Indian Engineer | Simarpreet Singh | Hartek Solar | Global Indian

Global IndianstorySimarpreet Singh: The Indian engineer creating a sustainable future with plug-and-play solar kits

Indian Engineer

Simarpreet Singh: The Indian engineer creating a sustainable future with plug-and-play solar kits

Written by: Venkat Sandeep Bandla

(September 11, 2021) ‘Finding inspiration in the unlikeliest of places – is the one phrase that best suits Simarpreet Singh’s journey, who went from being an electrical Indian engineer to a ‘renewable energy’ entrepreneur. Singh’s inspiration stemmed during the evaluation of a routine project installation in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district, where he found that several homes had no access to electricity. To help them tide over the power crisis, Singh wanted to build a basic yet sustainable power infrastructure; and what better than solar energy to do so.

After a year of considerable research on how to promote as well as integrate solar power into a typical Indian home, Singh established Hartek Solar – an offshoot of his family business Hartek Group – in 2017. With this, Singh embarked to transform lives and households that had thus far been bereft of electricity. He took the idea a step further and developed plug-and-play type solar installations; these can be retrofitted based on the requirements and space on rooftops.

Truly humbled. Thank you @ForbesAsia for finding me worthy enough to be named in the prestigious Forbes 30 under 30 asia. Shall continue to work even harder and truly build a sustainable ecosystem for the future generations #forbesunder30 #forbesU30asia https://t.co/PTU1mMmR30

— Simarpreet Singh (@simarpreeths) April 4, 2019

“I came to realize my fundamental purpose was to pass on the information to the next generation and create a better and a sustainable world for our future generations, shall try to contribute my own bit and create a positive impact on the lives we touch,” he said on his YouTube channel.

Since its inception, Hartek Solar has earned a place amongst the top 10 solar power installers in the country, with a presence across several states: Punjab, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. As an Indian Engineer, his work which has transformed several lives led him to be included in the Forbes 30 under 30 list. He was also awarded Entrepreneur of the Year – 2018 by SPJIMR awards, Top 100 most Powerful and influential Sikhs in the World, 40 under 40 business leaders, and Top 100 most Powerful solar business leaders by Solar Quarter magazine.

A typical 90s’ kid searching for a purpose

Simarpreet Singh with Raghuram Rajan

Like any other 90s kid, Singh too wanted to be a cricketer, but fate had other plans. A serious injury to his nose prompted him to deviate from the sport he was so passionate about. Hailing from a family of electrical engineers, Singh too went on to graduate in electrical engineering from Chitkara University in 2012. He also did his MBA from SP Jain Institute of Management & Research in Mumbai and holds two executive education degrees from London Business School and Harvard Business School.

Talking about his family members’ electrical engineering qualifications, Singh, an Indian Engineer, had once in jest said, “Here, we first become engineers or doctors, and then we decide what to do in life.”

The turning point

Things took for an interesting turn when Singh opted to skip the college placements and instead join the family business. However, his father placed three conditions before him during a long after-dinner walk:

Get an on-campus placement from the college.
Undergo a year of training in a different company.
No special privileges for joining family business and a starting salary less than 20%of what was being offered at campus placements.

Spurred by these, Singh got a job with Areva (now Schneider Electric), after being rejected by several reputed firms. Here Singh worked as a shop floor manager, dabbling in the roles of a fitter and technician in a company that manufactures power equipment – this enabled him to better understand industry nuances. He also used his time to learn more about the power sector and the upcoming opportunities. He realized that he truly wanted to solve the existing lacunae in the sector.

It was only after Singh successfully fulfilled the conditions set by his father, was he inducted into the Hartek Group’s sales and business development division.

India and its renewable energy market

According to the Indian Renewable Energy Industry Report (June 2021), the country’s renewable energy sector is the fourth most attractive market in the world and it was ranked fifth, fourth, and fifth in wind, installed renewable power capacity and solar power respectively.

In a tropical country like India, Solar Power is often considered as a panacea to electricity-related woes. However, some misconceptions about the technology have confined it to larger corporations and industries. Singh was set to change that. Along with his team, he developed rooftop solar kits that require minimal maintenance and would be easy to monitor.

When he launched Hartek Solar, Singh got seed investment from Hartek Group’s internal accruals and eventually got in touch with angel investors and strategic partners to raise more funds. Hartek’s solar kits are compact and easy to install and can be customized according to the rooftop space available. At a time when the planet is grappling with the effects of climate change and harmful emissions, Singh is working towards providing people with clean energy solutions to offset their carbon footprint.

