She received her B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2001 and her M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in 2003, both at Tsinghua University, China. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University in 2008. Before joining Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as an assistant professor in 2012, Prof. Gao was a research associate at Stanford University. Prof. Gao has won a number of awards, including RTCA William E. Jackson Award, Institute of Navigation Early Achievement Award, 50 GNSS Leaders to Watch by GPS World Magazine, and multiple best presentation awards at ION GNSS conferences. Prof. Gao has been elected and serves as Institute of Navigation Council member and co-chair of the Technical Committee on Air Navigation.