Leadership

  1. Planning Committee Member, IJCAI-PRICAI - International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence (peer-reviewed), to review and select papers for publication in IJCAI co-located with PRICAI in 2020 (Website).

  2. Planning Committee Member, IWPSS - International Workshop on Planning and Scheduling for Space (peer-reviewed), to review and select papers for publication in IWPSS bi-annually (Website).

  3. Organizer, NASA's Observing System Simulation Experiment Workshop (2016) to invite experts in modeling and simulation of observing system platforms in NASA, hold a 3-day working group meeting, finalize the agenda for NASA's investments in the area and create roadmap for NASA's Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) (Report).

  4. Invited Expert and Booth Lead, Citizen Science (April 2016) to design challenges related to aerospace research on Tribal Planet's Citizen Science app, launched in partnership with Abu Dhabi Education Council, Ernst and Young and the Smithsonian Foundation in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (Press Release).

  5. Technical Committee Member and Session Chair 2014-2019, IEEE Aerospace Conference (peer-reviewed) to select abstracts, participate in reviewing papers for publication in IEEE Xplore and convene the session 'Promoting and Provoking Cultural Change' in Big Sky, Montana, annually in March (Website).

  6. Technical Committee Member and Session Chair 2013-16, ESA 4S Symposium to participate in Symposium organization, select abstracts and convene sessions. (Symposium 2014)(Symposium 2016).

  7. Program Lead 2011-2012, SPHERES Zero Robotics to manage the development and maintenance of the international program in collaboration with DARPA, NASA ARC, TopCoder Inc. and Aurora Flight Sciences (NASA Report) (Project Website).

  8. Executive Editor 2008-09, Editor 2006-08, The Scholars' Avenue . IIT Kharagpur?s fortnightly campus newsletter delivered to >15,000 students, alumni and faculty. The website registered >3000/hits/day in peak seasons (e.g. elections) (Website)

Service

  1. Panelist and Reviewer, NASA Decadal Survey Incubation (DSI) Program to review and submit recommendations for awards for technology development on the topic of Surface Topography and Vegetation (STV). DSI funds science activities that support the objectives of advancing PBL and STV, new instrument, measurement, and information systems technologies, Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs), and Incubation Team Leads.

  2. Panelist and Engineering Expert, NASA Heliophysics Technology Demonstration Mission of Opportunity , to review and submit recommendations for Small Complete Missions to demo innovative medium Technology Readiness Level (mid-TRL) technologies that enable significant advances in NASA’s Heliophysics Science Objectives and Goals. Also served as the Engineering Expert in the NASA Heliophysics Science Demonstration Mission of Opportunity, a PI-led science investigation with TRL 6 technologies by PDR. Access to space will be in the form of a secondary payload opportunity on the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle planned for NASA’s STP-5 mission—Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe.

  3. Panelist and Reviewer, NASA Early Career Faculty (ECF) Research Grants to review and submit recommendations for awards for the Space Technology ECF grants on the topic of 'Intelligent Calibration of Constellations of Sensors'. ECF funds untenured Assistant Professors on the tenure track at U.S. universities to conduct innovative low-TRL research, that increases knowledge and capabilities in response to new questions and requirements, stimulates innovation, and allows more creative solutions to problems in fundamental research.

  4. Panelist and Engineering Expert, NASA Heliophysics Technology and Instrument Development for Science (H-TIDeS) Program to review and submit recommendations for Cubesat flight missions proposed nationally to the NASA H-TIDeS solicitation, in the capacity of the review engineering expert. The H-TIDeS program seeks to investigate key Heliophysics science questions by addressing the best possible science and/or technology investigations that can be carried out with instruments flown on suborbital sounding rockets, stratospheric balloons, CubeSats or other platforms.

  5. Panelist, NASA Planetary Science Deep Space SmallSat Studies (PSDS3) Program to review and submit recommendations for studies proposed to NASA to envision science enabled by smaller and significantly lower cost deep space missions, including CubeSats. The proposals addressed the operational requirements of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office in conducting surveys for potential Near Earth Objects (NEOs) and characterization of known NEOs as documented in the National Research Council.

  6. Peer Reviewer for the following journals: Acta Astronautica, Remote Sensing of Environment, AIAA Journal of Aerospace Information Systems, COSPAR Advances in Space Research, INCOSE Systems Engineering, Applied Optics, Sensors.

