Always kind, respectful, and approachable.
Associate Professor Robert Odolinski holds the position of Associate Professor in Geodesy and Geospatial Science in the School of Surveying at the University of Otago, part of the Division of Sciences. He obtained his PhD from Curtin University in Perth, Australia, MSc from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden, and BSc from the University of Gävle, Sweden. Odolinski joined the University of Otago in 2015 as a Lecturer, advanced to Senior Lecturer in 2018, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2024. Since 2022, he has also served as a Visiting Researcher at Google. His teaching responsibilities include coordinating SURV202 Surveying Mathematics, SURV302 Geodetic Reference Systems and Network Analysis, and SURV399 Third Year Field Course, as well as contributing to SURV120, SURV201, SURV298, SURV411, and SURV451.
Odolinski's research specializes in Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), emphasizing precise multi-GNSS positioning, low-cost receivers, integer ambiguity resolution for real-time kinematic (RTK) applications, and positioning performance with smartwatches and smartphones in New Zealand. Key publications comprise Mi et al., 'Fast and precise GNSS RTK positioning with ionosphere-constrained weighted least squares quadratic programming' (Journal of Geodesy, 2026); Thu et al., 'First smartwatch RTK results: performance analysis of instantaneous, single-frequency multi-GNSS cm-level positioning with comparison to Google Pixel 5 smartphones' (GPS Solutions, 2026); Odolinski et al., 'Evaluation of the multi-GNSS, dual-frequency RTK positioning performance for recent Android smartphone models in a phone-to-phone setup' (Proceedings of the ION ITM, 2024); Gao et al., 'Improving GNSS PPP-RTK through global forecast system zenith wet delay augmentation' (GPS Solutions, 2024); and Still et al., 'Observing glacier dynamics with low-cost, multi-GNSS positioning in Victoria Land, Antarctica' (Journal of Glaciology, 2024). He has received the Institute of Navigation Per Enge Early Achievement Award (2020), University of Otago Early Career Award for Distinction in Research (2018), New Zealand Spatial Excellence Award for Education and Professional Development (2018), and OUSA Teaching Awards for the Division of Sciences (2018). Odolinski is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Spatial Science (2023–present) and serves on editorial boards including Journal of Geodesy (2023–present), Sensors (2021–present), and GPS Solutions (2019–present). His professional engagements include International Association of Geodesy (IAG) roles in multi-GNSS study groups and working groups on low-cost GNSS, membership in New Zealand's National Positioning Infrastructure Coordination Committee, conference session chairing, and holding patent WO/2017/070732.
