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Academic Profile

Educational Qualifications

  • Ph.D., University of Maryland, College Park, USA (Aerospace Engineering)

  • MS, University of Maryland, College Park, USA (Aerospace Engineering)

  • B. Tech, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India (Aerospace Engineering)

Scholastic Achievements

  • Placed first in the American Helicopter Society annual graduate student design competition (2013)

  • Received the Research Fellowship Award at the University of Maryland (2009)

  • Awarded HAL Prize for the best academic record in Aerospace Engineering in B.Tech programme (2005-2009)

  • Awarded Institute Merit Prize for the best academic performance in Aerospace Engineering (2008)

  • Awarded the Landsteiner Award for excellence in performance at GE-Healthcare (2008)

Courses Taught

  • ENAE 631: Helicopter Aerodynamics

  • ENAE 634: Helicopter Design

  • ENAE 415: Helicopter Theory

Publications

  • Can be found in this page

  • Peer reviewed technical articles for the Journal of Aircraft, Journal of the American Helicopter Society, Acta Mechanica

Technical Skills

  • Programming: C, C++, CUDA, Fortran, Matlab, OpenMP, MPI, Python

  • Operating Systems: UNIX and Windows operating systems along with their applications 

  • Commercial Software: Tecplot, ANSYS-Icepak, ANSYS-Workbench

Experience

University of Maryland, College Park, USA More Info

Assistant Research Scientist (Aug. 2014 - Present)

  • Developing the mesh generator and solver for a novel hybrid unstructured-structured solver (more info on HAMSTR)

  • Can use high-order reconstruction schemes and implicit line-method on purely unstructured meshes

  • Faster convergence compared to structured solver on a per-time step basis

  • Involved in the development of a CUDA based GPU-RANS solver (50 times faster compared to a single core CPU)

Graduate Research Assistant  (Aug. 2009 - Aug. 2014)

  • Studied the effects of fuselage and rotor configurations on helicopter brownout in hover and maneuvering flights

  • Developed a panel method to model the airframe and coupled it with a Lagrangian free vortex method that models the

    aerodynamics of the rotor wake

  • Integrated a Lagrangian sediment tracking methodology with a free vortex method to predict brownout dust clouds

  • Extended the free-vortex methodology to model rotors operating at different rotational frequencies. The framework

    now can be used to study complex rotor designs and acoustic phenomenon

  • Developed and tested particle clustering algorithms to expedite the computational process of tracking dust clouds in

    helicopter brownout simulations (Part of Masters work, more info)

  • Extended both the aerodynamic and sediment tracking codes to execute on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) using

    CUDA to reduce the computational time by two orders of magnitude

“HeliX” Design Team, International Graduate Rotorcraft Design Competition, (More Info) (Jan. 2013 - May 2013)

  • Member of the graduate winning team that designed a conceptual tiltrotor (HeliX) for high-altitude, high-speed, MEDEVAC missions.

  • Worked on the sizing, performance, rotor design, and dynamics of the tiltrotor.

  • Responsible for the configuration control of the various system level components of the design.

Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India

Final Year Undergraduate Project, Gas Dynamics Laboratory (Aug. 2008 - Apr. 2009)

  • Studied the transition from corona discharge to electron avalanche using a modified schlieren imaging system

  • Studies helped understand the basic phenomenon of transition of sparks for use in the field of electrohydrodynamics

GE Healthcare, Bangalore, India

Intern, John F. Welch Technology Center (May 2008 - Jul. 2008)

  • Worked on optimizing non-uniform heat sink profiles for non-uniform heat source distributions

  • Developed methods to optimize non-uniform heat sink designs based on simple uniform designs

  • Saved beyond 50% machining and material cost to the organization per heat sink

Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India

Intern, High Enthalpy Aerodynamics Laboratory (May 2007 - Jul. 2007)

  • Worked on developing and optimizing power law derived hypersonic waveriders

  • Used flow solvers to obtain profile of the L/D ratio vs. power law index for on-design flight conditions

  • Results were used to develop models to be tested in the wind tunnel

Scientific and Professional Societies

  • Member American Helicopter Society (AHS)

  • Member American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)

Relevant Coursework

  • Rotorcraft:

Helicopter aerodynamics, Helicopter dynamics, Helicopter stability and control, Helicopter design

  • Fluids:

Fluid mechanics, Gas dynamics, Experimental aerodynamics, High temperature gas dynamics

  • Propulsion:

Jet propulsion, Turbomachinery, Rocket propulsion

  • Mathematics:

Methods in mathematical physics, Partial differential equations, Linear algebra

  • Computing:

Fast Multipole Methods, Engineering Optimaztion, Scientific Computing

Non-Academic Distinctions

  • Placement coordinator - Key member in recruiting new organizations and procuring job opportunities at IIT Madras

  • Branch counselor - Student head of aerospace department at IIT Madras and responsible for student related activities.

  • Successfully completed the bronze and silver award for the Duke of Edinburgh scheme, an award program that requires participants to complete 3 categories, namely community service, adventure and vocational training.

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