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Published on 11, Sep 2021

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Ashok Aliseril: UK-based engineer who built a plane in his backyard and now travels the world

(September 23, 2022) Freedom is magical, and it was in this very quest for enchantment that Essex-resident Ashok Aliseril Thamarakshan decided to build a four-seater airplane in his backyard in Billericay during the lockdown - to fly around the world at his convenience. What began with watching planes pass by in the skies above took the shape of curiosity to try his hand at the same. Years later, Ashok took his first flying lesson to the Isle of Wight in a microlight. It got him hooked, so much so that he thought of building a four-seater plane to take his family on adventures. "The sense of freedom that anytime the weather is good, we can go out anywhere without having to worry about airline tickets is exhilarating," Ashok tells Global Indian. Ashok and his wife Abhilasha began this labour of love together. It took them two years to come to fruition with 1600 hours of meticulous effort and £160,000. While Ashok sat through painstakingly long hours to work on his plane after wrapping up his regular shift (7 am to 3 pm) at work, Abhilasha dealt with the complicated paperwork. When asked if she was initially sold on the idea

t work, Abhilasha dealt with the complicated paperwork. When asked if she was initially sold on the idea of building an airplane, the 35-year-old says, "I was fully onboard with the build as brand new 4-seater aircraft cost £1 million upwards. And we didn't have money straightaway to buy a share in an already built airplane."

[caption id="attachment_29678" align="aligncenter" width="688"] Ashok Aliseril | Engineer | Global Indian Ashok and Abhilasha Aliseril with their daughters at the hangar (Photo courtesy: Ashok and Abhilasha Aliseril)[/caption]

Building a plane sounded like the perfect idea as the Aliserils were "saving a fortune" by not paying for their kids' nursery fees and cutting down on commuting expenses. They even put their grocery expenses on credit cards to reserve as much as they could from their salaries. However, Abhilasha's only concern was "the time it will take and whether we will be able to do it whilst working full time and having the children at home during the lockdown." Nevertheless, the family pulled it off with minor challenges and took their first trip to the Isle of Wight which was an "emotional yet positive" experience for Aliserils, who are now the proud owners of G-DIYA, named after their youngest daughter.

For the love of planes

While growing up in Alappuzha in Kerala, Ashok loved taking things apart and later reassembling them. This passion led him to pursue mechanical engineering at Palakkad Engineering College in Kerala, which ignited in him a passion for automobile engineering which he ended up pursuing at the University of Hertfordshire, UK in 2006. Now an engineer with Ford, he met Abhilasha, a data analyst, online and the two tied the knot in 2011. Over the years, he did work on some cars in the driveways but it was the light aircraft in the sky that intrigued him. And when the couple moved to Billericay in 2013, he would often find himself immensely distracted by the planes, which always looked "liberating." However, work and the birth of their first daughter, Tara, kept him too occupied to go forward with the plan of exploring the opportunity of learning to fly, until Abhilasha gifted him a 30-minute flying experience.

[caption id="attachment_29679" align="aligncenter" width="724"] Engineer | Ashok Aliseril | Global Indian G-DIYA, a four-seater built by Ashok Aliseril (Photo courtesy: Ashok and Abhilasha Aliseril)[/caption]

"I used to look at the skies during the weekends gazing at the aircrafts flying above. My first flight was a 30-minute trial lesson and in the second, which was along with the instructor, we took off and landed at the Isle of Wight. It was the sense of freedom that came with just being able to take off, got me hooked," adds the 39-year-old. In no time, he applied for a standard Europe-wide pilot’s license which requires 45 hours of flying time.

The real deal

However, the anticipation of taking his wife and two daughters on adventures was nipped in the bud as Ashok could only find two-seaters, while the four-seaters available were either obsolete or very expensive. That's when Ashok decided to build a plane, and he zeroed in on Sling TSi. "Jabiru J430, Vans RV10, and Sling TSi were the three options that could be done in the UK as a home built. Obviously, there are options that you can buy outright but they are really old aircraft and if you want to buy something new, you have to fork out quite a bit of money," he explains.

[caption id="attachment_29695" align="aligncenter" width="694"] Ashok Aliseril Sling TSi in the making (Photo courtesy: Ashok and Abhilasha Aliseril)[/caption]

He first saw the Sling TSi (a four-seater) listed on the Light Aircraft Association website, "but the model wasn't available in the UK or anywhere in Europe. So, I had to go to South Africa to test fly one." Impressed with its functioning, Ashok was moreover amazed by its making - with two fuel tanks that hold 88 liters of the petrol, the kind people put in their cars, and burns around 20 liters an hour. Ashok was sold. Fresh off the plane from Johannesburg, he ordered the plane's £3,500 tail kit, and in between started building a hangar in his spacious backyard with the help of friends and £700.