  7. Panelist and Reviewer, NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Programs to review and submit recommendations for awards for SBIR/STTR grants on the topics of 'Airborne Measurement Systems' and 'Surface and sub-Surface Measurement Systems'. SBIR/STTR are programs that expand funding opportunities in the federal innovation research and development (RnD) arena.

  8. Panelist and Reviewer, NASA Space Technology Research Fellowships (NSTRF) to review and submit recommendations for awards for the NSTRF Graduate Fellowships on the topics of 'Modeling, Simulation, Information Technology and Processing' and 'Communications, Navigation, and Orbital Debris Tracking and Characterization Systems'. NSTRF funds the doctorate studies of selected candidates, organizes internships with one NASA center and arranges for a NASA mentor, with the intent to train the next generation workforce to work alongside and potentially be hired by NASA.

  9. Invited Expert in NASA Headquarters' Weather Focus Workshop in Washington DC (April 2015) to discuss current capabilities, progress and budget landscape with 69 other invited experts and serve as part of the advanced planning process for the NASA Earth Science - Weather Focus Area (Workshop Report)(About Weather Focus).

  10. Social Enterprise Analyst, Selco Innovation Labs in Bangalore India (January 2010) to apply Human Centric Design Solutions to design solar powered systems in rural school programs for children living at $1-$3 per day. Prototyping and large-scale delivery of one such design (for solar home-study with school charging stations) is in process (Brief Summary)(Full Report). The work was presented by Prof. Ernest Moniz in the Energy Research Opportunities Workshop, Oregon, USA. (Presentation - Slide 23)

Teaching and Outreach

  1. Research Advisor to the following students in universities:
    • Emmanuel Sin, "Attitude Control Systems Design for Agile Spacecraft Constellations", Summer Internship Supervisor, University of California Berkeley, May-August 2020
    • Miles Lifson, "Space Traffic Management - Architecture Design" , Summer Internship Supervisor and Thesis Reader, Massachusetts Insitute of Technology, Cambridge, June-August 2018 and July-August 2019
    • Nolan Johnson, "Space Traffic Management - Decision Making under Uncertainty" , External Research Supervisor, Stanford University, California, November 2018-September 2019.
    • Jannuel Cabrera, "Space Traffic Management - Conjunction Assessment and Collision Avoidance Modeling" , Semester Internship Supervisor, Purdue University, Indiana, June-November 2018.
    • Karishma Inamdar, "Unmanned Air System (UAS) Communication using ADS-B" , Co-Supervisor to her Masters' thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of 'Space Studies', International Space University, France, June 2016-May 2017.

  2. Guest Lecturer in the following topics within classes in universities:
    • Distributed Spacecraft Autonomy in the Systems Engineering Seminar at Stevens Institute of Technology , Hoboken, USA, October 2019
    • Distributed Spacecraft Autonomy in the Earth Systems Departmental Seminar at Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA, June 2019
    • Satellite Constellation Scheduling in the Robotics Seminar at Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA, May 2018
    • Formation Flight in the class of Space Systems Engineering at Skolkovo Insitute of Technology, Moscow, Russian Federation, December 2016
    • Formation Flight in the class of Astrodynamics at Massachusetts Insitute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA, April 2016
    • Constellations in the class of Astrodynamics at Massachusetts Insitute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA, March 2016

  3. Teaching Assistant at MIT for the class of Introduction to Aerospace Engineering on the topics of software design and robotics, including a hands-on project to program the MIT SPHERES satellites for simulation and ground testing followed by validation on the identical satellites in the International Space Station (Project website)(Current EdX version).

  4. Rapporteur at the Space Generation Congressin South Africa (Sep 29-Oct 1, 2011) to moderate/lead a group of 35 international students in the Outreach working group to draft policy recommendations for the African Space Industry's education and outreach efforts (Outreach Report). Full set of recommendations to be presented at the United Nations COPUOS meeting 2012 (Full Report).

  5. Final Presentation Lead, Total Summer School on Corporate Education and Social Responsibility in Chantilly, France (July 2010) to lead (with 6 others) the feedback and brainstorming session with the HR Vice President and represent the opinion of 124 participants from 31 countries over one week.

  6. Team Leader, Chevron Student Leadership Symposium for the Strategic Problem Solving session at Society of Exploration Geophysicists Congress in Las Vegas, USA. In November 8-14, 2008, I led (with 4 others) a team of 52 international students to discuss and present the international opinion/agenda toward improvement of SEG Student Chapters in 17 countries (Press Release)