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Rajnikant Sharma

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Rajnikant Sharma

Research Fellow at US Airforce Academy

Center for Airborne Systems

Rajnikant Sharma is a member of:

Could you tell us briefly about your family background?

I was born in a small village (Ghanghu) if Churu district, Rajasthan. My father works in State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur and my mother is a house wife. I have a younger brother and a younger sister. I was married to Suruchi on 9th Dec 2009.

Required Reading:

MIT's open course ware site (http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm) is an excellent place to have free online videos of world's best teachers.

A great book titled " Small Unmanned Aircraft: Theory and Practice" by Randy Beard and Tim Mclain (http://press.princeton.edu/titles/9632.html).

Career Profile:

My current responsibilities include conducting research on surveillance using small unmanned aerial vehicles, mentoring and teaching cadet teams for capstone projects, and publishing and presenting research work in international conferences. In my previous work I was only doing research.

Advice For New Professionals:

Unnamed aerial vehicles research has great future with several applications in civil and military domain. Students from any engineering branch (civil, mechanical, computers) can enter this field. US Air Force will be training for UAV pilots then manned counterparts.

Done Differently:

I will get a better GRE score and try to get in in MIT for my PhD.

The Decisions That Matter

(1) Deciding to prepare for GATE, which is the entrance exam for engineering graduate schools in India. (2) Deciding to go to Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore for M.Tech.

Changes In The Professional Environment:

It is more competitive but provides more opportunities to more people.

Job Profile:

Currently, I am working as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Academy Center for UAS Research, US Air Force Academy. My role is to develop techniques to use sensors on small Unmanned aerial vehicles to perform surveillance, search, and rescue missions.

Plans For The Future:

I will be teaching and doing cutting edge research in IITs/IISc in India.

Prized Accomplishment(s):

Getting 99.84 percentile in GATE electrical engineering exam and finishing my M.Tech in aerospace engineering at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Role Model:

Dr. Kalam is my role model because of his simplicity and passion towards research and developing India.

Degrees That Matter:

Masters or Ph.D is highly recommended.

Working Life Management:

Mostly I work on weekdays (8-5). I believe in health is wealth principle. To keep my self fit I run, swim, and bike. On weekends I play cricket and I am a member Colorado Springs Cricket Club.