Building with love

Around the same time, the lockdown was announced in the UK in 2020, and Aliserils were left to build the plane on their own. He was working with a seven-part kit that came with instructions for assembling on DropBox and all the while, he did as much research as he could, even referring to YouTube videos. After the tail, the wings arrived, and with the help of their six-year-old daughter, Tara, who helped with unpacking, Ashok was able to build the plane in two years. But with constant delays in the arrival of kits due to Covid, Ashok had to deal with his share of challenges.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7TpYTTaAfo

"The biggest challenges were mostly psychological - looking at the scale of the project, you sometimes times think that it is never going to finish. But you need to make a little bit of meaningful progress each day to reach your goal," he says, adding, "Project management is another big part of it as you get these individual kits and there will be parts that are damaged or not matching or on back order, so you start on the job but you cannot finish it until you get the next part. Logistics and project management are a big aspect of this built."

Off to see the world

After months of working on his labour of love, Ashok started the engine of the plane for the first time in June 2021, and it was in February 2022 that G-DIYA finally made it to the skies. Calling the first trip to Isle of Wight an exhilarating experience, Abhilasha adds, "The girls were also able to see what we have achieved so, that they can get involved with aviation early on their lives. It’s something Ashok and I didn't have when we were younger as childhood was very different back in the 80s."

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A post shared by Abhilasha Aliseril (@fly_home_or_away)

The Aliserils have already been to Manchester, Skegness and the Isle of Wight in the UK and France, Germany, Belgium, Austria and Czech Republic in Europe on G-DIYA, are in love with the freedom. "The freedom and independence to take off wherever you want, as long as it’s well within the distance, of course, makes it all worth it," signs off Abhilasha.

Video courtesy: SlingUK

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Reading Time: 6 min

Roma Agrawal: Meet the structural engineer behind London’s iconic The Shard

(April 28, 2023) Be it the complex, geometric structure of 7850 stars that represents the dome of Louvre Abu Dhabi or the timber-framed 16th century Tudor House Museum, Roma Agrawal has a keen eye for design, and her Instagram is testimony to it. Her love for buildings, construction, materials, and the stories behind how they came into existence reminds one of Ayn Rand's iconic character Howard Roark from her popular novel The Fountainhead. It's exactly this love for design and science that led her to become one of the well-known structural engineers, who is also one of the masterminds behind The Shard. Her love for structural engineering helped her appoint as the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2018 and get her elected an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2021. [caption id="attachment_37840" align="aligncenter" width="885"] Roma Agrawal[/caption] Finding her calling Growing up, she had an innate curiosity, and would often play with building blocks and construction toys. During her childhood in New York, she was enthralled by skyscrapers and curious about how they were made. Unknowingly, this set the foundation for her interest in the scientific world, however, for the longest time, she

ruction toys. During her childhood in New York, she was enthralled by skyscrapers and curious about how they were made. Unknowingly, this set the foundation for her interest in the scientific world, however, for the longest time, she didn't associate the word "engineer" with what she was doing. It was her love for science and maths that led her to study physics at Oxford. However, it wasn't until one summer job in the physics department that she saw engineers "doing interesting work" and she knew she wanted to be one.

It was a structural engineer that she chose to become, courtesy of her first impression of American skyscrapers in her childhood. This led to her studying General Structural Engineering at Imperial College London. "I used to think engineering was about maths and calculations and computing and doing quite technical work. But I soon realised that if you can't communicate what you are trying to do, and you don’t have relationships with people, then you're not going to be able to be a successful engineer. And I think that's what now is my first love of engineering — it’s being creative with other people and building those personal relationships," the Global Indian said in an interview.

On building The Shard

She put her knowledge to practice when she started working at WSP, where she helped design a footbridge for Northumbria University in Newcastle. She even worked on a Georgian house in Mayfair and an addition to the Victorian Crystal Palace station in London. But it is her assistance with the foundations of Shard, which took a good six years, that she calls one of the challenging projects, owing to its geography. Placed in the middle of Central London, with a hospital across the street and the London bridge a few miles away, "it was a massive logistical challenge."

[caption id="attachment_37845" align="aligncenter" width="553"] Roma Agrawal | Global Indian Roma in front of The Shard[/caption]

"For me, in some ways, the actual maps and the physics of making the tower stand up are a challenge, of course, but then trying to weave it into the middle of a very busy city… that’s where the smarts come in. That’s where you have to be creative, you have to be collaborative, you have to work with all of those different people who want different things and find a common consensus," she added.

Making her mark in a male-dominated business

Agrawal, who found her inspiration in Emily Warren Roebling, calls her a hero as she was a woman in a very male business. Something that hasn't changed much lately. She told The Guardian that she has been a part of meetings where she was the only woman among 21 people and was often mistaken for a secretary or the junior of a male colleague and asked to make tea and take minutes. "It has got better. There’s a more welcoming environment, but there’s still a long way to go," she told the Daily. It was this that prompted her to write her first book, Built, which puts a spotlight on the unsung women of engineering.

Roma Agrawal | Global Indian

Despite being in the business for decades now, Roma feels that engineering is undervalued, and this has inspired her to create awareness among people through her talks in schools and the release of her three books - Built, How Was That Built, and Nuts & Bolts. "I'm trying to engage people who don't even know they're interested in buildings," she said.

