wireless products and had a successful IPO in 1996. He has co-authored textbooks including PRINCIPLES OF DIGITAL COMMUNICATION AND CODING, McGraw-Hill, 1978 (co-authored with A. J. Viterbi) and SPREAD SPECTRUM COMMUNICATIONS HANDBOOK, McGraw-Hill, 1994 (co-authored with M. K. Simon, R. A. Scholtz, and B. K. Levitt) and published over 100 technical papers. Omura is a Fellow of the IEEE and a member of the National Academy of Engineering.

Brad Parkinson, Ph.D.
Head of Joint Program Office that constructed GPS
Dr. Bradford Parkinson has been a Professor at Stanford University since 1984, and has held the Edward C. Wells Endowed Chair at the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics since 1995. He manages the NASA Relativity Gyroscope Program, performs research in Guidance and Control, and is Principal Investigator for several Global Positioning System (GPS) research projects. Prior to Stanford, Dr. Parkinson served in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as a Colonel, was Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Colorado State University, group Vice President for Rockwell International, Vice President and General Manager of Intermetrics, and head of the Department of Astronautics and Computer Sciences at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Dr. Parkinson is a member of AAS, IEEE, the Institute of Navigation (ION), the National Academy of Engineering, and the Presidential Commission on Air Safety and Security, and is a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), the Royal Institute of Navigation, and the ION. He is the recipient of the IEEE Sperry Award, the Royal Institute of Navigation's Gold Medal, the Kirschner Award of the IEEE, Engineer of the Year for Silicon Valley, the Thurlow Award of the ION, the IEEE Pioneer Award, NASA's Public Service Medal, the NavStar Joint Program Office GPS Hall of Fame Award, the American Philosophical Society Magellanic Premium Award, the AIAA VonKarman Lectureship, and has been inducted into the NASA Hall of Fame. He holds a bachelor's degree in General Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, a master's degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT, and a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University.

F. Craig Farrill
Former CTO of Vodafone
Craig received a master's degree in Business (MBA) in 1979 from the University of Dallas and a bachelor's of Science degree in Electrical Engineering (BSEE) from the University of Oklahoma in 1974. Beginning his career in telecommunications systems engineering during the mid 1970's, Mr. Farrill held management roles at Rockwell International's Collins Radio Group before launching the cellular business at Communications Industries (CI) in 1980. While at CI, he planned and started up several cellular operations in major US cities including San Francisco, Atlanta, Dallas/Ft. Worth, and San Diego. From 1996 to 1999, Craig served as Chief Technology Officer of AirTouch and concurrently served on the AirTouch Policy Group directing the global business strategy and operations. As the first Vodafone-AirTouch CTO, Craig developed and deployed an integrated global technology strategy across Vodafone's 27 national operations. Mr. Farrill is widely recognized around the wireless industry as a pioneer of the two most widely used cellular protocols in the world. He is a founder and past President of the CDMA Development Group (CDG) and is also credited for his work with GSM, leading AirTouch's national network design and license wins for D2 in Germany and Telecel in Portugal. In October 1999, he launched the Joint Initiative toward Mobile Multimedia (JIMM), an association of the top ten multi-national wireless operators fostering the global development of third generation mobile multimedia services. In addition, Craig is actively promoting next generation technology convergence and harmonization, working as a founder and participant in the Operators Harmonization Group (OHG) bringing together GSM, cdmaOne and PDC operators. Craig is a founder and managing director of the inOvate communications group and joined the Rosum team in early 2002.

Perry LaForge
Founder and Director of CDMA Development Group
Perry graduated from the University of Santa Clara with a bachelor's of Engineering degree and was awarded a master's of Business degree (MBA) from the Amos Tuck School of Business at College. He founded the CDMA Development Group (CDG) and currently serves as its executive director and chairman. This trade association is comprises over 100 of the world's leading wireless operators and manufacturers and has championed the use of CDMA cellular protocol. With the CDG, Perry has led the development and worldwide commercialization of CDMA since the first proof of concept trials in 1988. Perry is also the Founder and CEO of inOvate Communications Group, a wireless investment and management organization. As Vice President and Partner of the management consulting firm, Pittiglio Rabin Todd & McGrath, Perry oversaw the company’s growth from 20 to over 400 employees and led the firm’s expansion into various domestic and international markets. He participates in a variety of wireless industry committees and has been listed as one of the top 50 telecommunications industry executives by Wireless Week magazine.

Per Enge
Director of Stanford University GPS Research Laboratory
Per Enge is a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University, where he is the Kleiner-Perkins, Mayfield, Sequoia Capital Professor in the School of Engineering. He is also the Director of the GPS Research Laboratory, which works with the Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force to pioneer systems that augment the Global Positioning System (GPS). The augmentations improve accuracy and provide real time error bounds. Of these, the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) supports smaller airplanes and all airports across the conterminous United States. It became operational in July of 2003. The Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS) supports larger airplanes at high-traffic hub airports. It will become operational in 2006, and will eventually enable automatic landings. Earlier in his career, Per worked with the US Coast Guard to design a medium frequency (MF) radio system to broadcast differential GPS corrections to maritime users. Today, this system covers much of the world's coastline and provides differential GPS data to 1.5 million users. Per has received the Kepler, Thurlow and Burka Awards from the Institute of Navigation for his work. He is also a Fellow of the ION and the IEEE. He received his PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois in 1983, and his dissertation topic was in the area of spread-spectrum multiple-access communications.

Marco Thompson
Founder Doctor Design, CTO Wind River Services
Marco Thompson is the founder of Doctor Design, CTO of Wind River Services, and is the Founder and past President of the San Diego Telecom Council.