Advocating STEM among girls

An advocate for engineering and scientific careers, particularly for young women, she wants to encourage more girls to opt for STEM. Having grown up in Mumbai during her formative years, she saw that in India there is a focus on STEM subjects. However, after moving to the UK, she found it strange that not many girls enjoyed STEM. "I feel like from a very young age, we are putting children into these stereotyped boxes and that continues through school. I consistently hear women saying, “I’m not good at maths.” There’s a lack of confidence among teachers and parents who don’t see STEM careers for their daughters because most of the role models that they see are men. So, it’s really about us trying to question these deeply ingrained stereotypes that exist in our society, but I don’t believe for good reason," she added.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJf8vkyJq-o&t=109s

Roma, who is trying to push the envelope with each of her structural designs, has a word of advice for novices. "Do your research because there’s so much information at your fingertips now. And if you’re passionate about solving problems and helping people, then engineering can be a fantastic career for you."

Follow Roma Agrawal on LinkedIn and her website

Reading Time: 5 min

The Astronaut Maker: Dr. Ravi Margasahayam, the man who sent over 700 humans into space

(October 13, 2022) About 15 minutes into our conversation, Dr. Ravi Margasahayam told me that he once had a chance meeting with mountaineer Tenzing Norgay, who taught him a very important lesson - something he still lives by. "It was 1973, I was in engineering college. We friends were roaming the streets of Darjeeling, looking for a postcard of Tenzing Norgay – the first man who climbed Mt Everest, when we spotted the man himself, sitting nearby, and we introduced ourselves to him. As he chatted with us, he told me, 'You young engineers must be thinking of climbing Everest someday. But I have already done that. You must find your own mountain to climb'," shared the Global Space Ambassador for John F. Kennedy Space Center, NASA, as he connected with me over a video call. [caption id="attachment_30545" align="aligncenter" width="631"] Dr. Ravi Margasahayam (photo credit: Dr. Margasahayam)[/caption] Heeding Norgay’s advice, Dr. Margasahayam went on a quest to find his own peak to scale. And he found his

dian" width="631" height="841" /> Dr. Ravi Margasahayam (photo credit: Dr. Margasahayam)[/caption]

Heeding Norgay’s advice, Dr. Margasahayam went on a quest to find his own peak to scale. And he found his destination about 15,000 km away from Bengaluru, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA. In a glorious career spanning over three decades, Dr. Margasahayam has played an instrumental role in launching over a hundred Space Shuttle missions, which took more than 700 astronauts to space, including Indian-born astronaut, Kalpana Chawla. He is the only person of Indian origin to work, manage, and conduct research on both launch pads - Complex 39A and 39B - the same from where NASA sent humans to land on the Moon.

"I once met former President of India, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and had the privilege of showing him around the John F. Kennedy Space Center. He told me that he envied me, saying, ‘You did the one thing I couldn't ever do - launch humans into space. You are an Astronaut Maker'," shares the 69-year-old proud Global Indian.

The dream is alive

Born in Mumbai, to a civil engineer father and a homemaker mother, Dr. Margasahayam got an opportunity to explore the world right from when he was an infant. "My father was deputed to United Nations. Soon after I was born, we moved to Myanmar and then to Kabul, Afghanistan." A curious kid, he was always fascinated with machines, which helped him choose his career path.

A love for machines wasn't the only reason he became an aerospace engineer, Dr. Margasahayam was equally mesmerised by the glitz of Bollywood. "When I was around 10, I watched the Hindi film Sangam wherein Raj Kapoor played an Indian Air Force pilot, and it inspired me a lot. I thought of becoming a pilot as I would travel to exotic locations, and have a beautiful wife," laughs the NASA veteran, adding, "Well, I couldn't become a pilot, but I sent many to space, and I have a beautiful wife."

After spending a few years in Afghanistan, the engineer came back to Mumbai to pursue his education. "Some failures are successful failures. My father wanted me to pursue engineering, however, my percentage in Class 12 wasn't enough to get me in a Mumbai college. So, I came to Bengaluru to do mechanical engineering and earned a degree in 1975," says Dr. Margasahayam.

Lift off!

After completing his degree, he moved to Oman where his dad was posted at that time. However, the lack of opportunities in Muscat led the NASA veteran to move to Chicago, where one of his aunts lived. "I went on a tourist visa in 1975, with no clothes, no books, no money, and no ambition - just my aunt's house," the NASA researcher smiles, adding, "I remember landing in New York and was completely amazed. It was a big city and so glamourous. I hadn't seen anything like that before. From there, I went to my aunt's place in Chicago."

[caption id="attachment_30548" align="aligncenter" width="645"] NASA | Dr. Ravi Margasahayam | Global Indian Photo credit: Dr Margasahayam[/caption]

Although he hoped to return to the country after six weeks in the US, destiny had other plans for him. His aunt’s connections helped him apply for a master's programme at the Illinois Institute of Technology. "I met the Chairman of the engineering department, Dr. Sudhir Kumar. He offered me a contingent admission, asking me to convert the visa for a semester. I managed to do that and earned my master's in aerospace engineering in 1978."

However, he still had more hurdles to cross. "One of the biggest issues was understanding their English accent, even though I was a fluent English speaker," he says, adding, "By the second semester, I had to take up several odd jobs to make ends meet, including one at a Mexican restaurant and another at a welding shop." Six months into his Ph.D. work at the same institution, he started applying for jobs and found one as a railroad engineer at Conrail in Philadelphia.

The aero world

About one-and-a-half years later, Dr. Margasahayam bagged an opportunity to work for Boeing, in Colorado. "My boss was so impressed with my CV that he asked me join from the next week itself. However, I was getting married in a few months and had to return to India. So, I joined them about nine months later in 1981."

[caption id="attachment_30552" align="aligncenter" width="713"] NASA | Dr. Ravi Margasahayam | Global Indian Dr Margasahayam working on NASA's launchpad (photo credit: Michael Soluri)[/caption]

It was a usual afternoon in 1986 when Dr. Margasahayam heard the news about the space shuttle Challenger disaster which left him deeply shocked. About two years after the fateful accident, he applied for a job at NASA. "During my interview, the person asked if I had ever launched or even seen a rocket, and I said no. When he said how can he hire someone with no knowledge about rockets, I told him that a car and a plane both vibrate when they function - and so does the rocket. And as a vibration engineer, I can fix several problems for NASA," he shares.

[caption id="attachment_30553" align="aligncenter" width="670"] NASA | Dr. Ravi Margasahayam | Global Indian Dr Margasahayam and his father with Dr APJ Abdul Kalam (photo credit: Dr. Margasahayam)[/caption]

In 1989, Dr. Margasahayam became the first Indian to work and research at NASA's Moonpad - the same launchpad from where Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins left Earth for the Moon. "I was given free access, making me the only Indian to date to work on both the launchpads of NASA. I studied the field of Vibroacoustics - which is the science of how sounds can create vibrations and become a load on a structure and affect our space shuttles," he explains.

Only in his first year, he played a pivotal role in NASA launch probes to the Sun (Ulysses), Venus (Magellan), and Jupiter (Galileo). He was also the core member of the team that launched the Hubble Space Telescope - which completely changed the human's fundamental understanding of the Universe. "I can hardly express how incredible it was for a Mumbai boy to launch these 2-million-kg shuttles to various planets. The entire Universe was now my playground," shares Dr. Margasahayam. He was also a part of the team that build the International Space Station (ISS) - or a "Taj Mahal in the heavens" as he calls it - and send the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) there to study the dark matter.

[caption id="attachment_30550" align="aligncenter" width="646"] NASA | Dr. Ravi Margasahayam | Global Indian Dr. Margasahayam receiving the prestigious Silver Snoopy award in 1996, from eminent American astronaut, Pamela Melroy (photo credit: Dr. Margasahayam)[/caption]

With one of the most eminent American astronauts, Pamela Melroy, being his mentor, Dr. Margasahayam won the most prestigious honour in the field of engineering - Silver Snoopy award in 1996. He became NASA’s international expert and lead scientist on Rocket Launch-induced Noise and Vibration technology, and the only engineer at NASA who was allowed to install his own structure, designed to measure acoustic loads and structural vibration of pad structures. As the VIP Tour Guide, he escorted several eminent guests, who visited the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

A tale of two Indians

Around the same time that Dr. Margasahayam received the Silver Snoopy award, another Indian, Kalpana Chawla, was training to become an astronaut. It was during a visit to the Kennedy Space Center, in Florida, that the two Indians first met, and later became good friends. "Pamela informed me that there was a new girl in the NASA Astronaut Corp from India, Kalpana Chawla. That was the first time I had heard of her. Kalpana visited the launchpad after she got the assignment to go to the space in STS-87 - Space Shuttle Columbia - in 1997. I was a part of the team that trained that crew about the terminal countdown demonstration, where we teach the astronauts how to shield themselves in case of any accidents and escape from there. I remember standing two feet away from Kalpana when she was boarding the space shuttle. The mission was successful," shares the NASA veteran, who later arranged for the then-Indian Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral to speak to Kalpana, while she was in space.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rK2kaPc7c5o

Six years later, Kalpana again donned the astronaut suit, boarded the ill-fated space shuttle Columbia and died as the shuttle re-entred into the Earth's atmosphere. "I was the last person to see her before she boarded the shuttle," Dr. Margasahayam recalls, "Space shuttles are never late for the landing. If they are late, it means that there is something wrong. So, when Columbia was late for its landing on February 1, 2003, I remember the Centre Director saying that there was no hope that they would make it. It was quite tragic. I and several NASA people went walking for miles to collect the parts of shuttle debris and the remains of the astronauts."

A few weeks before her ill-fated mission, Kalpana told Dr. Margasahayam that they should return to India and encourage more people to take up careers in aerospace technology. While that could never happen, in 2019 Dr. Margasahayam inaugurated the National Space Society's Mumbai chapter to engage Indian youth in the space sciences - honouring one of the astronaut's last wishes.

The journey never stops...

In 2016, Dr. Margasahayam officially retired as the Co-Chair of the Ground Review Safety Panel (GSRP), which reviews safety for all payloads going to the International Space Station (ISS), from anywhere in the world. In 2019, he was nominated by NASA Astronauts and held the position of Solar System Ambassador for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California. An eloquent public speaker, the NASA veteran has encouraged several young people to explore the secrets of the Universe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLZXZB3ug88

"For me what matters is to inspire the next generation to ride on our shoulders and do better than us. We have opened a path to human spaceflight - live and work in space. What did not happen in 60,000 years, we have been able to do in the last 60 years. Humankind is much benefitted by space exploration, and we have a long way to go from here," signs off Dr. Margasahayam.

Follow Dr Ravi Margasahayam on LinkedIn

Reading Time: 8 mins

Priyanka Srivastava: The NASA space engineer behind Perseverance Rover’s successful landing on Mars

(June 15, 2022) The year was 2003. The unfortunate news of Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrating over Texas during its re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere had overwhelmed the entire world. While India mourned the demise of Kalpana Chawla, a young girl in Lucknow was busy studying in-depth about this NASA astronaut, as she resolved to join the space industry someday. Today, that young girl - Priyanka Srivastava - is working as a Space Systems Engineer at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The Indian-American engineer was a part of the team that designed the famed Perseverance Rover - a car-sized Mars rover to explore the Jezero crater on the red planet. "No one in my family is an engineer. Ever since I was a child, I was fascinated with space. I would often wonder if there was another solar system like ours that existed somewhere else. Even back in my school, I was always sure that one day I will join the space industry," says Priyanka, as she connects with Global Indian from Los Angeles. [caption id="attachment_25761" align="aligncenter" width="647"] NASA Engineer Priyanka Srivastava with Mars 2020 testbed[/caption] Interestingly, Perseverance Rover was Priyanka's first project at NASA. "I was a newbie at NASA

em> from Los Angeles.

[caption id="attachment_25761" align="aligncenter" width="647"] Priyanka Srivastava | NASA Engineer | Global Indian NASA Engineer Priyanka Srivastava with Mars 2020 testbed[/caption]

Interestingly, Perseverance Rover was Priyanka's first project at NASA. "I was a newbie at NASA when I was given the task to test the motor control assembly of the descent stage that helped with the landing of the rover on the surface of Mars. I worked on how it was integrated to the rest of the spacecraft. Also, I checked what were the scenarios that it can fail and how can we overcome that. While it was challenging, I was able to finish the task and deliver it to the team in one year," shares the 29-year-old NASA engineer, who in her six-year-long stint with NASA has worked on four flight missions. Priyanka is currently working as a Project Verification and Validation (V&V) engineer for the Europa Clipper mission, helping the team build and test the spacecraft.

From Lucknow to Michigan

Born in the United States of America to an Indian couple, Priyanka moved to India at a very young age. Her father, Sunil Srivastava, works with an export-oriented private company while her mother works with an insurance company. A curious child, Priyanka was first introduced to the world of space while watching Kalpana Chawla's space mission news on TV. "I told my mother that I wanted to become an astronaut when I grow up. Later, when I started asking her more questions about space, she bought me a book on Dr APJ Abdul Kalam which inspired me a lot. Afterward, when I was a little older, I got to know about astronaut Sunita Williams who inspired me to join the space industry even more," shares the NASA girl.

[caption id="attachment_25762" align="aligncenter" width="668"] Priyanka Srivastava | NASA Engineer | Global Indian Priyanka with her family[/caption]

While her parents weren’t much aware of space science, yet they supported her in every way. "They would just listen to me talk about space to no end. Even though they didn't understand much, they never closed the door on me and my dreams," shares the NASA engineer, who was keen to pursue aerospace engineering from Punjab University, but ended up taking electronic engineering. “I was upset about not making the cut. However, my mom pointed out that it’s not just the aerospace engineers who end up in the space industry. That motivated me to work extra hard during my graduation years," adds Priyanka, whose younger sister works as a medical professional.

During her college days, Priyanka noticed the stark gap between boys and girls in STEM. "In my class, we had about 20 girls and 50 boys. In fact, in the robotics class, I was the only girl," she shares. However, this didn’t deter her from pursuing her goal. After completing her BTech degree, Priyanka moved to the US to pursue her master's in space system engineering at the University of Michigan.

Living her dream

Even though the family did experience some financial constraints, they supported Priyanka in every way possible. Her parents cut down on several small expenses to ensure that their daughter had all the resources to fulfill her dreams. "I come from a middle-class family, and money constraint was one of the reasons behind letting go the undergraduate program in the US. However, when I got an opportunity to pursue master's from the University of Michigan, I couldn't let it go and my parents encouraged me to follow my dreams. They were able to arrange for my living expense for the first semester, and I, too, got a student loan," shares the NASA engineer, who is very grateful for her family’s support.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM7cPs2N_U8&t=42s

Later in the year Priyanka managed to become a professor's assistant and graded the works of undergrad students that brought her some earning. However, things took a sudden turn for the good during her third semester. "I was working on a project at the University that took me to Jerusalem, where astronauts from all over the world gathered for the convention. There I met many space heroes - including Sunita Williams and Buzz Aldrin. I even told Sunita Williams that she was my inspiration," shares Priyanka whose dream of working with the space industry solidified after meeting the NASA astronaut.

Though she was a brilliant student, Priyanka took some time to understand the education system in the US. Coming from India, she was used to the “hierarchy between students and teachers” but was surprised to find friendly teachers in the US. “I was a little shy when I first came to the US. I was hesitant to ask if I can be a part of project. That is when I learned how to advocate for myself. And once I started asking for more opportunities, my professors also started recognising me and my work," she shares.

Mars and beyond...

Priyanka did her first NASA internship with Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) Department at NASA Glenn, Ohio, as a summer intern. Soon after finishing her master's, Priyanka joined the Launch Systems Engineering team at NASA JPL, Pasadena, as an intern for six months. "It was a whole new work, way different than University. Working with top engineers and other scientists at NASA was very challenging, but helped me learn a lot about the field. I pushed myself to work on different projects and speak up at the meetings, and that is what led to NASA hiring me fulltime in 2016," shares Priyanka.

[caption id="attachment_25764" align="aligncenter" width="677"] Priyanka Srivastava | NASA Engineer | Global Indian Priyanka and her team working on the Mars Perseverance Rover, right before it was shipped for launch[/caption]

Priyanka shares that her mentors helped her hone technical, leadership and management skills. Recalling one of her favourite moments at NASA, she says, "So far I have worked on various missions, including the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-3, which was launched in 2019 and Perseverance Rover, as part of the Mars 2020 mission. But my most favourite moments at NASA have been working on a project, preparing the spacecraft for launch and then seeing it reach its destination."

[caption id="attachment_25765" align="aligncenter" width="649"] Priyanka Srivastava | NASA Engineer | Global Indian Priyanka's parents visiting the Spacecraft Operations Room at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)[/caption]

After the success of the Perseverance Rover, Priyanka is busy working on a mission to an asteroid called Psyche. "This asteroid is supposed to be a core of a previous planet. NASA is sending a spacecraft there so we can learn what this asteroid is made up of. Eventually that will help us understand Earth's core better," shares the NASA engineer. Priyanka is also working on a mission to Europa, the smallest of the four Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter. The mission will be launched by NASA in 2024.

Follow Priyanka Srivastava on LinkedIn and Twitter

Reading Time: 8 mins

A global engineer: Meet the Gordon Prize winner, Indian-American scholar Dr. Azad Madni

(January 4, 2024) "We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organise and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too." President John F. Kennedy's words inspired millions of Americans the day he made this speech at Rice University in the September of 1962. But who would have imagined that a young boy sitting by the radio in his house in Bombay, India, would be so inspired by this speech that he would decide to become an aerospace engineer, and go on to win the prestigious Bernard M. Gordon Prize for Innovation in Engineering and Technology Education - often referred to as the 'Nobel Prize of Engineering Education'. "President Kennedy's speech really fascinated me," shares Dr. Azad Madni, as he connects with Global Indian for an exclusive interview, adding, "I too wanted to contribute something to the aerospace industry, and that's what motivated

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"President Kennedy's speech really fascinated me," shares Dr. Azad Madni, as he connects with Global Indian for an exclusive interview, adding, "I too wanted to contribute something to the aerospace industry, and that's what motivated me to pursue a career in this field. I have worked for Rockwell International Space Shuttle, which was NASA's first, manned, re-usable spacecraft. And today, I have several aerospace engineers under my guidance at the University of Southern California."

The flight to the USA

A Bombay lad, Dr. Madni was always fascinated by how things around him worked. But, while he loved to learn, the aerospace engineer's father was more interested in how were things being taught at his school. "My father was very interested in my education, right from the beginning. I remember, he would just show up at my school, St. Mary's High School, and would enquire about how various subjects were being taught to us. He wanted to ensure that I did not just get the knowledge from the books, but also by engaging with the equipments or machines directly," he says, adding that this influenced his life path a lot. "The Gordon Prize is all about education. My father's quest to make sure that I got practical knowledge of things had a big impression on me. Now that I am a teacher, I too ensure that my students get more than what is written in the books," laughs the engineer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i99SqN_G5eY

Playing with his erector set in the backyard, Dr. Madni never thought that one day he would be using his toys to teach several young students. "I used to play a lot with the erector set and build airplanes, buses, and trucks. Back then I did not realise how important that was in developing critical thinking and creative skills that can help you in later life,” Dr Madni says. Now, he encourages hands-on learning his classroom too, using Digital Twins, a “virtual replica of the physical system for people to experiment with, explore, and learn how the system behaves. And that all had its roots in the early hands-on learning that I had with the erector set," shares the engineer.

He was in school when President Kennedy made his famous speech 'We Choose to Go to the Moon', and it was then that he decided that he would move to the United States of America, so after finishing his intermediate. "That was the only goal back then - to study in the USA. So, I moved to the country in 1965. Back then, India and the USA were very different worlds, and not many Indians chose to come to the USA," shares the engineer, who has also authored several books.

[caption id="attachment_47988" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Dr. Azad Madni | Global Indian Dr. Madni with the President of the National Academy of Engineering[/caption]

Pursuing a bachelor's in engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Dr. Madni didn't face much problem adjusting after arriving in the US. However, "I couldn't get used to the American food. I missed Indian food so much," he laughs. Dr. Madni went on to pursue a master's and later earned a Ph.D. from UCLA for his work in the fields of engineering systems, computer methodology, and AI.

A scholarly journey

The year that Dr. Madni finished his graduation was the same year that Neil Armstrong first set foot on the lunar soil. However, as the US rejoiced, Dr. Madni faced new challenges. "Well, the plan was to find a job soon after graduation and start earning. However, it was a challenging period for the country facing an economic downturn. A few of my friends, who studied with me, gave up looking for a job and went into selling real estate or working in restaurants," he shares. Even though things looked bleak, Dr. Madni decided to stay the course. "The thing was, while I was studying, I lost my father and had responsibilities towards my family back in India. I had to earn.” It took him a while but he found his first job as an engineer, starting his career in the USA. “While I was pursuing my doctorate, I was interviewed by Rockwell International and soon started working on NASA's space shuttle programme. So, it was kind of dream-come-true moment for me."

[caption id="attachment_47989" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Dr. Azad Madni | Global Indian Dr. Madni accepting the prestigious Bernard M. Gordon Prize[/caption]

In 1994, the engineer also founded a company - Intelligent Systems Technology, Inc, which is an award-winning hi-tech company specialising in model-based approaches for addressing scientific and societal problems of national and global significance. "The idea is to advance the field of augmented intelligence and human-machine teaming to maximise the joint performance of human-machine teams," he shares.

But then, how does someone with so much industrial experience move to academia? "My company's success was possibly one of the reasons why the University of Southern California approached me to take over one of their flagship programmes, Systems Architecting and Engineering. So, I have been teaching since 2006-07 academic year," he says. Dr. Madni is currently USC's most accomplished multidisciplinary faculty with significant achievements across multiple technical fields. He holds the Northrop Grumman Fred O’Green Chair in Engineering and has received many awards for his contributions. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of IEEE. Dr. Madni has led 97 research projects and received over $100 million in funding from government agencies and companies like NASA, NIST, Boeing, and General Motors.

[caption id="attachment_47990" align="aligncenter" width="550"] Dr. Azad Madni | Global Indian Dr. Madni with his colleagues, Dr. Ram Sriram and Dr. Dereje Agonafer at USC[/caption]

A recipient of over 100 awards, including the most recent 2023 NAE Gordon Prize, the AIAA/ASEE Leland Atwood Award for excellence in engineering education and research, the 2019 ASEE/INCOSE Outstanding Systems Engineering Educator Award, and the 2013 IISE Innovation in Curriculum Development Prize, Dr. Madni shares that he is far from retirement still. "Currently, I am working on several research projects, including autonomous self-driving cars, unmanned aerial vehicles, and game-based simulations for STEM education. These researches will take me at least six to eight years and are being funded by both the government and private sector.”

Dr. Azad Madni | Global Indian

But the engineer is not just an academician. Dr. Madni has a rich history of giving back and has been honoured with various awards for his charitable efforts. In 2021, he was presented with the Benefactor Award by the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) in recognition of his many years of philanthropy and mentorship to engineering students worldwide. This marked only the second time in 31 years that INCOSE granted this award. In 2020, he was also honoured with the IEEE-USA Entrepreneurship Achievement Award for his lifetime of contributions to innovation, mentorship, and philanthropy. Additionally, he holds life memberships in the NAE Marie Curie Donor Society and the NAE Albert Einstein Donor Society.

Follow Dr. Azad Madni on LinkedIn and his website

Reading Time: 7 mins